Koricanske stijene: Shooting of Civilians Followed by Celebration

At the trial of five indictees charged with the murder of Prijedor residents at Koricanske stijene, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina read a witness statement which said that members of the Interventions Squad “had a celebration after shooting civilians”.

In his statement given to the State Prosecution in 2008, protected witness K2, who has since died, said that he escorted a convoy of civilians from Prijedor to Travnik, driving in an official vehicle together with his colleague Vladimir Sobot and Miroslav Paras, on August 21, 1992.

K2 was a traffic policeman from Prijedor at the time.

He testified in the statement that he “heard fierce shooting” when the convoy stopped on Mount Vlasic.

“I thought we had been attacked. At that moment I saw Dado Mrdja laughing and telling me to look towards the cliff. I saw blood everywhere and I started vomiting. Sobot told me that we should go back in the car. Paras followed us. He did not say a word.

“We went to a coffee shop in Skender Vakuf, where we saw about 12 members of the Interventions Squad. They were noisy and merry. They ordered drinks, as each of them had a lot of money,” witness K2 said in his statement.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has charged Sasa Zecevic, Radoslav Knezevic, Petar Civcic, Branko Topola and Marinko Ljepoja with having escorted a convoy of more than 1,200 civilians from Prijedor to Travnik on August 21, 1992.

They allegedly participated in the separation of about 200 men from the rest of convoy passengers and then shot them at Koricanske stijene. The indictment alleges that the civilians were robbed before being killed.

As alleged in the indictment, Zecevic, Knezevic, Civcic and Ljepoja were members of the Interventions Squad with the Public Safety Station in Prijedor and Topola was a guard in Trnopolje detention camp at the time.

Miroslav Paras, former Commander of the Interventions Squad, has since died, while Darko Mrdja, former member of the Squad, was sentenced before the Hague Tribunal to 17 years in prison.

In addition to protected witness K2’s statement, the Prosecution also presented a photo album containing photographs of Interventions Squad members, whom the witness had recognised when he gave the statement.

The trial is due to continue on November 18, when the Prosecution will continue presenting evidence.

                                                                                                                                  A.S.