Witnesses at Puljic Trial Describe Forced Labour and Injury of Prisoners on Santiceva Street

Mile Puljic, the former commander of the Second Battalion of the Second Brigade of the Croatian Defense Council, has been charged with allowing his subordinates to take detainees held in the Heliodrom detention camp to locations where they performed forced labour and were used as human shields.

The state prosecution has accused Puljic of participating in a joint criminal enterprise which lead to enforced disappearances, detention, forced labour and the use of human shields from May 1993 to March 1994.

The witnesses, who testified under protection measures, said they were arrested after the breakout of conflict between the Croatian Defense Council and the Bosnian Army in June 1993. They said they were taken to the Heliodrom detention camp after their arrest.

“I was taken to several locations, but most often to Santiceva Street, to perform forced labour almost every day. They would come to Heliodrom each morning and take as many men as they needed for work,” a protected witness known as S-15 said.

S-15 said he was wounded on August 27, 1993, when approximately 100 detainees were taken to Santiceva Street.

“We were tasked with breaking through a wall in a garage. The HVO [Croatian Defense Council] was one one side and the Bosnian Army on the other. There were ten of us detainees and three soldiers. The army told us to run away, because they were going to blow the whole building up. We didn’t dare do that. After that they threw something onto the garage,” S-15 said.

S-15 said he became temporarily blind due to the explosion. His pleura burst and he got a severe brain concussion. After having receiving medical aid, he was sent back to the detention camp and was forced to work again.

S-15 said they were brought to that location by the Second Battalion of the Croatian Defense Council on that day. He said he volunteered to go to Santiceva Street so he could see his family.

“After having seen their vehicle, we knew which battalion had come to pick us up and where we would go,” S-15 said.

A protected state prosecution witness known as S-14 said he was wounded on August 23, 1993 when he was forced to evacuate a food distribution vehicle from a retirement home’s yard.

“An expanding bullet hit the windshield. A doctor told me I almost lost my eye. I also had surface wounds on my arm and chest,” S-14 said.

A protected state prosecution witness known as S-12 said he was the first person to be wounded on Santiceva Street on August 13, 1993. He said he heard a total of 18 people were injured that day.

“A bullet passed through my lungs. One third of my lungs was taken out. My disability rate is 60%,” he said.

A protected witness known S-13 was also wounded on the same day. He was carrying bags filled with sand, to allow the Croatian Defense Council to move its positions.