Forced to Jump Head First
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Two witnesses identified the indictee as the person who participated in the torture.
Ekrem Pekaz, former member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, spoke about the beating of detainees in front of a hangar within the former Yugoslav National Army, JNA military barracks in July 1993. As he said, after having been held in an isolation cell for six days, they began physically abusing him.
The witness said that four or five members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, or Croatian Army, HV, lined them up at the hangar entrance.
“I was ordered to hit a cistern head first. I covered my head with hands. ‘It’s not good. Do it again’, they kept saying, while I was benumbed. Also, they ordered me to jump from a metre- and-a-half- or a two metre-high platform head first. While I was falling down, I tried to protect myself with my hands. While I was lying on the ground, they hit me on my body with their military boots and on my head with a baseball bat until it broke. After having been hit a few times, I fainted,” Pekaz said.
The witness said that he did not know the soldiers who beat him up, adding that he had heard about indictee Peric, but he did not know him.
Huso Maric, former ABiH member, identified indictee Peric in the courtroom and said that he was responsible for the beating.
“Luka Peric, who was accompanied by some guy, appeared at the hangar door. They took us in front of the hangar. I was there with Ekrem Pekaz and Esad and Mirsad Peco. They beat each of us individually. Luka Peric ordered them what to do. He then slapped me.
He ordered me to jump from a platform head first. I refused to jump. Luka hit me first. After that a guy from Gabela or Capljina hit me as well. There were about four of them. I do not know what they used to beat me, but I only remember having been black all over my body due to blood clots on my skin later on,” Maric said.
Mirsad Peco said that Luka Peric took him, along with Huso Maric, Ekrem Pekaz and Esad Peco, in front of the hangar and that Peric and some HVO soldiers forced them to jump from a platform to a concrete floor heads first.
“Eso jumped before me. I did not jump. I said: ‘I will not do it. Kill me.’ Later on they hit me on my head with a rifle butt and took me into the hangar,” Mirsad Peco said, adding that he recognized Peric twenty years later.
The trial of Luka Peric is due to continue on September 16.
