Dolic: Defence Questions Witness Statement

At the trial for crimes committed in the Prozor area, Darko Dolic’s Defence says it doubts the veracity of a statement given by protected witness S1, who claims to have been raped by the indictee.

Testifying for the Defence of Darko Dolic, who is charged with crimes committed in Prozor, protected witness S1 said she was given the name of the person who had raped her in August 1993 during the course of her examination by the State Prosecution. 
 
“I learnt the name of the person who had raped me during the course of my examination at the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to the examination, I just knew his nickname was ‘Dole’. After having raped me, he asked me who my brother was. When I answered his question, he said they were school classmates,” witness S1 said, testifying from a separate cabin with her voice and face altered.
 
Witness S1 testified for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the hearing held on March 19 this year. The Defence presented the birth certificate for S1’s brother as evidence, explaining he was not the indictee’s classmate.
 
“I doubt that the witness is telling the truth. I do not consider her suitable for an impartial trial,” Defence attorney Zlatko Milavic said.
 
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Darko Dolic, a former member of the “Hawks” Reconnaissance Squad with “Rama” Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, with having raped a woman while threatening to kill her in Druzinovici village, Prozor municipality, in late July or early August 1993.
 
In addition, he is charged with the rape of two Bosniaks in the same village committed at the beginning of August 1993, as well as mistreatment and physical abuse of civilians.
 
Second Defence witness Vlado Barisic, former member of the “Hawks” Squad with the HVO, said that members of the Squad were deployed to Crni Vrh locality, Prozor municipality, at the beginning of August 1993, adding that none of them left the locality at the time.
 
“At the beginning of August we searched the area, because a Squad member had gone missing. We would come back to the base in late evening, take food in the morning, and continue the search. We could not go anywhere else because we had our duties in the field or the base for the entire day,” Barisic said, adding he was member of the civilian police forces in July 1993.

Barisic told the Court the indictee was a member of an intervention group of the “Hawks” Squad, whose members were the first to go to battles. 
 
The witness said that Squad members could not leave their posts during the course of September except to go home to take a bath or fetch clean clothes.

“We were visited by the Battalion Commander and our close relatives. (…) I met Mario Dolic later on, but he did not visit our base on Makljen,” Barisic said.
 
The trial is due to continue on October 14.

E.M.