Bosniak Ex-Fighters Tried for Abusing Serb Civilian Prisoners

Srabovic, the former assistant commander for security at the local Territorial Defence force headquarters, and former military policemen Bajric, Cajic, Dzambic and Zilic are accused of committing crimes at the secondary school in Lukavac, where they beat and tortured Serb civilians with electric shocks. One of the prisoners died.

They are also accused of abusing two prisoners, Aziz and Radenka Sahat, who were held at the elementary school building in Lukavac because they had radio equipment and allegedly collaborated with the Bosnian Serbs.

According to the charges, the military policemen beat Aziz Sahat and forced him to run around the school gym naked, while Srabovic told him: “You’d better admit [the offence]. I cannot get them under control. They will kill you.”

Srabovic has also been charged with having committed and failed to prevent inhumane treatment, torture, murder and the unlawful detention of civilians.

Morankic is accused in his capacity as an employee of the Territorial Defence headquarters in Lukavac and commander of a military unit known as Fiko’s Unit and as a member of the Croatian Defense Council in Modrac, as well as being the commander of the Klaonica detention facility in Modrac.

He is accused of setting up the unit and the prison, ordering the unlawful detention of civilians, and committing, enabling and failing to prevent torture, murder and inhumane treatment.

Morankic and three members of his unit – Ahmet Bajric, Abid Arapcic and Senaid Cosic – have been charged committing crimes at the Klaonica detention facility. According to the charges, Serb detainees were beaten up, sexually abused and hung on a cattle hook with their hands tied.

The indictment also alleges that a woman from Fiko’s Unit would enter and step on the detainees with her heels, extinguish cigarettes on their bodies and cut them.

Arapcic has further been charged with having hit one detainee, who then died.

Prosecutor Eldin Biuk said that Lukavac was a small community and that everybody knew the defendants.

She said that Morankic used to bring in convoys with food and had a lot of authority locally, and was capable of forming his own unit and setting up a prison.

Morankic’s defence lawyer Senad Dupovac said meanwhile that he would call witnesses who would refute the allegations, particularly the one about the defendant having a lot of authority in the area.

Meanwhile defendant Bajric told the court that allegations in the indictment looked like “science fiction” to him.

Bajric said that he would show during the trial that he “was not involved in many of those things”.

The first witnesses will testify on July 2.