Fainting after Being Hit

A State Prosecution witness says, testifying at the trial of indictee Edin Dzeko, that members of the “Zulfikar” Unit of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, used to beat prisoners in “The Battle of Neretva” Museum.

Maksim Kujundzic, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, said that a group of “Zulfikar” Unit members once came to the museum basement premises, where Croat prisoners were held. He said that one of the soldiers, whose name, as he found out later, was Dzeko, hit him so hard that he fainted.
 
He explained that, prior to hitting him, the soldier told him that he had been held in a Serb detention camp, adding that he would not beat him as much as he had been beaten in that detention camp. The witness described the soldier as a tall slim man with slightly long hair.  
 
Also, the witness said that the same soldier hit him again, when he was taken to another location in order to perform labour.
 
Defence attorney Edina Residovic tried to prove that the soldier mentioned by the witness was not indictee Dzeko. She said that, in his statement given to the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina last year, the witness said that the soldier, who had hit him, was rather big and that he had blondish or brown hair.
 
“I weighed 45 kilograms, so everyone seemed big to me,” the witness said.
 
Residovic then said that Dzeko had never been in a detention camp and that his hair was neither blonde nor brown. The Trial Chamber wanted to know how the witness found out that the soldier’s name was Dzeko.
 
“I heard it from those men from Jablanica, who had been brought before me. They knew all of them,” Kujundzic explained.
 
Dzeko, former member of the “Zulfikar” Unit, is charged with crimes against captured civilians and members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, in Jablanica in 1993. Besides that, he is on trial for murders committed in Trusina village, near Konjic, in April 1993.
 
Second witness Ivan Pavlovic, former HVO soldier, spoke about the beating during his detention in Jablanica and, particularly, within the Rogica kuce complex, where, as he said, the “Zulfikar” Unit’s base was located.
 
He said that he was held, together with other prisoners, in a stable near Rogica kuce and that soldiers used to hit them, while they performed some works, like cleaning of the Rogica kuce premises. The witness said that a soldier named Bahtija beat him the most.
 
Pavlovic said that he did not know that any other units were based within the Rogica kuce complex.  
 
Following the examination of the witness, Prosecutor Vesna Ilic read a statement given by Marija Loncar last year. Loncar has since died. In her statement she said that Mirko Zelenika came to her house in the fall of 1993 and that he asked her to give him 5,000 German Marks in order to be released from detention. She allegedly gave him 2,000.
 
Loncar said that Zelenika was accompanied by a soldier, whose name, as she found out later, was Edin Dzeko. The Defence said that, had it been possible to cross-examine the witness, it would ask questions pertaining to her credibility.  
 
The trial is due to continue on May 21, when the last State Prosecution witness will be examined.