Zulfikar Squad Deputy Commander Denies Knowledge of Captive’s Abuse

Salcin, a former member of the Bosnian Army’s Zulfikar Squad, has been charged with cutting off a part of prisoner Dragan Vukovic’s ear in front of the Mraziste Hotel on Mount Igman in March 1993. He’s also been charged with beating prisoners in the kitchen of the Mraziste Hotel during the first half of 1993.

Defense witness Nihad Bojadzic, the former deputy commander of the Zulfikar Squad, testified at today’s hearing. He confirmed that his squad was based in the Mraziste Hotel on Mount Igman as of January 1993.

Bojadzic, who testified in the presence of legal advisor Vasvija Vidovic, said he knew Salcin. He said he was a member of the squad and was nicknamed Struja.

“In January 1993 a part of the squad left Igman. I didn’t see Salcin. I saw him in April 1993, when he went to Parsovici. Following the events in Trusina, a part of the squad returned to Igman, but he didn’t,” Bojadzic said.

Bojadzic said he saw Salcin after April 20, 1993, when he was deployed to the Konjic area. He said that in late May and early June 1993 Salcin was in the vicinity of the village of Vrca with the rest of the squad.

“After he had been in the Vrca area, I personally deployed Salcin to Mount Bogusevac. He stayed there for 15 days,” Bojadzic said. He said he arrived on Mount Igman on the night of July 12 or 13, 1993.

Responding to questions by defense attorney Kerim Celik, Bojadzic said he knew a soldier named Husein Sadikovic, who was also nicknamed Struja. He said he visited him in the summer of 1995, to find out why he wasn’t registered as a member of the Bosnian Army.

“He asked me if he should bring Vojvoda [Dragan Vukovic], whose ear he had cut off, in order to prove it to me…I don’t know what that was all about. Soldiers told me they pushed each other and that Vojvoda fell down…I had not been informed about that situation,” Bojadzic said.

Bojadzic said he was unaware of the incident that took place on Mount Igman, because he was in Sarajevo during March and April 1993. He said he didn’t know when Vukovic had been captured.

“He wasn’t captured by members of the Zulfikar Squad,” he said.

The trial will continue on October 1.