Babic: Murders in School Gym
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Protected prosecution witness S-27 recalled four murders in the school gymnasium in the eastern Bosnian town of Bratunac, where he was held captive for a few days in May 1992.
I can confirm that [detainees] Salko Ramic, Dzemo Hodzic, Mustafa Hajdarevic and, on the last night, Hajrudin Comic were killed there. The first three were killed with wooden batons and Comic with a bullet to the head, said the witness.
He said that on the first night he was there, nine people suffocated because there was no air in the room where between 400 and 450 people were being held captive.
The witness said he was also hit a couple of times with something like a whip.
The prosecution charges Babic, then commander of the military police in Bratunac, with ordering, committing and failing to prevent the imprisonment of non-Serb civilians in the school in May 1992.
Around 400 detained civilians were beaten and tortured every day, and several dozen were killed or died as a result of the conditions at the school, the indictment alleges.
S-27 testified that he saw Babic in the school and recognised him from before the conflict, but that his official position there was unclear, and no one made any accusations against him.
The trial is set to resume on February 25.
