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The defendants, Ekrem Ibracevic, Fikret Smajlovic and Sejdalija Covic, have been charged with torturing and abusing Serb civilians in Rapatnica. Ibracevic was the chief of military security with the municipal headquarters of the Territorial Defense in Srebrenik. Smajlovic and Covic were members of the military police.
Ekrem Duranovic, a former military police officer, testified at today’s hearing. He said he escorted the Territorial Defense commander most of the time, and also worked as a guard in a detention facility in Rapatnica. He worked as a guard in May 1992 and from the end of August 1992 onwards.
“Three of our men were held there in May, because they didn’t want to go to the frontlines,” Duranovic said.
Duranovic said when he was deployed to the detention facility in August, Serb civilians from Jasenica were being held in detention there. He said the civilians had tried to go to territory under Serb control. He said they were briefly interrogated.
During cross-examination, Duranovic was presented with a statement he gave during the investigation phase of the case in 2014. In 2014, he’d said that he was at the Territorial Defense base until mid-June 1992 and was then deployed to the Rapatnica detention facility.
Duranovic said that wasn’t true. He said while talking to his brother, he realized he had actually been in Rapatnica at the time.
Duranovic said he was also mistaken when he’d said he was at the detention unit when detainees from Potpeci were brought there on June 21, 1992.
Duranovic said a man named Stokan was detained in a building next to a playground in Rapatnica. He said Stokan “spread terror,” and that rumours circulated about Stokan’s mistreatment during detention.
Duranovic said he saw Ibracevic in Rapatnica twice. He said he saw him when he came to check on the facility, and then a second time when he came to the facility with an elderly man to get “personal data about the people from Jasenica.”
Duranovic said Smajlovic was the commander of military police in the area. He said he didn’t see him in Rapatnica.
He said Covic was a military police officer deployed to checkpoints, and said he didn’t see him in Rapatnica either.
Duranovic said Ismet Imsirovic was the manager of the Rapatnica detention facility. He said they worked the same shifts.
The trial will continue after the summer break on August 26.
