Witnesses Describe Prisoner Abuse in Potoci

Enes Curic, Ibrahim Demirovic, Mehmed Kaminic, Samir Kreso and Habib Copelj have been charged with participating in the detention of Croat civilians who were subjected to severe physical and mental mistreatment from June to December 1993.

Demirovic has also been charged with an incident of rape in Potoci.

The indictment also alleges that Kaminic hit a mentally ill person in the stomach in the Potoci school building prison.

Curic was a member of the 49th Mountain Brigade of the Bosnian Army and the manager of a detention facility in a school building and other buildings in Potoci. Demirovic was the commander of the 47th Mountain Brigade of the Bosnian Army. Kreso was the chief of a military medical unit of the Mountain Brigade that covered the area of Bijelo Polje. Copelj and Kaminic were members of the Bosnian Army.

State prosecution witness Dragica Crnjac said she and her family members were abducted from her house in Potoci in the municipality of Mostar, on June 30, 1993, and were taken to the village of Meke. A few days later she was transferred to the prison located in the Potoci school building.

“Enes Curic was the manager of that prison. We brought a stove from my house. He told me to cook. People were taken away in order to perform forced labour. It was called a work squad. The conditions were bad. We asked Curic to let us go home to bring some things, but he didn’t let us go because of the shooting,” she said.

Crnjac said a person named Hecim used to come to the school building and throw a ball at the prisoners.

“He was just provoking us. That was worse than killing us. He laughed because we were scared. According to rumours, the man was Hecim Demirovic,” Crnjac said.

Responding to questions by Kaminic’s defense attorney, Crnjac said she didn’t witness prisoner Marko Zovko’s beating, but saw him lying on the floor afterwards. She said she heard later on that Kaminic had beaten him.

The next hearing will be held on July 1.