Witness Recounts How He Survived Human Shield

Ibro Mujanovic was taken from Semizovac (municipality of Vogosca), where he lived with his wife and child, in May 1992, to Planjina kuca, where he spent seven months.

The witness for the prosecution said that their first neighbours in Semizovac “picked them up,” under the excuse that they were taking them to the camp “for their own safety.”

Mujanovic said around 100 men were imprisoned in Planjina kuca. He confirmed he was not abused by guards, but prisoners were taken daily to perform hard labour and used as human shields, and returned from the site wounded and many of them dead.

“Fifty of us were taken on November 18, 1992, to Zuc. As soon as they dropped us off, the shelling started and they used us as human shields. A Serb soldier takes you, puts you in front of him, puts the rifle on your shoulder and you walk like that. And everything around you is exploding,” said Mujanovic.

He added that the soldier who used him as a human shield was wounded in the head and died.

“When everything ended, I saw Branko Vlaco for the first time in my life. He approached me aterwards, gave me a box of cigarettes, and told me to light one. Until then I heard from other prisoners that he was the warden. But I have never seen him in Planjina kuca”, said Mujanovic.

He said he was released in November 1992. Before he was taken to the territory controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he had to go to the municipal building and sign a paper on which he gave up his property.

“After I brought the paper, Branko Vlaco took me to the front line, and I went to Sarajevo from there. That’s the last I saw him,” Mujanovic.

The prosecution accuses Vlaco, as the warden of the Bunker, Planjina Kuca, Sonja and Nakina Garaza detention camps in Vogosca, of establishing a system to punish civilians held there from May to the end of October 1992.

According to the charges, detainees were abused, forced to perform hard labour and used as human shields on the Sarajevo frontline. Many of the prisoners were allegedly killed at the camps and dozens are still missing.

Husnija Sehic, who was imprisoned with Mujanovic in Planjina kuca, also testified. During imprisonment, he said, guards used to take out prisoners and return them bruised, bloody, and beaten.

Just like witness Mujanovic, Sehic was also often taken to dig trenches at the Zuc mountain.

“Once out of the 50 of us who went that day to Zuc, only 20 remained. The others were wounded, some of them did not return. That’s when I was badly wounded too,” said the witness.

During cross-examination, he confirmed he heard Vlaco was the warden of prison facilities, and that he saw him only once hit a prisoner with the fist to the face. He explained that he did not come to Planjina kuca often, but that they saw him on the front line on the Mount Zuc.

Sehic said he was never told why he was imprisoned, except what he heard from his Serb neighbours, that they were being locked up for security reasons, to prevent something happening to them.

The trial is set to resume on April 17.