Beating in a Bloodstained Cell

Dobrivoje Jovicic and three other men were taken to a school building in Stupari at the beginning of June 1992. He spent the night in the school building together with the other Serb residents from the Kladanj area. Two policemen came to pick him up on that day. He said that they were accompanied by former Commander of the Police Station in Stupari – Safet Mujcinovic.

“Safet Mujcinovic never hit me. Nobody beat me in his presence either,” witness Jovicic said.

The civilians were transferred from the school building to nearby apartments due to their safety and better conditions. “Nine of us stayed at Milka’s apartment. We used to get three kilograms of flour, rice and a ration of oil per person. If somebody had money, he could ask a policeman to buy something for him,” Jovicic said.

He said that they could go in front of the building during the day. On one occasion indictee Zijad Hamzic came in front of the building and asked them to join the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. When they refused to do it, he said that ‘even Serb dogs, let alone Serb people, should be killed’. Jovicic did not know Hamzic, but somebody told him that it was him.

Witness Jovicic said that indictee Nusret Muhic and a Nihad Softic took his neighbour Milos Celic to Kladanj, where he was examined and beaten.

“He told me that Osman Gogic beat him up. That name was written on his name tag. He then described him to me, saying that he was blonde and burly. I confirmed to him that it was Osman,” Jovicic said. 

After that he too was taken by a car driven by Nusret Muhic to the Police Station in Kladanj.

“Ranko Markovic and I were taken on that occasion. Nusret Muhic, Nihad Softic and Kahro Vejzovic, who hit me on my eye with his cap, were present. (…),” the witness recalled.

He told the Court that, immediately after he had been brought to the cell, whose walls were covered with blood, Osman Gogic entered. When the policemen told him to beat me, he said he could not do it, because he knew me and because I was disabled.

According to the witness’ testimony, two masked policemen beat them up in that cell.

“They took me to Nusret Muhic in order to be examined about weapons,” said Jovicic, who said that two 48 mm calibre guns and his son’s automatic gun were found in his house. After that he was beaten up again.

The witness said that, following a friendly conversation during the second examination, Muhic ordered the policemen not to beat him anymore. After that he was taken back to the apartment in Stupari.

The witness said that, one day they were listening to a song titled “Where are you from, sister” on TV in the apartment in Stupari and that indictee Hariz Habibovic, who guarded the building together with other policemen, entered the apartment because of that. According to the witness, he asked them to give him the tape and put a pistol on his son’s nape. After that they took the TV away. 

When giving his statement to the Prosecution during the investigation, Jovicic said that Habibovic put the pistol on his nape. “At that moment I could not remember whether he did that to me or my son,” Jovicic said.

The witness said that the Red Cross registered him in mid-December 1992. From then on the conditions in the apartment improved and they received food more on a more regular basis.

In April 1993 Jovicic was taken to Tuzla, where he was beaten up and sentenced to five years in prison. He was exchanged in July 1993.

Safet Mujcinovic, Selman Busnov, Nusret Muhic, Zijad Hamzic, Ramiz Halilovic, Nedzad Hodzic, Hariz Habibovic, Osman Gogic and Kahro Vejzovic, former members of the Territorial Defence, military and civil police, are charged with crimes committed in the Kladanj area.

The trial is due to continue on September 20.