SPLIT SPLIT, Oct 16 (Hina) - During the trial of eight former military police officers, indicted for war crimes committed in the Lora military prison in Split in 1992, witness Milorad Paic said on Wednesday that he had seen tortured
people in the prison.
SPLIT, Oct 16 (Hina) - During the trial of eight former military
police officers, indicted for war crimes committed in the Lora
military prison in Split in 1992, witness Milorad Paic said on
Wednesday that he had seen tortured people in the prison. #L#
Besides Paic, Josip Tabula, who was also, like the witness stated
above, a member of the 72th battalion of the Sibenik-based military
police, took the witness stand on Wednesday at this trial before the
Split County Court.
Paic testified that in the Lora he saw tortured inmates, heard yells
and saw blood and excrement on the floor. Those inmates were placed
in the department called Block C. According to the order of the
deputy commander of the said battalion, Tvrtko Pasalic, those
people were taken in that block and stayed unregistered so that
anything what one wanted to do could do to them, the witness said.
Witness Mario Barisic gave a similar statement two months ago. Paic
and Barisic, in their capacity as military policemen, had been
charged with the task to inspect the situation and irregularities
in the Lora prison.
Paic said Pasalic had taken them to that part of the prison (Block C)
and told them "special guests" had been there.
"When I heard yells and saw blood-stained people crying for help, I
had enough and went out," Paic said. He remembered four cells with a
total of about 15 inmates, and in the hall there was a table with the
induction telephone and a blood stain on the wall. The inmates
looked bad, Paic said.
The witness was present at the escorting of prisoners to the
exchange of POWs. They passed between two lines of military
policemen, who hit them with clubs and pounded with hands and with
everything they had at their disposal, and the witness saw one of
the indictees, Tonci Vrkic in that line of policemen.
The witness remembered that during one of his three arrivals in the
Lora, he saw two military policemen arguing about who would beat the
prisoners.
Paic saw nothing unusual on inmates in the other part of the prison.
He talked with two JNA (the then Yugoslav People's Army) pilots, and
one of them told him he had bombed Sibenik when the witness's
brother was injured.
Asked why did he say during the investigation that he had seen
bruises on these two inmates, the witness answered that he could not
remember.
"These people who are sitting behind me (defendants) are the least
to be blamed, and the major culprits are freely walking in Split,
Sibenik and Zagreb," Paic said.
Asked who were these people, he declined to answer. He added that he
and Barisic had compiled a report on everthing and sent it to the
command of the 72th battalion of military police, and later
reported about it to the then Croatian President Franjo Tudjman,
Defence Minister Gojko Susak, Vladimir Seks and Jure Radic and the
military police commander, Mate Lausic.
"After that Tudjman urgently convened a session of the Defence and
National Security Council (VONS), which concluded that commissions
should be set up as to establish what was going on in the Lora
penitentiary, the Kuline prison in Sibenik and in the military
police in Split and Sibenik in general," Paic said.
Only what happened after that was that he and Barisic were removed
from their jobs, the witness said.
Asked by an indictee, Emilijo Bungur, to explain what did he mean by
saying that they (indictees) were the least to be blamed, and to say
what they were at all guilty of, the witness Paic answered that it
was his personal assessment, but that he believed that it would be
established who the real culprits were.
Since he gave his statement before an investigating judge on 14
November 2001, Paic has been exposed to many unpleasant situations.
He has been receiving threats and somebody phoned his children
telling them "we shall impale your Dad on a stake".
Three days ago somebody phoned him, speaking in the Kaikavian
dialect, and told him that "it would better to you not to appear
before that court, or we shall dispose of you", the witness said.
Therefore the witness is under the police protection around the
clock.
Another witness Josip Tabula, who was in the anti-terrorist unit of
the 72 battalion of the military police in 1992, said he was twice in
Lora but he only entered the building of the prison command.
He said he had never heard of the torture.
The main hearing will resume on Thursday when other witnesses are to
give their testimonies.
The defendants are accused of war crimes against prisoners and of
killing two Serb civilians Gojko Bulovic an Nenad Knezevic in the
Lora prison in 1992.
The trial is being conducted in the presence of five out of the eight
defendants.
The prime suspect, Tomislav Dujic, has been at large since the very
beginning of the trial. Another two indictees - Josip Bikic and
Miljenko Bajic - failed to show up again in the courtroom after the
summer break and after the Supreme Court in August revoked the
decision of the panel of judges in Split, that the indictees could
be released from custody. The five indictees who returned to the
detention centre in line with the Supreme Court's ruling are Tonci
Vrkic, Davor Banic, Emilijo Bungur, Ante Gudic and Andjelko Botic.
(hina) ms sb