Bosniak Fighter Detained Serbs For Their Own Safety
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Witness Aleksa Aleksic told the Sarajevo-based court on Friday that he did not know who ordered Serbs from Stupari and nearby villages to be taken to a local school, but that defendant Zijad Hamzic implemented the decision.
[Hamzic] said he was the commander of the territorial defence forces for Stupari, said Aleksic.
The witness said that he and his father were brought to the school for their own safety after Hamzic said that he could not guarantee they would be unharmed if they remained in their homes. He added that he thought that Hamzics attempts to protect the Serbs by temporarily detaining them were positive.
Aleksic was detained in the Teachers Union building near the school until August 1992, he said.
According to the indictment, Serbs from Stupari and surrounding villages were illegally detained in the Teachers Union building.
Hamzic, along with Safet Mujcinovic, Kahro Vejzovic, Ramiz Halilovic, Selman Busnov, Nusret Muhic, Nedzad Hodzic, Hariz Habibovic and Osman Gogic, are charged with treating imprisoned Serb civilians inhumanely between May 1992 and the second half of June 1993, causing them pain and suffering.
Aleksic said that in June 1992, defendant Vejzovic, who was his friend from school, took him to the police station in Stupari to see defendant Mujcinovic, who he also knew well, because one of the Serbs said that he had a weapon.
The witness recalled that Mujcinovic told him to confess because he would be taken to Kladanj and beaten.
Safet slapped me. I dont think he was mad, it was a pure police slap, said Aleksic. He added that he never told anyone about the slap. That shows you what I think about it, he said.
The witness said that a day later, an inspector called Nusret took him to the police station in Kladanj, where three men beat him up.
They hit my entire body. I dont know how long it lasted, but it was more than ten strikes for sure, said Aleksic.
The witness said that he heard from other Serbs detained in the Teachers Union building that they were beaten by Vejzovic and Ismet Butkovic, and saw a prisoner and his father coming back with bruises after being taken outside.
However he also said that Halilovic helped bring food to the imprisoned Serbs.
The trial continues on March 7.
