Radic et al: Sadistic Cruelty

The retrial of Marko Radic, Dragan Sunjic, Damir Brekalo and Mirko Vracevic continued with the examination of witness AB, who told the Court he was brutally beaten and tortured at the Vojno detention camp in September 1993.

The witness explained he was beaten while digging trenches, after having seen indictee Radic and two other HVO members “inspecting the trenches”.

“On that occasion a Croat soldier was killed. They ordered us, the workers, to take away his body. They kept saying to us: ‘You will be punished’. Upon our return to Vojno, they took five of us into a garage. Two soldiers followed us. They hit us on our heads and backs with sticks. They cut me with a knife on my stomach and chest. They extinguished cigarettes on my body. They carved a letter on my back,” witness AB recalled, testifying, via video link, from a district court at the Hague.

The witness said they “slaughtered” two detainees “with knives” in the garage on that day. He fled from the camp on the same day by jumping from a garage window. He ran to the positions held by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Radic, former Commander of the Second HVO Brigade, Sunjic, Deputy Commander of Vojno detention camp, Damir Brekalo and Mirko Vracevic are charged with participation in the mistreatment, abuse, murder and rape of detainees in Vojno detention camp, as well as forcing them to perform hard labour.

By a first instance verdict pronounced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina the four indictees were sentenced to a total of 80 years in prison. After having considered the appeals, the Appellate Chamber accepted the appeals filed by the Defence teams, revoked the verdict and ordered a retrial, which began in July 2010.

Among other things, the indictment alleges that, following the murder of an HVO member in September 1993, witness AB and other detainees were ordered to take the body away. They carried out the order. It further alleges that, a short time later Brekalo and a Mario Mihalj beat the detainees.

Witness AB said that, prior to being brought to Vojno, he was detained in the “Heliodrom collection center”, where he was brought after having been arrested, as a member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Mostar in May 1993. According to his testimony, at the beginning of September 1993 he was transferred, together with about 50 other prisoners, to a private garage in Vojno.

“Upon our arrival, they ordered us to line up. Each prisoner had to give his name. They would occasionally hit some of us. Mario Mihalj introduced himself, saying he was the detention camp Manager. Dragan said he was his Deputy. We spent the night in a garage, but we could not sleep. We could not lie down, so we just squatted,” the witness said.

AB said he spent “less than seven days” in the garage, adding he was forced to dig trenches on the frontlines and he was beaten up two times.

“Each night, when we returned from work, they would call our names out. Mihalj would call out the people whom he wanted to beat. My name was called out once. They beat me up behind the garage. They forced me and another detainee to fight each other. This was sadistic cruelty,” the protected witness said.

The next hearing is due to take place on September 27, 2010.

D.Dž.