Tolic’s Hits Without Pain

A Defence witness says, testifying at the trial for crimes in Odzak and Bosanski Brod, that he saw indictee Josip Tolic hitting detainees several times, but he claims that he had to do it. 
 
Sveto Mitrovic told the Court that he used to work as policeman in Zagreb and that he fled from the Croatian battlefield to Bosanski Samac in 1991 and lived at his wife’s parents’ in Trnjak village, Odzak municipality from then on.
 
He said that, at the beginning of the conflict between the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, and Serbian Army he came to Novi Grad, where he was captured, together with the other Serbian population, and taken to a school gym in Odzak in May 1992.
 
“We enjoyed our stay in the first nine days. We had plenty of money, we ate and gambled. We could use the toilette. After that they began taking people out and beating us. About 700 of us urinated into a bucket,” the witness said, adding that they were beaten by Ivica Kljajic, Jurica Bozic, Nina Terzic, Zdenko Mikulic and Tomo Djojic, among others.
 
As he said, Resad Mujkic and Ivica Bozic beat him up for the first time. Considering the fact that he used to be a policeman, the witness said that he used his body to protect himself from the hits, but indictee Josip Tolic noticed that.
 
“I did not see that Tolic beat me. He cocked his rifle and said: ‘Leave him alone’. I went into coma at that place,” the witness recalled, adding that other detainees told him later on that two detainees and Josip Tolic carried him into the gym and that Tolic requested that he be taken care of.
 
The witness said that he had not known Josip Tolic before that. However, the witness explained that the indictee differed from other guards, because one could “see a ray of light in him and felt that he could ask him for help”.
 
According to the witness, the indictee helped him, because he told him to establish a protection squad consisting of about ten detainees, so they could protect themselves from Tomo Djojic, who used to beat detainees. The witness said that the indictee used the idea about the squad to feed them.
 
“Mr. Tolic took us out in order to feed us. I saw a dish of rice, a piece of meat and a loaf of bread after long time. I ate it and said: ‘Now you can beat us as much as you want’,” the witness said, adding that all of the detainees were constantly beaten up during the day and night.
 
Mitrovic said that Tolic used to hide him from the Croatian Army, adding that even HVO members fled from them. He said that they used to come every day and mistreat the detainees. He told the Court that he was particularly zealous in hiding, because an arrest warrant was issued against him in Croatia, so he used a false name, when he introduced himself in the detention camp.
 
“The first time I saw Josip Tolic hitting a detainee was when he hit detainee Rade Tomanovic, but those hits did not hurt. It seemed as if he had to do it. He would hit him once or twice and then moved away, as if he was doing it out of formality,” Mitrovic said, adding that Tomanovic was beaten by Golubovic, Jurica Bozic and Resad Mujkic and that Ferid Halilovic killed him with a rifle butt.
 
When asked by the Prosecution how he could know whether Tolic’s hits were strong or not, the witness said that he was a former policeman, that he had achieved a black belt in jiu-jitsu martial arts and that he had been trained for street fight.
 
The detainees were then transferred from Odzak to Novi Grad for a few days. Their mistreatment continued in Novi Grad, where, according to Mitrovic, Rade Dervenic, also known as Sila, was killed according to the same scenario as Tomanovic.
 
He said that the detainees were then transferred to a warehouse in Bosanski Brod, adding that he was taken, almost every day, to other locations, where he had to dig trenches and perform other labour. He said that Resad Mujkic and two other soldiers beat him up in that building.
 
“On the following day Tolic brought me three pain killers and cursed mothers of those, who had beaten us,” the witness said, adding that women too were detained in that facility and that he could hear their cries.
 
The detainees were then transferred to “Tulek”, where they stayed for a few days, and then to Slavonski Brod.
 
“While I was there, Josip Tolic visited me. He brought me a shirt and a box of Marlboro cigarettes. I told him that I owed him one and that I would help him if he ever needed help,” Mitrovic said, adding that he received threats from other detainees due to his testimony, but he was telling the truth.
 
Mitrovic told the Court that his family paid 7,000 Franks and that about five Croatian soldiers were given in exchange for him.
 
The trial is due to continue on November 7.