Bosniaks Left Bileca

“Not one single Serb left the Eastern Herzegovina,” A-1 said, adding that he could guarantee that none of the Muslims fired a single bullet in Bileca.

The Defence of indictee Miroslav Duka read to the witness a part of his statement given in Mostar in 1996 in which he mentioned that he fired three bursts of bullets towards policemen and soldiers, while hiding in a cave with his wife.

“I do not know who wrote that. God is my witness. That is not true. They made it up,” said A-1, who began testifying at the last hearing on October 28.

It was said that this statement was not identified, considering the fact that witness A-1 was blind.  

The witness said that he had never possessed an automatic rifle, but “hunters’ rifles, a carbine and a schmeisser, which I handed over to Duka.”

Goran Vujovic, Miroslav Duka and Zeljko Ilic are on trial for crimes in Bileca. According to the charges, Vujovic was Chief of the Public Safety Station in Bileca, Duka was Commander of police and Ilic was policeman.  

Vujovic and Duka are charged with having enabled and organized the detention of Bosniak and Croat civilians in the Public Safety Station building and Students’ Dormitory in Bileca, where detainees were killed, tortured and abused. Ilic is charged with having committed physical and mental abuse, torture and murder.

The witness said that he spent 123 days in an isolation cell situated in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, MUP, building, adding that he could not tell the difference between the day and night.

“I had nothing, so help me God. Not even a bed or blanket. The room surface was 90 x 180,” said 85-year old A-1, adding that they sometimes brought other prisoners to the isolation cell, so they had to lie on top of each other, because the space was so small.

He mentioned that, during his detention seven of his ribs, his arm, leg and jaw were broken and that his thumb was amputated due to an injury he got during an examination, adding that “Duka, Branko Rogan and Nedjo Kuljic” were present on that occasion.

“Songs like ‘From Trebinje to Bileca everybody will be christened, even if it is against their will’ were sung. He did, so help me God, publicly say that Muslims had nothing to do in Bileca and that the land belonged to Serbs,” the witness said, responding to a question on whether he knew indictee Goran Vujovic.

The trial is due to continue on November 11.