Witnesses Describe Inhumane Treatment of Sanski Most Prisoners at Vrucinic Trial

Mirko Vrucinic, the former chief of the public safety station and member of the crisis committee in Sanski Most, has been charged with participating in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at persecuting the non-Serb population from April to December 1992. The indictment charges Vrucinic with acts of murder, forcible resettlement, unlawful detention and enforced disappearances.

State prosecution witness Ismet Kolackovic was detained in the Betonirka factory in Sanski Most until July 7, 1992. On that date, he was transported to Manjaca with other detainees.

He said he and 66 other detainees were loaded onto a truck with a closed awning.

“Nobody was allowed to lift the awning, and 19 people suffocated to death. There was no air, food, water, everything was closed. Mirso Halimovic died on my lap,” Kolakovic said. He said the detainees asked for help, but none came.

Kolakovic said he checked to see whether any of the 19 dead detainees were alive, but none of them were. He said doctor Edin Biscevic was one of the detainees who suffocated to death – his body has still not been found. Kolakovic said when their deaths were confirmed, they were loaded back onto the truck, where three other detainees stood.

He said prior to his transfer to Manjaca, four police officers he knew arrested him and detained him in the Betonirka factory on July 2, 1992.

He said he and other detainees were beaten “with all sorts of objects” at the Betonirka factory.

“They beat me with their boots, batons, with whatever they had at hand,” Kolakovic said.

Rasim Karabeg, another former Betonirka prisoner, was the second witness to testify at today’s hearing. He said he was heavily beaten in the Betonirka factory after having spent a night in detention at the Sanski Most police station. He said he was handcuffed to a radiator that night.

“I was beaten up abnormally [in the Betonirka factory]. They beat me with a fire extinguisher. They broke my sternum,” Karabeg said.

Karabeg said other detainees were beaten as well. He said he heard a guard named Tonci beat a prisoner named Mirzet Karabeg, while saying, “I’m not beating you. Mirko Vrucinic is beating you. It’s better for me to beat you than for you to go to Gradacac.”

Karabeg said detainees were afraid of going to Gradacac because they usually returned dead.

The trial will continue on January 15, 2016.