Mistreated on Mount Igman

Witness Dragan Vukovic’s statements were read at the trial for crimes on Mount Igman. In his statements the witness said that indictee Nedzad Hodzic mistreated him, while Dzevad Salcin cut his ear off.

The Prosecution read three statements given by Vukovic, who has since died. The witness said that he was member of the Second Sarajevo Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, and that, after having been held in “Silos” detention camp in Hadzici, he was detained on Mount Igman.

“Zuka, Commander of ‘Zulfikar’ Unit, beat me, just like his soldiers Nedzad Hodzic, Samko and Dzeko,” the statement indicates.

Vukovic said that they mistreated him mentally as well, adding that Nedzad Hodzic and a man named Alen from Sarajevo, as well as Dzeko and Mujo from Gacko, did it more intensely than the others.

“They used to put my hands on a stove, in which they had set a fire in previously. They would then press my hands with a boot. I had a feeling that my hands were swollen like burgers,” Vukovic said.

He said that prisoner Jadranko Glavas was beaten up, adding that he later died.

“Nedzad Hodzic, known as Necko, Nada Tomanovic, Mujo and Dzeko beat him the most. Later on Kokic, Sabina and Nada continued beating him for the whole night,” the witness said.

Nedzla Sehic, Defence attorney of indictee Nedzad Hodzic, said that, had she had a chance to do it, she would have asked the witness if that meant that he was still alive after having been beaten by the first group of soldiers and that the beating, in which other soldiers participated, continued afterwards.

The Defence objected to the reading of the statement given by witness Vukovic to the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, in 2007 and the Public Safety Centre in Eastern Sarajevo in 2008.

“It is impossible for a witness to describe something in the same order and using the same terminology, unless one considers two words a difference,” Sehic said.

In his statements witness Vukovic said that a Salcin, known as Struja, cut off the upper part of his ear on Mount Igman, while other soldiers, who attended the event, laughed.

“Later on Salcin hit me on my ear, which was dressed with bandages, with his sneaker, telling me that I did not need the bandages,” the statement says.

Kerim Celik, Defence attorney of indictee Dzevad Salcin, said that he would have asked the witness to describe Struja and “if he noticed, after his ear had been cut off, that Struja was visibly drunk”.

Nedzad Hodzic and Dzevad Salcin, known as Struja, former members of “Zulfikar” Unit of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, are on trial for crimes committed on Mount Igman in 1993.

In his statement given to The Hague Tribunal in 1997 witness Vukovic said that “Nedzad beat him with his fists and legs”. Also, he said that “after having put his hands into a hot stove, Nedzad forced him to pull nails out with his hands, despite the blisters.”

“I could not pull the nails out, so Nedzad beat me with the non-sharp part of an axe,” the statement says.

The Prosecution of BiH read a statement given by witness Salem Causevic, who died as well.

Causevic, former member of “Zulfikar” Unit, said that he was a guard on Mount Igman in 1993 and that no members of that Unit entered or mistreated the prisoners during his shifts, although he heard that some soldiers behaved in an improper manner.

“They behaved like hooligans. Four or five of them had magnums with a round cylinder,” he said in his statement given to the Prosecution of BiH in 2013.

Defence attorney Sehic said that the Defence would use that statement as well, because indictee Hodzic could not be associated with the events charged upon him under the indictment.

“The witness was not only a guard, but a member of ‘Zulfikar’ Unit. He would have known if Hodzic had entered the premises and mistreated the prisoners,” Sehic said.

The trial is due to continue on June 12.