Terzic: Sing Till You Drop

Testifying before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Radojica Rakic said that Terzic brought a dog several times and threatened the prisoners by saying that she would let the dog attack them unless they were obedient.

“Nina used to bring that dog several times. On one occasion it was just catastrophic. We had to sing till we dropped. We sang: Here come Jure and Boban, Red Fez. Nina was the one who ordered us to sing the Red Fez song. Others said what they wanted us to sing as well. It lasted for four or five hours. Kosta fainted as he was too tired of the singing. She said she would let the dog attack us unless we listened to her. We had to sing,” Rakic said.

According to witness Rakic, the indictee held the dog on leash, so it did not bite anyone, but she threatened them by encouraged the dog to attack them.

“The dog was rather big and ugly. It had a big head and no tail,” Rakic said, describing the dog.

Rakic said that indictee Terzic never abused him, but he saw her slap another prisoner, who fell down after having been slapped. Rakic told the Court that protected witness AB-2 told him that he was taken out of the gym and forced to rape Stoja, a mentally disabled person, but he could not do it.

“Stoja was raped in the school building in Odzak. I did not see it myself. AB-2 was taken out to the corridor, but he could not do it. Albina was present, when he was taken out to do that,” Rakic said, adding that he did not know who had raped Stoja.

He said that, when AB-2 came back to the school gym, he noticed that he had been beaten up. “He was beaten up and broken. He looked as if all sorts of things had been done to him?,” the witness said.

Terzic, former member of the Military Police with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with having participated in the abuse of Serb civilians, who were held in the school building and ‘Strolit’ factory in Odzak, in 1992. The indictment alleges that Terzic hit prisoners, encouraged a dog to attack them and tortured them by forcing them to have sexual intercourse with a mentally ill person.

Second Prosecution witness Djoko Rakic said that he was held in the school building in Odzak from May 8 to June 22, 1992, adding that he was beaten up once during that time.

“All of us, both the old and young ones, were abused. They would take people out to perform some voluntary work, but when they came back, they could hardly stand on their feet,” Rakic said.

Rakic said that Nina did not abuse him, but she tried to hit his father twice. He said that his father defended himself by grabbing the indictee by her legs and preventing her from hitting him.

“Nina encouraged the dog to attack us. Everybody was afraid of being bitten by the dog. We would run away from it all over the place. I confirm that she came with the dog several times. (…) She even let the dog off the leash. The dog listened to her. She would tell the dog: Get him!” Rakic said.

The next hearing is due to be held on December 22 this year.A.S.