Indictee “Behaving Like a Cowboy”

Zejnel Grcic said that members of the Kinder Squad with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, came to Duge village, Prozor municipality, in July 1993 and, after having searched the houses, took all able-bodied Bosniak men to the Secondary School Centre in Prozor.

As he said, indictee Nikola Maric, whom the witness had known from before the war, was particularly noticeable.

“One could not help but notice him, because he was the only one in black uniform. All the others had camouflage uniforms, while Nidzo was wearing black. He had a band around his forehead,” the witness explained, adding that Maric was armed during the arrest, but he had never mistreated him personally.

Grcic said that he was detained in the Secondary School Centre together with about 350 men from the surrounding villages in Prozor municipality and that he was transferred to Dretelj detention camp, near Capljina, 15 days later.

During the cross-examination the witness said that he considered that Maric was “the chief of the Kinder Squad” and that he came to Duge village in July 1993 and gave orders to arrest people and bring them to a gathering point.

Indictee Maric objected to this allegation, saying that he did not come to Duge village to arrest people, but he accidentally found himself in the village on that day.

“You could not have seen me arresting people. I was passing by accidentally on that day, so I just stopped by the village,” the indictee said, but the witness responded by saying that this allegation was not true.

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.

Galib Sabitovic was another resident of Duge village, who was taken to the Secondary School Centre in July 1993.

He confirmed that indictee Maric, whom he had known well before the war, because he was a neighbour of his, was among the soldiers, who collected the male village residents.

“When we came to the gathering point from which they took us to the Secondary School Centre, I wanted to ask him what it all was, what was happening. However, he evaded the answers skilfully,” the witness said.

Third Prosecution witness Ismet Basinac was expelled from Varvare village in July 1993.

Basinac was taken from his house to the Secondary School Centre in Prozor from which he was taken to Gornji Vakuf in order to perform forced labour.

He said that he used to see indictee Maric during his detention, adding that he noticed him, because he “behaved like a cowboy”.

“This means that he treated us in an aggressive manner – he would always yell and scream. People realised that he was a dangerous guy, so everybody stepped out of his way,” Basinac said.

During the cross-examination the witness said that Maric had never mistreated him and that he had never seen him physically abuse anybody else.

“I personally did not see anything, but I remember that prisoners, whom the indictee escorted to locations at which they performed forced labour, said that they would rather be killed than spend time with Nikola Maric,” witness Basinac explained.

The trial is due to continue on February 5.