Defense Witnesses Say Zelenika Treated Heliodrom Prisoners Correctly

Zelenika, a former member of the Croatian Defense Council, has been charged with physically and mentally abusing a prisoner named Almir Lalic while prisoners from the Heliodrom detention camp worked on Santiceva Street in Mostar in November 1993.

He has also been charged with the severe physical abuse of Muhamed Lalic in his apartment in Mostar on the night of May 6 or 7, 1994.

Enver Pehlic, a former member of a Civil Defense working squad, testified at today’s hearing. He said he chopped wood, carried bags, and performed other small tasks as part of his duties.

“I was moving around within a 50 meter radius. I also saw when they brought the prisoners from the Heliodrom detention camp. The soldiers treated them correctly. Ivan Zelenika acted the same way, he even protected them. He was telling them, as he told me, that they shouldn’t be afraid and that everyone will be returned to their homes,” Pehlic said.

Trial chamber chair Slavko Pavlovic asked Pehlic if he worked on Santiceva Street. Pehlic said he sometimes visited the main post office there, and that some of the soldiers took the food he brought for the prisoners working on Santiceva Street.

Ivan Boras, a former member of the Second Battalion, also testified at today’s hearing. Boras said Heliodrom prisoners were sent to work on Santiceva Street once or twice a week.

“Dedo Hozic, who was the commander, gave the orders on where they would be deployed. I saw Ivan Zelenika there, separating the elderly and the men with families to go do less dangerous jobs. Those men worked in groups alongside us,” Boras said.

Witness Drazen Cerkez, a former member of the civilian police’s War Company, said that prisoners worked on Santiceva Street and that no one mistreated them.

“Zelenika had a normal attitude towards the prisoners. They had what to eat and drink, they could take showers, they had everything. They ate with the soldiers of the Second Battalion. None of the prisoners ever reported that they had been mistreated by Ivan Zelenika or by any other soldier,” Cerkez said.

Witness Mario Bago said the prisoners working on Santiceva Street had the same rights and privileges Croatian Defence Council soldiers had on the work sites.

“If our soldiers were eating beans, the prisoners were eating beans too. They ate lunches together,” he said.

He said he never heard reports that Zelenika had mistreated the prisoners. He said if he had, Zelenika would have been forced to face disciplinary action and expulsion from the Second Battalion.

The trial will continue on November 3.