by Damir PILIC
In reality, documents in our possession describe not only situations in which Croatian policemen beat captured Serbs but also totally bizarre scenes in which, for example, two Croatian policemen engaged in a fist-fight to determine which one of the two of them would beat Serb prisoners.
According to documents in our possession the main location was the military prison Kuline in Sibenik, while the military prisons in Zadar and Split (Lora) are also mentioned. Furthermore, the documents also demonstrate that in some cases a definite lack of patience was exhibited and the prisoners never reached the prisons.
The Croatian press has already published some of the documents which describe torture of prisoners in Lora and Kuline. Among other, the report sent by the commander of Kuline Damir Borsic on June 18 1992 to the then commander of the Military Police in Sibenik Mario Barisic. Let us remind our readers: after describing how some high officials of Military Police and SIS [one of Croatian intelligence services] came to Kuline and beat to death prisoner Marko Madzar, Borsic demanded from Barisic to release him from his duty, since his authority was nonexistent and he did not "want to bear responsibility and consequences of inappropriate behavior towards prisoners, which has been repeated on several occasions by the aforementioned and other persons".
Another document, dated September 9 1993 (therefore almost 15 months after the mentioned Borsic's request to be released from his duty) indicates two things: a) Borsic's request was not accepted and b) in the meantime nothing has changed in Kuline. It is another report of the commander of the Military prison Kuline, Damir Borsic, to the commander of the Military Police in Sibenik, Mario Barisic:
"On September 8 1993, during the bathing of prisoners of war, I noticed that prisoner of war Milan Mitrovic had visible signs of physical maltreatment on his body. At first he refused to tell me who had done that, but later after my assurances that he would not have any problems or suffer consequences, he agreed to tell me everything. On September 7 1993 at 10pm guards in the Military Prison L.N. and K.R. took prisoner of war Milan Mitrovic out of his cell and handcuffed him to a window and beat him with a baton and a broom handle. According to him, he fainted three times and every time he fainted the guards would take him to the bathroom and pour water over him until he regained consciousness. Then they threw him on the floor and stomped over him in boots until he again fainted. According to Mitrovic all that lasted about two-three hours. I must add that the mentioned Milan Mitrovic is in a rather serious psycho-physical state and that his health is endangered as a consequence of beating and maltreatment. I would like to emphasize that all of this was done by guards L. and K. even though I had specifically forbidden them any contact with prisoners of war and specifically forbidden them to beat and maltreat prisoners".
Although, according to this document the investigation of the events in Sibenik during 1992 and 1993 has been finished, the Croatian public still hasn't been informed about its results.
Feral also has documents of the Serb organization "Veritas" with statements by several Serbs captured by the Croatian Army during 1992 and 1993 who were later exchanged for Croatian soldiers. It should be mentioned that their statements were given to the International Trubunal in the Hague as early as March 1995. Three of them, Jovan Mirkovic, Stevan Cuk, and Nikola Nadoveza, were members of the Serb Territorial Defense, and were captured at the same time, on June 21 1992 at 7pm during the liberation of the Miljevac plateau.
"In early afternoon we began to pull back toward the hamlet of Sirikovci (actually Siritovci, author's remark), where we were captured around 7pm. 18 of us who were in Kljuc were captured. Damjan Kovacevic was wounded during capture but the Croatian soldiers did not intend to give him medical assistance. Instead one Croatian soldier stood above Kovacevic and fired several bullets and murdered him... Since we did not offer resistance, they disarmed us and immediately began to beat us with boots, fists and anything they could lay their hands on. Later they searched us and took away documents, money, jewelry, watches and then ordered us to strip naked... After that we had to get in a truck, while Djuro Cosic stayed behind with Croatian soldiers. After that the truck headed towards Nos Kalik. On the way to Nos Kalik the truck stopped and they ordered that four soldiers get out to pick up the corpse of Rajko Medos. When they brought late Medos to the truck I saw that he had a noose made of a belt around his neck. I personally did not notice traces of blood or any other injuries on his body... When a ship arrived we loaded wounded and dead, then we got in and then the maltreatment again started. I think that I received worst blows with a baton on my head there... In Sibenik they took me to the military prison where we had 'a reception committee', two files of soldiers and we had to run between then while they hit us. That wasn't so easy because all of us were handcuffed.."
Two days later the prisoners were taken again from Kuline to the Miljavac plateau to bury their dead comrades. Nikola Nadoveza testifies about that:
"We were divided into groups and every groups had four men. We first dug graves to bury our comrades, one for two and another one for five bodies. On that occasion I found the body of Djuro Cosic and recognized him. He was taken out of the truck and remained behind. I examined his corpse and saw that his lip was cut and that most likely a knife was stabbed into his throat. He also had stab wounds on both of his thighs. Also, a patch of skin on his chest, 3 by 2 centimeters, was torn. When we finished that they ordered us to stop digging but to instead load corpses on the truck and drive them to a ravine... When we finished that then we were taken in the truck to Noskalik, on a ship. There we washed shovels and other tools and washed ourselves. On that occasion Miroslav Subotic was murdered. He was murdered by the military policeman Z.G. from Pokrovnik. He ordered Subotic to walk for about twenty meters, then to turn around, and then he fired a few bullets into him. Then four of us had to dig a grave next to the Krka river and we buried him there."
All three witnesses describe their three-month stay in Kuline in almost identical terms. "In the prison we were maltreated almost daily. We were also forced to work and on those occasions they beat us even worse than in the prison. When they wanted to force us to admit something they would torture us with electric shocks. They liked to strip us naked, lay us in a file on the ground and then stomp on us..." states Nikola Nadoveza.
Jovan Mirkovic also mentions torture by electric shocks in his statement: "After only two days in the prison I already had serious physical injuries, three broken ribs and heavy bruises all over the body... Prisoners were taken to Subicevac where the headquarters of the Croatian Police was located and in that prison one method of torture was delivery of electric shocks... Let me give you an example of one song we were forced to sing: 'I've always been a Serb and I've lost everything. Now the electricity is going to burn, burn and I'll jump like a rabbit'".
Besides other guests the prison in Kuline from time to time also welcomed representatives of the International Red Cross. A part of Stevan Cuk's statement confirms that, however, there were no omissions in Kuline: "They used all sorts of things to 'beautify' us before the visits by the ICRC, using some sorts of ointments. They told us that the ointments were supposedly worth DM100, much more than us, and that they were wasting a lot of money to hide bruises and wounds they had inflicted in the first place."
"I shared a cell with another three prisoners. Anyone who wanted could enter that cell and beat us as much as he liked. They mostly beat us at night and on some occasions that would go on until dawn. They beat us with boots and fists. They also invented new methods. For example, they would strip us to the waist, put a blanket over our head and hit us on the belly with wet newspapers. Then since we shared the prison with their soldiers, they also allowed them to beat us... They humiliated us by forcing us to wear women's clothes, dresses, and dance a Serbian kolo dance. They even tried to force us to lick a cat but I refused even though they threatened to kill me, while they forced another prisoner, Mitrovic Milan (that is the prisoner from the beginning of the article on which the commander of the prison Kuline noticed evidence of torture during author's remark) to do that..."
"They did not bother us during the first eight days. Later they started to interrogate me about the whereabouts of my husband and my sons. I told them that my son was sick and that my husband was at home. They said I was lying and hit me with a baton on the head. They mostly hit me on the hands and the head. They maltreated us by taking all three of us, together with other prisoners, to the yard where they would order us to strip naked and pour cold water on us. That would go on for three hours, almost every day, and sometimes even twice a day. Besides that, they would come to the cell and force us to strip naked and walk along the hallway in front of hundreds of them. They did all sorts of things to us. For example they would order us to lean against a wall at the spot where they made pencil marks and we had to stay like that for 24 hours. During that time we were not allowed to move, let alone go to the bathroom. That was extremely hard on us. Besides this, we also had to beat each other which was horrible. When they would take us to take a shower, we went together with men, naked and then they would order us to bathe them, and them to bathe us. At night they would come in twos to our cell with knives and threaten to slaughter us. One night they brought flesh in a cooking pot and said that that was the flash of my son whom they had murdered. Then they said that the following day they would bring me his leg. One night they brought a cleaver because they wanted to cut off two fingers on my right hand. That way I wasn't going to be able to cross myself anymore [Eastern Orthodox cross themselves by joining three fingers on their right hand, as a symbol of the Holy Trinity]. In the end they gave up. When they beat men puddles of blood would be left behind. Then they would wake us up at night and take us to lick blood. I have to tell you that they forced me to eat grass in the prison yard. I was beaten daily, mostly on the head. I also have to say that they fed us by forcing us to eat 13 eggs each, one after the other. That was one of their torture methods. They would fill us up with extremely salty food and then refuse to give us water. If someone refused to eat, they would put a knife on his throat and threaten to slaughter him if he did not eat. Once when I went to the toilet they sprayed saline acid into my eyes so that I lost sight for more than a week. This continued until we were exchanged."