Indictee Was Commander of Guards

Witness Strahinja Zivak says at the trial for crimes in Sarajevo that he saw a person in the “Viktor Bubanj” military barracks and that somebody told him that it was Commander of Guards Ramiz Avdovic.

Testifying for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zivak said that he was admitted to a hospital in Sarajevo due to medical treatment in the spring of 1992 and that armed people took him to the Central Prison. A few days later he was taken to “Viktor Bubanj”.
 
The witness said that he found out from other detainees that Ramiz Avdovic was Commander of Guards in the military barracks.
 
“Commander Avdovic once came to our cell, because our window was broken. He looked around a little bit and then left. Others told me that he was the Commander,” Zivak said.
 
Ramiz Avdovic and Iulian-Nicolae Vintila are on trial for crimes committed in the Central Prison and the former “Viktor Bubanj” military barracks. They are charged with having participated, as members of a joint criminal enterprise, in the establishment and maintenance of a system for abuse of Serb civilians.
 
According to the charges, Avdovic was Commander of Guards on the fifth floor of the District Prison in Sarajevo and former “Viktor Bubanj” military barracks, while Vintila was a cook and guard in the former barracks.
 
After the Defence had introduced indictee Avdovic, witness Zivak said that he recognised him, but he was “a bit fatter and older” now.
 
The witness said that a person, who, as others told him, was a cook, hit him once during his detention in “Viktor Bubanj”.
 
The Defence of Vintila mentioned that the witness had never mentioned a cook or any unpleasant situations involving the cook in his previous statement or his book, in which he described his detention.
 
The witness said that he stood trial during his detention and that he was then transferred to the Central Prison. He was exchanged in 1994.
 
Second witness Krsto Begenisic told the Court that, after having been brought to “Viktor Bubanj”, he was taken to the cell number 4, where three guards beat him once.
 
He said that he heard about Avdovic during his detention and that people said that he was “the boss”, but he never personally saw him.
 
According to the witness’ testimony, a cook, who treated detainees in “a nice manner”, used to bring food to detainees in that facility.
 
“I was detained because I am a Serb. I had done nothing else,” the witness said.
 
The trial is due to continue on September 20.