Bosnian Prisoners Suffocated in School Gym
This post is also available in: Bosnian
A protected witness codenamed S-12 told the court in Sarajevo on Monday that in 1992, soldiers arrived in his village of Suha village, near Bratunac, and took him and his neighbours to the city stadium.
The witness said that men were then separated from the others and detained in the Vuk Karadzic primary school building, where he said he saw two unconscious detainees lying on the floor in the gym when he arrived.He said that nine people suffocated in the gym during his first night there, and his brother was also killed, although he had never found who the murderer was.
He went out in order to carry water cans. He did not come back, the witness said, adding that his brothers body was found in a mass grave.
According to the witness testimony, the defendant Babic came to the school building twice; the second time, he announced that the detainees would be freed as part of a prisoner exchange.
He said however that nobody ever told him that the detainees were under the actual control of Babic.
According to the charges, Babic, then commander of the military police in Bratunac, had an absolute authority over the lives of prisoners and conditions in the school building where detainees were abused in May 1992.
Around 400 detained civilians were beaten and tortured every day, and several dozen were killed or died as a result of the conditions at the school, the indictment alleges.
A second protected witness, codenamed S-13, also testified on Monday that he was taken from the village of Suho and imprisoned in the school building.
I saw men being taken out, beaten… Some came back, others did not, he said.
He also testified that nine people suffocated on his first night imprisoned in the school gym, and said that he was taken out and beaten up by soldiers.
I was hit several times. I fell down on the floor, the witness said, adding that the same thing happened on several other occasions.
He said however that he did not see the defendant Babic in the school, although others told him that he visited the building.
The trial is due to continue on October 22.
