Witnesses Describe Assault and Forced Labour at Puljic Trial

Puljic, the former commander of the Second Battalion of the Second Croatian Defense Council Brigade, has been charged with allowing his subordinates to take detainees from the Heliodrom detention camp to other locations in order to perform forced labour and use them as human shields. He is also charged with incidents of enforced disappearances and beatings.

Former prisoner M.L. said he was abducted from his house and was taken to the Heliodrom detention camp on July 30, 1993. He said he was wounded while performing forced labour on Santiceva Street in Mostar on August 3, 1993.

“That day a group of 50 or 60 people and I were taken to the top of Avenija Street, next to the Ero Hotel. We began piling bags, when all of a sudden I heard an explosion. A soldier said, ‘the man is wounded,’ and I found myself in the surgery ward,” M.L. said.

M.L. said he was hit on his face and his body, and that he stayed in the hospital for approximately fifteen days. M.L. said the Second Battalion, which was commanded by Mile Puljic, was located on Avenija Street.

According to M.L., Croatian Defense Council soldiers distributed the prisoners to their work locations.

M.L. said that following his medical treatment, he went back to his apartment. He said he was forced to leave his apartment a month and a half later.

“I lived like a subtenant in my town and on my street for eight years,” M.L. said.

Former prisoner and witness Osman Balavac also testified at the trial. Originally from the town of Stolac, Balavac was detained at the Heliodrom detention camp as a civilian. He said was beaten while performing forced labour on August 5, 1993.

“A man asked if there were any people from Stolac. I said I was from that town,” Balavac said. He said the man, who was a former neighbour of his, began beating him and accusing him of setting a church on fire.

“I ended up with three broken ribs. He hit me with rifle bandoleers on the head, the bullets fell out of them. He emptied two bandoleers that way,” Balavac said.

Balavac said he spent 12 days in the hospital before being sent back to Heliodrom. He was then taken to Santiceva Street in order to perform forced labour.

When asked whether the prisoners were paid for their work, Balavac said coming back alive and not wounded was the only compensation he received.

Another former prisoner and former Bosnian Army soldier named Fadil Omanic also testified at today’s hearing. He said he was detained in the Heliodrom detention camp, and was also forced to work on Santiceva Street.

He said that while he was working his leg was wounded. He said he wasn’t taken to a hospital.

Omanic said that as a prisoner of war, he was detained in other facilities as well.

The trial will continue on May 27.