Zelenika et al: Forced to Have Oral Sex

He told the Court that he and a detainee, who was assigned the pseudonym of C at this trial, were forced to have oral sex in the presence of guards Sapa and Marina.

“They forced us to have oral sex. We did that, while Sapa and Marina watched us through the window,” Bjelobaba said.

He mentioned that he was brought to Dretelj at the beginning of July 1992, a few days after having been arrested, along with his wife, in their apartment in Mostar. As he said, upon his arrival, he saw young guards, members of the Croatian Defence Forces, HOS.

Bjelobaba said that prisoner Bozo Balaban died after having been beaten up in front and inside the hangar. The witness said that he thought that Srecko Herceg ordered him and a few other detainees to carry Balaban to another hangar.

“There was a hole filled with green liquid in the hangar. This is where we left Bozo Balaban,” the witness said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Ivan Zelenika, Srecko Herceg, Edib Buljubasic, Marina Grubisic-Fejzic and Ivan Medic with crimes committed in Dretelj military prison in 1992.

According to the charges, detained civilians were held in inhumane conditions, forced to perform had labour and tortured. A few persons allegedly died due to the consequences of the abuse, while some people went missing after having been taken in an unknown direction.

The indictment alleges that Zelenika was a HOS officer, Herceg was Commander of Dretelj, Buljubasic was member of HOS and Deputy Commander of the military barracks in Dretelj, while Medic and Grubisic-Fejzic were guards.

Witness Bjelobaba said that he was “brutally beaten up”, when a person named Ilija took him to the Dispensary in order to clean it.

“On the last day Ilija came to pick me up. I had difficulties getting up. Srecko noticed this and told him: ‘Take somebody else. Can’t you see that he cannot do it.’ The other man’s name was Nenad Markovic. His pulmonary membrane was punctured when he came back, so he was transported to the Ambulance on the following day,” the witness said, adding that he heard that Markovic died later on.

The witness did not recognise indictee Herceg in the courtroom, but he pointed to the Defence attorney of indictee Edib Buljubasic instead. He was not able to recognise Marina either. He pointed to her Defence attorney instead.

Bjelobaba said that some of the guards in Dretelj treated them in a correct manner, adding that, prior to being brought to the detention camp, he and his wife were taken to the military dispensary in Mostar, where the military command was situated.

As he said, he was beaten up during the first night, while his wife was raped in a separate room on the second day.

“She wailed and screamed. This was the hardest thing for me. I found a steel stick and tried to break through,” the witness said, adding that his wife ran away on that day, while he was taken to Ljubuski for examination and then to Dretelj detention camp.

The witness said that he saw indictee Zelenika in the dispensary and that he asked him to help him, but Zelenika told him: “You are a good man. I cannot help you, because you are a Serb.”

He thinks that the indictee helped him by locking the room, where he was at that moment, so they would not be able to beat him.

The trial is due to continue on September 18.