Bosnian Prisoner Recalls Brutal School Beating

Prosecution witness Boro Stojanovic told the court in Sarajevo on Monday that he was detained by members of the Croatian Defence Council in early May 1992, and that taken to the gym at the school in Odzak in northern Bosnia, where he was detained with another 500 civilians.

He said that prisoners were taken for questioning every day, and beaten and abused while under interrogation.

He remembered he was once beaten by a guard and was later told by other prisoners that the assailant’s name was Josip Tolic.

“Once they called me by my name and took me to the classroom. There were three people, and one of them was Josip Tolic. He slapped me in the face right away and said: ‘This is the one who likes to lie.’ He was hitting me with his fists, kicking me, hitting me in the head,” Stojanovic recalled.

“I suffered bad head injuries. There were many blows, I did not count them, I just wanted to survive,” he said.

After the beatings, as he said, there was blood on the floor, and Tolic ordered him to lick it off, which he did.

“I had no choice,” Stojanovic said.

Stojanovic said that he was questioned and beaten several times, and that Tolic participated some of the times.

Tolic, a former member of the 102nd Odzak Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, is charged with having participated in the abuse of Serb prisoners in the Odzak and Bosanski Brod area from May to October 1992.

During cross-examination, Tolic’s lawyer Rifat Konjic presented a statement that the witness gave during the investigation last year, in which he did not say that the defendant made him lick his own blood from the floor after he was beaten.

Stojanovic explained that he could not remember every detail all the time, but that he was sure that this happened.

Tolic’s trial continues on Friday.