Cutura Transported Civilians to Gabela Detention Camp, Witnesses Say

Ivica Cutura, Nikola Zovko, Petar Krndelj and Kreso Rajic have been charged with crimes in the municipality of Capljina. According to the charges, Zovko was the commander of the police station in Capljina, Krndelj was the assistant commander, Rajic was the commander of the military police squad, and Ivica Cutura was an active police officer.

Under one of the counts, Cutura, Zovko and Krndelj have been charged with the unlawful arrest of civilians in the village of Veledarova Mahala and transporting civilians to the Gabela detention camp.

State prosecution witness Sead Veledar said he was hiding in the woods with a group of local residents from Krcevine, near Pocitelj, in July 1993. He said they fled to the woods after Croatian Defense Council soldiers started arresting Bosniaks and Serbs.

He said a woman used to bring them food at night, and that fifteen days into their stay in the woods, she told them that she had spoken to their neighbour, Ivica Cutura, and proposed that they surrender themselves. Veledar said they agreed to surrender because they believed they would have otherwise been killed.

According to Veledar, on the following day they gathered in the village center. Ivica Cutura arrived in a police van to pick them up. The van made three trips to the Gabela detention camp in order to transport all of them.

“We thought we would be in prison. However, when we arrived, we realized where we were. It would have been better for me if I had been dead. About 600 people were already there. All of them were beaten up,” Veledar said. He spent six months detained in the Gabela detention camp.

Veledar said he believed he and others weren’t beaten up upon their arrival because they knew Cutura.

“Each group was registered at the entrance and then beaten up. I don’t know if he said anything to the guards, but they didn’t beat us when we were taken to the detention camp shacks upon arrival,” Veledar said.

State prosecution witness Asim Veledar also said he was taken to the Gabela detention camp. Responding to questions by Cutura, he said a few of his cousins went to the camp at their own request.

He said while he was hiding in the woods, he was told that his mother and other women from the village asked Cutura to pick them up and take them to the Gabela detention camp.

Cutura’s defense attorney said after his client came to pick them up, he asked them if they wanted to be taken to Dretelj or Gabela.

“When we arrived in Gabela, we realized we were in a detention camp. After they had registered us, Cutura told the soldiers we were his neighbours and asked them to take care of us,” Veledar said.

The trial will continue on February 13.