Local Justice – Dautovic: Beatings and Sunstroke

Witness Hazim Grosic, former detainee in Drmaljevo detention camp, said that they drove Erdic to hospital.
“We came back later on. As our shift was ending, we no longer worked in Stari grad, but we went back to Drmaljevo with the others. On the following day we were informed that Rasim died,” the witness said.

The Una-Sana Cantonal Prosecution charges Dautovic with having apprehended 12 civilians to the Dispensary in Velika Kladusa on June 18, 1994. The civilians were allegedly subjected to brutal physical abuse. He is charged with having taken 15 prisoners from Drmaljevo detention camp in August 1994. One of them, Rasim Erdic, died due to the abuse.

According to the charges, Dautovic was Commander of the Unit for Guarding of Buildings with the Ministry of Defence and Military Police of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region, WBAR at that time.

Witness Enver Hrncic, former member of the Unit for Guarding of Buildings and Persons of the WBAR, said that he performed most of the tasks and activities, which were assigned to their unit, together with the indictee.

He said that Dautovic never performed any command function in that unit and that they were not tasked with guarding detention camps and prisons.

As far as he knows, detained civilians, most of whom were prominent intellectuals from Velika Kladusa, were taken from Drmaljevo to the Dispensary in order to isolate them from other detainees, who, as he heard, were preparing a riot.

“I knew some of the detainees, because most of them were from Kladusa. I recognised Husidic, Dzanic, Delic, who were beaten up. They had visible injuries on their bodies. My colleagues told me that Sead Miljkovic had beaten them and bragged about it. Some people said that Sakib Dautovic abused detainees too, but I personally never saw him doing it,” Hrncic said.

Speaking about the happenings that took place in Stari grad, where Rasim Erdic was killed, witness Hrncic said that, after having come to work, he heard that an unconscious man was lying on the side of the road.

“We asked for a vehicle to come and drive him to the emergency clinic. When I came to work, Sakib was already there. He was about 15 metres away. However, I do not know what had happened before I came to work. I tried to offer first aid to the unconscious man,” Hrncic said.

Witness Sulejman Husidic, former member of the Unit for Guarding of Buildings, said that the indictee never performed any command function or led a group.

Describing the events in Stari grad, witness Mehmed Kostic said that his superior Zlatan Sabanagic called him in order to drive a civilian, who became sick, to hospital.

“When I came, Hazim Grosic and Salih Hodzic brought the man and loaded him into the car. I told them to come with me in order to help me. The emergency clinic staff took him over. Some time later Sabanagic called me again, telling me to go back to the base. I asked the doctor if we could go. He told me that the man had sunstroke and that he had to stay at the hospital,” the witness said.

Sakib Dautovic was arrested in Norway in April 2007. After having spent four years in an extradition detention unit, he was extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina judicial authorities in November 2011.

The trial is due to continue on Wednesday, April 25, 2012.Dž.D.