Witnesses Describe Treating Raptanica Prisoners with Burn Injuries

Ekrem Ibracevic, Faruk Smajlovic and Sejdalila Covic, have been charged with abusing and torturing Serb civilians on the premises of a local community center in Rapatnica in the Srebrenik area. Ibracevic was the chief of military security with the Municipal Headquarters of the Territorial Defense in Srebrenik, while Smajlovic and Covic were military police officers.

A former doctor and nurse testified at today’s hearing. Tey said Ekrem Ibracevic ordered them to provide medical care to Rapatnica prisoners in late July and early August 1992.

“Ekrem Ibracevic told me a burglary had happened, and that some people broke in and tortured prisoners. He asked that this [their treatment] be done discreetly,” Mahmoud Hai Eisa said. Hai Eisa was a doctor at the Srebrenik health centre at the time.

He said he went to Rapatnica with Ibracevic and that the prisoners were detained in the lower part of the building.

“It smelled of moisture and dirt. They were scared, tired and in poor condition,” Hai Eisa said.

He said although he documented caring for three patients, he remembers two men, in particular one older man.

“He had burns on his back, with a width of two centimetres and a length of 10 to 15 centimetres. He also had burns on his upper arm. One wound began to yellow, it was starting to get infected” Hai Eisa said. He said another prisoner was a minor and had similar injuries, only on a smaller scale.

He said he was told that the burns were caused by a soldering iron. According to Hai Eisa, after he examined and bandaged them on July 31, he wrote in his medical report that the next bandaging should be done on August 2.

“The opening of wounds in these conditions carried the risk of infection, so bandaging had to be done every two days,” Hai Eisa said.

Hai Eisa and a former nurse named Fakiza Hai Eisa confirmed that Ibracevic asked them to treat the wounds of the prisoners as quickly as possible in order to exchange them.

“They weren’t kept in hygienic conditions…When I came the second time, I said I didn’t want to bandage their wounds,” Fakiza Hai Eisa said. She said she bandaged two prisoners in Rapatnica several times.

The witnesses said the note “strictly discreet” in the medical report meant that information on the patients should be kept confidential, so as not to spread the story of the prisoners around town. They said that the prisoners received adequate medical care and that their wounds were healed.

The trial will continue on October 13.