Bosnian Serb Soldier ‘Assaulted Prisoner for Being Muslim’

Prosecution witness Esad Zecevic told the Sarajevo court on Wednesday that in June 1992, Serb soldiers detained him at the primary school in Kalinovik with his wife and two children.

He said that he was imprisoned in the school for around three months, and that defendant Marinko Bjelica once arrived and hit him.

“He came into the room and as far as I remember, he said that I was guilty of his children’s death – and I was imprisoned there,” Zecevic recalled.

“He hit me in the face and I started bleeding. My son was holding me tightly. I told him I was not guilty and it was soon over,” he said.

Former Bosnian Serb Army serviceman Bjelica is charged, along with Zoran Bjelica and Novica Tripkovic, with participating in the killings and torture of Bosniak civilians who were imprisoned in the Miladin Radojevic primary school in Kalinovik.

Zecevic’s wife Rada also testified on Wednesday that Bjelica hit her husband “only because he was Muslim”.

“He came into the classroom and gave him a few slaps in the face… He did not ask for anything, he just said his son died, but my husband was not responsible for it,” she said.

She added that Bjelica came to school again afterwards and threatened her husband.

The trial continues on September 3.