SPLIT, July 19 (Hina) - Two witnesses were questioned on Friday during the main hearing in the trial against eight former Croatian military policemen accused of crimes they committed against detainees in the military prison of Lora,
Split, in 1992.
SPLIT, July 19 (Hina) - Two witnesses were questioned on Friday
during the main hearing in the trial against eight former Croatian
military policemen accused of crimes they committed against
detainees in the military prison of Lora, Split, in 1992. #L#
The first witness who took the stand on Friday was Dejan Meseldzic,
a retired low-ranking officer of the former Yugoslav People's Army
(JNA).
Five military policemen searched his flat in the summer 1992, and he
gave them a pistol of the "Zastava" brand which he had bought in
1972. Meseldzic, however, could not remember exactly when the
search of his flat had taken place, but he believed it was in the
mid-summer 1992.
He said the military police officers, who only visually searched
his flat, were very polite, and accepted his offer to drink coffee
with him. They did not show him a warrant for the search or his
apprehension. As they did not have the paper confirming the
confiscation of his weapon, they took him to Lora.
Meseldzic remembers that he was taken together with Djordje Katic,
his neighbour, and that they were not abused while they were driven
to the prison.
When they entered Lora, several uniformed people shouted "Give them
to me," the witness said.
"We were brought into a room and I was told to turn to the wall. Katic
was behind me," the witness said adding that he heard somebody
asking Katic whether he could sing the Croatian hymn. Katic
answered that he could and started singing "so and so the first
strophe". After that Meseldzic heard Katic saying with a pain in his
voice "don't twist my arm" and "don't beat me". A thump was heard,
the witness said adding that he was not abused and that he was in
Lora for about two hours. He was taken to the police commander,
Damir Simic, who gave him the confirmation on the seizure of his
weapon. This document has the signature of Damir Simic but contains
no date, and that's why the witness cannot remember when this had
exactly happened.
Meseldzic saw Katic three or four days after he returned from Lora,
when his neighbour rang the bell at his door.
"He was swollen with a bruise under an eye, and was moving with
difficulty," Meseldzic told the court. Since then he had never
again seen Katic and he does not know Katic's whereabouts.
Asked by a lawyer to comment on the fact that in his statement Katic
did not mention Meseldzic and did not say that he was forced to sing
the Croatian hymn, the witness responded that he did not know what
Katic had said, but he was talking the truth today.
Defence lawyers wanted to know why Meseldzic failed to mention this
event to an investigating judge. The witness responded that after
he had been called to come to the court, he had not known that he
would be questioned about the Lora prison. "I expected th summons
because of a suit of the Postanska Bank and I did not prepare myself.
Later I remembered the things I told you today."
Asked by a defendant, Ante Gundic, whether he was one of police
officers who searched his flat, the witness answered "I cannot
remember whether I saw you."
Asked the same question by another defendant, Andjelko Botic,
Meseldzic said "I did not see you."
Another witness who gave his testimony on Friday was Boris Milas, a
military policeman.
He said he knew nothing about harassment in the Lora prison. He
added that he knew all the defendants whom he met in the command of
the 72nd battalion of the military police and that he had known one
of them, Josip Bikic, before the war as well.
The trial will be held still on Monday as the last day before a
summer break, and is to resume in September.
(hina) ms