Questions about Status of Prisoners

Testifying in defence of indictee Tatarevic, Zekerija Mujkanovic, Chief Prosecutor of Brcko District, said that it was known to him that, following an attack on villages in the Bukvik region in mid September 1992, a number of Serb men were brought to Gornji Rahic, but he did not know whether they were questioned in their capacity as civilians or prisoners of war.
 
“I worked as a police inspector. That activity was under the authority of the Army and military security service. I met Tatarevic during the war, but I do not know what his job was, because he was member of the Army, while I worked for police. Also, I personally do not know of and have not heard about an order, saying that Tatarevic was supposed to examine prisoners of war at that time,” Mujkanovic said.
 
Asmir Tatarevic and Armin Omazic, former members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are charged with physical abuse of Serb prisoners. At that time Tatarevic was a soldier, escorting the Commander of the 108th Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, in Bosanska Posavina, while Omazic was a military policeman.
 
During the cross-examination Prosecutor Radmilo Ivanovic asked Mujkanovic if, while working as an inspector at the beginning of the war, he knew about the presence of paramilitary units of the Croatian Defence Forces, HOS, on the territory of Brcko. The witness answered affirmatively.
 
“Several of them escorted the then Commander of the 108th Brigade of HVO – Farid Mujkanovi. People said that they were his bodyguards,” Mujkanovic said.
 
Osman Mulahalilovic, Defence attorney of indictee Omazic, asked Mujkanovic how many persons had been processed for war crimes against Bosniaks and Croats in detention camps in Brcko and whether the Prosecutor was subjected to pressures, but Trial Chamber Chairwoman Sanja Ivic did not allow the witness to answer those questions.
 
The trial is due to continue on April 14.