Bosnian Officer ‘Selected Prisoners for Rape’

The protected prosecution witness codenamed ‘A’ told the court on Thursday that on the evening of July 28, 1993, while she was being held prisoner by the Bosnian Army in the Battle of Neretva Museum in the town of Jablanica, a man she later learned was Bojadzic came to the door of the room in which she was detained and called out the names of two female prisoners.

The witness said the women, one of whom she thought could have been under 18, were then taken away.

Several hours later the women returned, the witness said, and the other prisoners said they had been raped.

“Others immediately said they were raped at Rogica House [another detention centre] in Donja Jablanica. They just cried,” the witness said.

Twenty days later, the witness said that she was watching television after having been released, and saw the defendant on a local programme. “This is the man who took them away,” she said, as she learned that his name was Bojadzic.

Bojadzic, former deputy commander of the Zulfikar detachment of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is charged with the beating, sexual abuse and rape of Croat prisoners who were held in the museum in 1993.

According to the indictment, he took two prisoners from the museum along with another man on July 28, 1993 and raped one of them, while the other man raped the other.

The witness said that although there was no light in the room where she was held, she could see Bojadzic by light coming from outside.

She said that Bojadzic was wearing rolled-up sweatpants, but was challenged by the defence lawyer who asked her why she said in an earlier statement that he was wearing shorts. The witness responded: “Maybe I called them that, why is it important whether it’s shorts or sweatpants?”

Another man was with him, wearing a uniform, she said, but she could not describe him because she said he was standing behind Bojadzic.

The trial will resume on September 26.