Bosnian Army Forced Prisoners to Dig Frontline Trenches
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Zdenko Medic, a former fighter with the Croatian Defence Council, said that the Bosnian Army arrested him and other Croats in Tarcin near Sarajevo on June 13, 1993 and locked up in the Silos camp in nearby Hadzici.
After a month, Medic said, he was then moved to another detention centre at the Krupa barracks; while there, he was taken to the front line and ordered to dig trenches.
Once when we went to dig, the Serbs started shelling us. After the first grenades fell, we were told to resume digging. I was later wounded, shrapnel hit me, he said.
The witness said he was later returned from Krupa to the Silos camp, then freed as part of a prisoner exchange in early September 1993.
The Bosnian prosecution charges Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Mustafa Djelilovic, Fadil Covic, Mirsad Sabic, Nezir Kazic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember with crimes committed against prisoners in the Silos camp, the Krupa barracks and the 9th of May school in Hadzici.
According to the indictment, Hujic was the warden of the Silos camp, as was Halid Covic at a later date. Mesanovic was one of the deputy wardens at the detention centre and also camp warden in the Krupa military barracks, while the others were members of the civilian, military or police authorities.
A second former Croatian Defence Council fighter, Mario Kujundzic, also testified on Thursday, saying he too was arrested by the Bosnian Army in June 1993 and taken to the Silos camp.
I was once taken in for interrogation. Three people questioned me, asking where I was from, where we kept weapons… One of them hit me on the back and asked me what was happening on a certain hill, he said.
Kujundzic said that after a month, he was moved to the Krupa barracks, where he was often taken to dig trenches. After 43 days in captivity, he was exchanged.
I have had nightmares since the time I spent in captivity, I often wake with a start, frightened. I went to see a psychiatrist too, he said.
The trial will resume on September 19.
