Witness Describes Torture and Abuse of Detainees in Rapatnica

Ekrem Ibracevic, the former chief of military security with the municipal headquarters of the Territorial Defense in Srebrenik, as well as Faruk Smajlovic and Sejdalija Covic, former members of the military police, are on trial for crimes committed against Serb civilians in Rapatnica.

Witness Pero Djukic said he and others were physically abused with various devices in the hall of the Rapatnica center. He said masked men hit him, and a man named Zoka, a drummer, beat him with a stick.

“They showed me a tool bag. There was a soldetron, injections, and pliers in it. They said they would use all of those things on me. They pushed the injection with the needle under my nails…I only asked them why they were doing this…Zoka burned me with the soldetron on my back, my arm and stomach…You could smell the flesh,” Djukic said.

He said they they put clamps on his ears and turned on the power cord, after which he fainted.

“They dumped me into the basement with all those wounds on my body. The basement floor was covered with 10 centimeters of coil dust. The wounds were swelling…I thought Lazar wouldn’t survive. He was also burned all over his body. My brother Drago had even worse injuries,” Djukic said.

Djukic said he was taken from the coil storage room in the basement to the first floor, where he was beaten again, about ten times.

Djukic said that after having been tortured in the hall, he was taken to an office where his wounds were dressed by nurses. Then he said Fikret Ibracevic came.

“He laughed and asked me cynically, ‘Who did that to you?’’… He would come several times while we were being beaten. He would just come in and go out,” Djukic said.

He said he was unable to describe Ibracevic’s appearance and wouldn’t be able to recognize him.

During his 20 days of detention in Rapatnica, Djukic said he heard about a guard named Suad, a man called Muce, as well as Zoka, the drummer, who he discovered later on was named Zurahid Mujcinovic. Mujcinovic was previously sentenced to eight years in prison for his crimes in Rapatnica.

Responding to a question by Ibracevic’s defense, Djukic said approximately 30 local residents of his village kept watch in April 1992 and that he was the commander of one of their groups.

The trial will continue on May 19.