Witness Claims No Knowledge of Abuse of Jablanica Prisoners at Tahirovic Trial

Tahirovic, a former member of the Zulfikar Special Purposes Squad of the Bosnian Army, has been charged with participating in the torture, abuse and humiliation of detained Croat civilians and prisoners in Jablanica in 1993.

State prosecution witness Damir Gusic said he was tasked with distributing food to detainees held in a museum in Jablanica.

“Policemen stayed in the corridor upstairs. I didn’t go down to the basement. I didn’t know what was happening in the basement. I didn’t hear that detainees were beaten up,” Gusic said.

When asked whether he used to see Tahirovic visiting the museum with Nihad Bojadzic, Gusic said he didn’t.

“Nihad rarely came alone. He would go down to the basement, but I don’t remember any of the military policemen going down with him. I personally didn’t hear about any happenings in the basement. I know that there were no medical interventions. No beatings of detainees took place in my presence,” Gusic said.

Witness Ramiz Beciri said he was also a member of the Zulfikar unit.  He said they were situated in the Rogica houses in Donja Jablanica.

“I saw the detainees once or twice. I didn’t notice that they were beaten. Later on I heard all sorts of things. I heard that Croats were beaten up, but I didn’t see it, I wasn’t interested in it,” Beciri said.

The prosecution asked Beciri to comment on allegations in a report from November 9, 1993, in which Bojadzic, the deputy commander of the Zulfikar unit, said he was one of the guards who beat up prisoners.

“I’m saying I didn’t even touch any of the detainees,” Beciri said.

Also testifying at today’s hearing, Sefko Hodzic said he stayed in one of the Rogica houses in Jablanica as a journalist. He said he saw detainees at several locations in the area, and only saw detainees being beaten once.  

“I was present when they beat them up. I had just come back from the field, when I saw people covered in blood, lined up. They forced them to kneel down as if they were performing a Muslim prayer. I left the place immediately in order to find Zuka or Nihad so we could save those men. What struck me the most was the fact that I knew some of them. Nihad Bojadzic appeared soon and told the soldiers to stop beating them,” Hodzic said.

A statement given by Sofija Ravlic in November 2001 was read aloud in the courtroom. In her statement, Ravlic said she heard that prisoners named Karlo Maric and Franjo Ramljak were beaten up in the museum in Jablanica.

“I once heard Zuka’s soldiers came and called Karlo Maric to come out into the corridor. After that I heard blows on his body. Later on I heard he was beaten by a soldier known as Deba. Karlo himself confirmed this to me,” Ravlic said.

She said Franko Ramljak was taken out later on and was also beaten.

The trial will continue on November 10.