Dretelj Prisoners Forced to Lick the Dog

Ilija Domazet, who gave his statement to the prosecution on March 13, 2007, stated that he was taken from his apartment in Mostar in August 1992 and taken to the military infirmary, after which he was transferred to Dretelj.

As stated in his statement read at the hearing, all prisoners in the military infirmary were questioned by Ivan Zelenika, who afterwards hit them with a rubber baton.

“When it was my turn, he immediately ordered me to take my clothes off and then started hitting me. When he got tired, he called his men who resumed beating us,” said in his statement Ilija Domazet.

Domazet told the Prosecution that the next day he was taken to Dretelj, where he stayed for two weeks. He said that in the camp all the prisoners were beaten every day, emphasising that the members of the Croatian Defence Forces beat them every day and night.

“I entered Dretelj as a healthy man weighing 98 kilos, with black hair and in good health. In two days my hair went grey”, said Domazet, explaining that he lost over 30 kilos, and his health was never good again after that.

He said that prisoners in Dretelj lived in very bad conditions, and that beside everyday beatings, they forced prisoners to swallow a lit cigarette, to produce animal sounds and mow the grass.

“But nothing was as bad as the beatings. They beat you until you were exhausted. Day and night. They either took you out of the hangar and beat you individually, or several of them rushed into the crowd and prisoners and then a massacre ensued,” explained Domazet.

In his statement, Domazet specified that he knew none of the guards, except knowing that Dretelj’s warden was Srecko Kraljevic, who was not over 28 at the time. Asked whether he knew Srecko Herceg, he said he could not remember much.

The Bosnian prosecution charges Ivan Zelenika, Srecko Herceg, Edib Buljubasic, Ivan Medic and Marina Grubisic-Fejzic with crimes committed against imprisoned Serb civilians in 1992 in Dretelj.

According to the indictment, Zelenika was former officer of the Croatian Defence Forces, Herceg was the former commander of the Dretelj camp, Buljubasic was his deputy, while Medic and Grubisic-Fejzic were camp guards.

It is specified that all of them forced prisoners to do hard labour and tortured them, and that several prisoners died as a consequence.

Another statement was read during the hearing, this one from Slavko Bojanic, given to the prosecution in August 2010.
As he specified in his deposition, Bojanic was locked up in Dretelj in July 1992, where he was brought from the Mostar military infirmary.

According to Bojanic, beside everyday beatings, guards entered the hangar at night.

“One time they brought a bitch and told us to lick her under the tail and lick her sexual organ. They asked me to do this, but I do not know who else. The dog was brought by a woman, a member of the HOS, about 25 years old, she was dark with bad teeth, she asked us to do this” said Bojanic in his statement.

In the deposition given to the prosecution, Bojanic said that two persons died from the beating while he was imprisoned in Dretelj.

The trial is set to resume on November 12, 2013, when the prosecution would end presenting its evidence.