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On the second day of his testimony at the trial in Sarajevo on Tuesday, protected witness codenamed ‘B’ said that he had “caused confusion” when he told the court last week that one of the defendants, former Dretelj guard Ivan Medic, ordered two prisoners to have sex with each other.

On March 5, B said Medic had forced a prisoner at the detention camp to “put his sex organ into another prisoner’s mouth”.

But when questioned by Medic’s defence why he did not say this in his pre-trial depositions, the witness said that the defendant only “happened to be there when it happened”.

He added that if he said something different at the previous hearing, it was “a misunderstanding”.

Medic, Ivan Zelenika, Srecko Herceg, Edib Buljubasic and Marina Grubisic-Fejzic are charged with involvement in torture and forcing Serb prisoners into hard labour in 1992 at the camp, where several people died as a result of being abused.

According to the indictment, Zelenika was an officer of the Croatian Defence Force, Herceg was commander of the Dretelj camp, Buljubasic was his deputy, while Medic and Grubisic-Fejzic were guards.

B said that a prisoner called Bozo Balaban was brought to Dretelj in early August 1992 and later died after being beaten.

He said that defendants Herceg and Buljubasic were present when Balaban was beaten but stressed that he could not confirm they were the ones who actually assaulted him.

Buljubasic however admitted to being involved in the fatal attack, but said he was acting under orders.

“Srecko Herceg did not participate in Bozo’s murder, but I did,” Buljubasic told the court.

Witness B said guards also forced prisoners to sing and, once, to dance for them.

The trial will resume on March 26 with the questioning of another protected witness.

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