Osmic: Helpless People

“In most cases Alija Osmic was among the soldiers and policemen who mistreated those helpless detainees,” Ivan Kapetanovic said, adding that members of the Military Police of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina captured him in Bugojno in July 1993. He said he was 16 years old at the time.

Kapetanovic said he was taken together with some members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, and detained in a garage in Donjici settlement in Bugojno, where indictee Osmic beat him up.

“They called my name out, but they did not question me. Several soldiers were there, including some people I knew. Then they started beating me with all kinds of objects. They hit me with their hands and feet and rifle butts. I remember Alija Osmic, Dudo Duvnjak and a person named Esad, whose last name I do not know, were present,” the witness said.

Osmic, a former military policeman with the 307th Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, and West Operational Group, is charged with having participated in the murder, torture and detention of Croat civilians in the Bugojno area during 1993 and 1994. The indictment alleges that the civilians were detained in “basements and garages”, the “Marxist Center – Cloister” and “Iskra” stadium detention camp.

Kapetanovic said that he stayed in the garage, in which 50 soldiers were detained, for “about three days”, before being transferred to the Marxist Center – Cloister.

“We stayed in one room. They called some people’s names out. Those people never came back. They called my brother Vlatko out. Then I saw Alija Osmic and Dudo Duvnjak waiting for him. That was the last time I saw him,” Kapetanovic said.

The witness told the Court that his neighbour Ivica Keskic told him, later that day, that indictee Osmic and a person named Sijamija had beaten his brother up in the Marxist Center. After that they loaded him “in a black Mercedes trunk and drove him away”.

The indictment alleges that in late July 1993 Osmic took Vlatko Kapetanovic from the basement of the Marxist Center – Cloister building and hit him with his “hands, feet and blunt objects”, which made Kapetanovic fall on the ground. He then loaded him into a black Mercedes trunk.

Ivan Kapetanovic said that, after having been held in the Marxist Center for thirty days, he was transferred to Iskra stadium detention camp, where indictee Osmic visited him once.

“He came to see me. He cursed me and he started threatening me, because he found out that I was telling people he had killed my brother. He said he would kill me, my parents and my step-sister if he heard me saying that again,” the witness said.

Witness Mario Glisic, a former member of the Second HVO Brigade, said he was captured by members of the Military Police Squad of the ABiH on July 23, 1993. He was then taken to a garage in Donjici village.

“We were guarded by military policemen and soldiers. They beat me up as soon as I arrived. Alija Osmic, a member of the military police, was there, among others,” said Glisic, who were transferred to the Marxist Center in Bugojno seven days later. He said he was beaten up twice during his 20-day detention in the Center.

“Military policemen beat me up in that Center. Pajo Sijamija and Mr. Alija took us out to the backyard and beat us. They beat me and Keskic, while Sijamija and Osmic put Kapetanovic into the trunk of a Mercedes,” the witness said.

The next hearing is due to take place on Thursday, January 21, 2010.