Uboj
04-28-2009, 02:59 AM
http://www.theage.com.au/national/croatian-prisoners-forced-to-kiss-baby-bears-backside-20090428-all6.html
Serb prison guards brought a baby bear into a fortress prison and forced inmates to kiss its backside as a form of punishment, a Croatian man imprisoned during the early 1990s told a Sydney court today.
Velibor Bracic, 41, a former Croatian POW, has travelled from his homeland to give evidence in the NSW Supreme Court in a defamation case brought by Dragan Vasiljkovic, now known as Daniel Snedden, against Nationwide News, publishers of The Australian newspaper.
Snedden, 54, who admits being a Serb paramilitary commander in Croatia in 1991, denies the war crimes allegations and is fighting a Federal Court order that he be extradited to Croatia for questioning.
Mr Bracic told the court today that some time after the bear incident, he and other inmates were transferred to the abandoned Knin hospital.
As well as being continually bashed, the prisoners were also electrocuted and ******ly assaulted, he told court.
He said while the hospital prison was commanded by another man, soldiers and guards acted "with respect" towards Captain Dragan, who was treated like someone " who was giving orders".
Mr Bracic told the court today that shortly after his capture in May 1991, he was brought to a prison at the fortress above his hometown of Knin, where he encountered Snedden, known during the Balkan wars as Captain Dragan.
Mr Bracic said he was brought to a small room where two soldiers asked him for the whereabouts of his friends and beat him when he could not provide an answer.
He said that a man bearing three stars on his camouflage uniform - whom he identified as Snedden in court - then told the soldiers: "If you are beating him, this is how it's done."
"Then he kicked me with his leg in the face," Mr Bracic told the court through an interpreter.
Earlier, Mr Bracic was asked to leave the witness box and stand behind the man he knew as Captain Dragan, after Snedden's lawyer, Clive Evatt, SC, was dissatisfied with Mr Bracic's verbal description and pointing at his client.
Mr Bracic obliged, standing behind Snedden.
Mr Bracic said he and eight other prisoners were kept in a small round stone chamber where they slept on thin, bare chipboard and were forced to urinate inside. They were not allowed to wash and were beaten almost non-stop.
Mr Bracic said that he and other prisoners once complained to Captain Dragan that they could no longer endure the torture.
"He didn't say anything ... the beating became even worse," Mr Bracic said.
Mr Bracic said that two months after his capture, he was released 27 kilograms lighter and with broken ribs, a damaged kidney and a raised sugar level which later developed into diabetes, from which he still suffers.
He was freed during a prisoner exchange organised by Ratko Mladic, now a fugitive accused of war crimes in Bosnia, who was a Serb army commander during the war in Croatia.
"He (Mladic) said that next time when we are captured we are not going to stay alive," Mr Bracic said.
The inmates of the fortress and the hospital prison were never offered medical help and the weaker ones were hidden when the International Red Cross twice came to visit the prisons, Mr Bracic said,
He detailed an incident at the fortress in which a "half-dead" prisoner was thrown into the stone chamber and was later apparently taken away by the guards who said they would call an ambulance.
"However, when they (the guards) came into our premises, they said 'don't even think of getting away because the other one tried to run away and he fell from the cliff," Mr Bracic said.
Questioned by Mr Evatt, Mr Bracic said he had originally given his statement to Croatian state prosecutors some time in 2005 after he met the husband of then Croatian justice minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt. He agreed that the minister's husband had told him that his wife - who was preparing extradition proceedings against Captain Dragan - did not have any evidence or testimony against him.
Mr Bracic then gave a statement to state prosecutors in which he also named five other former prisoners of war.
Snedden, who has been detained in the maximum-security Parklea jail for more than three years, claims an article published by The Australian in September 2005 sensationally portrayed him as someone who authorised and condoned murder, torture and rape.
In, 2007, a jury found that six of 10 defamatory imputations against Snedden had been conveyed.
The Australian will now plead truth to three imputations - that he had admitted committing a massacre and that he was a criminal with underworld links before the Balkan wars.
Justice Megan Latham, who is hearing the defamation case, will effectively rule on the evidence about Snedden's wartime activities before a Croatian court has a chance to do so.
The case continues.
Serb prison guards brought a baby bear into a fortress prison and forced inmates to kiss its backside as a form of punishment, a Croatian man imprisoned during the early 1990s told a Sydney court today.
Velibor Bracic, 41, a former Croatian POW, has travelled from his homeland to give evidence in the NSW Supreme Court in a defamation case brought by Dragan Vasiljkovic, now known as Daniel Snedden, against Nationwide News, publishers of The Australian newspaper.
Snedden, 54, who admits being a Serb paramilitary commander in Croatia in 1991, denies the war crimes allegations and is fighting a Federal Court order that he be extradited to Croatia for questioning.
Mr Bracic told the court today that some time after the bear incident, he and other inmates were transferred to the abandoned Knin hospital.
As well as being continually bashed, the prisoners were also electrocuted and ******ly assaulted, he told court.
He said while the hospital prison was commanded by another man, soldiers and guards acted "with respect" towards Captain Dragan, who was treated like someone " who was giving orders".
Mr Bracic told the court today that shortly after his capture in May 1991, he was brought to a prison at the fortress above his hometown of Knin, where he encountered Snedden, known during the Balkan wars as Captain Dragan.
Mr Bracic said he was brought to a small room where two soldiers asked him for the whereabouts of his friends and beat him when he could not provide an answer.
He said that a man bearing three stars on his camouflage uniform - whom he identified as Snedden in court - then told the soldiers: "If you are beating him, this is how it's done."
"Then he kicked me with his leg in the face," Mr Bracic told the court through an interpreter.
Earlier, Mr Bracic was asked to leave the witness box and stand behind the man he knew as Captain Dragan, after Snedden's lawyer, Clive Evatt, SC, was dissatisfied with Mr Bracic's verbal description and pointing at his client.
Mr Bracic obliged, standing behind Snedden.
Mr Bracic said he and eight other prisoners were kept in a small round stone chamber where they slept on thin, bare chipboard and were forced to urinate inside. They were not allowed to wash and were beaten almost non-stop.
Mr Bracic said that he and other prisoners once complained to Captain Dragan that they could no longer endure the torture.
"He didn't say anything ... the beating became even worse," Mr Bracic said.
Mr Bracic said that two months after his capture, he was released 27 kilograms lighter and with broken ribs, a damaged kidney and a raised sugar level which later developed into diabetes, from which he still suffers.
He was freed during a prisoner exchange organised by Ratko Mladic, now a fugitive accused of war crimes in Bosnia, who was a Serb army commander during the war in Croatia.
"He (Mladic) said that next time when we are captured we are not going to stay alive," Mr Bracic said.
The inmates of the fortress and the hospital prison were never offered medical help and the weaker ones were hidden when the International Red Cross twice came to visit the prisons, Mr Bracic said,
He detailed an incident at the fortress in which a "half-dead" prisoner was thrown into the stone chamber and was later apparently taken away by the guards who said they would call an ambulance.
"However, when they (the guards) came into our premises, they said 'don't even think of getting away because the other one tried to run away and he fell from the cliff," Mr Bracic said.
Questioned by Mr Evatt, Mr Bracic said he had originally given his statement to Croatian state prosecutors some time in 2005 after he met the husband of then Croatian justice minister Vesna Skare-Ozbolt. He agreed that the minister's husband had told him that his wife - who was preparing extradition proceedings against Captain Dragan - did not have any evidence or testimony against him.
Mr Bracic then gave a statement to state prosecutors in which he also named five other former prisoners of war.
Snedden, who has been detained in the maximum-security Parklea jail for more than three years, claims an article published by The Australian in September 2005 sensationally portrayed him as someone who authorised and condoned murder, torture and rape.
In, 2007, a jury found that six of 10 defamatory imputations against Snedden had been conveyed.
The Australian will now plead truth to three imputations - that he had admitted committing a massacre and that he was a criminal with underworld links before the Balkan wars.
Justice Megan Latham, who is hearing the defamation case, will effectively rule on the evidence about Snedden's wartime activities before a Croatian court has a chance to do so.
The case continues.