Dronjak: Beaten to Death

“One of them used to take me out every day and every night and beat me and smashed me for as long as he wanted. He would take me out to the snow and hit me with a police baton.

“I had to keep my hands behind my back and my head down. He would beat me until I fell down into the snow,” said Halkic, a former member of the Fifth Corps with the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, adding that all other prisoners were “treated” in the same way.

The witness said that members of the Republika Srpska Army captured him in September 1994. After having been detained in Bosanski Novi, he was transferred to the Kamenica detention camp in Drvar in January 1995.

The State Prosecution charges Ratko Dronjak, former Commander or Manager of the Kamenica detention camp and prison in the Slavko Rodic school building in Drvar, with having tortured, killed, beaten, mistreated, humiliated and committed other inhumane acts against civilians and prisoners of war from 1992 to 1995.

Halkic said he was detained in a room with about 40 other prisoners, adding he spent a night sleeping next to one of the prisoners and found out, on the following morning, that he was dead.

“One of the guards came in the morning and hit him on his stomach a few times. He was dead. They wrapped him in a blanket and carried him out,” Halkic said. Responding to a question posed by Trial Chamber Chairwoman Minka Kreho, he said the man’s name was Remzo Muminovic and other prisoners told him that he had been beaten to death.

He said that prisoner Fikret Begic did not survive the detention in the camp.

“He was wounded on both legs, but they beat him up as if he was not. One night two prisoners carried him out. We heard a muffled gunshot… A guard came back and took the two men out. They never came back,” Halkic said.

Commenting on the conditions in the Kamenica detention camp, where he stayed until March 1995, the witness said they were “absolutely awful”.

When asked by the Defence if he knew indictee Dronjak, the witness said he heard about him when he was exchanged.

Another Prosecution witness also testified at this hearing, but his examination was closed to the public.

                                          A.J.