Bosnian Soldiers ‘Beat Croat Prisoners’ at Army Base

Prosecution witness Marko Rozic, a former Croatian Defence Council soldier, told the court in Sarajevo on Tuesday that he was held captive with a group of prisoners in the basement of the Battle of Neretva museum in Jablanica when two soldiers came to take some of the detainees away.

The soldiers, who he said he later found out were called “Dzeko and Deba” took 15 prisoners to the Rogica Kuce base in Donja Jablanica, just outside the town, where the Zulfikar detachment of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina was stationed.

“I think only Edin Dzeko called out the names of those to come out [and go with them],” said the witness.

The witness said that upon arrival they were ordered to line up and soon “someone from the command” told them to go to the nearby Glogovo Hill, where they took four dead bodies.

He said that the next day they returned to Rogica Kuce, where the soldiers beat them up.

“I don’t know how many of them there were. It was like an attack from a pack. They just started beating,” he said.

Rozic said he was beaten by a soldier nicknamed ‘Zenica’, while ‘Deba’ dragged a protected witness at the trial, ‘J-2’, by the hair and pushed his head into a barrel of water.

“We were afraid and panicked. My estimate is that it lasted for about an hour,” said the witness, adding that he did not notice the soldier he was told was Dzeko at the time.

Dzeko, a former serviceman with the Zulfikar detachment, is charged with the beatings and torture of Croat prisoners in Jablanica in the second half of 1993. He is also on trial for murders in the village of Trusina near Konjic in April 1993.

The trial will resume on May 14.