Witness Describes Confiscation of Arms from Serb Civilians in Hadzici

The witness, Ramiz Dupovac, testified at the trial of Djelilovic and seven other former members of Bosniak forces who have been charged with war crimes in the Hadzici area.

Djelilovic, Fadil Covic, Mirsad Sabic, Nezir Kazic, Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember have been accused of unlawful detention, inhumane treatment, physical and mental abuse, and forcing detainees to perform forced labour.

According to the charges, at the time Djelilovic was the president of the municipal assembly, the crisis committee, and wartime presidency of the municipality of Hadzici. The other defendants were members of military and police authorities, as well as managers of detention camps. Kalember was a guard in Silos.

Ramiz Dupovac said Serb forces attacked the public safety station in Hadzici in May 1992. He said the Bosniak population fled to Pazaric and Tarcin. They decided to form a crisis committee for the municipality of Hadzici in Pazaric. Dupovac became one of its members.

“That was the most difficult period. We had no material or technical resources. The local authorities had nothing,” Dupovac said.

He mentioned that a proposal was then made to start confiscating weapons from all persons who had not already handed them to the Territorial Defense.

“I had previously witnessed that approximately 1,600 pieces of weaponry were distributed to the Serb population in Hadzici though the Yugoslav National Army. Also, we heard that between 300 and 350 members from Bradina could connect with units of the Serbian Territorial Defense in Hadzici, so there was a possibility they would occupy the entire territory of the municipality,” Dupovac said.

According to Dupovac, the police station in the area was in charge of confiscating weapons. Dupovac said a decision was made to “start isolating persons who were suspected of cooperating with the enemy.”

“We found ourselves in an alarming and dangerous situation. We knew what had happened to the local population from Eastern Bosnia, who were in our area as refugees, could happen to us as well. We watched what was going on in Bosanski Samac, Bijeljina, Zvornik,” he said. He said the weapons held by Serb civilians represented a grave danger and threat both to citizens and local authorities.

When describing the situation in Hadzici at the beginning of the war, Dupovac said the Serb population didn’t respond to calls to mobilize and established their own parallel authorities.

“Information from the field indicated that Serb defense forces had been formed in villages where Serbs were the majority. Even before that, we had received information about people being organized in Drozgometva and bringing in weapons and equipment,” Dupovac said.

Prior to Dupovac’s examination, the state prosecution presented four pieces of material evidence, thus completing its evidence presentation process.

The cross-examination of Dupovac will continue on April 16.