Witness Took Statement from Rape Victim in 1994
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Dzevad Dulic is a former member of the 510th Bosnian Liberation Brigade of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has been charged with the rape of a woman in the Cazin area in December 1993. He allegedly acted in collaboration with two other members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Mehmed Bajric was a former member of the military police of the 510th Bosnian Liberation Brigade of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He said that he met S1 in the village of Beganovici in Cazin in the winter of 1994. On that day he had been searching houses owned by members of the National Defence of the Autonomous Region of Western Bosnia, popularly known as “autonomists.”
He said that he took a formal statement from S1, who had told him that a soldier had abused her several days prior to his arrival. Bajric didn’t ask who the soldier was and didn’t try to determine his identity.
“We didn’t pay much attention to what ‘autonomists’ said,” Bajric said. He added that there were “false reports and propaganda” circulating at the time.
When asked by the trial chamber what was written in the statement he took from S1, Bajric said she “complained about provocations – sexual ones.”
Bajric said that he had not heard of Dzevad Dulic, although his face looked like a familiar one from his brigade. He said that he didn’t see Dulic in Beganovici.
Testifying at the same hearing hearing, Hase Beganovic said that S1 came to his house as refugee with her two children and her mother-in-law. Beganovic said that he had sheltered five or six families prior to her arrival. He said that S1 stayed at his house for two or three days.
Beganovic said his house consisted of “three concrete slabs” and a storage space, and that it was used as a shelter. He said that there was enough food for all of the inhabitants.
Beganovic told the court that he was sick at that time. He said he occupied the upper floor, while the women stayed on the lower floor. He said that no military personnel came to his house.
He said that he knew S1, but their families were not that close. Beganovic said he didn’t know when she left the house or what happened to her.
“Nobody mistreated her at my place,” Beganovic said.
The trial will continue on March 20.
