Koricanske stijene: Life-saving Jump

Prosecution witness Husein Jakupovic was one of the civilians, who survived the shooting at Koricanske stijene on August 21, 1992 by jumping from a cliff when the shooting started.  

“The Serb soldiers ordered us to get off the buses and stand by the cliff in pairs. Later on they ordered us to kneel by the edge of the abyss. We knelt for a couple of minutes before they started shooting. People started falling down. I jumped down from the cliff,” Jakupovic recalled.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina 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 Emergency Interventions Police Squad, with participation in the shooting of about 200 civilians at  Koricanske stijene on August 21, 1992.

“I felt someone hitting me, but I did not see who it was. I was stuck in that cliff. This happened at about four thirty in the afternoon. I stayed there the following night, while people were falling down in front of me. I could hear that there were more survivors. The Serb soldiers, most of whom were dressed in camouflage uniforms, threw bombs down there and shot from the edge of the abyss,” the witness said.

Using his belt, the witness managed to climb down the cliff and reach some bushes. He claims to have seen “naked bodies”, who, he thought, had been killed earlier, because “no people from our group were forced to take their clothes off”.

“I moved from the bushes to the water. I stood beneath a rock. Then I heard some Serb soldiers saying that one or two men were missing. I supposed they counted us. The following morning Serb soldiers came again and approached the bodies. They piled them up. I saw smoke and sensed smell,” the witness said. 

He said that, after the soldiers had left, he moved through the woods. He walked for a couple of days before being captured by two Serb soldiers, who took him to “the Command”. 

“I said my name was Mladen Bogdanovic. A captain came, but I do not know his name. He ordered the two soldiers to leave the room. I told him what my real name was, but I did not say that I had survived the shooting. I think they would have killed me had I told them the truth,” the witness said. 

After that they handed Jakupovic over to some soldiers, who provoked him. They took him to “a house on Mount Vlasic”, in which, as he said, he was beaten up. One day later he was taken to Banja Luka, where he was detained in “the police premises”. He stayed there for two and a half months before being released.  

Jakupovic was captured in Kevljani village, in Prijedor Municipality, on May 24, 1992. Prior to joining the convoy, he was held in Omarska and Keraterm detention camps.

Jakupovic has not returned home since the war. He lives in Norway. 

The second Prosecution witness, Borislav Herceg, also joined the same convoy, but he was not among the men who were singled out for shooting. He said that members of the Emergency Interventions Squad were among the convoy escorts.

“There were armed civilians, reserve policemen and soldiers, dressed in camouflage uniforms, in that Squad,” Herceg said.

The witness recalled that the civilians were robbed when the convoy stopped at some stage. Herceg left the convoy at Vlasicki plato, another stopping-place. He then walked to Travnik from there. 

The trial is due to continue on June 23.