INDICTMENT ISSUED FOR WAR CRIMES IN TRAVNIK AND SKENDER VAKUF/KNEŽEVO AREAS

A prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued an Indictment against the following persons: 

• BOŠKO PEULIĆ, born in 1947 in the municipality of Prnjavor, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Serbia,
• PETAR ĐURIĆ, aka "Keruša", born in 1954 in the municipality of Kneževo, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
• DAVOR PEULIĆ, born in 1970 in Ljubljana, in the Republic of Slovenia, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

These accused persons are charged with acting contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of the Prisoners of War and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in the period from the beginning of May until the end of October 1992, during the war and armed conflict, while the accused Boško Peulić was in his capacity of a Commander of the Krajina Corps and Petar Đurić was a commander of the Military Police Unit of the Republika Srpska Army and Davor Peulić was a commander of the communications centre of the Republika Srpska Army.  

According to the allegations in the Indictment, the accused Boško Peulić is charged with having knowledge about the crime committed by his subordinates, namely about the murder of thirteen (13) prisoners of war - members of the Travnik HVO, on the Galica plateau on the Mount Vlašić in the Travnik municipality, on 15 May 1992, and with failing to take necessary and reasonable measures, as a superior and a person responsible for the safety of those civilians and prisoners of war, to prevent the killings and inhumane treatment and punish the perpetrators of those killings subordinated to him.

They are accused, as army commanders, of participating jointly in the illegal imprisonment and inhumane treatment of civilians and prisoners of war detained in an improvised prison in the basement of the Post Office in Skender Vakuf, keeping them in inhumane conditions there. They tortured, abused and beat those imprisoned persons and inflicted physical and psychological injuries on them, and also tortured them in extremely humiliating ways, all of which resulted in permanent and severe physical and psychological injuries in a large number of the imprisoned persons.

These accused persons are charged with the commission of the criminal offence of War Crime against Prisoners of War, referred to in Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in conjunction with the criminal offence of War Crime against the Civilian Population, referred to in Article 142 of the same Code.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina will prove the allegations in the indictment by calling 67 witnesses and submitting around 186 pieces of evidence.

The Indictment has been forwarded to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for confirmation.