Local Justice – Hamzic: Filling People with Terror

Witness Luka Patkovic said that he was taken, along with about 30 other local residents of Cardak, to the Yugoslav National Army, JNA Centre in Derventa on April 26, 1992. As he said, the witness was transferred to a military hangar in Rabic detention camp, near Derventa on the following day.“I saw him for the first time in Rabic detention camp. Fric filled people with terror. He used to beat me with his fists, legs and stick. He would line us up and force us to salute him with ‘For homeland – ready!’,” Patkovic said.The witness said that the indictee also beat him in Polje detention camp, near Derventa and Tulek detention camp, which was located in the “Beograd” department store in Bosanski Brod.Indictee Hamzic asked the witness if he was a member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS in 1992, but he said he was not. When asked whether Mustafa Tabakovic, former guard in Rabic, who has since died, used to help detainees flee, the witness said that it was not known to him.Hamzic, former Commander of Guards in Rabic and Polje detention camps in the Derventa area and Tulek detention camp in Bosanski Brod, is charged with having physically and mentally abused detained civilians.

The indictment alleges that, in July 1992 Hamzic called out 35 detainees from Rabic detention camp. The detainees were then allegedly transported by bus to the frontlines and several locations, where they were forced to dig trenches, while a group of 15 detainees was transported to Tomasovo brdo, Derventa municipality, where some of them were killed. Witness Momir Lazic said that he saw the indictee in Rabic detention camp for the first time, when he lined about thirty detainees and ordered them to put JNA uniforms on, so they would look like members of the Yugoslav Army.Lazic said that he was transferred from Rabic to Polje detention camp, where detainees were mistreated in one of the rooms.“Fric forced me to kneel, bow down and kiss. While I was bowing down, they beat me. They lifted my shirt up. I could feel that they were burning my back. I did not see how burnt me and with what. I lost conscience. A soldier woke me up by pouring a bucket of water over me,” Lazic recalled.Mirko Saran said that he was captured in the Dispensary on April 27, 1992 and transferred to the JNA Centre in Derventa, where he was “seriously beaten up” between May 5 and 6.After that he was transferred to Rabic, where he used to see the indictee, but he said that he did not beat him. Saran said that other guards treated the indictee as their superior officer.“Hamzic used to bring other people to the detention camp, who then beat detainees up. On that basis of that I got an impression that he was commander of guards,” the witness said, adding that detainees from Cardak were held in one part of the hangar, while others were held in another part.Radojica Garic told the Court that members of the Rijeka Brigade of the Croatian Army, who came by two buses, occupied Cardak village on April 26, 1992. Garic said that about 30 civilians were captured, while about 20 were killed that day.Witness Garic said that he was among the captives, who were first taken to the JNA Centre and then to Rabic.“I saw the indictee in Rabic. He was a manager of the prison. He called my name out and took me, along with others, to another location in order to dig trenches. He hit me with his fists and legs,” Garic said, adding that Hamzic beat him in Tulek detention camp too.Garic confirmed that he was a member of military forces in Cardak and that he had weapons.“We belonged to the military barracks in Derventa. We were disarmed after having surrendered on April 26, 1992,” the witness explained. The trial is due to continue on October 10.