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Testifying before the War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo, Amir Topalovic said that indictee Momir Savic tried to protect Bosniaks in the Visegrad area in 1992.
The witness said that he lived in Sarajevo in the course of the war, adding that his father told him “later on” that Savic was “commander of the army in Drinsko” in the spring of 1992.
“Bosniaks gathered in Drinsko in late May 1992. Momir told them that he could no longer make any decisions in Drinsko, as the paramilitary groups had taken control. He suggested to the people who had gathered there to escape, telling them not to go to Visegrad but via Sip. He told them that the situation in Visegrad was chaotic,” the witness added, explaining that his father had told him all this prior to his death in 1995.
The State Prosecution charges Momir Savic, as a member of a paramilitary group and then as commander of the Third Squad with the Visegrad Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, (VRS), with having participated, together with several other Serb soldiers, in the interrogation, beating and murder of Bosniak civilians in Drinsko village on May 23, 1992. Topalovic told the Court that he had known Savic since they were boys.
He said that he “spoke to him over the phone several times” in the spring of 1992 and asked him to protect his parents.
“Momir and I knew each other. I asked him to take care of my parents. He told me not to worry. Later on my father told me that Momir had visited him a few times to see if he needed anything,” Topalovic said.
The witness said that his parents escaped to Visoko on June 26, 1992, after having been called by “Zoran Tesevic, known as Leka”, who told them that they had to leave Drinsko, because “nothing could be done for them any more”.
“Prior to this my father saw some paramilitary soldiers dressed in camouflage uniforms setting fire to the houses of two members of the Guso family. However, Momir told my father that he could not give them any orders,” Topalovic said.
The witness told the Court that some Drinsko village residents “provoked” his father after the war, because they considered him “a betrayer, who cooperated with Momir Savic”.
The trial is due to continue on January 22, 2009.
