Local Justice -Jarak: Stolac Crimes Trial Begins

The Mostar Prosecution charges Jarak, former member of “Knez Domagoj” First Brigade with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO with having participated in the forcible resettlement and unlawful detention of Bosniaks from the Stolac area in July and August 1993.
 
According to the charges, Jarak ordered HVO members to tie the hands of three Bosniak civilians with barbed wire and take them to the “Kostana” hospital in Stolac.
 
In addition, Jarak is charged with having participated in the forcible resettlement of the Bosniak population to Blagaj, Mostar municipality, and taking civilians out of their houses and transferring them to the school building and “TGA” Factory complex in Stolac in August 1993.
 
The indictment alleges that the detained civilians were deprived of food and water for the whole day, while their valuables were taken away. Male detainees were then taken in an unknown direction and women and children were transported to Blagaj.
 
Testifying for the Cantonal Prosecution in Mostar, three witnesses said that they did not see indictee Jarak among HVO soldiers in the summer of 1993, when Bosniaks were deported from Stolac.
 
Witness Muriz Topic, former HVO member, said that, in July 1993 an order was issued to all Bosniaks to hand their weapons over. He said that he was then hiding in the vicinity of his house in Osanjici village, Stolac municipality for about a month.
 
“I would come home in the evening to take food. During the day I was hiding. My father told me that Vlatko Jarak, who was accompanied by two other soldiers, had come to our house and told him I should better surrender or else they could even shoot at me if they found me,” Topic said, pointing out that he managed to go to the territories controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina on August 7, 1993.
 
Arifa Topic, Muriz’s mother, said that she did not know indictee Jarak, but she remembered that he came to their house during the war in 1993.
 
“He came to our house a few times. He would sit there for a while, had a cup of coffee and a glass of brandy with my husband sometimes. He used to tell him not to be afraid as nobody would do any harm to him. He said the same thing about my son Muriz. He said he should surrender as nothing would happen to him,” Arifa Topic said.
 
The witness said that she did not see indictee Jarak, when HVO soldiers forced them to leave their houses on August 5, 1993.
 
Fatima Rudic, who testified as third witness for the Mostar Prosecution, said that she did not see indictee Jarak either.
 
“A member of HVO came to the door and told us to leave the house. They transported us by truck to the steel factory in Stolac. We stayed there for about two hours before they transferred us by truck to Buna. We then walked to Blagaj,” Rudic said, describing how she went to the territory controlled by ABiH.
 
Witness Rudic said that nobody mistreated them but, while they were walking towards Blagaj, they did not let them rest and forced them to walk faster.
 
The trial is due to continue on June 20, 2011.

S.G.

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This text was written as part of a project supported by US citizens through USAID in Bosnia and Herzegovina. BIRN is fully responsible for the content of the text, which does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, or the US Government.