Beating in a Warehouse in Gornji Zovik

Witness Lazar Radovanovic said that he was captured after the fall of Bukvik on September 15, 1992 and that he was taken, along with other local Serb residents, to a school building in Gornji Rahic.

“They examined and searched me. A short time later they returned my personal belongings, which had been confiscated from me. Then they took me to a dark room, where several uniformed people beat me up, but I could not recognise them. A few days later they transferred me to a construction warehouse in Gornji Zovik, where I stayed until my exchange,” Radovanovic said.

According to Radovanovic’s testimony, while they were held in Gornji Zovik, the Serb detainees were guarded by uniformed persons, mostly military policemen, some of whom mistreated them.

“They would take me to a separate room and examined me every day. They beat me with their legs, batons and other objects all over my body, causing bruising and bleeding. They examined some other detainees too, but they did not beat all of them. I know that they often took Lazar Stjepanovic out in order to examine him. He was covered with blood and bruises upon return,” Radovanovic said.

According to the charges, Asmir Tatarevic and Armin Omazic, former members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, physically abused Serb detainees. Tatarevic was one of the soldiers, escorting the Commander of the 108th Brigade with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, for the Bosanska Posavina area, while Omazic was military policeman.
 
Testifying at this hearing, witness Marko Stjepanovic said that he was captured two or three days after the attack on Bukvik on September 14, 1992.

“They first brought us to the Centre in Gornji Rahic and then to Gornji Zovik on the following day. The conditions were bad, because we lied on wooden palettes covered with blankets. We were locked. We were not allowed to go out to the toilet. I remember that we were guarded by soldiers, who sometimes entered the warehouse and hit some of us with their hands or batons. They hit me frequently,” Stjepanovic said.

Stjepanovic told the Court that detainees, who were held in Gornji Zovik, were taken to a house, where uniformed persons stayed, in order to be examined. He said that he too was once taken for an examination, but nobody hit or mistreated him on that occasion.

The trial is due to continue on September 18.