Koricanske stijene: Another Indictment

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has confirmed the indictment against Sasa Zecevic and Radoslav Knezevic charging them with crimes against humanity committed at Koricanske stijene, Mount Vlasic.

According to the indictment, Zecevic and Knezevic, as members of the intervention squad of the Republika Srpska police in Prijedor, on August 21 1992 participated in the murder of more then 200 civilians who had been taken from a convoy of buses traveling from Prijedor to Travnik.

“Men who were separated from the others in the convoy were forced to enter two buses. After that, they were taken out and ordered to approach an abyss by the road, to get down on their knees and then shooting started,” the indictment reads.

The bodies of those who were killed began falling into the abyss, and some of the men jumped down in order to avoid being shot. After that, police members, according to the Prosecution, took the rest of the men from the buses, took them to the same place and started shooting again.

Around 200 men were killed on that day at Koricanske stijene. Until today, the remains of just four have been found. Twelve people survived the shootings.

For the same crime, the State Prosecution has charged seven former police members from Prijedor; their trial is ongoing. Damir Ivankovic was charged with this group, but subsequently admitted guilt and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Part of the plea bargain Ivankovic agreed with the Prosecution included testifying against other indictees for the same crime. In his testimony Ivankovic mentioned Sasa Zecevic, who was arrested as a consequence of this, on July 3, in Prijedor. He has been in detention since then.

Gordan Djuric also sought to agree a plea bargain with the Prosecution, but this was rejected by the Court. Djuric, who also testified as part of his proposed plea bargain, mentioned Zecevic and Knezevic saying that Knezevic was together with him accompanying one of the buses.

Knezevic is currently in prison in Banja Luka serving 10 years for war crimes commited in 1994 in Prijedor. Until 2003, he was a serving police officer.

Zecevic too was a police officer; he was arrested at the police station in Prijedor.