Bosnia Camp Guard Was Not Abuser Called Viper
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Witness Marko Vuksic told the Sarajevo-based court on Tuesday that he occasionally went to the Dretelj camp in 1992 as a member of the Croatian Defence Forces, where he saw one of the five defendants, Ivan Medic, who he knew from before the war.
Medic worked in the utilities company in [the town of] Ljubuski [near Dretelj], and he worked for my aunt as well. His nickname was Ikan, Vuksic said.
He said that he had never heard anyone calling the defendant Poskok (Viper). Some of the prosecution witnesses in the case have said that prisoners were abused by a man called Ivan Medic whose nickname was Poskok.
Medic, along with Ivan Zelenika, Srecko Herceg, Edib Buljubasic and Marina Grubisic-Fejzic, is accused of torturing prisoners and forcing them to do hard labour in 1992. Several died as a consequence, it is alleged.
According to the indictment, Zelenika was an officer with the Croatian Defence Forces, Herceg was commander of the Dretelj camp, Buljubasic was his deputy, while Medic and Grubisic-Fejzic were guards.
Vuksic said that he knew the defendant Herceg, but did not see him at Dretelj in 1992.
Another witness on Tuesday, Vinko Primorac, who worked at the health centre in Ljubuski, also said that he knew Medic from before the war but said had never heard that he had the nickname Poskok.
The trial resumes on February 24.
