Civil Police in Charge of Luke Detention Facility, Witnesses Say
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Defendant Sejdalija Covic, a former military policeman, has been charged with unlawful detention and torture of Serb civilians in Luke and Rapatnica from June to August 1992.
He is on trial with co-defendants Ekrem Ibracevic, the former chief of the Military Security with the Municipal Headquarters of the Territorial Defense in Srebrenik, and Faruk Smajlovic, another member of the military police.
Witnesses testifying in defense of Covic said a substation of the Srebrenik police station was located in a building next to a playground in Luke. They said the police were in charge of the detention premises and the military police weren’t active in Luke.
Defense witness Admir Zilic, a former reserve policeman, said civilians who violated public order or committed crimes were held in locker rooms in the facility in Luke. He confirmed that five or six Serbs were arrested in mid-June 1992.
“They were arrested by the civil police. They were held down there. They had water and received the same type of food as us. Our task was to guard those people. They were locked inside. The commander was the only one who had the key,” Zilic said.
Zilic said he didn’t know why they were detained, adding that they weren’t taken out for interrogations. He said nobody came to examine them either.
Zilic and Nail Salkic, a former active policeman in Luke, said they didn’t notice any injuries on the Serb detainees.
“When my shift began, five or six Serb civilians were already there. I saw policeman Rade. He asked me to buy him cigarettes. When I was on duty, I would speak to him through a window,” Salkic said.
He said he heard that the commander of the police substation in Jasenice had brought the group of detainees and handed them over to his commander in Luke.
“Military policemen didn’t come to the station in Luke when I was on duty. I haven’t heard that they came either,” Salkic said.
Both witnesses said they used to see Covic in Srebrenik, dressed in military uniform.
As the chamber has commitments in other cases, the next hearing in this case has been scheduled for March 15, unless an opportunity to hold a hearing arises earlier.
