This post is also available in: Bosnian
Mirko ‘Banana’ Todorovic denied having participated in the shooting of Bosniaks in Borkovac village, Bratunac municipality, as charged by the State Prosecution.
The indictment alleges that he and Milos Radic participated in the detention, abuse and shooting of a group of Bosniak civilians in Borkovac village on May 20, 1992.
He appeared as a Defence witness during the presentation of additional evidence by the Defence.
Prosecution witnesses, who survived this crime, claimed that Todorovic found them while they were hiding in the vicinity of Borkovac.
“I wish it was me who found them,” Todorovic said, adding that five uniformed soldiers, who had caps on their heads, waylaid him and ordered him to come with them on May 20, 1992.
Todorovic said that, upon their arrival to Borkovac, the soldiers, who he called “Volunteers”, said that Bosniaks were hiding in one house in the village and they intended to “take them to the headquarters.”
I went down to the main road and left home. The day after, in the early evening, I heard who was hiding in that house and I heard that those people were killed. I could not believe it. My wife and I cried. Those were my neighbours. They were all decent people,” Todorovic said.
The Prosecution examined additional witness Bajro Kulovac, an investigator with the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), who had examined Ljubisa Todorovic, a Prosecution witness invited to testify at the trial. Todorovic’s examination was cancelled, because his statement given to the SIPA and the one given in the courtroom on that day were totally different.
At the time, Todorovic claimed to have given his statement “under pressure and threats” as the investigator told him he would “put him in a jail in Sarajevo”.
Bajro Kulovac said that, prior to Todorovic’s examination, he informed him what his rights and obligations were, as a witness. He also said that he was “extremely cooperative.” He also stressed that he did not make any suggestions or promises to the witness and he did not threaten him. Following the completion of the examination, the witness read his statement and signed it with no objections.
As proposed by the Trial Chamber, Ljubisa Todorovic was invited to come to the courtroom in order to face Kulovac.
“You started yelling at me and you told me you would take me to Sarajevo. I was totally freaked out by the way you disconcerted me,” Todorovic said, adding that the statement, which the investigator had read to him, “did not fully reflect what I had said.”
On the other hand, Kulovac said that he had never told anything like that to anybody. He also said that there was no way he could have known so many details which were mentioned in the statement, without the witness giving them to him.
At the next hearing, scheduled for April 21, second indictee Milos Radic will be examined. After that, the Prosecution is due to present its closing arguments.
