Koricanske stijene: Unfulfilled Task

Zoran Babic, a policeman from Celinac, said that the Public Safety Center in Banja Luka, with which he was associated, was tasked with conducting a crime scene inspection at Koricanske stijene, adding that this was never carried out.

Babic said he did not know why the inspection was never done, though he said that “engineering chief Branko Buhovac was the one who ordered us not to do anything about it”.  

“Prior to our arrival at Koricanske stjene, about a kilometer along the road, I saw some clothes scattered around. I sensed a characteristic smell or, rather, stink. I wanted to see what had happened. I had never seen anything like that in my life. There were two piles of bodies. There were also some bodies in the vicinity of the little stream,” the Prosecution witness recalled.  

The State Prosecution charges Damir Ivankovic, Zoran Babic, Gordan Djuric, Milorad Radakovic, Milorad Skrbic, Ljubisa Cetic, Dusan Jankovic and Zeljko Stojnic, former members of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor and the Emergency Interventions Police Squad, with having killed about 200 civilians at Koricanske stijene on August 21, 1992.

The indictment alleges that 12 people survived, but only four bodies have been found until now.

Witness Babic was not able to confirm how many bodies he saw at Koricanske stijene, but he explained that, prior to going to the field, the Police Chief from Banja Luka told them that there were about 200 killed people. 

“When I first arrived to Koricanske stijene, I was supposed to identify the bodies. I do not know when exactly this happened. Three colleagues of mine went down from a plateau to get to the bodies. One of them filmed it, but I have never seen the recording,” the witness said, explaining that they did not do anything at that time, but they returned to a motel in Knezevo, where they stayed overnight.

The witness said that the following morning they were told that the Civil Protection Unit would come in order to help them move and identify the bodies. He said that they did not do anything that day because they were ordered to go back.  

The second Prosecution witness, Drago Slavinic, former commander of the Koricanska Squad of the Bosnian Serb Army, said that he spoke to one of the survivors of the Koricanske stijene crime.

“When Koricanske stijene happened I was in the Babanovac region. I joined my unit only in the evening hours. Petar Slavinic informed me that an unknown person had been captured, so I asked him to keep the person there for security reasons,” the witness said.

Slavinic said that he met the person the following day, but he could not remember his name.   

“He told me that there was a convoy of civilians moving from Banja Luka. Men were separated from the others on a bridge over the Novska river. We came to Koricanske stijene. It all happened there. I jumped from the cliff and survived. I waited for the night to come before leaving the place. I followed the river. I came to Mile Jokanovic’s house in Tuk hamlet. I had coffee with him. I had something to eat, and
he then brought me here,” Slavinic said, recounting his conversation with the survivor.   

When asked by the Trial Chamber how he understood the survivor’s statement that “it all happened there”, the witness responded by saying that he understood that the man was talking about the murder.  

Slavinic said that he did not know how many people were killed at Koricanske stijene, adding that he never visited the location and people spoke about it only reluctantly.

The trial is due to continue on April 14.