A Night in Rapatnica

Marko Maksimovic told the Court that two uniformed men took him from his apartment in Srebrenik to the Centre in Rapatnica in July 1992 and that he was held in the Centre during the night.
 
As he said, upon his arrival in the Centre, he was accommodated in a room, where he saw indictee Ibracevic and a person whom he knew under his nickname – Muco.
 
He mentioned that both of them were dressed in camouflage uniforms and that Ibracevic brought him a piece of paper and a pencil, telling him to write all he knew about the arming of the Serb population in that area.
 
“I wrote something. I do not even know what it was but Ibracevic took the paper, read what I wrote and tore the paper into pieces. At that moment he slapped me on my right cheek. As he was standing next to me, I saw him pulling his pistol out. He put it to my temple and said: ‘I am going to kill you now’. I just told him that I did not care,” Maksimovic said.

Ibracevic is on trial, along with Faruk Smajlovic and Sejdalija Covic, for having committed crimes against Serb civilians in Rapatnica local community and “Rapatnica” football club premises in 1992.
 
According to the charges, detainees were beaten up, tortured and abused, while, by supervising those detention facilities, Ibracevic approved of such behavior.
 
Covic is charged with having entered the local community premises and beat the civilians, while Smajlovic is charged with having failed to prevent other people from entering the premises.
 
The Prosecution alleges that Ibracevic was Chief of the Military Security with the Municipal Headquarters of the Territorial Defence in Srebrenik, Smajlovic was Commander of the Military Police Squad with the Territorial Defence’s Municipal Headquarters, while Covic was a member of military police.

As he continued testifying, Maksimovic said that he was detained in Rapatnica until the following morning, when Ibracevic and the person named Muco returned him to his apartment. At that moment they told him never to speak about the events that night to anyone.

 
As he explained, he was not bothered after that event. He stayed in Srebrenik until his exchange in May 1993. 
 
During his cross-examination Maksimovic said that he had seen Ibracevic in Rapatnica before that event, because they used to live in the same apartment building but used separate entrances. 
 
He also said that he did not know who the boss in Rapatnica was, but he spoke about it with his neighbours.
 
“I think that Muco was the Prison Manager. However, I thought that Ibracevic was the boss the whole time. But, this was just my opinion,” the witness explained. 

The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, December 23, when a new Prosecution witness will testify.