Koricanske stijene: Unpleasant Event

(…) The witnesses who said he was there should be ashamed. I was there for three hours and he was not there. I would have seen him otherwise. I do not know where he was at the time,” Milan Gavrilovic, former Assistant Commander of “Prijedor 1” Police Station, said, answering a question put by Trial Chamber Chairwoman Minka Kreho.

The indictment alleges that Dusan Jankovic, the then Commander of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor, Zoran Babic, Milorad Radakovic, Milorad Skrbic and Zeljko Stojnic, members of the Interventions Squad with the Public Safety Station, participated in escorting a convoy of civilians, consisting of about 1,200 Bosniaks and Croats from Prijedor, who were being transported to Travnik on August 21, 1992.

The Prosecution alleges that the indictees separated about 200 men from the rest of the convoy on Mount Vlasic, took them to Koricanske stijene and shot them.

“At the departure point the convoy was guarded by police and members of the Interventions Squad. A police vehicle that belonged to the Traffic Section was there. K2 and Vladimir Sobot were in the vehicle. (…) We all helped load the civilians. The police vehicle was in front of the convoy when it departed. Miroslav Paras entered the vehicle prior to departure,” Gavrilovic said, adding that he found out what happened to the convoy two days later in a meeting held at the Police Station.

As previously stated by witnesses, Miroslav Paras, who has since died, was the Commander of the Interventions Squad with the Public Safety Station in Prijedor.

“Chief Cadjo came back from a meeting held in Banja Luka. He said he was obliged to inform us about the unpleasant event.(…) As far as I can remember, we adopted a conclusion to dismiss the Squad and Simo Drljaca,” Gavrilovic said, adding that Dusan Jankovic attended the meeting, because he was “interested in being there and he normally sat in that office anyway”.

Milutin Cadjo, former Chief of “Prijedor 1” Police Station, previously testified for the Defence of the fourth indictee at this trial. Simo Drljaca, former Chief of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor, was charged, before the Hague Tribunal, with crimes committed in Prijedor, but was killed during the course of his arrest in 1997.

The next hearing is due to take place on May 11, 2010.