Veselinovic: Behaving Arrogantly

Mehmedalija Nizic, who appeared as a Prosecution witness at the trial for crimescommitted in Hadzici, said that indictee Rade Veselinovic “acted in an arrogantmanner, when he came to Binjezevo village, together with a group of soldiers,looking for weapons in May 1992”.

“Rade wanted to shoot at me when I had to pass by the fence in order to enter my brother’s courtyard. My brother told him not to shoot at me, because this was the only way to his house,” Nizic said, adding that Veselinovic “distributed the soldiers, who searched the houses and tore open the doors”.

Among other things, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Rade Veselinovic, as a member of the Military Police Squad with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, with having participated in the capture, murder, detention and forcible disappearance of people from the Hadzici area from May to the end of 1992.

Nizic told the Court that some Serbian soldiers wounded him in both legs and his left arm in mid June 1992. He received medical assistance at a clinic. Later, he was released home, where he dressed his own wounds, hiding from Serb soldiers.

The witness said that, prior to being wounded, he saw his two brothers being arrested and some soldiers shooting them. The brothers “lost a lot of blood. They were left in a minivan, which drove the captured people to the sports hall in Hadzici”.

The witness said that he had not heard any new pieces of information about them since then.”I did not go for an exchange, as I was scared of what they might do to me. I crossed to the other side through the woods. My family members had left earlier, because a minivan drove children, women and sick people from Binjezevo prior to the attack conducted on May 9, 1992,” the witness said.

Refadija Hajdarevic from Binjezevo village testified as the second Prosecution witness. She said that she had left for “a friend’s apartment” in Donji Hadzici after the shelling had begun and people in her village had started to be taken away.

“I came back to Binjezevo a few times to take some food, as we had nothing to eat. A little later I returned home for good. I saw Veselinovic when he came to my house in a truck. He had a hat, military uniform and cross-like pendant,” the witness said.

Upon her return to the village, she was arrested, just like all other civilians.The witness claims to have seen the indictee in the sports hall in Hadzici several times, but she could not confirm when exactly this happened.

“I know that I was detained in the sports hall for about 21 days. I was exchanged in Kobiljaca on December 2, 1992,” the witness said.The public was excluded from one part of her testimony, for “her personal protection”.

The trial is due to continue on January 28.