Ordered to Commit Rape

Witness KV-14 said that he was arrested on June 11, 1992 and taken to “Proleter” leather factory and then to the sawmill, where he was beaten up until he fainted on several occasions.

“I woke up in a tractor cart in front of the Police Station in Kotor-Varos. Some dead bodies were on the cart. I jumped down and headed home,” the witness said, crying. He said that soldiers then captured him and tried to slaughter him.

He mentioned that a policeman saved his life by chasing the soldiers off and took him to an office in the Police Station and that Savo Tepic and a Boki Krsic, as well as Sejdo Tatar, entered the office. A few hours later some other people, including KV-7 and Stipo Puskaric, as well as KV-5 and her husband, were brought to the office.

“They forced me to sexually abuse KV-5 in a violent manner. She was lying naked and tied on some desk. Nedjo Djukic ordered that, while a uniformed person recorded it on camera. I lied naked on top of her body, but I did nothing,” said the visibly-upset witness.

He mentioned that KV-5 was unconscious and that he was forced to “lick her blood”. The witness said that he was also forced to have oral sex with other detainees and have sexual intercourse with them.

As he said, after that he was taken to another office, where Savo Tepic ordered him to sign a statement, saying that he was “the leader of the Blackshirts”. A journalist, who recorded all this, was present in the room at that moment.

Savo Tepic, Dragoslav Bojic, Dusko Vujicic, Dusko Maksimovic, Radojko Keverovic, Rade Skoric and Ilija Kurusic are on trial for having participated in detention, torture and other inhumane acts against Bosniaks and Croats.

According to the charges, Tepic was Chief of the Public Safety Station, SJB, Bojic was Commander of the Police Station in Kotor-Varos, Vujicic was an active policeman, Maksimovic, Skoric and Keverovic were reserve policemen, while Kurusic was a member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.

When asked by the Defence why he failed to mention Savo Tepic before, the witness said that he was not feeling well mentally and that he was not able to say everything every time.

Witness KV-14 said that detainees were mistreated and beaten up and that they were detained in small and narrow spaces, in which they fainted.  

As he said, they drove him and two other persons by military transporter to the Public Safety Centre in Banja Luka, where he was beaten up and examined again. He managed to flee and hide in a forest for 17 days before being captured and detained again.

“They opened the door and told me to come out. I was not able to move. I saw Dusko Vujicic, whom I knew had beaten me before. A special policeman was with him. They drove me to Celinac in a green Mercedes,” the witness said.

As he said, he was taken to the Police Station in Kotor-Varos and then to a prison behind the Court building, where he stayed until mid-October 1992. The witness said that he was beaten up there as well and that the conditions were inhumane.

According to his testimony, three people lost their lives in that prison. One of them was Edin Zembic, who once whispered to him: “Krsic and Dusko Maksimovic”.

When asked by the Defence of Dusko Maksimovic where he knew the indictee from, the witness said that he hit him on his head with a baton, but he had known him before, because he used to play football.

Attorney Milan Romanic said that the witness underwent treatment for depression and that his memory was not good, adding that he was not able to specify the timing of events. The Defence of indictee Keverovic said that the witness was a mentally-ill person, who mixed up hallucinations and real events.

Testifying at this hearing, Marijan Miskic said that he was detained in the Police Station in Kotor-Varos for one day and that he was beaten up. He said that he was then transferred to a prison behind the Court building, where he spent three months.

Miskic described the conditions in the prison as catastrophic, saying that people defecated on each other, that they were beaten up and used for performing forced labour.

The trial is due to continue on December 1.