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Omer Smaka, former Commander of the Military Police Squad with the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that indictee Sehagic was subordinate to him, adding that Sehagic was a detention camp guard, “whose task was to escort detained soldiers to lunch, take care of hygiene and so on”.
Smaka said that he knew about an order appointing Sehagic Manager of the detention unit, but, in practice, the indictee was “a guard, who had the previously mentioned tasks and who could not decide who would be arrested, released or questioned”.
“Had Jasmin been the Manager, I would have been subordinate to him. Therefore, I think that a mistake was made in that order,” witness Smaka said, adding that it was not known to him that prisoners were mistreated in the detention unit in Kakanj and that he had never heard any complaints about Sehagic.
According to the charges, Sehagic, former Manager of the Detention Unit located in the old Directorate of the Brown Coal Mine in Kakanj, participated in the torture of Croat prisoners.
The Zenica Cantonal Prosecution alleges that Sehagic failed to undertake the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent the tortures and report the torture perpetrators to his superiors, so they would be punished for their acts.
At this hearing Sehagic’s Defenc examined Haris Bjelopoljak, who was Assistant Commander for Security with the Municipal Headquarters of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Kakanj from May to July 1993.
He said that, following the breakout of the conflicts between the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatian Defence Council, HVO, “a total chaos” happened, adding that various units used the military detention unit in the old Mine Directorate building.
“The Military Police Battalion of the Third Corps took over the responsibility for the security situation. They were the only ones interrogating and examining soldiers and civilians, because they said that they should be tried for an armed uprising, because HVO had been a part of the Armed Forces until that moment. Neither I nor Jasmin Sehagic could influence decisions on who would be brought, examined and released,” Bjelopoljak said.
Bjelopoljak said that Sehagic was not the Manager, but a guard in the Detention Unit.
“Believe me that, in that crazy situation, he no longer knew to whom he should report. I did not receive any pieces of information about mistreatment in the Detention Unit. I once saw that some people were brought to the Detention Unit after having been beaten up. I visited the Detention Unit twice, but nobody complained to me. After having been released, those people said nothing but words of praise about Jasmin,” witness Bjelopoljak said.
The trial is due to continue on March 17.
