Dretelj Controlled by Military Police

Witness Hajrudin Fazlic, former HOS captain, said that the HOS Unit was divided into military police, whose members guarded prisoners and checkpoints, and manoeuvre unit, whose member he was, which went to the field. He said that Commander of military police controlled the Dretelj military barracks.
 
“I think that five or six people were commanders in those barracks. We, the captains, majors, visited the barracks, but we did not have any authority over it,” Fazlic said.
 
Third indictee Buljubasic thanked the witness for an honest testimony, saying that this was the first witness who gave a good description of how the military barracks were commanded.
 
Buljubasic is charged, along with Ivan Zelenika, Srecko Herceg, Ivan Medic and Marina Grubisic-Fejzic, with having committed crimes in Dretelj. The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, alleges that Zelenika was a HOS officer, Herceg was Commander of Dretelj, Buljubasic Deputy Commander of the military barracks in Dretelj, while Medic and Grubisic-Fejzic were guards.
 
Witness Fazlic said that he visited Dretelj several times, but his visits were brief. He said that, during his stay in the military barracks he neither saw nor heard about the mistreatment of detainees, who were held there.
 
“I was told that we must not approach the hangar, because detainees were held in it. Men were held in it. I once saw several men in a line. I heard that women too were held there, but I did not see them,” he said, adding that only the Military Police Command could influence the conditions in which they were held.  
 
When asked by the Defence of the fifth indictee if he knew Marina Grubisic-Fejzic, the witness said that he “knows one of those two sisters”. He also mentioned that he met his current wife in Dretelj.
 
His wife Zerina Fazlic, whose maiden name was Suta, testified at this hearing as well. She said that she came to Dretelj in the second half of July 1992 and that she was tasked with guarding the gate.  
 
She said that she heard that detainees were held in hangars, but she was not allowed to go there, so she did not see them.  
 
“Rumours spoke of a Serb being killed at night. I heard those stories, but I neither know who he was nor who killed him. I cannot remember where I heard that either,” she said, adding that she did not remember that Serbs were brought to the barracks or taken out in order to perform labour.
 
The Trial Chamber warned the witness, because she answered several questions by saying that she did not know or could not remember. The witness said that she was in Dretelj for seven or ten days only.
 
Indictee Buljubasic requested the Court to release Defence attorney Dzema Hasanagic from her duty, but the Trial Chamber said that it considered that there was no need to do it and that it would not discuss it further.
 
Buljubasic has changed several Defence attorneys since the beginning of the trial.
 
The trial is due to continue on June 3.