Female Bosnian Croat Fighter Denies Abusing Prisoners

Grubisic-Fejzic, a former member of the Croatian Defence Forces who is on trial for wartime crimes, told the Sarajevo court on Tuesday that she spent a month and a half at the Dretelj camp near Capljina in 1992, where she underwent military training.

She said that she did not guard the Serbs who were detained there, although she admitted that there probably had been some individual cases of prisoner abuse.

“Many witnesses talked about it. But I did not see it or participate in it. I insist that I did not do anything to anybody, physically or mentally, I did not say a bad word. I have no motive to judge people by their ethnicity,” she said.

Grubisic-Fejzic is on trial, along with Ivan Zelenika, Srecko Herceg, Edib Buljubasic and Ivan Medic, for allegedly participating in the torture of Bosnian Serb prisoners at Dretelj and for forcing them to do hard labour.

The indictment says that Zelenika was an officer with the Croatian Defence Forces, Herceg was commander of the Dretelj camp, Buljubasic was his deputy, while Medic and Grubisic-Fejzic were guards.

Grubisic testified that there were other female members of the Croatian Defence Forces at the Dretelj camp, and that several of them were named Marina. She said that it was possible that witnesses had confused her with one of the others.

She said that although she saw prisoners at Dretelj, she never entered the hangar where they were detained, and insisted that she only heard about the other three defendants, Herceg, Medic and Zlenenika, after her arrest.

The trial continues on April 1.