Witnesses Describe Being Sent to Detention Camps as Minors at Maric Trial

Nikola Maric, a member of the Croatian Defense Council, has been charged with participating in acts of murder, torture and other inhumane acts in the municipality of Prozor from November 1992 to October 1993.

Ibrahim Lulic was separated from his family and sent to a detention camp by Croatian Defense Council forces when he was 16. He said on August 28, 1993, his uncle Suljo Konjaric came to his house in the village of Visnjanji, in the municipality of Prozor, accompanied by man nicknamed Nidzo [Nikola Maric], whom he did not know.

“Dajdza said that Nidzo ordered all of the residents of the village to get ready and we’d go towards Donji Visnjani. We left the village – children, women and the elderly…Male residents had been taken to a detention camp a month before,” Lulic said.

Lulic said they walked towards the village of Usove. There they were transported by truck to Luka Soldo’s house, where soldiers of the Croatian Defense Council were based.

“They separated a few of us minors from the others on the truck. Elvedin Konjaric was the youngest. Dzemal Konjaric, Enes Konjaric and a few older ones were there as well. We were taken to the secondary school center in Prozor and then to a police station. I ended up in Heliodrom,” Lulic said.

Lulic said he was at the Heliodrom detention camp for four months. He said he didn’t see Nikola Maric during his detention.

Amir Konjaric, who was also a minor at the time, said Maric ordered the local residents of Visnjani to leave the village. Konjaric said he saw Maric in Usove on the same day.

“I am neither defending nor accusing him. The man [Maric] didn’t mistreat us,” Konjaric said.

Konjaric told the court he arrived at Luka Soldo’s house with other local residents of Visnjani. He said a man named Milan separated him and eight or nine other individuals from the other passengers on the truck. Milan then drove them to the secondary school center in Prozor.

Konjaric said his father Becir was taken along with other men to the secondary school center in Prozor in July 1993. Konjaric said he saw Nikola Maric and other members of the Kinder Squad on that day.

Also testifying at this hearing, Halil Konjaric said he was taken to the Prozor police station on July 12 and then to the secondary school center after Nikola Maric, Luka Soldo and a man named Brizar told the local residents of Visnjani village that they had been ordered to arrest them for the sake of their security.

He said two nights later, Nikola Maric called their names out and they were transported to Ljubuski. Afterwards they were sent to the Dretelj and Heliodrom detention camps.

Prosecutor Sanja Jukic asked Halil Konjaric if he had a son. Konjaric said his family was deported a month after he had been captured, and his underage son Dzemal had been separated from the others and taken to the secondary school center.

The Maric trial will continue on June 28.