Crimes in Bileća: Only Blows and Gunshots Were Heard

A witness for the State Prosecution stated at the trial for crimes committed in Bileća that the accused Miroslav Duka hit him in 1992, during his detention in that town, BIRN reported, as conveyed by the news agency Patria.

Ramiz Pervan said that he was captured in June 1992 in his home in Bileća, after which he was taken to the police station, where he was beaten.

- A commander of the 'White Eagles' put me against the wall, and he beat me and told me to keep my hands against the wall. I fell, he picked me up and beat me... I fell down and lay there for about ten minutes when Goran Vujović came from the office and was laughing. Two Bosniaks were with him and they were laughing. He looked at me and stopped laughing - Pervan recalled.

From the police station, Pervan, as he said, was taken to the barracks in Bileća, where captured Bosniaks were guarded by reserve police officers, "who were very decent," and after seven days he was transferred to the old prison.

Pervan recounted that Miroslav Duka once, during his detention in the old prison, called him out, after which he interrogated him about weapons from Čapljina.

- When I answered something, he swore and kicked me. The blow threw me three meters. Then he told two guys: 'Process him.' They took me inside and beat me for ten minutes with military boots. I lost consciousness and I know they jumped on my chest - stated Pervan, adding that his four ribs and teeth were broken from the blows, and that he has problems with his balance center.

During cross-examination, witness Pervan said that he does not remember if Duka was present when he was beaten.

Miroslav Duka, former police commander in Bileća, is accused of crimes committed in that town along with Goran Vujović, former head of the Public Security Station (SJB) in Bileća, and Željko Ilić, former police officer.

Vujović and Duka are charged with enabling and organizing the detention of civilians of Bosniak and Croat nationality in Bileća, where detainees were killed, tortured, and abused, while Ilić is accused of participating in the abuse.

Witness Pervan also recounted that one night he saw Duka with an automatic rifle approaching the old prison through the window.

- He shot at the window where I was. We hid and the bullets started ricocheting. Then he took tear gas and threw it into the room. Then he shot again. The suffocation began. I ran out of the room and a bullet grazed me, but only scraped the skin. I threw myself into the pantry and hid. After some time, I heard Duka and Željko Ilić arriving, I recognized their voices. Željko said: 'Let's set the warehouse on fire.' Duka didn't answer. Then an incendiary bomb was heard and flames, but a tanker truck soon put it out," said Pervan.

Duka's defense attorney Dejan Bogdanović asked the witness why he said during the investigation that he heard shouting and Duka hitting a guard before the shooting incident, and did not mention it at the trial, to which Pervan replied that it was true, but that he had forgotten.

The trial continues on July 7.