4 June 2007
News
Rasevic and Todovic: "Mine sweeper"
BIRN BiHProtected witnesses, former detainees in camp Foca, speak of the tortures they blame the indictee for.
Protected witness FWS 141, who was brought to the Foca prison from the village of Brod in Foca municipality on 19 April 1992, says he was forced to perform work known as "minesweeper".
"I would drive a truck across hazardous terrain, while Serbian soldiers would be behind me in buses. My leg was chained to the clutch, so that I could not escape," said the witness, who considers Savo Todovic and Mitar Rasevic responsible for all events in this detention camp.
"They know who was taken where and how everyone ended up," said witness FWS 141.
At the trial of Rasevic and Todovic, former members of management of the Correctional Facility Foca, protected prosecution witnesses spoke about "false exchanges" of prisoners and unbearable conditions they lived in and tortures which they had to suffer.
The indictment charges Rasevic, commander of guards in Camp Foca, and Todovic, deputy manager, with establishment and maintenance of punishment and torturing of prisoners in this institution.
Witness FWS 172 was brought to the Foca camp on 25 April 1992 to "give a statement".
He says that, during his stay in the camp, nobody beat him but he knows that guards used to beat other prisoners.
"People would be taken away at night. Some never came back. Guards would come and read a name out, and we wondered who would be the next sacrificial lamb," said FWS 172.
This witness told the court that guards took away, on 25 August 1992, a group of about 20 prisoners from the camp. None of them returned.
"We were told they were going to be exchanged," the witness recalls. He was taken away for exchange, together with 54 people, on 30 August that year.
"They drove us to Montenegro, and then back to the camp again. That night, a guard took 20 people from our group. These people disappeared," the witness claims and adds that all those who were taken away were killed. The remaining members of the group, around 35 people, were released.
The trial continues on 5 June 2007.
"I would drive a truck across hazardous terrain, while Serbian soldiers would be behind me in buses. My leg was chained to the clutch, so that I could not escape," said the witness, who considers Savo Todovic and Mitar Rasevic responsible for all events in this detention camp.
"They know who was taken where and how everyone ended up," said witness FWS 141.
At the trial of Rasevic and Todovic, former members of management of the Correctional Facility Foca, protected prosecution witnesses spoke about "false exchanges" of prisoners and unbearable conditions they lived in and tortures which they had to suffer.
The indictment charges Rasevic, commander of guards in Camp Foca, and Todovic, deputy manager, with establishment and maintenance of punishment and torturing of prisoners in this institution.
Witness FWS 172 was brought to the Foca camp on 25 April 1992 to "give a statement".
He says that, during his stay in the camp, nobody beat him but he knows that guards used to beat other prisoners.
"People would be taken away at night. Some never came back. Guards would come and read a name out, and we wondered who would be the next sacrificial lamb," said FWS 172.
This witness told the court that guards took away, on 25 August 1992, a group of about 20 prisoners from the camp. None of them returned.
"We were told they were going to be exchanged," the witness recalls. He was taken away for exchange, together with 54 people, on 30 August that year.
"They drove us to Montenegro, and then back to the camp again. That night, a guard took 20 people from our group. These people disappeared," the witness claims and adds that all those who were taken away were killed. The remaining members of the group, around 35 people, were released.
The trial continues on 5 June 2007.
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