Peric et al: Visits to Detention Camps

Testifying before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, witness Zlatka Hadzic said that her husband was taken to the Miladin Radojevic school building on June 25, 1992, adding that she visited him in that building until he was transferred, together with other detainees, to Barutni magacin (Gunpowder Depot) detention camp.

“Predrag Terzic and Sasa Cerovina were on watch in front of the school building when I came to see my husband. They said they had to search my bag first. I was surprised to hear that, because I recognised them. Each time they took the food we brought away and gave us dirty laundry to wash, but I was not allowed to see my husband every time,” the witness said.

Hadzic said that she found out one evening that “they drove the men from the school building to Barutni magacin by trucks”.

The indictment charges Predrag Terzic and Aleksandar Cerovina, as well as Milan Peric and Spasoje Doder, with having participated, as members of the Public Safety Station in Kalinovik, in crimes committed against the non-Serb population in that municipality in 1992.

The Prosecution alleges that the indictees unlawfully arrested civilians and took them to the Miladin Radojevic school building and Barutni magacin detention camp, where most of them were killed.

Witness Esrefa Skoro said that her husband had to report to the police station twice a day even before June 25, 1992, because he was accused of having possessed weapons. She said that when he went to the station on that day in June, he “never came back home”.

“We, the women, went to the school building, where we saw some reserve policemen. I once fought with Predrag Terzic and Sasa Cerovina. They insulted me. I had to empty the bag I was carrying,” Skoro said, adding that her husband was taken from the school building to Barutni magacin, where she saw him for the last time.

Razija Hatic also testified at this hearing. She said that after he had heard shooting, her husband went to “his brother’s house to see what was going on”. She found out later that he was detained in the school building. Guards allowed her to see her husband once, but she saw him “in their presence”.

“A few of us women went to the school building on another occasion, but they were no longer there. We found out that they had been transferred to Barutni magacin, but we were not able to go see them. My husband’s body was found and identified in Miljevina,” the witness said.

Hatic said that, on August 1, 1992, she managed to run away from a policeman who was trying to arrest her, adding that, accompanied by her two minor daughters, she managed to leave Jelasca village and go to territories controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH.

The trial is due to continue on April 12.

S.U.