Paramilitary Forces Arrested Bosniak Men, Says Former Trebinje Police Chief

Krsto Savic, the former chief of the safety services center in Trebinje, testified at the request of Duka’s defense.

Savic was previously sentenced to 17 years in prison for crimes against humanity, specifically the persecution of the Bosniak and Croat population from the Nevesinje, Bileca, Gacko and Kalinovik area.

Savic said a colleague informed him that paramilitary soldiers had arrested and brought a number of Bosniak men to the police station in Bileca.

“He said they had a confrontation with deputy commander Milosevic.

We could not detain those people in the police station. The same people took all of them away to the military barracks, where they should have taken them in the first place. The police surely didn’t participate in bringing or taking those men away,” Savic said.

Savic said a colleague informed him that fire was opened at the police station and deputy commander Milosevic when the men were apprehended.

“Active policemen only guarded the station from those men who appeared. They tried to take some statements just to calm down the situation,” Savic said.

Savic said he thought that statements on illegal arms possession were taken from some of the arrested men.

According to Savic, the men remained in detention between three to five months.

“Our task was to guard those isolated draft-eligible persons and prevent paramilitary forces from harming them, from killing them” Savic said.

He said he was informed about an attack by paramilitary forces on the student dormitory in Bileca, a detention site, in which a smoke bomb was thrown into the building.

Savic said the police had no authority over paramilitary forces and could not control them.

He said defendant Goran Vujovic informed him that one of the detainees died due to a heart disease.

Savic said he knew that Duka was on the Mostar battlefield, where the Bileca police was as also located. He said seven or eight policemen were present in Bileca.

Miroslav Duka, Goran Vujovic and Zeljko Ilic have been charged with crimes in Bileca. The state prosecution has charged them with abusing Bosniak and Croat civilians in Bileca in 1992.

According to the charges, Vujovic was the chief of the public safety station in Bileca, Duka was the commander of the station and Ilic was a policeman.

The trial will continue on March 21.