Curic Protected Mostar Detainees, Witness Says

Enes Curic, Ibrahim Demirovic, Samir Kreso, Habib Copelj and Mehmed Kaminic have been charged with participating in the unlawful arrest and detention of Croat civilians in the municipality of Mostar from June to December 1993.

The Bosnian state prosecution alleges that at the time Curic was a member of the 49th Mountain Brigade of the Bosnian Army and the manager of a detention facility in a school and other buildings in Potoci, Demirovic was the commander of the 47th Mountain Brigade of the Bosnian Army, Kreso was the head of the medical service with the military unit of the Mountain Brigade (active in the Bijelo Polje area), while Copelj and Kaminic were members of the Bosnian Army.

Demirovic, who was also a member of the 449th Eastern Herzegovina Mountain Brigade of the Bosnian Army, has also been charged with the rape of a woman in Potoci in 1993.

State prosecution witness and former Bosnian Army prisoner Stanko Krezic said he heard gunfire in Potoci in the municipality of Mostar on June 30, 1993, and fled the area with other civilians. He said he and others were captured by Bosnian Army forces a short time later. He said they were taken to a house.

“I didn’t recognize anyone in the house. The rooms were full of Croat civilians…On the following day we went to our homes, but soldiers came and took me to Omerika’s house in Meke,” he said.

He said he heard Kreso played an important role in the arrest of people in Potoci. Responding to questions from the defense, Krezic said he heard this from people who had been arrested by Kreso. He said he neither saw him nor knew him during his detention.

“I saw Curic once in front of Omerika’s houses. I knew him. He was a soldier, just like all the others. I don’t know what he did,” Krezic said. He said he wasn’t taken to other locations to work, because soldiers had previously beaten him.

“Curic, the commander of the prison in the school building, protected me. He protected whomever he could. He separated us, the sick, and didn’t allow them to mistreat the elderly,” Krezic said.

Krezic said he and other prisoners were once taken out to be used as human shields on a dam in Vrapcici in the municipality of Mostar. He said soldiers named Hebib and Hecim decided who would go. He said when he and other prisoners walked by the front of the school, Curic saw him and told him to run away.

“We arrived to the Djuro Salaj building. Curic put us into the offices…He then escorted us to Kazazic’s house, where we spent a few days. Curic visited houses in the village and asked the local residents to give him food for us,” Krezic said.

The trial will continue on September 23.