Witnesses’ Statements Differ

By: Erna Mackic, Sarajevo

Following the examination of 21 Prosecution and Defence witnesses, the evidence presentation process at the trial of Ranko and Rajko Vukovic has been completed.

The brothers are charged with crimes against humanity committed in Podkolun and Miljevina area, Foca municipality, in 1992.

Both parties are due to present their closing arguments on January 30. A first instance verdict will be pronounced not later than three days later.

The Prosecution of BiH has tried to prove, by examining eight witnesses and presenting its material evidence, that Ranko and Rajko Vukovic, as former members of the Serbian Republic of BiH Army, took part in the murder of Avdija Hukara and Mejra Bekrija in Podkolun village in May 1992.

In addition, the Prosecution charges Ranko Vukovic with the rape of a woman in Miljevina village in July 1992.

The Prosecution altered the indictment towards the end of the trial. The Defence considered these to be minor changes and therefore did not have any objections.

The most important alteration concerned the factual description of the crime in the second count in the indictment, which charged Ranko Vukovic with having committed rape.

The original indictment alleged that the indictee “noticed the witness collecting laundry in front of the building in which she lived, used the opportunity and followed her into her apartment” and then raped her. The altered indictment alleges that the indictee came to her apartment, “entered through the unlocked door”, met her inside the apartment and raped her.

In early November, when the main trial got underway, the two indictees told the Trial Chamber that they were not guilty and said that the indictment contained “lies and false allegations”. They repeated the same statements when they were invited to testify as Defence witnesses at the end of the evidence presentation process.

Bajro Hukara was examined as a key Prosecution witness. He claims to have seen four soldiers, including Ranko and Rajko Vukovic, entering Podkolun village. He considers them responsible for his father’s death.

Bajro Hukara told the Court that he had found his father’s body, wrapped it in a blanket and put it in a coffin he had made himself.

With his wife’s help, he then buried his father near their house. He said they did not have time to bury his aunt Mejra, whose body they found “as the soldiers came to the village again”. Instead, they “took the body to her house and left it inside”.

Bajro’s wife Zahida said she could not help her husband bury Mejra after seeing her father-in-law dead. “I simply did not have the strength,” Zahida said, adding that she recognised Rajko Vukovic among the soldiers who came to the village.

Munib Bekrija, son of killed Mejra, testified as a Prosecution witness. He confirmed he had found her in her house and buried her in their backyard. Munib said he had not seen what had happened to his mother, but that his neighbours had told him about the soldiers who had come to the village.

Pasana Sejfic was one of the 13 Defence witnesses who appeared at the trial. She said she was in the village together with Zahida Hukara in May 1992, when they saw four soldiers.

“One of them pointed his gun at us and another soldier waved at us and gestured that we should run away. I ran to the forest together with Zahida and climbed up a tree. She stayed with me for a short time and then ran away,” Sejfic said, adding that, upon her return to the village, she was told that her neighbours Avdija Hukara and Mejra Bekrija had been killed.

“Bajro Hukara told me he watched Ranko Vukovic killing Mejra, but I do not believe it as I did not see it,” the witness said.

The Defence also examined spouses Miladin and Cvijeta Stanic, who claimed to have watched the Serbian army passing through their village of Utolovici on its way to Podkolun and to have “heard a few shots” coming from there.

Miladin Stanic claims that “the Vukovic brothers were not” among the soldiers. “I am a hundred percent sure they were not there. I would be ready to give my life to prove it,” Stanic said.

Speaking of Bajro Hukara, the married couple said that he “tried to find out who had killed his father in autumn 2006” and again “last year”.

The Stanic couple said they recognised Slavko Todorovic, who died before the proceedings got underway, and Dragisa Milutinovic, who was examined as a Prosecution witness together with Slavko Todorovic’s father Nedjo, among the soldiers.

Todorovic and Milutinovic told the Trial Chamber that a member of the Hukara family called them prior to the trial and asked them to change their statements.

“I was supposed to say that my son Slavko did not come to Podkolun in early 1992,” said Nedjo Todorovic, who could not say if the phone call was made by Redzo or Bajro Hukara.

Witness Milutinovic thinks that he received a phone call from “Redzo Hukara”, but “I did not want to listen to him”. In the course of the direct examination, Milutinovic refused to answer some questions, such as those relating to whether he had been in Podkolun as member of the former army. He said he “did not know” the Stanic couple at all and he thought they did not know him.

Nedjo Todorovic was not able to confirmed if his “son went to the village”.

A key Prosecution witness for the second count in the indictment testified under the pseudonym of A and under protection measures. During the examination, she claimed that Ranko Vukovic had raped her in her apartment in Miljevina.

“I knew him as his cousin lived in the same building in which I lived.

He passed by our building on his way to a coffee shop, where he worked as waiter,” said the witness, adding that, after being raped by Ranko, she was also raped by other men several times.

Witness A said that she was in the kitchen when Ranko came. Her children were in another room. “He ordered me to take my clothes off, which I did. He had sex with me and he said I must not tell anyone,” the witness said, adding that Ranko “did not beat or insult” her.

The Defence tried to dispute the credibility of this witness by pointing to discrepancies between her earlier statements and her testimony during the trial.

Attorney Veljko Civsa claimed that witness A had not mentioned Ranko in her earlier statements. After the statements were shown to her, witness A was silent for quite a while and then she started crying.

Civsa went on by showing a newspaper article citing her full name and her statement concerning the rape and Miljevina. In that article she did not mention Ranko’s name at all. The witness said she did not mention him due to “threats”.

Ranko Vukovic, who claimed he did not know the witness, alleged that she was lying.

Witness A said that Neda Stankovic and Lucijana Govedarica, her “neighbours, with whom she had good relations,” knew what had happened. The two women appeared as Defence witnesses, and denied knowing what had happened to witness A in 1992.

“I do not think that anyone broke into the apartments owned by Muslims in Miljevina. This did not happen,” Lucijana Govedarica said.

The Court of BiH confirmed the indictment against the Vukovic brothers on September 3, 2007. Rajko has been held in custody since July 11 and Ranko since June 23 last year.

The custody of Rajko Vukovic was temporarily terminated before the trial got underway, and certain restrictive measures were introduced against him. However, he was re-arrested shortly after.

“There are circumstances which indicate that the indictee might interfere with the proceedings by influencing witnesses and accomplices should he remain at large,” the Court explained its decision.

Ranko Vukovic (born 1969) completed secondary school. He is a father of two. Rajko Vukovic (1972) also completed secondary education, and has three children.