Shooting at Detainees from Windows

Vulic, former member of military police with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, in Capljina, is charged with having shot at three Bosniak detainees from a window of Dretelj detention camp hangar and killed them on July 14, 1993.

The Prosecution witnesses said that they did not see who shot at those people, but they said that Hasan, Omer and Izet Duvnjak were wounded.

“I was sitting when I heard a gunshot. I saw smoke from the hangar window. It seemed to me that only one bullet was fired. I heard cries. Somebody shouted that some people were killed. A guard then entered the room and said that they should be carried out. I only saw them carrying Hasan Duvnjak out. A bullet had penetrated through his chest,” Mustafa Gorancic said.

Witness Mujo Miljanovic said that the wounding happened one day after he had been brought to Dretelj on July 13, 1993.

“I was in the same hangar with Hasan, Omer and Izet. They were three or four metres away from me. I did not see the man, who shot them, but he broke the window glass with his rifle and shouted: ‘Where are you, Baliyas’ [derogatory term for Muslims].

Everybody lay down, when the first bullet was fired. There was shooting inside the room. When it calmed down, we heard cries. At that moment I saw one of the Duvnjak guys holding his head, while another one was keeping his hands on his stomach. I carried one of them outside the hangar. He was still alive at that moment,” Miljanovic said.

Ahmet Ljubovic said that he heard from other detainees that three members of Duvnjak family were wounded. He was not present at that moment, because he was invited to come to a garage in order to help some injured men.

“As men were beaten up, a guard would call all medical staff to come to the garage in order to offer assistance to the injured men. We used newspapers in order to stop the pouring of blood, as we did not have any medical materials available,” Ljubovic said.

Fatima Zecic, sister of victim Izet Duvnjak, said that her father informed her that her brother was arrested in their family house and taken away.

“After having left the detention camp, some people said that he was killed, while the other said that he was wounded, so we did not know what exactly happened to him. Later on they invited us to come to Sutina in order to identify the body. I do not know when exactly it happened,” Zecic said.

The trial is due to continue on September 24.