Witnesses Say Cutura Took Them to Gabela Detention Camp, not Custody Unit

Ivica Cutura, Nikola Zovko, Petar Krndelj and Kreso Raic have been charged with crimes committed in the municipality of Capljina. According to the charges, Zovko was the commander of the police station in Capljina, Krndelj was the assistant commander, Raic was the commander of a military police squad with the Croatian Defense Council in Capljina, while Cutura was an active policeman.

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

Prosecution witnesses Aziz Safro and Nedzad Djonko said they were members of the Croatian Defense Council until January and June 1993, respectively. Both of them found themselves in Veledarova Mahala by chance.

After hiding in the woods near the village, the witnesses said they surrendered to Croatian Defense Council forces when the arrest of Bosniaks and Serbs in the area began. They said they were in a group of about twenty other local residents who had been apprehended. They said two soldiers went to Veledarova Mahala in a blue vehicle to pick them up.

“At the time I didn’t know who the man who came to pick us up was. Later on my cousins, the Veledars, told me it was Ivica Cutura,” Aziz Safro said.

Safro said women from the village told them it was better to surrender than to be found and killed. The witnesses said they realised in a detention camp after they arrived to Gabela, and not a custody unit as Cutura described it.
“There wasn’t protection. I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone, not even my enemies. I was there for 250 days. Had I known where they would take me, I wouldn’t have surrendered. I would have rather been killed,” Safro said.

Djonko said he listened to his three uncles, who were members of the Veledar family, because he was afraid Croatian Defense Council soldiers would kill him. He said he joined his uncles who got on the minivan driven by Cutura to Gabela.

Djonko said he lost 50 kilograms during his four months of detention in the Gabela detention camp. “My father didn’t recognize me when I was exchanged,” he said.

Ivica Cutura’s defense insisted that Bosniaks who hid in the woods surrendered themselves voluntarily and could choose where they wanted to be taken. The defense said the Veledar family made this decision, because they were sure their neighbour, Cutura, would protect them.

During Djonko’s cross-examination, Cutura said he hid a rifle in the minivan to protect the Veledars from any problems. Djonko denied this claim, and said none of the people in the minivan were armed.

The trial will continue on February 17.