Bosnian Croat Fighter ‘Beat Prisoners’ at Barracks Jail

Witness Esad Peco, a former Bosnian Army soldier, told the court on Thursday how he was physically abused and starved in an isolation cell in a hangar at the former Yugoslav National Army military barracks in Gabela near Mostar in southern Bosnia in the summer of 1993.

“We were lying on the floor, facing the ground. They hit us on our kidneys, stepped on us…They forced me to jump head first. I fell down on my hands. My hands got totally scratched,” Peco said.

“They told me that I did not jump properly, so a man nicknamed Crni ordered me to assume a press-up position. Then they beat me on my loins and kidneys. After that, [defendant] Luka Peric told me to approach him. He began hitting me on my head, while telling me not to look at him,” he continued.

Peco however was not able to identify the defendant in the courtroom.

Peric, a former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war and civilians.

The indictment alleges that in July 1993, he forced prisoners including Peco to injure themselves by jumping head-first onto a concrete floor.

He is also charged with helping two other HVO fighters to physically abuse another prisoner at the former military barracks.

A second prosecution witness, Hajrudin Kovacic, a former member of the HVO’s civil protection unit, also testified on Thursday about the beating of his brother Sefik Kovacic, known as Sudo, at the Gabela detention camp in July 1993.

“The door opened. Peric invited Sudo to come out, so he went out. Less than an hour later they threw him back into the hangar. I was not able to recognise him because he was covered with blood,” the witness said.

“All of his little bones were broken. His shirt was stuck to the wounds on his back, so I peeled it off millimetre by millimetre in order not to hurt him even more,” he said.

During the cross-examination, the defence asked Kovacic why he failed to mention during the investigation that he saw Peric order his brother out. The witness admitted that he did not personally see Peric, but heard about the incident later.

The trial is due to continue on July 15.