Bosnian Croat Officers Accused of Violent Interrogations

Witness Mehmed Dizdar told the trial of former Bosnian Croat soldiers Marinko Maric and Zeljko Rodin at the county court in the Croatian city of Split on Friday that he believed the defendants used violence while interrogating detainees during the Bosnian war in 1993.

Maric and Rodin are former members of the Bosnian Croat armed forces, the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, serving in the Knez (Duke) Domagoj unit. They also worked as agents of the Croatian Security-Information Service, SIS, in the HVO-run Gabela, Silos and Dretelj prison camps in the western Herzegovina area of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

They are accused of the physical and mental abuse and humiliation of Bosniak civilians and prisoners of war in the camps in 1993. As a consequence of the beatings they allegedly inflicted, one camp inmate died.

Dizdar, 72, from the Bosnian town of Stolac, was captured by the HVO as a soldier of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 1993, during the conflict between Croats and Bosniaks.

He was first confined to military barracks, where he was beaten by other HVO soldiers, after which he was transferred to the Gabela camp in June 1993.

Presiding judge Vladimir Zivaljic read out his testimony given to the Bosnian authorities in June 2014, which Dizdar confirmed that he still endorses.

In the testimony, Dizdar explained how Marinko Maric came into the cell he occupied with other prisoners, “cocked his pistol, and pulled the trigger with the pistol directed at the head of [inmate] Huso Maric”.

“The pistol was empty, and Huso Maric fell on the ground,” he said.

Dizdar also recalled that while he was in the Silos prison camp, Maric and Rodin came and took detainees’ watches and belongings, saying that “time has stopped for you”.

He further recalled seeing Maric and Rodin taking another inmate, Alaudin Veledar, for interrogations.

Although Dizdar did not personally see Maric and Rodin beating Veledar, he heard screams and saw Veledar coming back to the cell holding his crotch, where they allegedly hit him.

Once when he passed their interrogation room, Dizdar said he saw that it had traces of blood inside.

In his testimony, Dizdar recalled how a Croat civilian once interrogated him at Gabela and threatened to give him to Maric and Rodin for interrogation, warning that he “knows how they interrogate”, implying violent methods.

Asked by the defence on Friday if Maric ever did any harm to him, Dizdar said he did not.

When Maric asked Dizdar in court if he ever heard that he helped some Bosniak families get out of prison camps, Dizdar said he “never heard that”.

“I am sorry Marinko, but I really haven’t heard that you helped anyone; I believe you have,” Dizdar told Maric as he left the courtroom.

Judge Zivaljic informed the court that Elma Sabanovic, daughter of Enver Sabanovic, listed in the indictment as the prisoner who was killed, has filed for compensation over the death of her father, asking for 53,000 euros.

Hamza Zujo, a doctor of forensic medicine from Sarajevo who performed the autopsy on Sabanovic’s body, told the court meanwhile that he could not find any injuries that could point to cause of death.

He emphasised that he only found post-mortem damage to the skeleton, which may have come from its exhumation.

When asked by the judge if death could have come from drowning – implying waterboarding methods of torture – Zujo replied that he “can’t rule that possibility out”.

The trial will continue on May 30.