This post is also available in: Bosnian
Bozo Beljo and Danko Calis, former members of the Marinko Beljo special purposes unit of the Rama Brigade with the Croatian Defence Council – both wartime comrades of defendant Jukic – said they had no knowledge of the defendant participating in any war crimes against Bosniak civilians.
Both witnesses said that their unit engaged Bosniaks as well, and that they were treated the same as Bosnian Croat soldiers.
Relations were good until the death of the soldier Franjo Zadro in late October 1992,” Beljo said.
Calis and Beljo said they did not know about the Dretelj camp, nor had they heard that Bosniaks were held as prisoners in the secondary school in Prozor. They said they did not know what was happening in the town and the firefighter headquarters in 1993.
We were at the front line and went only to our family homes, said Calis.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has charged Jukic, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, with participating with other members of the Croatian Defence Council and the Croatian Army in the expulsion of Bosniak civilians, and in the murder and forced disappearance of Bosniaks from the municipality of Prozor between July and September 1993.
Vlado Soldo, also an ex-member of the Croatian Defence Council, testified at the same hearing to say that he did not know the defendant in the war, but did not recall hearing that he had committed any war crimes.
The trial will resume on August 29, when five new witnesses for the defence will testify.
