Beaten up Because of His Name

Witness Zvonimir Bozic said that, after the tower block in which he lived at Trg Heroja square in Hrasno was set on fire in 1992, all residents were accommodated in the building basement premises.
 
“Visnja Krstajic-Stanojevic made a list of people. She wanted to exchange all of us, Serbs, for Muslims. The list was found. Zlatan Babic came. They took three of us – Veljko Petrovic, Mladen Blagovcanin and me, away. We walked between two lines of people to a social insurance building just across the street,” Bozic said.
According to Bozic’s testimony, he, Petrovic and Blagovcanin were then beaten up.

“I was beaten by some men, who had escaped from Grbavica. They were extremists. The local guys did not do such things. Mladen was beaten more than the two of us, because he was an inspector. (…) They beat him with their legs and hands,” the witness said.  

The Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecution charges Mario Frimel, former Commander of “Ivan Krndelj” Squad of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, with having unlawfully arrested and physically and mentally abused Serbs in Hrasno neighbourhood, Sarajevo.

According to the charges, at the beginning of October 1992 members of the “Ivan Krndelj” Squad brought some Serbs to the shopping centre premises, where they abused them.
Second witness Veljko Petrovic said that he first heard about Mario Frimel, when he received an invitation to testify.  

Petrovic said that he was beaten up in the social insurance building after having been taken away from the basement of the burnt tower block, adding that he lost consciousness while being beaten up.

“I was taken away from the basement to the social insurance building, where the situation was disastrous. I did not know who was beating me. I was unconscious until 5.30,” Petrovic said.
Petrovic told the Court that he thought that he was beaten up because of his name only, despite the fact that he did not consider himself a Serb.  

Testifying as the third Prosecution witness at this hearing, Stjepan Vrapcic said that Mladen Blagovcanin complained to him about having been beaten up during the war and that he associated Mario Frimel with that event.  

“We met Mario Frimel at a café once. I told him that it was an opportunity for him to apologise to that man if he had done anything to him during the war. Mario responded by saying: ‘I have no clue what you are talking about’,” Vrapcic said.  

The trial is due to continue on May 28.