The war crimes trial of three men accused of abusing non-Serb citizens in prison camps during the Bosnian War opened on September 5 in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The three defendants -- Slavko Puhalic, Dragan Skrbic, and Rajko Damjanovic -- face sweeping war crimes charges, including the rape of at least 10 women and girls. One of the women died, and the rapes resulted in forced pregnancy and childbirth for two of the victims.
At least 21 prisoners died as a result of the abuse suffered at prison camps in Prijedor, where more than 30,000 non-Serbs were illegally detained in three camps established in 1992 by civil and military authorities of Republika Srpska. The bodies of five of the people who died have never been found.
The victims were tortured, raped, and killed in the camps, and the accused contributed to these crimes, the Prosecutor-General’s Office of Bosnia said in announcing the indictment in December of Puhalic, Skribic, and Damjanovic. All three pleaded not guilty. They face many years in prison if convicted.
Puhalic was an assistant to the commander of one of the camps. He and the other two defendants are accused of participating in a joint criminal enterprise during the attack on the civilian population of Bosniaks and Croats in and around Prijedor.
The Prosecutor-General’s Office in the indictment said it has statements from 180 witnesses, including three experts, and has submitted more than 900 pieces of evidence.
Puhalic was one of the defense witnesses at the trials in The Hague of Ratko Mladic, the wartime Bosnian Serb commander, and Radovan Karadzic, the wartime president of Republika Srpska.
Mladic is serving a life sentence after being convicted of commanding forces responsible for crimes, including the deadly three-year siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.
Karadzic was found guilty of similar charges, including genocide, and is also serving a life sentence.
During his testimony in Mladic trial, Puhalic claimed that non-Serb civilians came to the camp in Prijedor on their own searching for protection from out-of-control Serbian units. He said they were allowed to leave at their own will, which numerous surviving witnesses denied during the trial.