State Prosecution Witness Describes Prisoner Abuse and Torture in Bileca

Miroslav Duka, the former Bileca police commander, Goran Vujovic, the former chief of the Bileca public safety station, and Zeljko Ilic, a former police officer, have been charged with war crimes in Bileca. Nedjeljko Kuljic, since deceased, was also charged under the same indictment.

Vujovic and Duka have been charged with enabling and organizing the detention of Bosniak and Croat civilians in Bileca, where detainees were killed, tortured and abused. Ilic has been charged with participating in their abuse.

Bajramovic said Miroslav Duka brought him a piece of paper and a pen, and asked him to write about where other Bosniaks could be found. He refused to do so.

“He [Duka] punched me…I woke up in the corridor twice. They were pouring water over me…Duka spread terror. The police didn’t dare do anything without asking him. He hit me with all sorts of objects. He was wearing military boots. He hit me with a rifle butt,” Bajramovic said.

He said Nedjo Kuljic also hit him on the back and head with a rifle butt and the leg of a wooden chair with exposed nails on it. Later on, he said, Duka beat him again. His beating lasted approximately four hours.

“Duka said, ‘Get up.’ He grabbed me by my hair and kicked me in the head…The room was covered in blood. He told me to clean up the blood,” Bajramovic said. He said four of his ribs and his nose were broken, because of Duka.

Duka’s defense attorney asked Bajramovic how he could claim that the defendant broke his ribs.

“Because he was beating me while I was on the ground…He would get on a table and jump on me,” Bajramovic said.

Bajramovic said he was transferred from the police station to the student dormitory, where he was electrocuted three times.

“The electric current flows through your body. I can’t describe the feeling when they connect you to electricity. Your whole body shakes,” Bajramovic said, adding that a man named Nosovic carved cross-like signs on his back with wires.

He said he once saw Duka shooting at prisoners through a window at the student dormitory.

“The shooting began. We climbed up to the windows and looked towards the road. I saw him. He was walking and shooting from a pistol in our direction…We lied down on the floor,” Bajramovic said. He said gas bombs and tear gas were also thrown into the dormitory on the same occasion.

Bajramovic also described an incident in which he and another detainee were taken to a room where a prisoner named Beli was lying facedown on the floor. He said Duka and two police officers were present in the room.

“Duka shook our hands and asked if anyone had abused us. ‘Take him [Beli] with you. He will wake up’…We carried him into the room we were held in. We noticed his breathing patterns change. There was a bruise that looked like a boot sole on his left side…He died an hour later,” Bajramovic said.

The trial will continue on August 18.