When it was requested in the Police that employees sign a loyalty oath to the newly proclaimed Republic of Srpska, I signed since I felt that I belonged in this town and with its people. I think that only three of us, non-Serbs, signed this oath... Of course, I never thought there could be a war. I heard first time about "Mice" when the "war" in Doboj started. I remember that Predo Markocevic and Marinko Djukic talked about what "Mice" were doing in Doboj; they said that "Mice" should come to Teslic to "introduce order". I remember the day when "Mice" arrived to Teslic very well. I was returning from an investigation in Banja Vrucica. Passing through the town I realized that something unusual was going on. When we came in front of the Police Station, I saw that all employees had been chased out of the building and forced to file in front of it. I saw that Police Chief Dusan Kuzmanovic, commander Predo Markocevic and chief of serious crime department Marinko Djukic were standing on one side. I was stopped by a stranger in uniform. He carried a gun and demanded to see my official identification papers and my weapons. When he saw my name, he said "a Croat" and asked "What are you doing here?". Then he started to hit me. Finally he handcuffed me and ordered that I be taken to the prison.
This was the most humiliating experience in my life. I cannot describe that... I was the first prisoner in the cellar of the Police Station, which would later be converted into a prison. After a while, a colleague came down and asked me what I was doing there. After I told him what had happened, he went to beg Predo and Marinko to intervene. They did not do anything, so that the colleague went to talk to chief Kuzmanovic. I found out that Kuzmanovic then went to see one of "Mice" and told them that I wasn't a Croat but a Jew. After that I was released after about three hours in captivity.
I went home that day and did not say anything to anyone. I though that the whole thing was an accident and that it was just a passing phase. The following night at about three in the morning Predo called me to go on an investigation in Ruzevic. We finished our work without trouble and in the morning I went to work. At about 10am a group of Dobojlije burst into the station together with my former colleague Milan Savic and inspector Dragan Gagovic. Savic approached me and said fairly politely. "Damir, you should go home". I turned over my official weapon, obtained a receipt and went home.
On June 7, my mother told me that the father had been arrested. I asked who had taken him away. When she said that our policemen had taken him away, I thought "that's good, they know me, they know dad..." I tried to get in touch with my colleagues, to see what was going on. I couldn't find anyone, no one could tell me anything.
Those days, life in Teslic was horrible. Curfew, I couldn't go anywhere, I could hear swearing through the window, no one was coming to visit... I prepared a propane bottle, to kill myself if they came to arrest me again.
When "Mice" were arrested, a colleague of mine came and said that Pile wanted to talk to us. I went and he asked me whether I would be willing to return to work. Since we had already heard that some prisoners had been killed, I asked him for my father and he said that he would check. I talked to my mother and uncle Drago Jazbec about the job offer and accepted to return to the Police. I did not even think that my father was murdered by Serbs, but by criminals.
I worked until the Police Station in Teslic again came under the jurisdiction of Doboj. When the people who had collaborated with "Mice" returned to the Station, I realized what could happen to me and started to weigh my options. I knew that they knew what I knew. When they told me "you are going to Vozuca" [a Serb majority town south from Doboj, the site of a Bosniak-Muslim offensive in 1995] I decided to leave Teslic. When I returned alive from Vozuca, I picked up my papers and went to Belgrade and then to Israel.
Some people had told my father to leave before "Mice" arrived to Teslic. I remember that he responded by saying: "Why should we run away when we haven't wronged anyone, everyone knows me, they were all my pupils..." Once uncle Drago told dad: "Viktor, you, I and Boro are all on the list..." Father did not believe him.
I heard that someone tried to hide father in an office when they were taking them from the prison to Borje and that policeman Aleksa Petrovic said that one prisoner was missing... That man took many people to death. He took my father and Boro Pastuhovic to prison. I've been told that he was one of the main collaborators of "Mice".
Some of my colleagues swore that they did not know that my father was in prison. I know that Vlado Trifunovic and Milan Nedic assisted some people. I know that reserve policeman Aleksa Jovic was the only one to help prisoners as much as he could. I do not understand how and why no one was able to save my father.
I found my father after seven years and now I at least know where his grave is. I had a hard time dealing with the fact that he was horribly tortured. An autopsy found out that he was missing half of his scull and that all of his ribs were broken. He was really bestially tortured.