A Bosnian man testified Wednesday the first thought that ran through his mind while his captor was allegedly forcing his neck toward a blade was that he would never see his 2-year-old daughter again.
“That was hurting me more than any of the beatings,” Emir Pehlic, 53, said.
After living decades in East Ridge under an assumed name, Sead Miljkovic’s trial on two counts of torture during the Bosnian War continued Wednesday in Chattanooga federal court. He is accused of inflicting physical and mental pain on two men under his control, Pehlic and Ibro Nuhanovic, while he was a prison guard from 1994 to 1995 during the Bosnian War.
The country of Bosnia declared independence in March 1992 from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Shortly after, a war broke out. A group of Bosnian Muslims opposed their central government and established their own self-proclaimed government group, the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia.
While many of the that nation’s residents didn’t have strong feelings one way or another, Bosnians were forced to take arms against their own family members, friends and neighbors to defend either side, historian Dorothea Hanson testified.
“It was very complicated,” she said.
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The headquarters of the self-proclaimed province was Velika Kladusa, which was Miljkovic’s hometown.
Miljkovic became part of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia’s army, according to trial testimony. He was eventually stationed as a guard at a reconstructed castle, Stari Grad or Old Fort, that overlooked his hometown.
Pehlic and Miljkovic were born in the same city and went to school together, but they fought for opposing sides, Pehlic said.
He was captured March 18, 1995, while defending the central government and became a prisoner of war for about five months, Pehlic testified.
During that time, Pehlic was allegedly brought to Old Fort on numerous occasions to perform forced labor.
He said he recognized Miljkovic when he first arrived. It was a small area and most people knew each other, Pehlic said.
“The first moment when I saw him, when we met each other, I felt relief because I thought he was going to help me,” he said. “But very soon, I realized I was deceiving myself because the blackest thoughts came to be true.”
Pehlic recounted two occasions in which he was allegedly beaten to the point that blackish, bloody bruises covered his body.
He leaned over a chair in the courtroom to show jurors how he was allegedly positioned while guards beat his buttocks and legs with a baton and metal pipe.
While he was in that position, one of the guards allegedly propped up a bayonet against the chair with the tip of the knife under his chin.
“At one point, I realize someone was pushing my head down on the tip of the blade,” Pehlic said.
He said he realized that someone was Miljkovic. He began to choke up when he spoke about the fear of never returning home, which he said he felt in that moment.
Pehlic made several official statements over the years about his experiences as a prisoner of war, and defense attorney Bryan Hoss questioned him repeatedly about why all of those statements differed.
He allegedly accused a different man of a war crime in 2015 and then recanted his statement, according to Hoss. He also made a statement under oath a couple years ago and never mentioned the alleged bayonet incident involving Miljkovic.
Some things that happen in life get forgotten, but trauma brings those memories to the surface over time, Pehlic said.
Pehlic said he testified in several criminal cases about the war in Bosnia, and some of them resulted in convictions.
He said while he did state under oath on two occasions he wanted compensation for his experiences, he never actually sought money in civil disputes.
“For me, it would be dirty money,” he said. “You cannot pay for what I went through. That would eat at me my whole life.”
The trial is expected to resume Thursday morning with the testimony of the second alleged victim, Nuhanovic.
Contact Sofia Saric at ssaric@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.