Local Justice – Tuzla: Everyday Beating in Detention
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Witness Nadil Poljakovic told the Cantonal Court in Tuzla that he was captured in the summer of 1992 and taken to a garage and then a log cabin in Smoluca village.
Micko and Sveto came. They began hitting Hazim. Then they beat Avdo. Micko broke his arm. Svetomir then took him over. He took a bayonet, tore his sweater and shirt and cut a cross on his chest. Sveto hit me, when I told him to kill me, because I was nearly dead anyway. Blood began pouring all over Avdos body. The cut was a deep one. It went down to his bones, Poljakovic said.
According to witness Poljakovic, a few days later the Bosniak detainees were taken back from the cabin log to the garage, because the log cabin owner complained about the noise caused by the beating.
Poljakovic said that Vaso Ilic came to the garage several times.
He would beat me and then told me to bang my head against the wall until he heard a call to prayer from the mosque. On the eighteenth day of my detention Vaso came again and asked me what I was doing. He then grabbed me and Avdo by our heads and pushed us towards the wall. I fell down, said Poljakovic, adding that he was held in detention for 33 days.
The Tuzla Canton Prosecution charges Milorad Cvijanovic, known as Micko, Svetomir Ilic, known as Sveto, Milorad (son of Milan) Cvijanovic and Vaso Ilic, former members of the Territorial Defence, with having abused detainees in Smoluca village from June 25 to July 29, 1992.
During the cross-examination Defence attorney Miodrag Stojanovic said that Poljakovic had previously given different statements to the State Investigation and Protection Agency and Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The trial is due to continue on December 19.
