Week ahead: Visit to former Bugojno detention camps

On June 11 next week the Trial Chamber, sitting in the case of Nisvet Gasal, Musajb Kukavica, Enes Handzic and Senad Dautovic, is due to visit the places mentioned in the indictment against four former members of the Bosnian Army, who are charged with crimes in the detention camps in Bugojno.

The Prosecution alleges that Gasal and Kukavica were responsible for the functioning of the detention camp at “Iskra” football stadium in Bugojno. Enes Handzic and Senad Dautovic are charged with abuse, murder and forcing the detainees to perform hard labour. The Prosecution considers that about 300 Bosnian Croats from Bugojno were held in the detention camp.

On Monday, June 9 the trial is due to continue in the cases against Krsto Savic and Milko Mucibabic, who are charged by the Prosecution with crimes in the Nevesinje, Gacko, Kalinovik and Bileca municipalities, and Zdravko Bozic, Mladen Blagojevic, Zeljko Zaric and Zoran Zivanovic, who are charged with the crimes in Bratunac in July 1995.

The trial of Predrag Kujundzic, known as Predo, is due to continue on all five days next week. Kujundzic is charged, as commander of “Predini vukovi” (“Predo’s Wolves”) Unit, with having participated in the abuse and persecution of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats from Doboj municipality in 1992 and 1993.

The trial of Kujundzic was interrupted in May, because the medical team determined that he had to be hospitalized for a month, in order for them to determine whether he was capable of following the trial. The Trial Chamber asked the medical doctors to provide the Court, by the next hearing, with detailed findings and opinion. The Chamber will decide on the further course of the trial on the basis of these documents.

The trials of Novak Djukic, former officer with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, who is charged with the massacre in Tuzla in May 1995, and Miodrag Nikacevic, former policeman from Foca, who is charged with crimes against humanity in Foca municipality, are due to continue on Tuesday, June 10.

On the same day, June 10, Ratko Bundalo, Nedjo Zeljaja and Djordjislav Askraba are due to appear before the Court, The State Prosecution charges them with having committed crimes against Bosniaks, who were detained in the Miladin Radojevic school building in Kalinovik and “Barutni magacin” (“Gunpowder Depot”) detention camp in the course of 1992 and 1993.

New witnesses of Ivica Vrdoljak’s Defence are due to appear before the Court on June 10 and June 11. The former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with crimes against civilians in Derventa and Bosanski Brod municipalities.

On June 11, June 12 and June 13 next week the Defence will continue presenting its evidence at the trial of Ferid Hodzic, former commander of the Territorial Defence, TD, in Vlasenica. The State Prosecution charges Hodzic with war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war committed in the “Stala” (“Barn”) detention camp in Vlasenica from May 1992 to January 1993.

According to the official timetable of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the trial of the eleven former members of the Special Police and VRS, who are charged with genocide in Srebrenica, is due to continue on the same dates.

Four Prosecution witnesses are due to testify at the trial of Suljo Karajic on Thursday, June 12. The indictment charges Karajic, as former member of the Bosnian Army, with war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war committed “in the wider area of Bihac town.”

On the same day the Appellate Chamber of the State Court is due to continue watching the recorded statements of Defence witnesses at the retrial of Nikola Andrun, who was sentenced, by a first instance verdict, to 13 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed in Gabela detention camp in Capljina. The verdict was revoked in September 2007 and an order was made to conduct a new trial.