Gazdic: Saved from Death

Gazdic said that he was member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS in Foca in August 1992, but he never raped or mistreated detained Bosniak women, whom other members of the VRS took from Partizan hall to the apartment in which he lived.

As he said, the apartment belonged to a Jure, who brought female detainees from Partizan at night on several occasions.

“I stayed in the apartment when I was not on frontlines, so I do not know what happened in the apartment. I remember that Jure came to the apartment one night with a couple of soldiers and four women, including a minor girl. Although I am charged with having raped her, nobody even touched that child. I prevented her from jumping through the window that night,” Gazdic explained.

As he said, the girl ran into the room, where he was sleeping alone that night. She began climbing on the window. “’Dear child, what are you doing?’, I asked her jumping out of my bed and grabbing her at the last minute. She did not say anything. She was shivering,” the indictee said, adding that the girl spent the night in his room, but she did not sleep in the same bed with him. He said that she was taken back to “Partizan” on the following day.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Gazdic with having raped several Bosniak women, who were held in Partizan sports hall in Foca, from the beginning of April 1992 to the end of March 1993.

The indictment alleges that Gazdic used to come to apartments and the “Partizan” sports hall, where civilians were detained, and took female persons, including minor girls, away on several occasions.

As he continued testifying, Gazdic explained that Jure agreed with the young girl’s mother to go to her village together in order to get some buried gold and that, in his opinion, Jure and the woman had an “intimate” relation.

“I know that the two of them left Foca a month after the event. Actually, it happened after she had gone to pick up the gold with Jure. I never saw them again until this trial,” Gazdic said.

Gazdic said that he thought the indictment was “untrue”, adding that he had nothing to do with any torture or rape case charged upon him. He said that it was not easy for him to live in Foca during the war, because many people thought that he worked for “the Muslim army”.

State Prosecutor Behaija Krnjic said that he had no questions for Gazdic. “What we have heard today could almost be considered as direct examination. I object, because the examination was managed by the attorney. Each question contained the answer. For this reason, I do not have any questions,” Krnjic explained.

The next hearing is due to be held on May 23 this year, when the Defence will examine two witnesses.

D.E.