Differences in Statements and their Lawfulness

State Prosecution witness Dragomir Jovanovic was taken, along with about 25 other local residents, from Lupoglavo village to a local community office in Stupari on June 7, 1992. A few days prior to that, Zijad Hamzic, whom the witness had not known before, guaranteed that they would be safe.

“That evening we were surrounded by the Territorial Defence from all sides. Safet Mujcinovic was there with his policemen. He ordered Zijad Hamzic to gather all of us in the centre of the village,” Jovanovic said, adding that Zijad Hamzic hit one of the neighbours when he handed a machine gun over to him.

He said that Safet Mujcinovic then took him to a basement, where he ordered one of the soldiers to put a pistol pipe into his mouth in order to make him admit where the weapons, which the witness had previously handed over to Ramiz Halilovic, were.

“Zijad Hamzic then entered the room and said: ‘Leave the man alone’,” Jovanovic said.

According to the charges, Safet Mujcinovic was former Commander of the Police Station in Stupari, who failed to prevent or punish his subordinates. Zijad Hamzic, Commander of the Territorial Defence Company in Stupari, who later became Commander of the Territorial Defence Battalion in Stupari, and Ramiz Halilovic, activepoliceman of the Police Station in Stupari, are charged with having participated in physical and mental abuse.

The Defence of the first indictee said that, in his previous statements given to police, the witness did not mention that Mujcinovic ordered the soldier to put the pistol into his mouth.

The witness said that he did not know what was written in the statement, which, as he said, was handwritten and then typed later on. The witness was not able to remember whether he read the statement or if it was read to him, adding that he gave it to investigators in his house in Zvornik in presence of his wife.

According to the Defence’s allegations, the minutes do not indicate that the statement was taken in the witness’ house. Also, the Defence considers that the statement contains a series of different allegations in comparison to the testimony in court. The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina objected to the lawfulness of the statement.

Local residents from the Kladanj surroundings stayed in the local community office in Stupari for a few months before being transferred to the education workers’ building. The witness said that they were deprived of freedom of movement, that they lacked food and that they had to turn lights off in the evening.

Jovanovic said that they used to beat other detainees, but he did not see who did it. He said that nobody beat him. Some of his neighbours told him that men named Ismet Butkovic and Kahro Vejzovic beat them. According to the charges, Vejzovic was a member of the police who allegedly mistreated detainees.
 
The witness said that he stayed in the building in Stupari for some more time and that his wife was exchanged. 
Second witness Danica Jovanovic said that she did not see that they were taking her husband Dragomir to the basement, but he told her that when she asked him why he was so pale.

Jovanovic said that she saw uniformed persons beating her neighbours Radovan and Luka Djokic in a school building across the road from the local community office.

Also, she said that Safet Mujcinovic told her that she would be exchanged and warned “the Muslim women” not to insult her.

In a previous statement given by this witness in her house in Zvornik, the witness said that Sefko Hodzic, known as Sugo, drove them to the exchange location. The witness said that she did not say that and that her husband maybe said it. 

The Defence teams objected, claiming that it was still unclear how the statements taken in Jovanovic’s house were retyped and signed.

Mujcinovic, Hamzic, Halilovic and Vejzovic, as well as Selman Busnov, Nusret Muhic, Nedzad Hodzic, Hariz Habibovic and Osman Gogic, are charged with crimes in Kladanj.

The trial is due to continue on October 18.