Cigarette Put Out on Witness’ Tongue

The witness, Radovan Djokic, was brought with his brother from the village of Lupoglavo to the Waterworks building in early June, where they were punched and kicked several times by defendants Zijad Hamzic and Ramiz Halilovic.

According to the indictment, Hamzic was at the time company commander of the Territorial Defence in Stupari, while Halilovic was commander of the military police unit.

The witness, who is 80, agreed with lawyer Vasvija Vidovic that his memory was not as fresh as before. Then she asked him why he did not mention Halilovic in the deposition given in 2005. “It did not cross my mind. I forget what I ate yesterday,” he replied.

Vidovic then pointed out that the witness at the time did not mention the Waterworks building. Djokic did not have an explanation for that. From the Waterworks building the witness was moved to the teachers’ building in Stupari, where Serbs from the territory of Kladanj were brought in.

Djokic recalled that Kahro Vejzovic broke his teeth when he punched him. The indictment specifies that the defendant forced him to swallow his teeth, while the witness claimed he spat them out. The witness claimed that one time Vejzovic put out a cigarette on his tongue and pushed a gun into his mouth, after hitting him with a baton. According to the indictment, Vjezovic was a reserve policeman in Stupari.

“He said: ‘Open your mouth!’ I opened it and he put out a cigarette on my tongue,” said the witness, adding that was ordered to swallow the cigarette after that.

The witness recalled that on January 20, 1993, Ismet Butkovic and Nedzad Mecanovic – also known as -“Sugo” came to the teachers building and took him to the police. He said that Vejzovic ordered him to lie down on his stomach and spread his hands.
“Butkovic, Hasib and Nedzad stamped on my back,” recalled the witness. According to the indictment, former reserve policeman in Stupari Nedzad Hodzic – also called Sugo – participated in this together with Butkovic.

It did not end with that, the witness said, because they forced a beer bottle into his mouth twice. “Kahro brought the bottle and said: ‘Open your mouth!’ and pushed the bottle all the way to my throat,” said the witness. After that, he said, he was taken outside naked and Vejzovic sprayed him with water from a hose.

“It lasted half an hour, he told me to turn around there, turn around over here. I was freezing. When I touched my head, icicles formed there,” said the witness. During the investigation, Djokic said that the putting out of the cigarette happened on January 20, 1993, which is how it is defined in the indictment. However, at the trial he claimed it happened in the summer of 1992, and that it was a separate incident.

In his testimony, Djokic added that the investigators during the probe “helped out a little if we did not know something”. He explained that he did not know names of some of the people. Then investigators offered names asking if those were the same people he talked about. Together with Vejzovic, Hodzic, Hamzic and Halilovic, for the crimes committed in Kladanj on trial are Safet Mujcinovic, Selman Busnov, Hariz Habiovic, Osman Gogic and Nusret Muhic.

The trial will resume on October 4.