Bloody Kidneys
Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, September 14 1998
by Ivica DikicWhen a local madman picks up a Kalashnikov and murders a few people, or when a drunk husband grabs an ax and kills his wife, journalists usually appear at the crime scene and, as a rule, find out from the conversation with neighbors that the murderer was a quiet and peaceful man, always ready to help, and that he never fought with anyone.
When five Croatian policemen beat an Italian tourist to death, the chief of the Sibenik-Knin County Police showed up at the crime scene to point out that "the policemen in question are very experienced. They have been commended several times and were never disciplined." Then, a local state prosecutor assumed the role of a surprised neighbor and submitted a request for the investigation against policemen responsible for the death of Italian citizen Riccardo Cetina because of "a well founded suspicion that they have committed a crime by inflicting grave physical injury and mistreatment while executing an official duty". The prosecutor did not bother himself with the fact that the grave injuries inflicted by police batons and other handy implements in the course of execution of an official duty resulted in a bodily death of a dentist from Genoa. Thus, it can be concluded from the investigation request that a Croatian policemen cannot commit a murder, even when it is absolutely clear that he has killed someone.
According to the information provided by the Croatian Police, in the evening hours of September 1 Riccardo Cetina, 44, disturbed public order in restaurant "Vis" on the Adriatic Highway between Sibenik and Split. Riccardo Cetina disturbed public order by accidentally breaking a bottle of liqueur. Prompted by the call from the owner of the above-mentioned pub, the Police set out to catch Cetina. They tried to stop him near a gas station in Primosten. However, that failed because Riccardo stepped on the accelerator pedal and the Police caught him only after he crashed into a car with Czech numberplates. Policemen immediately started beating Cetina and he, once one of the policemen took off the handcuffs, again tried to escape. However, the policemen quickly caught up with him and the beating was repeated.
Sefik Mujkic Case
The police abuse of the dentist from Genova was described with the following words in the press release by Police spokesperson Slavko Raka,: "Policemen were forced to apply forceful means during the identification and arrest". After policemen several times "applied forceful means", Cetina was taken to General Hospital in Sibenik with contusions of head, arms and legs. Later, after his state deteriorated, he was moved to Clinical Hospital in Split. There, he died on Thursday, September 3 at 8:45 a.m. After his death, police sources launched rumors that he had a sketchy past which included previous problems with police.The case of Riccardo Cetina is only the most recent example of the criminal behavior of certain Croatian policemen whose favorite diversion is, apparently, to beat up innocent citizens. Thus, on September 15 1995, a businessman from Slavonski Brod, Sefik Mujkic, was taken into custody based on the arrest warrant issued by the Osijek bureau of the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order (SZUP). Mujkic was suspected of spying for Bosnian Serbs. Once the "questioning" at the police station in Slavonski Brod ended, the Mujkic family received Sefik's corpse. The corpse was literally blue with bruises. He had been killed by SZUP agents Miroslav tarnaj and Zlatko Plazibat. The official explanation was that Sefik Mujkic died from a shock caused by the presentation of the evidence proving his treason.
Fatal "Fall From Chair"
However, judging by the report of a court expert (who stated that it was impossible to establish exact number of blows received by Mujkic but that there were "many, exceedingly many"), Mujkic died from something far more common than a shock. SZUP agents Plazibat and Tarnaj were sentenced to five and a half years in jail, but the Supreme Court ordered that they be released.In June 1996, a citizen of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Munever Katanic, was brought to First Police Station in Dubrovnik because his visa had expired several days earlier. He was brought to the mentioned station alive, but taken away dead. The police statement issued after this event stated that during the arrest the police didn't find on Katanic "objects suitable for self-injury". The statement pointed out that, after a personal plea, the accused was allowed to keep "several cigarettes and a plastic cigarette lighter".
The statement asserts that the autopsy indicated that the most likely cause of death was poisoning with carbon monoxide. Consequently, the chief of Dubrovnik-Neretva County Police suspended and disciplined four policemen who were on duty that night. Of course, not because they beat Munever Katanic to death but because they allowed him to keep his lighter and cigarettes and, as everyone knows, smoking is harmful to one's health.
The Police station in the Zagreb suburb of Trnje is infamous among police stations in the capital for its "subtle" methods. Twenty-one-year-old Vladimir Piskulic was taken into custody earlier this year, to the Police station in Trnje. The following morning he was taken to a hospital where doctors found bruises all over his body. The Police told doctors that Piskulic "[had fallen] on the stairs in the station". A week after the police treatment, Vladimir died. The Police officials later stated that Piskulic died from a poisoning caused by an overdose of a medication. The earlier formulation "fell on the stairs in the station" was modified into equally dubious "fell of a chair".
In August 1997, Ilija Misic was taken into custody and brought to the Police station in Trnje under suspicion that he was smuggling cigarettes and cars. Since he refused to admit anything under questioning, policemen proceeded with a beating which would have probably continued until his death had not Misic sought salvation in a dive through a closed window on the second floor of the police station. Although the Police claimed that there had been no beating, bruises on Misic's back cannot be interpreted as a consequence of a spectacular crash with asphalt.
Forced Confessions
In May of this year, twenty-three-years-old Mario Barisic from Sesvete, made noise with his friends during early morning hours and was brought to a police station. In the station, he was stripped naked and beaten up so thoroughly that he soon ended up in a hospital with a broken rib and cracked kidney. Under public pressure, the Police admitted that Barisic was mistreated and announced that three policemen were fired. According to the information obtained by Feral's journalist, petty criminals from Zagreb are the favorite object of police maltreatment. Statements made during trials of some of these petty criminals confirm that. Namely, around the end of last year, several times convicted pickpocket Damir S. stated during his trial that the police had forced him to confess robberies that he had not made."They beat me so bad that one of my kidneys was destroyed, my body was covered with blood and I couldn't open my eyes because of swelling. I had to admit even those things I had not done," he stated in court.
Another case is that of certain Mile C. who was tried in Zagreb in 1995 for murder. During the trial, he stated that he had confessed a murder because of a beating. The fact that Mile C. was later acquitted indicates the lack of evidence in that case.
One of probably most extreme examples of police arrogance was recorded on November 2 1996 in Dakovo. At half past midnight, about twenty members of the Special Police Unit from the Osijek-Baranja County Police Force arrived to that town. They arrived in several police cars with their sirens turned on, wearing official uniforms and with official weapons. The goal of this unheralded visit was the intimidation of innocent citizens. The rampage started in front of cafe "Pink Panther" where angry policemen shot at the facade of the building and set the plastic awning over the cafe entrance door on fire. Along the way they beat up a minor and then they moved in front of diner "Pam-Pam".
Orgy in Rhythm of Samba
The orgy of enraged policemen finished in "Samba" dance club and the epilogue of this police operation was horrific: more than thirty persons suffered grave, serious, and light injuries; many had concussions, broken noses and limbs, and knocked out teeth. Unlike the innocent citizens, the policemen were punished with small fines. The pretext for their night attack on Dakovo was to avenge a colleague who had been killed in front of "Pink Panther" and the cause was alleged temporary insanity of the majority of "night warriors".It would be utterly unjust to skip activities of Croatian Army members in this bloody story about the free-time activities of the Croatian repressive apparatus. The latest incident was recorded on August 21 1998 in Osijek, when two members of the professional units in the Croatian Army, drug addicts D.B. (23) and H.V. (24) broke into the home of Mariska (62) and Jovan (62) Koklo [and murdered Jovan Koklo].
Around the end of last year, nineteen-years-old Milan Dekic was killed in front of the Split night club "Palladium" by a bullet fired from the gun owned by the commander of the Anti-Terrorist Police Unit Vinko Budisa. According to the witnesses, the murder occurred after a drunken argument between two groups of youths, incited by Budisa. The witnesses say that Budisa deliberately attacked Dekic's brother Zeljko who decided to leave the club in order to avoid a fight. After that, Budisa's gun fired and killed Milan Dekic.
Treatment of Jehovah's Witness
In its report, the police ignored statements given by witnesses and offered to the public a touching story in which the commander of the special forces unit was on the floor trying to reach his gun while blows rained all over him. Zeljko Dekic was sued for an attack on an official, while the policemen who appeared at the scene of the crime after the murder failed to even question Vinko Budisa.Split also recalls the case of beaten up Jehovah's Witness Niksa Violic who was thoroughly "treated" by the Military Policemen from the 72nd Regiment. The pretext was Violic's refusal to put on the uniform of the Croatian Army because of his religious beliefs.
Definitely the best known case of violence by the military recorded among Croats took place in Pula on June 5 1997. That evening, presidential candidate Vlado Gotovac held a political rally on Forum square. During the rally, captain Tomislav Brzovic, a member of the 1st Brigade of the Croatian Guard, was drinking with his comrades in the nearby eponymous pub. Somewhat after 9 p.m. Brzovic without encountering resistance, pushed his way to the stage and hit Vlado Gotovac on the head with the clasp of his military belt. Brzovic had previously had problems with the Police because of his criminal outbursts, but he had been always protected by his status of a member of Tudman's personal bodyguards. This time, the public pressure was too strong and Brzovic was tried for his assault. He was put on a probation and sent to Sujica to cool down for a few months.
Mysterious Mafiosi
The unit to which Tomislav Brzovic belongs is infamous because of a whole series of criminal and violent acts. The worst of these incidents are a murder of a civilian in Pula, the wounding of certain Mate Beljan in Tomislavgrad, evictions from apartments and uncountable demolitions of cafes all over Croatia and Hercegovina. Neglecting Brzovic's case, it is not known that anyone of the unit's members has ever been tried for any of the committed crimes. Thus, the vicious circle of police-military violence closes. This violence often ends with deaths, and only a small number of cases were presented in this article.Thus, Croatia aligned itself with those countries where police kills foreign tourists for disturbance of public peace and order, while at the same time proven criminals and murderers are allowed to freely walk their streets. A proof of that is that for months the Police has had no success in trying to solve Mafia-style executions of Ivan Sakota, Shpejtim Taci, Mijat Vrdoljak, Berhard Hutinski, Ivan Mirko Krpelnik, Albert Buric and Omer Zahirovic. Naturally, since their murderers are not foreign tourists and, besides, they didn't disturb public order and peace.
Hunt on Physicians
The fear of Police has been spreading through the streets of Sibenik for months and the murder of Riccardo Cetina is only the most tragic contribution to the metastasis of that fear. Several days before the murder of the Italian dentist, the Sibenik Police, took care of another physician. Tomislav Bujas, a surgeon from Slavonski Brod, was on his yearly vacation in his birthplace Sibenik. It was Saturday and Bujas went to see the house where he spent his childhood. While he walked around the house, its new owners spotted him and, finding him suspicious, called a police patrol. Later, they bitterly regretted that decision. The doctor was promptly taken to a police station and subject to "questioning". The result of that "questioning" is that Tomislav Bujas has been treated for days for shock at the psychiatric department of a clinic in Zagreb.Several days later, in the center of Sibenik three policemen savagely assaulted a middle-aged man. They were not even bothered by the fact that about ten passers by witnessed this beating. Having received a beating in the street, the man was tied up and taken to a police station, while the Police did not find it necessary to state anything about this incident. Citizens of Sibenik also remember the police raid on cafe "Bounty", when crazed policemen brutally beat up a sixteen-year-old boy, only because he dared mock one of them. The boy spent several days in a coma after that police intervention.
Rib Stomper
It was an ordinary day in the life of nineteen-year-old Mario Koncurat; a day filled with numerous shots of brandy. About 8 p.m. Koncurat ended up at a construction site in Razanac and, since he was bored, entertained himself by throwing pebbles in a concrete mixer. A police patrol spotted him there. Policemen quickly established that Koncurat was disturbing public peace and order and took him to Second Police Station in Zadar. Until that moment Koncurat's memory and policemen's statements match. However, Mario does not recall why he was beaten in the station, nor who hit him there. When he woke up the following morning he realized that something had happened, since his whole body was covered with bruises. The reason for the police bestiality are even harder to discern if one knows that a later test found that the concentration of alcohol in Koncurat's blood was 3.34 ppm. According to police-medical tables, that should have been sufficient to kill him. Policemen were probably upset that Koncurat in spite of everything, was still alive.A recent case of Andel Paros demonstrates that Zadar policemen have nothing to be ashamed of in comparison with their colleagues from Sibenik. On August 27 Paros participated in a car crash caused by retired policeman Ivica Kapetanovic. After spending several days in a hospital because of the injuries suffered in the crash, Paros received a visit from three policemen. One told him to get up and walk, the second one kicked him in the groin and the third one started stomping on his ribs. They also threatened him: "If you mention this to someone, you'll be dead in less then a month". The goal of the police visit was to rig the investigation about the crash.
Translated on 12/15/98
