Witnesses Provide Differing Testimony on Prisoner Abuse at Musala Detention Camp

A defense witness testifying at the Ramo Zilic and Esad Gakic trial said he never saw Zilic. The same witness said he used to see Gakic at the Musala detention camp in Konjic, but didn’t know his name at the time.

Zilic and Gakic, former members of the Bosnian Army, have been charged with the inhumane treatment of Croat and Serb civilians detained at the Musala detention camp in Konjic. The defendants allegedly inflicted severe suffering, physical abuse and injury to the personal dignity of the detainees. Witnesses in the trial have confirmed that Zilic was the manager of Musala detention camp.

Ibro Hero, a former commander of military police and medical nurse, testified at today’s hearing. He said he’d offered medical assistance in the Musala detention camp twice. He said some of the detainees complained of having itchy scabs. He said he gave them a liquid solution to apply to their skin and that was the extent of the contact he had with them.

Hero said he’d never heard of Musala detainees being physically abused.

Hero said he saw an exchange of prisoners take place from a distance of approximately 20 meters in October 1994.

“The detainees got on buses one after the other. There were about 70 or 80 of them. As far as I could see, none of them needed help to get on the buses. Nobody had any visible injuries. I don’t know which ethnic group they belonged to, but others told me they were Serbs and they were taken in the direction of Sarajevo,” Hero said.

A statement given by former Musala detainee Radovan Majer in May 2012 was read at this hearing. Majer was unable to come to the courtroom because he is severely ill. In his statement, he described his detention in Musala as “a real hell and pain, both physically and mentally.”

“I spent 109 days in the detention camp. I remember Zilic well. I can’t recall his first name, but I know he was the prison manager. He was blonde and had beastly eyes. He beat me. He interrogated me once in his office. He kicked me in the kidneys as hard as he could. I fainted. When I woke up, he started punching and kicking me again and banged my head against the wall,” Majer said in his statement.

In his statement, Majer said he was mistreated by Ibro Macic, the two Alic brothers and a guard named Osmo. After a month in Musala, Majer and three other detainees were interrogated. Majer said he believed Edhem Zilic knew where they were taking him.

“They falsely accused us of rape, which we had to admit to in the end because they beat us. We were beaten more than all the other Musala detainees. Ibro Macic then ordered us to perform oral sex on each other, while Alic and Osmo held us. While they were doing that, they were laughing. They took burning wooden sticks and hit us with them. They burned our groins and genitals with those sticks. Macic and Osmo then took me out, found a metal rod and pushed it into my anus,” Majer’s statement read.

According to Majer, the torture lasted until the morning. Edhem Zilic did not come or intervene.

The trial will continue on July 3.