Terzic: Beating as Everyday Life

Vlado Dragojlovic, a former member of the reserve forces of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), told the Trial Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that the JNA held negotiations with the Crisis Committee in Odzak on May 8, 1992, and it was agreed that members of this army will be free to leave the town which was under barricades, if they surrender their weapons.

However, as witness Dragojlovic said, members of the JNA were not allowed to leave the town, but were all taken to Elementary School “Bratstvo i jedinstvo” building in Odzak, where they were imprisoned together with women, children and elderly.

“Conditions in the camp were below any human dignity. Orgies, fascist salutes and beating of the detainees were everyday life, and Nina – as he called her – was an external associate and she kept coming”, said Dragojlovic.

According to Dragojlovic, who identified the indictee in the courtroom, Terzic was “very young” in 1992 and she beat prisoners in that detention camp.

“Nina beaten witnesses AB1 and AB2 and I remember that AB1 had visible bruises, hematomas and blood on his head when he returned to the hall, and he told me that he was beaten by Albina”, said Dragojlovic.

Terzic, former member of the Military Police with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with having participated in the inhumane treatment of Serb civilians, who were unlawfully detained in the elementary school building and “Strolit” Factory premises in Odzak from May to June 1992.

The indictment alleges that Terzic is charged with having hit prisoners with a police baton in chest, shoulders and head, encouraged dogs to attack them and tortured and insulted them by forcing detainees to have sexual intercourse with mentally ill Stoja Stankovic, or by committing other forms of grave sexual violence.

During his time in captivity, Dragojlovic said that indictee Terzic, along with other members of the HVO took part in “organizing a detention camp wedding”, when they forced one ill man and one woman to dress themselves as newlyweds and marry.

“The soldiers laughed, clapped, and told us to do the same, and Nina was equally involved in this”, said Dragojlovic.

Gojko Pajic, former member of the JNA and the second witness of the State Prosecution at this hearing, said he was also detained in the elementary school in Odzak, where one day, the members of the HVO took him to classroom where the ill Stoja Stankovic was, and ordered him to rape her. He refused, and then he was beaten.

As Pajic said, they brought other detainees and ordered them to do the same, but they refused and were also beaten. “Some of them have told me that Nina was in the hallway at that time”, said Pajic.

The trial is due to continue on December, 8, 2011.