Dretelj Prisoners Used as Bargaining Chip

Testifying for the prosecution, Hovland said that, as a journalist, he spent several days in summer of 1992 with members of the Croatian Defence Forces. In the company of General Blazo Kraljevic, he visited the camp and photographed imprisoned Serbs.

“It looked like a theatre scene. They were dressed in various clothes, looked exhausted and probably older than they were. I did not see any signs of beating, but they looked crushed,” he said.

The imprisoned men, he said, were dressed in the Yugoslav People’s Army uniforms. He saw imprisoned women inside too.

“I think Kraljevic held those prisoners as some kind of currency, something he could bargain with,” said Hovland.

Kraljevic, former general of the Croatian Defence Forces, was killed in 1992.

Hovland testified at the trial of Ivan Zelenika, Srecko Herceg, Edib Buljubasic, Ivan Medic and Marina Grubisic-Fejzic, former members of the Croatian Defence Forces, charged with crimes committed in Dretelj.

According to the indictment, Zelenika was former officer of the Croatian Defence Forces, Herceg was the former commander of the Dretelj camp, Buljubasic was his deputy, while Medic and Grubisic-Fejzic were camp guards.

It is specified that all of them forced prisoners to do hard labour and tortured them, and that several prisoners died as a consequence.

The witness said that on arrival to the camp in Capljina, General Kraljevic talked to the camp commander. He described the commander as a short man.

He said that during the time he spent with the soldiers he concluded they were not “disciplined”, and that some of them did not even have military experience.

During examination, defendant Buljubasic cursed the witness several times, which is why the Trial Chamber ordered him to leave the courtroom.

The new witness for the prosecution will be examined on October 29.