The acquittal of Juro Čalušić for crimes committed against the Serb population in the Odžak municipality represents a continuation of the humiliation and suffering endured by Serbs who were detained in wartime camps in the area and serves to whitewash the actions of HVO members against prisoners, according to the Odžak ’92 Association of Former Camp Detainees.
“This is yet another disgraceful decision by the court and prosecutor’s office in Odžak and Orašje. HVO members are being cleared of responsibility through acquittals. This is the fifth acquittal issued by the Cantonal Court in Odžak,” the association stated.
Former Serb detainees recalled that Čalušić served in the Military Police of the HVO’s 102nd Brigade and allegedly abused Serbs from Gornji Svilaj who had remained in their homes during the conflict.
“He arrested those Serbs and beat them in the village. They were later imprisoned in the Strolit factory camp. He committed acts of rape in the camp. He also came to the primary school camp, where detainee Nedeljko Bumbić was taken away and later killed,” the association said.
The association noted that Bumbić’s remains were found on July 12 in the centre of Novi Grad as HVO forces were retreating before the Army of Republika Srpska, which liberated the village.
“With the acquittal of Čalušić, the shameful humiliation of Serbs from the Odžak area continues. We have repeatedly warned about the damaging division of jurisdiction between courts and prosecutor’s offices dealing with war crimes in Odžak and Orašje,” the association stated.
The group questioned why cases involving crimes against Serbs in Posavina, particularly in Odžak, were assigned to the cantonal court and prosecutor’s office in Odžak and Orašje instead of Doboj, even though the former Doboj Public Security Centre conducted the original investigations.
The Cantonal Court in Odžak acquitted Čalušić in a first-instance verdict on charges of war crimes against civilians allegedly committed in Odžak in 1992.
He was cleared of allegations that, as an HVO military policeman, he threatened and beat four Serb civilians in front of the local community centre in Gornji Svilaj on May 12, 1992.
The court also acquitted him of charges that, during the second half of May 1992, he repeatedly assaulted a Serb detainee in the former Strolit factory in Odžak, where Serb civilians were unlawfully imprisoned, allegedly beating the victim with his hands, a rifle butt and his feet.
Numerous witnesses who survived wartime abuse testified about the mistreatment of Serb civilians, and statements were previously provided to members of the then Doboj Public Security Centre. One witness, in a statement dated April 28, 1994, identified Čalušić as one of the guards who beat Serb detainees being transported for prisoner exchanges.
The witness described events that occurred around July 4, recalling that almost all detainees were brutally beaten by “a large group of Ustashas summoned by the exchange escorts,” who allowed the abuse to continue without interference.
“On the same day, between 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., after we left Đakovo, the buses stopped in a forest where we were again taken off the buses and beaten by the guards escorting us. I knew Juro Čalušić, known as ‘Vauga’, a man called ‘Hamo’ from Odžak, and several other guards whose names I cannot remember,” the witness stated.
Čalušić was one of 21 HVO members against whom the Doboj Security Services Centre filed criminal charges with the Military Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina on September 14, 1992, on suspicion of committing war crimes against civilians.
According to the criminal complaint, from May to August 1992 they participated as members of the HVO 102nd Brigade in military operations against the armed forces of Republika Srpska in the Odžak municipality.
The complaint further stated that all suspects were members of a special HVO unit known as the “Fiery Horses”, which allegedly committed war crimes against civilians and destroyed civilian and religious buildings.
“The accused primarily participated in the gang rape of Serb women, accompanied by severe physical abuse, mistreatment and other forms of violence,” the criminal complaint stated, listing the names of alleged victims.
According to the complaint, members of the “Fiery Horses” unit also regularly visited detention camps in Odžak and Bosanski Brod during May, June and July 1992, where Serb civilians were being held.
During those visits, they allegedly beat detainees continuously and subjected them to brutal physical abuse. Eight Serb prisoners reportedly died as a result of the torture and mistreatment.
The complaint further alleged that they burned several houses in Svilaj, Donja Dubica, Novi Grad and Trnjani, all owned by Serb residents.
One cited example stated that in June 1992 they locked 16 people, mostly women and children, inside the home of Višnja Đaković and set it on fire. The occupants escaped through a window.
In another incident in Vrbovački Lipik near Odžak, they allegedly tied up a Serb married couple suspected of possessing weapons, surrounded them with straw and set it on fire in an attempt to force a confession.
When the flames reached the bound couple, they were allowed to move away from the fire. Afterwards, the husband was beaten and his wife was allegedly raped.
The complaint also stated that members of the “Fiery Horses” unit, including Čalušić, set fire to a church in Gnionica near Odžak in June 1992.
In explaining the acquittal, the trial chamber stated that the factual description contained in the indictment was based primarily on statements from the injured parties, but that their testimony was not supported by other evidence, eyewitnesses or corroborating facts.
“There was no precise and unequivocal direct identification of the accused as the perpetrator of the acts in question,” the court stated in its reasoning.
The verdict is not final and may be appealed before the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Source: RTRS
