Pustivuk: Ethical and Professional Policeman

“On that day Pustivuk was invited to someone to come to that place. He was afraid for his family, who lived with him in Bioca. As far as I know, on his arrival he saw a group of between 15 and 20 soldiers and two children, who were wounded. Srpko took the children to the Dispensary in Ilijas,” the protected witness said.

The protected Defence witness, who testified under the pseudonym of O2, was Chief of the Public Safety Station in Ilijas. He said that police was not informed about the details about that event.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Pustivuk, former member of the Public Safety Station in Ilijas, with having participated, in collaboration with other members of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina Army and police, in an attack against civilians in Gornja Bioca village on or about May 29, 1992. The indictment alleges that two civilians were killed and three, including two minors, severely wounded in that
attack.

Besides that, Pustivuk, former special policeman with the Public Safety Station in Ilijas, is charged with having participated in the unlawful detention of Bosniak civilians, who were then taken to other detention camps and detention centres, during the course of May and June 1992.

When asked by Trial Chamber member Zoran Bozic if police conducted a crime scene inspection following the murders and wounding, witness O2 said that it “seems to me” that it did not happen.

Speaking about the detention of Bosniaks from Gornja Bioca village in the local school, the witness said that he “heard that the residents wanted to be accommodated in those premises for their own safety”, adding that police neither guarded nor examined them.

Witness O2 said that he had known indictee Pustivuk, his “distant relative”, for a long time, adding that he was “an ethical, disciplined and professional policeman”.

Witness O1 was examined at this hearing too, but the public was excluded from that part of the hearing.

The trial is due to continue on October 11, 2011, when the indictee and last Defence witnesses will be examined.

J.Đ.