Local Justice – Boljak: Beating in Front of the School
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Ismet Sehic, witness of the Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecution’s said that he was detained in the “Planjina kuca detention camp, from where he was taken out, along with several other inmates, by a person with the nickname Bata, and brought to Ilidza.
When we came to the Forestry School, Bato punched me and slapped me, cursing me. Esad Sehic was next to me and he was also beaten and slapped by him. I did not know this man. He was probably hitting me because my name is Ismet, there is no other reason, said Sehic.
Sehic added that Bato took the non-Serb civilians from Planjina kuca detention camp to the area of Ilidza, where other soldiers would took them to dig trenches and chopping wood for the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS).
Bato was coming to pick us up, up to eight to ten people. I heard from the Serb Army that they call him Bato. Presumably, it is this man sitting there, he was than 20 years younger, said Sehic, pointing to indictee Boljak in the courtroom.
Boljak, former member of Ilidza Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with having stopped a convoy of civilians in Ilidza municipality on May 19, 1992, separated a few men from other convoy passengers and locked them in a truck, where they stayed in inhumane conditions.
As the indictment further alleges, in January or February 1993 Boljak came to the Planjina kuca detention camp, where the non-Serb civilians were held, took about ten persons, ordered them to get on a bus, insulted them and forced them to sing nationalist songs.
During the cross-examination of witness Sehic, indictee Boljak said that he only once came to Planjina kuca detention camp and that he did not beat anyone. I was not afraid of you then, nor am I afraid of you now. I dare to go out and fight with you, since it was you who inflicted woes to me, replied Sehic.
Mithat Borcak, second witness of the Prosecution, also said that a certain Bato came to take out civilians from Planjina kuca to Ilidza, but that he did not touch him.
Bato came with the bus to pick us up. It was in January or in February 1993. He was short, wide and blue but I would not be able to recognise him now. He forced us to sing nationalist songs in the bus, but also from the Police station to the Forestry School, said Borcak.
The indictee said to witness Borcak that he is Bato Boljak and that he once came to pick him up.
Vojin Ninkovic, the third witness of the Prosecution in this trial and a former Assistant Commander of the Reserve Police Squad in Ilidza, said that Hakija Gacanovic complained to him in 1995, that a certain Boljak brought and detained him in the Police station.
The continuation of the trial is scheduled for April 17.A.S.
