Rapes and Killings at HVO Camp in Vojno

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 12 completed its presentation against four former members of the Bijelo Polje Battalion of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, Second Brigade.

The Defence teamis due to commence its evidence presentation on March 26.

During the examination of the last witness, who testified under the pseudonym 154, he said that while being held in Vojno detention camp from mid-December 1993 to late January 1994, he saw Dragan Sunjic “shooting from an automatic gun and killing prisoner Enes Nurko”.

He said: “I was two or three meters away. It happened in front of the garage where we were being detained. Sunjic was rather nervous. He took an automatic gun and shot Enes twice in the chest and once in his head.”

Over almost ayear, the Prosecution examined 47 of a planned total of 53 witnesses. Twenty-eight testified under protection and 14 hearings were held without the presence of the public.

In December 2007, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the indictment against Sunjic, Marko Radic, Damir Brekalo and Mirko Vracevic for crimes committed against detainees in Vojno.

The indictment alleges that in June 1993 Radic ordered the capture of all Bosniaks then living in the western part of the divided city of Mostar and their exchange for Croats.

“As most men had already been detained or joined the army, they captured women, children and the elderly,” the indictment alleges.

It says all captives were taken to Vojno, six kilometers from Mostar, and “detained in houses and garages located in the 100-meter radius of the detention camp”. The four indictees pleaded not guilty to murder, rape, beating, detention and forced labour of Bosniaks held in Vojno.

The indictment says conditions in Vojno were “brutal, barbarian and humiliating” and detainees lived “in constant fear for their lives”.

It alleges that 16 of the 76 detainees died in the course of detention and that detainees included people aged from eight months to 80. Some appeared as Prosecution witnesses.

One witness, Dika Curic, described Mario Mihalj as commander of the detention camp and Sunjic as deputy.

“In the detention camp, people used to say that Marko Radic was the chief and I also saw Mirko Vracevic,” Curic said. Most witnesses also mentioned Mihalj, now believed to be dead.

The indictment refers to the sexual maltreatment of women detainees. Most witnesses who testified about this appeared at closed hearings.

Witness AG claimed she was repeatedly raped. “Over the three months of my detention in Vojno, there were only five days when I was not raped,” she said.

“I was raped, among others, by Dragan Sunjic and Damir Brekalo,” AG said in a statement readout in court in her absence.

She was not able to appear in Court as she was suffering from the consequences of what happened to her in the war.

The statement of witness AM, compiled in 2006, was also read out in Court. It said: “Mirko Vracevic entered the room in which women were held and said the woman who had made coffee for the soldiers earlier that day should come with him.”

It continued: “He looked at me and took me to a two-bed room and told me to take my clothes off and lie on the bed. I had to do it, as he was armed. He performed a sexual act.”

Prosecution witness Dragan Galic, himself a former HVO member, also said women were raped in the detention camp.

Witness F, who appeared in the Court, spoke of what she had endured.

“When I entered the room, it was full of soldiers,” she recalled. “One who was bold and had an earring in his left ear took me to another room and ordered me to take my clothes off.”

“When I said I did not want to do it, he tore my shirt off and slapped me. Then I fainted. When I woke, I saw another soldier next to me and I heard him saying: ‘Emir, let me have her… Give her to me, Brekalo.’”

Saja Coric, another witness, said Vracevic raped one girl “more than 40 times” and that minors were sexually abused.

In the course of the Prosecution investigation, it was determined that women were forced to“cook, clean, launder, chop firewood and perform other works” for HVO soldiers while men had to “dig trenches, fortify bunkers, carry ammunition and dead bodies”.

Witnesses said they were physically and mentally maltreated daily. Some said Sunjic and Mihalj tortured them.

“During an examination, Mario wrapped some wires around my arms and turned the electricity on and off,” witness 152 said.

“After I begged them to stop torturing me and to kill me, Mario gave me a gun to shoot myself but I couldn’t do it,” he added.

On the same occasion, he added, Sunjic “pulled back my head back as if he was going to slaughter me”, but another soldier intervened.

Witness Ibrahim Sogulj also spoke of cruel beatings in the camp, saying Sunjic beat him up.

“He hit my head and back with a plank because I did not want to kill [another] prisoner, Hamdija Tabakovic,” Sogulj said.

In December 1993, women, children and the elderly in the camp were exchanged. Radic ordered the return of all male prisoners to the Heliodrom camp in March 1994.

According to witnesses, before being brought to Vojno, the men were first detained in the Heliodrom, at Vitina near Ljubuski, at Dretelj near Capljina and in other detention camps in Herzegovina and central Bosnia.

Huso Merhemic who had attended the identification of the remains of the people killed in Vojno in April 1994 also appeared as a witness.

He had concluded that “some heads were detached from bodies, some skulls were smashed and some jaws were missing”.

The indictment mentions six other former HVO members – Ivek Kolobara, Jure Kordic, Nedzad Coric, Amel Hadziosmanovic, Dario Susac and Nedzad Tinjak – as participants in the crimes in Vojno.

In the course of the trial, one indictee, Damir Brekalo, complained of headaches and received a medical examination.

According to medical reports, Brekalo was shot in his head in April 1995 and underwent surgery for this in Split.

Sunjic and Radic did not appear in court. Last September they joined 25 other detainees in Kula prison in eastern Sarajevo in going on hunger strike.

They took this action claiming the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina applied different laws to different war crime cases.

Both men claimed they were now sick. The health service of Kula prison determined that while they were “conscious and oriented and did not have high temperatures [they] felt pain in their backs and legs”.

Radic, Sunjic and Brekalo were arrested in June, while Vracevic was arrested in December 2006. They were originally subject to separate indictments. These were later joined at the Prosecution’s request.

Aida Alic is BIRN – Justice Report journalist. Justice Report is weekly online BIRN publication. [email protected]