Witnesses Speak of Abuse and Murder of Prisoners in Kotor-Varos

The district prosecution of Banja Luka has charged Djukic, a former reserve policeman at the public safety station in Kotor-Varos and prison guard, with participating in the murder, physical and mental abuse, and inhumane treatment of Croat and Bosniak civilians during the Bosnian war. These crimes took place in collaboration with other members of the army and police, the prosecution alleges.

The witness, Esad Hrnic, told the court that he was captured and taken to the police station in Kotor-Varos in June 1992. He said he was held in the station for a few days before being transferred to a detention camp near the basic court building in Kotor-Varos.

“In the beginning we were guarded by three prison guards, but they treated us very correctly. They never beat us. They didn’t let others mistreat us. Later on a new group of guards came. Defendant Djukic was one of them.Various people would come in order to abuse us. When they noticed someone from Jajce was on the list, they would take me out and beat me immediately, because battles were being conducted in that area at the time. Nedjo [Nedeljko Djukic] mistreated some detainees, but only when he was drunk,” Hrnic said.

He said that Djukic had never beaten him.

However, Hrnic said that Djukic was one of the guards who beat a prisoner named Avdo Vilic, who died.

Testifying at the same hearing, former prisoner Hasan Smajlovic said that Vilic’s death took place on the night of June 25 or 26, 1992. According to Smajlovic, he was moved to the detention camp near the basic court building in Kotor-Varos afterwards.

“That evening, when Vilic was killed, I left the prison cell in order to fetch some water. Djukic told me to get back inside quickly. Later on I heard them beat Vilic. A gunshot was heard as well. Some time later I heard a vehicle being parked. Judging by the sound of its engine, it was a Wartburg. Somebody said it couldn’t fit in the bag. Then they drove the body away,” Smajlovic said.

Smajlovic also said that Djukic had never beaten or mistreated him during his detainment.

Ajka Vilic, Avdo Vilic’s wife, said that her husband left the house one morning and never came back. She said she’d heard that he had been taken to a detention camp and killed.

Zeljko Brkic, a former commander of the Squad for Terrain Cleaning, said that one of his duties was to bury detainees who had been killed at the detention camp next to the basic court building in Kotor-Varos.

He remembered having received a call to come to the basic court and collect a body.

“They put the body into a bag. We identified Vilic and buried him, most probably in Vrbanjci. I kept records of all of the burials, but they confiscated them after the war,” Brkic said.

The trial will continue on March 5.