Witness at Vrucinic Trial Describes Prisoner Abuse at Betonirka Plant

Mirko Vrucinic, the former chief of the public safety station and a member of the crisis committee in Sanski Most, has been charged with participating in a joint criminal enterprise with the aim of persecuting the non-Serb population from April to December 1992.

Vrucinic has been charged with the persecution of the Bosniak and Croat civilian population, which included acts of murder, forcible resettlement, unlawful detention and enforced disappearances.

State prosecution witness Hasan Osmancevic testified at today’s hearing. Osmancevic said police officers arrested him on May 25, 1992. He said he was detained in a cell at the police station in Sanski Most for 15 days before being transferred to the Betonirka concrete plant. He said that during his arrest he saw members of the Serbian Defense Forces standing beside the building.

Osmancevic said he wasn’t interrogated or mistreated much during his detention at the police station, but that two police officers began beating him as soon as he entered the Betonirka plant.

“They punched me in the head…As the blood began to pour, I bent down, but they continued kicking me with their knees and boots…The interrogations, mistreatment and beatings began that moment, on the first night,” Osmancevic said.

Osmancevic said he spent a month in the Betonirka plant. He said he was interrogated 50 times during that period. He said detainees were asked questions to which they could not have possibly known the answers.

Osmancevic recalled having been asked to name a Serb from whom he had bought a rifle. After that he was told to kneel down and put his chin on a table. He was then beaten.

After having spent a month in the Betonirka plant, Osmancevic was sent back to the police station. He was held there until August 1992, when he was transferred to the Manjaca detention facility.

Osmancevic said two detainees stayed behind at the police station after he left. He said they were found in a mass grave later on.

Osmancevic said he had known Vrucinic from before the war, but he didn’t see him during his detention.

The trial will continue on September 25.