Witnesses Describe Death and Injury of Prisoners Working on Santiceva Street

Mile 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 locations where they performed forced labour and were used as human shields.

The state prosecution has accused Puljic of participating in a joint criminal enterprise which lead to enforced disappearances, detention, forced labour and the use of human shields from May 1993 to March 1994.

The indictment alleges that Puljic is responsible for the death of 11 Bosniak prisoners and the injury of 70 more, who were used as human shields, labourers, or were subjected to other types of abuse.

S-8, a protected witness and a former prisoner of the Heliodrom detention camp, testified at today’s hearing. He said he was taken from the Heliodrom detention camp to Santiceva Street in Mostar to perform forced labour on August 13, 1993. He said he was wounded while he and other prisoners were piling bags filled with sand.

“I carried the bags to a garage, while others carried them to houses on the banks of the Neretva, where I think members of the Bosnian Army were located. There was shooting, the real war,” S-8 said.

S-8 said he and two other detainees were wounded. After being hospitalized for 20 days, he was returned to the Heliodrom detention camp. He said he was taken to other locations in order to perform forced labour, but not as much as before.

S-8 said soldiers, military units from other locations, special units and members of the Anti-Terrorist Group were on Santiceva Street on the day he was injured.

Puljic’s defense reminded S-8 that during the investigation he’d said that the Anti-Terrorist Group and some special formations were on Santiceva Street. S-8 said they were all members of the Croatian Defense Council as far as he was concerned. He said he wasn’t able to differentiate between the different units, but that he and others told each other they were the [ATG] Anti-Terrorist Group.

S-8 said he was a member of the Croatian Defense Council, and was arrested for the first time on May 10, 1993. He said he was arrested again on June 30, 1993 and was taken to the Heliodrom detention camp. He said he wasn’t told why he was arrested, but believed he was targeted because he was a Bosniak.

S-8 said the conflict between the Bosnian Army and the Croatian Defense Council broke out on May 9, 1993 and flared up again on June 30, 1993.

Ismet Idriz, a former Heliodrom prisoner, also testified at today’s hearing. He said he was arrested in Mostar on June 30, 1993 and was taken to the Heliodrom detention camp. He said he was then taken to various locations to perform forced labour. He described what happened while working with other detainees on Santiceva Street on August 13, 1993.

“There were about ten of us in one group. We fortified bunkers…The shooting from both sides began after 4 o’clock. An explosive device fell. I was wounded by shrapnel pieces. A HVO [Croatian Defense Council] soldier was wounded as well. After that Ismet Orucevic and S-8 were wounded,” Idriz recalled.

Idriz said he received medical assistance at a hospital after his injury. He said he found out in the evening that two detainees were killed and another was wounded.

A protected witness known as S-7 said she found out that her brother, a Heliodrom detainee, was killed while being used as a human shield on Santiceva Street.

State prosecution Ibro Pajic said he was arrested on June 30, 1993 and was taken to various locations in order to perform forced labour. He said he heard that one person had gotten killed.

The trial will continue on September 16.