Mujcinovic and Hrustic: Inseparable on Front Lines

The four witnesses confirmed that, from April to the end of August 1992 Mujcinovic was a member of the Hunting Unit with the Territorial Defence in Srebrenik, just like them, and that he was demobilised afterwards. Nihad Ibrisimovic, who was Assistant Commander for Morale and Political Conduct of members of the Hunting Unit at that time, said that the 21st Mountain Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed in September 1992.“The Hunting Unit was dismissed in late August 1992. Most of its members were demobilised…Mujcinovic was demobilised at that time. I never saw him in any other military unit after that,” the witness said.Ibrisimovic said that he never saw Mujcinovic leave the military positions during his three-day shifts in Smoluca village, where members of the Hunting Unit held the front lines.The State Prosecution charges Mujcinovic, former member of the 21st Mountain Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, and Sulejman Hrustic with crimes against Serb civilians, who were unlawfully held in the Youth Centre building in Rapatnica village in 1992.The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina alleges that, acting on his own, Mujcinovic “physically and mentally abused a prisoner on several occasions” and participated, in collaboration with Hrustic, in the abuse of a prisoner, causing the severe suffering of that person.Witness Sehajia Smailovic, former member of the Hunting Unit of the Territorial Defence, said that he was always with Mujcinovic while they were in the field, adding that the trenches in which they stayed were “next to each other” and that he doubted that the indictee went to Rapatnica in the mentioned period.“The detention unit in Rapatnica was primarily used for our soldiers, who did not want to go to front lines or stole things in the town. Later on I found out that members of other ethnic groups were held there too. They were brought in order to be exchanged. I did not hear that they were abused,” witness Nihad Fazlic said.Witness Mensur Fazlic’s testimony was similar to that one. He said that he did not know who was in charge of Rapatnica, but he “assumes that it was the military police”.All of the witnesses, who testified at this hearing, said that indictee Mujcinovic’s nickname was Zoka. The indictee asked Mensur Fazlic if he remembered a Huso Bobi. The witness responded by saying that he was a military policeman.“I heard that he too used the nickname Zoka,” Fazlic said.At the next hearing, scheduled for April 18 this year, the Defence of indictee Mujcinovic is due to examine the three remaining witnesses. J.Dj.