Military Police Took Over Rape Investigation

Testifying at the trial of Nihad Bojadzic, who is charged with crimes in Jablanica, a State Prosecution witness says that he initiated an investigation into the rape of two Croat female detainees in “The Battle of Neretva” museum in the summer of 1993.

Zenaid Djelmo was Chief of the Section for Detecting Crimes with the Fourth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Jablanica. He said that, as soon as he found out about the rape, he opened an investigation.  

According to the witness’ testimony, the detainees did not know who had raped them, but they described them. The witness said that they described one of the men as rather large and blonde and the other one as shorter and black-haired, adding that both men had a Serbian accent.

“One of them was between 35 and 38 years old. The other one was a girl, aged 15 or 16. She was rather quiet. I think that she was traumatised,” the witness said.

Djelmo told the Court that he intended to examine the museum guards who were on duty when the detainees were taken away, but he managed to examine only one of them.

“His statement did not contribute to identification of the perpetrators,” the witness said.  

As he said, Selman Podzic, Chief of the Security Body with the Fourth Corps, insisted on the witness “handing over the case” to him.  

“He said that the perpetrators were officers of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that military police of the Fourth Corps would take over the investigation,” the witness said, adding that he objected to this request.

However, the witness said that, after being told by Podzic that he could take over the investigation by force, he handed the case over and made an official note about it.

When asked by Prosecutor Vesna Budimir whether the description of the perpetrators reminded him of anybody, Djelmo said that it reminded him of indictee Nihad Bojadzic, former Deputy Commander of “Zulfikar” Squad with the Supreme Command of ABiH, who carried a Sandzak region accent.

“The description of the person reminded me of Nihad Bojadzic. This was a conversation between us within the scope of our service. Nobody mentioned the other person,” he said.

Responding to Defence’s questions, the witness explained that his Sector did that by comparing the description of a large blonde person with descriptions of people known to him. He said that they did not have reliable data about Bojadzic.

According to the State Prosecution’s charges, Bojadzic raped one female detainee, while another man raped the other detainee.

The witness agreed with Defence attorney Vasvija Vidovic, who said that other members of units based in Jablanica carried the Sandzak region accent as well and that some of them could be described in the same way as the indictee. Also, he agreed that policeman Azem Ibrovic had originallycome from Sandzak and that he was large and blonde.  

Djelmo said that, after the war Podzic knew that he would give a statement to Hague investigators and asked him to say that he had handed the rape case over to his driver, who was killed, alluding that the case had disappeared.  

The trial of Bojadzic, who is also charged with other crimes committed in Jablanica, is due to continue on August 22.