Taken away from Omarska Detention Camp

The Defence read the statements given by Ermin Strikovic, who lives in the United States, and late Samir Hodzic given at the trial of Dusko Tadic before The Hague Tribunal in 1996. Tadic was sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes in Prijedor.

At that time witness Strikovic said that he was in a workshop within the Omarska detention camp in the summer of 1992, when he saw Sejad Sivac being taken away for examination and returned to the detention camp twice.

According to Strikovic, Sivac was taken away for the last time on July 27, 1992. He did not come back afterwards.

The District Prosecution in Banja Luka charges Milorad Tadic, former member of the reserve police forces from Prijedor, with having killed detainee Sejad Sivac, acting in collaboration with another policeman, in Omarska detention camp, near Prijedor, in mid-July 1992.

In his statement Hodzic said that, during his detention in Omarska, Sivac, whom he had known from before, was held with him in the workshop.

According to Hodzic’s statement, Sivac was taken away from the workshop at about 2.30 p.m. on July 27, 1992. He explained that he remembered the exact time, because, before leaving, Sivac gave him his documents and watch.

“After that a soldier took me behind a white house, where I saw four corpses lying on top of each other facing the ground. He told me to turn them around and asked me if I knew them. I answered negatively, although I knew all of them. Sivac was among them,” Hodzic said in 1996.

The trial of Milorad Tadic is due to continue on July 1 this year.