Popovic’s Beatings in “Uzamnica”

“He hit me with his hands, legs, knuckles, rifle butt in my head,” said Adem Berberovic, who testified via video link from the United States of America.

Responding to Defence’s questions, the witness specified that Popovic hit him with a rifle butt once. He said that the same group of guards called out detainees by their first and last names, asking them to come out of the hangar in the evening hours in the summer of 1993. After that they beat them up.

In his statement given to the Safety Services Centre in Sarajevo following his release from the detention camp in 1994 Ademovic mentioned Dragan Popovic, born 1968, as one of the guards, who beat the detainees.

“That is because I got the name wrong. He is Goran, not Dragan,” the witness said, adding that Goran, son of Jovan, was born in 1972.

As he said, while he was in “Uzamnica”, he heard that he was Jovan’s son. When asked how he knew his year of birth, he explained that one man, who used to spend time with the guards, told him that after his release from the detention camp.
“He slept in their dorm more often than in our room,” Ademovic said, testifying as an additional State Prosecution witness.

According to the charges, Goran Popovic, son of Jovan, participated in the abuse, beating, torture and sexual abuse of Bosniak men and women in “Uzamnica” detention camp, where he worked as a guard.

The witness said that Nurko Dervisevic told him that he too was beaten by Popovic, when the guards took them out of the hangar and beat them.

Ademovic mentioned that he did not see the beating of a detainee, who refused to eat bacon.

The trial is due to continue on February 10.