Witnesses Describe Military Police Tasks in 1992 Srebrenik

Defendants Faruk Smajlovic, Ekrem Ibracevic and Sejdalija Covic have been charged with the unlawful detention and torture of Serb civilians in Rapatnica and Luke from June to August 1992.

According to the charges, Smajlovic was the commander of a military police squad, Ibracevic was the chief of military security with the Territorial Defense municipal headquarters in Srebrenik, while Covic was a military policeman.

Testifying in defense of Faruk Smajlovic, witness Almir Mujkic said he became a member of the military police as of May 1, 1992. He said during his first ten days of service, he was the commander of a group consisting of up to 15 policemen.

“A new commander, Elvedin Cudic, came later on…There were some divisions – the interventions, security and traffic sections,” Mujkic said, emphasizing that the divisions weren’t that strict.

He said he joined the traffic section and that Smajlovic was his commander. Mujkic said his section’s task was to keep watch at checkpoints, which he said Smajlovic visited occasionally.

Mujkic said members of the traffic section were sometimes engaged in interventions and the arrest of individuals, “mostly those who didn’t want to go to the frontline.”

He said members of the section would hand over arrested individuals to a detention unit in the center of Rapatnica.

Testifying in Smajlovic’s defense, witness and former military policeman Sabahudin Dedic said he was initially a member of a section involved in guarding the military command. He said there were also sections for traffic, interventions and the detention unit in Rapatnica.

According to Dedic, Ismet Imsirovic was the commander of the section in charge of the detention unit, Faruk Smajlovic was the commander of the traffic section, while Samir, whose last name he didn’t know, was the commander of the interventions section.

Dedic said he was transferred to the detention unit in 1994, adding that Smajlovic arrived before him.

“At that time it was just a military detention unit for our soldiers. There were no Serbs,” Dedic explained.

The trial will continue on February 9.