Bosnian Woman ‘Raped for 20 Days by Fighters’

The protected prosecution witness codenamed IK-5 told the Sarajevo court on Thursday that in 1992, three Bosnian Croat fighters took her and her husband to the FK Polet football stadium in Bosanski Brod, where she was immediately detained in a room with three other women.

“They just said we would be questioned. That day in the afternoon, I was raped, and I was raped every day,” said IK-5.

She said that she spent over 20 days in the stadium.

According to her, the women detained with her looked in bad shape, but Hazba Nukic looked worst, because she was accused with cooperating with the Serbs.

“Hazba said that Indira beat her up and abused her,” said IK-5.

She explained that Hazba Nukic told that she already knew her assailant, who was called Indira Vrbanjac.

Vrbanjac was the defendant Indira Kameric’s surname before marriage.

But when asked by the prosecution if ‘Indira’ was in the courtroom, the witness said she was not, and also said no when asked by the judges if she recognised anyone in the courtroom.

IK-5 said that the Indira she saw at the stadium was blonde and thinner than the suspect in the trial, who she had seen on television.

The witness recalled one night when ‘Indira’ came into the room with two soldiers and pointed at her and Nukic, after which they were both taken to the front lines to be raped.

“I was raped all night there,” said the witness, adding that Nukic also told her she was raped that night.

Kameric, a wartime member of the 101st Bosanski Brod Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, is accused of participating in the physical and mental abuse of Serb and Bosniak civilians and prisoners of war who were unlawfully detained at the Bosanski Brod police station and the FK Polet football stadium from April to October 1992.

She is also charged with having participated and assisted in the rape and sexual abuse of detainees.

Asked by the defence why she failed to mention that ‘Indira’ beat Nukic and pointed both of them out to be taken to be raped in statements she made in 1994 and 2006, the witness said that no one asked her about that and that she could not remember what she said before.

IK-5 also said that she did not see the defendant abuse anyone personally.

The trial continues on July 10.