Witnesses Describe Arrest and Detention of Bosniaks in Capljina

Defendants Ivica Cutura, Nikola Zovko, Petar Krndelj and Kreso Rajic have been charged with committing 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 with the Croatian Defense Council in Capljina and Cutura was an active policeman.

Prosecution witness Ismet Sabanovic said he was arrested in Pocitelj a few days after having been told he no longer had to come to work. He said the directors of the company he worked for told him that Bosniaks had started being arrested.

Sabanovic said a police minivan came to the village of Pocitelj Brdo. He said Ivica Cutura and Denis Brkic were the drivers.

Sabanovic said he fled to a forest about thirty meters away from his house, because he was afraid they would arrest him. He said he left the forest after his mother told him to do so.

Following a conversation with his parents, he was told the local residents would be taken away to give a statement and that they would be returned. They were taken to the Gabela detention camp, where Sabanovic was held for eight months.

“It took you eight months to give a statement?” judge Minka Kreho asked the witness.

Ivica Cutura’s defense asked if the local residents surrendered voluntarily. Sabanovic said “it turns out that it was the case.”

He said Cutura forcibly put them into the minivan, the vehicle he used to transport Bosniaks to the Gabela detention camp in two round trips. He said it was true that his mother was one of the female village residents who negotiated with Cutura to transfer them from the village to the Gabela detention camp.

“I had an M48 rifle. I handed it over as soon as the minivan arrived. Cutura put it in the minivan and said he wasn’t armed,” Sabanovic said.

Prosecution witness Safet Bjelic said he was arrested in the village of Veledarova Mahala with approximately 15 cousins on July 19, 1993.

He was at home when he noticed police vehicles arriving.

“A minivan parked in front of the house. I didn’t know who those people were. They just told us we would be taken away for an examination and that we would be back. They treated us in a very correct manner. My relatives told me later on that one of the men who had come to the village was Ivica Cutura,” Bjelic said.

Bjelic said they did not offer resistance.

“We could not offer resistance. They came to pick us up and that was it. What else could we do, when authorities came and told us what to do? We had to obey,” Bjelic said.

He was transferred from the village of Krcevine, near Capljina, to the Gabela detention camp. He was then transferred to the Heliodrom detention camp, where he spent five months before being released.

The trial will continue on March 9.