Impossible to Get to “Polet” Stadium

Ferid Osmicic, Imam of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, said that he lived in Bosanski Brod at the beginning of 1992 and that he spent the entire war in that town. He said that the shelling of his town began in March 1992 and that it became more and more intense in the following months.

“About 1,500 heavy artillery projectiles fell on one square meter of land until mid-May. (…) Walking in the streets was suicidal,” Osmicic said, adding that, nevertheless, he went to his workplace and performed his duties as Imam every day.

Osmicic said that he visited the municipal building, which was located next to his house, every day in order to determine the status of killed persons, i.e. Sehits [martyrs], because of costs of their funerals. While he was at his workplace, he used to see indictee Indira Kameric almost every day. He said that he had known her since childhood.

“She was a big girl, tall, her bones were big, she was heavier than others. Her hair was black. She had eyeglasses with dark frames. (…) I most often saw her in the basement, because of the shelling, together with other servants,” the witness said, describing indictee Kameric.

He remembered that she used to work with the municipal Property and Legal Service since her graduation from university. As he said, during the war she was in charge of closing abandoned apartments and issuing permits to civilians to go to Croatia.

“She used to work in civilian clothing. I never saw her in uniform,” Osmicic said, adding that he sometimes saw her in the municipality building after working hours.

According to his testimony, Indira Kameric was an extremely principled person, professional and responsible. Osmicic said that he saw her the last time prior to the fall of Bosanski Brod in October, adding that he found out that she was in Slavonski Brod.

Responding to a Defence’s question, he said that nobody could go from the downtown area, where the municipality building was located, to “Polet” stadium from May to October 1992, because it was impossible to do it and was suicidal due to the shelling.

“Every time I left the house, I asked for their forgiveness as if I was going to die,” the witness said.

Kameric, former member of the 101st Bosanski Brod Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with having participated in physical and mental abuse, as well as inhumane treatment of Serb and Bosniak civilians and prisoners of war in the police premises and at Polet stadium in Bosanski Brod from April to October 1992.

The trial is due to continue on October 16.