Sanski Most Prisoners Suffocated to Death on Truck, Says Witness at Vrucinic Trial

Mirko Vrucinic, the former chief of the public safety station and member of the crisis committee in Sanski Most, has been charged with participating in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at persecuting the non-Serb population from April to December 1992. The indictment charges Vrucinic with acts of murder, forcible resettlement, unlawful detention and enforced disappearances.

State prosecution witness and former detainee Rufad Zukic testified at today’s hearing. Zukic said he was beaten right up before he and other detainees held in the Betonirka building in Sanski Most were transported to Manjaca.

“I was nailed like Jesus Christ. Crni hit my kidneys and said, ‘Balija, you will urinate blood.’ [Balija is a derogatory term for Bosnian Muslims]. I was hit in the stomach a couple of times. I fell down. After that they poured water over me,” Zukic said. He said he crawled onto the truck.

Zukic said when all of the detainees had gotten into the truck, it was locked from the outside. He said they were unable to lift the awning.

“It was a new awning, so it was sealed well. There was no air,” Zukic said.

Zukic said the truck stopped a few times. He said he heard later on that the truck stopped so that detainees from other detention facilities in Sanski Most could get on the truck.

“There were lots of people, the temperature was high, no water. People asked for water. They asked for air. A man, who used to be a policeman, Mehic, asked for a bit of air…He began shouting Allahu Akbar,” Zukic said. He said he realized that Mehic was dead when they arrived to Manjaca, and that those had been his last words.

Zukic said a Croat man in the truck died standing. He said when he got off the truck, many people were lying on the ground and had foam on their lips.

“At the time I didn’t know they were dead…I found out upon arriving to Manjaca,” Zukic said. He said his two brothers were among the dead.

Zukic said he tried to enter Manjaca, because he heard that those who weren’t admitted would be killed.

State prosecution witness Senad Supuk said he was transported from a school in Sanski Most to Manjaca in June 1992. He said five men, who were on the same truck, went missing.

The trial will continue on December 25.