A Heavy Sigh by Injured Party’s Husband

“My sister and another woman, whose name I shall not say, were also raped on that occasion,” protected witness S-2 said.

She said that she was in a village in Prozor at that time and that she did not know the persons, who raped her.

The witness recalled that Nikola Maric, Nikola Zadro and some other HVO members came to the village, where she lived with her two minor children, husband and his parents, in April 1993. She said that they took her husband and other neighbours away and used them as human shields. Also, they took three rifles from the village with them.

The witness said that her husband returned some time later, adding that he was then hiding in the woods for many days and nights.

“Thw HVO came again at the beginning of July. They took all the men away. I saw Nikola Maric again. My husband ran away to the woods, while we, the women, fled to Paros. We were then taken from Paros to a mosque in Skrobucani,” S-2 said.

She said that, in order for her and her children to be safe, she then went to a village in Prozor, where Bosniaks were accommodated. She was raped there. After that she was expelled from Prozor municipality along with the rest of the Bosniak population.

“I have not seen Nikola Maric again. He really did not do anything to me,” S-2 said.

Nikola Maric, also known as Nidzo, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with having participated in murders, persecution, torture and other inhumane acts in the Prozor area from November 1992 to October 1993.

Testifying at this hearing, witness S-6 said that, in April 1993 he handed his rifle over to Nikola Maric and other HVO soldiers, who then took him to Parcani village, where they used him as a human shield. He was then released. He said that he spent the following months hiding in the woods until he had managed to get to free territory.

“In July I saw them loading my neighbours, one by one, onto a large truck. I saw them taking Mujo Lulic with them and his children running after them and crying. Nikola Maric mocked at them by repeating their words – ‘father, father’,” the witness said, adding that he watched this from the forest.

He said that his parents, as well as wife and two small children, were deported and that his wife was raped by unknown soldiers in Prozor.

“The worst thing happened to her,” witness S-6, who was visibly upset, said, sighing.

Third witness Saban Ahmetasevic said that he was captured in his village in July 1993 and taken to the Secondary School Centre in Prozor. He said that he saw Nikola Maric, whom he had known from before, in the village on that occasion.

As the witness said, seven days later he was transferred to Dretelj detention camp, Capljina.

The trial is due to continue on January 22.