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Miroslav Duka, the former Bileca police commander, Goran Vujovic, the former chief of the Bileca public safety station, and Zeljko Ilic, a former police officer, have been charged with war crimes in Bileca.
Vujovic and Duka have been charged with enabling and organizing the detention of Bosniak and Croat civilians in Bileca, where prisoners were killed, tortured and abused. Ilic is charged with having participated in their physical and mental abuse.
State prosecution witness Ramiz Pervan said he was captured in his home in Bileca in June 1992, and was detained in a police station.
“A commander of the Beli Orlovi . We hid and the bullets began to ricochet. Then he took tear gas and threw it into the room. Then, he fired again. Then the choking started. I ran out of the room and a bullet hit me, but it only grazed the skin. I threw myself into a storage room and hid. After a while, I heard Duka and Zeljko Ilic coming, I recognized their voices. Zeljko said, ‘Let’s burn the warehouse.’ Duka didn’t answer. Then the fire bomb was heard as well as the flames, but the cistern quickly extinguished it,” Pervan said.
Dejan Bogdanovic, Duka’s defense attorney, said that during the investigation Pervan had stated that before the shooting he’d heard shouting and saw Duka kick a guard. Bogdanovic asked Pervan why his testimony had changed at the trial. Pervan said the statement he had given during the investigation was correct, but he’d forgotten to mention the details Bogdanovic specified.
The trial continues on July 7.
