Covered with Bruises and Swollen Due to Hits

Witness Aleksandar Ljuic said that he was captured in Golubic, near Bihac, on November 25, 1994 and that he was detained in Cazin and then Bihac until March 11, 1995, when he was exchanged, along with a group of other captured members of the Republika Srpska Army, in Licko Petrovo village. 

“Before 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 some songs,” Ljuic said.

He said that the prisoners received medical assistance at a dispensary in Bosanski Petrovac.

“I was covered with bruises and swollen due to the beating,” Ljuic said. 

Witnesses Ljubo Jovicic, Marko Golic and Milutin Zrnic too were among the prisoners, who were physically mistreated in the bus, while being escorted to the exchange location on March 11, 1995.

Ljubo Jovicic said that the bus drove slowly and stopped a few times on its way from Cazin to Licko Petrovo village.

“We sat on the floor. We were blindfolded and bowed our heads. They beat us and ordered us to sing ‘My Bosnia’. As far as I can remember, we left Cazin at around 7.30. We arrived in Licko Petrovo village and were exchanged at around 11.30,” the witness said.

Husein Begic, Safet Kovacevic, Muhamed Anadolac, Abid Ljubijankic and Sabahudin Hafuric, former members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, are charged with physical and mental mistreatment of more than 30 former members of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, who were escorted from Cazin and Bihac in order to be exchanged.

None of the witnesses, who testified today, identified the indictees as the persons, who escorted them to the exchange location and beat them.

The trial is due to continue on December 13.