Beaten up in Bus

Witness Darko Kajtez said that he was in a group of prisoners of war, who were beaten up, while being transported to an exchange in Licko Petrovo Selo on March 11, 1995.

“As soon as we got on the bus, they blindfolded us and ordered us to bow our heads. Then they began beating us. They forced us to sing ‘My Bosnia’ and shout ‘Allahu Akbar’. I know that, on our way from Cazin to the exchange location we stopped once. During the pause other prisoners got on the bus. We were then registered by the Red Cross. They hit us on our backs and legs,” Kajtez said.

Husein Begic, Safet Kovacevic, Muhamed Anadolac, Abid Ljubijankic and Sabahudin Hafuric, former members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are charged with having physically and mentally abused more than thirty former members of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, while escorting them from Cazin to Bihac in order to be exchanged.

Witnesses Darko Dujcinovic and Tomislav Dojcinovic said that they were physically mistreated during the bus ride in March 1995.

Milorad Zoric, who worked as cameraman with Reuters news agency during the war, testified at this hearing as well. He said that he recorded an exchange of prisoners of war in the vicinity of Izacic in March 1995.

Zoric confirmed that he also recorded the exchanged soldiers in a hospital in Bosanski Petrovac, where they were medically examined, but he did not speak to them. He said that he did not have any pieces of information about the happenings in the bus.

The trial is due to continue on November 29.