Kondic et al: "Registering" Prisoners
06 October 2008 As he continues his testimony, a Prosecution witness speaks about his stay in Stara Gradiska and Manjaca detention camp, in which his brother was killed.
On the second day of his testimony Prosecution witness Muhamed Filipovic
said that, after having been taken from Kljuc, he was first detained in Stara
Gradiska and then in Manjaca detention camp, in which his brother was killed.
The Prosecution started examining Filipovic at the hearing held on
September 29, when he said that he had been captured and taken to a police
station in which he was physically abused in May 1992, adding that Vinko
Kondic had been the police chief in Kljuc at that time.
The State Prosecution charges Kondic, Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic with
having participated in organising a group of people and abetting them to commit
genocide, as well as crimes against humanity in the Kljuc area in 1992.
Muhamed Filipovic said that, while he was detained in
Stara Gradiska, he stayed in a cell, in which there was nothing but a blanket
and "a bucket for doing my needs". He said that he received "very small amount"
of food twice a day. On June 11 his brother Omer was brought there as well.
"He told me that, while he was in Pudin Han, they invited him to
surrender or else they would kill all civilians. He surrendered to Vinko's
police. There was no other police. He was arrested and brought to Gradiska two
days later," Filipovic said, adding that they stayed there until June 15, 1992,
when they were transferred to Manjaca detention camp, in a group of more than
100 other detainees.
The indictment against Vinko Kondic mentions the capture of civilians in
Kljuc and the surrounding villages, as well as taking them to Stara Gradiska and
Manjaca detention camp, where they were mistreated.
"Upon our arrival to Manjaca we were met by Zeljko Bulatovic. He asked if
we had been 'registered'. What he wanted to know was whether we had been beaten
up. Then Bulatovic and his group 'registered us'. They beat us for about two
hours, before taking us to a barn. They called this place a pavilion but it
looked like a barn to me. I stayed there until September 15, 1992," the witness
recalled.
The Regional Court in Banja Luka sentenced Zeljko Bulatovic to 11 years'
imprisonment for crimes committed in Manjaca detention camp.
According to Filipovic, Bulatovic and "his men" had killed his brother
Omer on July 28, 1992.
"They beat him. They threw him into a hole and then jumped on him. They
would call his name out two times a day and they would then take him out. He was
severely beaten up. A second group would come in the evening and call his named
out again. I told Omer not to go out. He told me: 'It does not matter. It is
either today or tomorrow.' They let me see him afterwards. His dead body was
lying in the cell. I said a Muslim prayer for the dead, although one could lose
his life for that in Manjaca at that time," Filipovic said.
At
the next hearing, due on October 8, the Defence of Vinko Kondic will
cross-examine this witness.
Justice Report is a
specialist reporting agency focusing on war crimes trials taking place before
local courts; development of the local legal system; and efforts to come to
terms with the past.
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