Savic and Mucibabic: Long days of uncertainty

Ahmo Musanovic, who appeared as a Prosecution witness at the trial of Krsto Savic and Milko Mucibabic, said that, on May 4, 1992, “after the villages near Foca had been burnt down”, he was captured, just like 280 of his neighbours, in Jazici village, in Kalinovik municipality.

“We wanted to go to Sarajevo, via Kalinovik. However, soldiers, policemen and civilians surrounded us in Jazici. They started separating men from women. They took us all to the school building. Policemen then took groups if five to six prisoners to the police station for examination,” Musanovic recalled.
 
The State Prosecution charges Savic and Mucibabic with having participated in the crimes in the Gacko, Bileca, Nevesinje and Kalinovik municipalities. At that time Savic was commander of the Safety Services Centre in Trebinje and Mucibabic was a policeman in Nevesinje.
 
The witness said that about 50 men, including his brother, were then “loaded onto a truck” and driven to Bileca.
 
“I have never seen any of those people again. My brother was in Bileca. He was then returned to Kalinovik, taken to the Correctional Facility and then to Vlakovo (graveyard). Their bodies were found in Miljevina,” the witness said.
 
Musanovic claims to have “remained” in Kalinovik in order to “perform civil duty”, adding that he stayed there until May 26, 1992, when he escaped. Those days were “like years of uncertainty” to him.
 
The indictment alleges that, from June 1992 to March 1993 members of the Public Safety Station in Kalinovik, which was under the jurisdiction of the Safety Services Centre in Trebinje, participated in the persecution of Bosniak civilians from several municipalities, including Foca. 
 
The indictment alleges that, in early May 1992 members of the police station in Kalinovik surrounded and captured about 280 civilians from Foca municipality in Jazici village and took them to “Miladin Radojevic” school building. The Prosecution considers that about 50 men were taken to a detention camp in Bileca, and then to the Correctional Facility in Foca, in which most of them were killed or disappeared.
 
Second Prosecution witness Asim Zametica was among the people who were taken from the school building to Bileca.
 
“A truck came and they loaded us on it. In the early evening hours we arrived in Bileca. We stayed there for the entire month of May. Then we were transferred, by a bus, back to the school in Kalinovik. On June 1, 1992 two reserve policemen escorted us to the Correctional Facility in Foca. There were more than 40 of us. Twelve of us have survived. All others were killed,” the witness said, adding that he stayed in Foca for five months.
 
The trial is due to continue on October 8, when three new Prosecution witnesses will be examined.