Klickovic et al: Smoked ribs

Mirsad Palic, who was examined by the State Prosecution at the trial for crimes in Bosanska Krupa, recalled what happened in April ad May 1992, when he was detained, mistreated and forced to perform hard labour in this municipality.

The Prosecution charges Gojko Klickovic, Jovan Ostojic and Mladen Drljaca with the crimes committed in the Bosanska Krupa area in the course of 1991 and 1992.

Palic told the Court that, on April 22, 1992 some soldiers came to his house, looking for weapons and the radio station. Since they did not find anything, they tied him and took him to the school building in Jasenica, telling him that he “would have to appear before the court”.

“The following day they took me to the museum. On my way to the museum I had to go between two rows of women, children and soldiers, who provoked and insulted me. Somebody even hit me. At the entrance Dusko Zmijanjac showed me a metal stick, informing me that they had found it in my house,” the witness said, adding that he found out, later on, that the stick and some other objects were taken from the museum in order to be used “in case they did not find anything in someone’s house”.

The indictment alleges that an interim court martial was formed in Jasenica. It is further alleged that prisoners were tried before the court, while Mladen Drljaca was a presiding judge.

“A gentleman, who introduced himself as Mladen Drljaca, was in the museum. He said: ‘You are now before the court martial in Bosanska Krupa’. He examined me. His approach was fine and he did not provoke me too much. At the end of the examination he dictated a report to the typist. The report was OK to me,” Palic said, but he could not remember having signed the report.

According to this witness, during the course of his detention in the school building in Jasenica, members of “Suha rebra” (“Smoked Ribs”) paramilitary group “massacred” detainees by stabbing them with a knife.

“I personally suffered those frights. They stroke into the room and started examining us. I was terrified and out of wit. They ordered us to sit on the tiles and they started stabbing us with knives. There was a pool of blood around us,” the witness said.

Palic said that they released him after that, adding that he was captured again in Bravsko village, near Kljuc, on May 5, 1992. He was taken to “Petar Kocic” school building in Bosanska Krupa.

“I was brought there on the 5^th, and I was exchanged on May 22, 1992. They tortured me even more than the first time. Guards would let local residents come there and do whatever they wanted to do. We were taken out to perform forced labour every day. They took us to clean Krupa,” Palic recalled.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers the three men responsible, among other things, for keeping a group of Bosniaks detained in the “Petar Kocic” school in the course of 1992. The detainees were allegedly forced to perform hard work, beaten up, examined and a few of them were even killed.

The trial is due to continue on September 23, when the Prosecution will examine two witnesses.