Witness Describes Prisoner Abuse in Potoci School Building

Enes Curic, Ibrahim Demirovic, Samir Kreso, Habib Copelj and Mehmed Kaminic have been charged with participating in the unlawful arrest and detention of Croat civilians in the municipality of Mostar from June to December 1993.

The Bosnian state prosecution alleges that at the time Curic was a member of the 49th Mountain Brigade of the Bosnian Army and the manager of a detention facility in the Potoci school and other buildings, Demirovic was the commander of the 47th Mountain Brigade of the Bosnian Army, Kreso was the head of the medical service with the military unit of the Mountain Brigade (active in the Bijelo Polje area), while Copelj and Kaminic were members of the Bosnian Army.

Demirovic, who is also a member of the 449th Eastern Herzegovina Mountain Brigade of the Bosnian Army, has also been charged with the rape of a woman in Potoci in 1993.

Mladenka Nikolic, a former prisoner in the Potoci school building, described the behaviour of the defendants during her detention.

“We felt abused. They came in armed and interrogated men. They saw our fear and said, ‘We’ll kill you.’ I didn’t know them because I lived far away,” said Nikolic.

Nikolic said the soldiers didn’t hit the prisoners. She said she knew Enes Curic and he came to the school regularly.

“He was in charge, that’s what they told us and Mujo Karadzc handed us over to him in front of the school,” Nikolic said.

Nikolic told the trial chamber about an incident in which Mehmed Kaminic hit a young prisoner with special needs named Marko Zovko. According to Nikolic, Kaminic ran into Zovko, hit him, and then threw him on the floor.

The indictment also alleges that Kaminic hit a prisoner with mental health problems in the Potoci school.

Kaminic’s defense attorney, Senad Dupovac, asked Nikolic if Zovko suffered any injuries from the attack. Nikolic said he didn’t have physical injuries, but suffered mentally.

Nikolic told the trial chamber that Enes Curic saved prisoners from attacks by other soldiers.

“Soldiers came and one of them had a knife…He came towards us and Curic tried to stop him, and the soldier went toward him instead, that’s when we ran,” Nikolic.

In response to questions by Curic’s defense, Nikolic said Curic sustained injuries on his hand as a result.

In response to questions by the state prosecution, Nikolic said she’d heard from other prisoners that Ibrahim Demirovic came to the Potoci school building with a bowl of spikes, and threatened the prisoners.

She also said female prisoners were forced to work. They primarily cleaned houses, and once had to pick up the body of a dead girl off the street.

“Young men were taken to work…They picked the young ones who could work. Curic chose them. Some were killed,” Nikolic said.

“Curic was mostly OK towards me, there was no abuse,” Nikolic said.

The trial continues on May 27.