Gasal et al: Protective Custody

Zahid Jusic, who appeared as a Prosecution witness at the trial for crimes committed against Bosnian Croats from Bugojno, said that in July 1993 during the conflict between the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, Senad Dautovic was Chief of Police, adding that he “used to see a certain number of detained Croats, who were held in the police station basement”.

“I recognized some of those people, like my colleague, policeman Ivica Viskovic. Those people were captured and moved from the streets, as someone could have attacked them. There were always some drunk or crazy people, who attacked someone out of revenge. I remember wondering if this was the right thing to do, but I came to the conclusion that those men were safer if held there,” Jusic said.

Besides Dautovic, the Prosecution charges Nisvet Gasal, Musajb Kukavica and Enes Handzic with crimes committed against Bosnian Croats detained in garages and detention camps in Bugojno.

Dautovic and Handzic, former members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina are charged with planning and participating in the capture of civilians in Bujojno, while Gasal and Kukavica are charged with responsibility for detainees held in “Iskra” detention camp.

Jusic estimated that “about 15 people” were detained in the police station, adding that he never saw any injured people among them. He said he did not know whether some detainees were taken to the clinic.

He said that a month after the end of the conflict in Bugojno he was appointed “as receptionist at the police station”, where some people, whom the witness said he “thinks, were Croats”, had to report every day.

“I do not know who those people were. Upon my return from the field, I was tasked with performing a receptionist job. When I got there the lists had already been made. However, this was not mandatory. I do not think that a policeman would go there to apprehend a person if he failed to report to the station,” he said.

The second Prosecution witness, Nijaz Habib, a former policeman from Donji Vakuf, told the Court that about 100 active and reserve policemen fled Vakuf at the beginning of the war and came to Bugojno, where they joined “the Territorial Defence first, prior to joining the police, commanded by Dautovic”.

“The conflict in Bugojno began in July 1993. I happened to be in the Unit Staff, located in the gymnasium building. Some soldiers and adult men, who had surrendered to the police and handed over their weapons, were detained in the basement, but I never went there, so I do not know how many of them there were,” Habib said.

Habib said that on the first day of the conflict “five or six soldiers” were brought to the gymnasium building. He personally examined them and made notes, prior to sending them to “the detention unit”. The witness said that he did not know how long these people were held in the gymnasium.

The next hearing is due to take place on April 8, 2009.