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Hasanovic, who was 16 years old at the time, told the Court he was captured twice while trying to escape from Srebrenica in July 1995, adding he was taken to Kravica Agricultural Cooperative, where, as alleged by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, about 1,000 men and boys were killed.
“Me and my father left the village on July 11, together with our neighbours. We headed towards Tuzla through the woods. There were about 1,000 of us. Upon our arrival at Kamenicko brdo, they opened fire on us from all directions. I got lost at that location,” Hasanovic said.
After that, he explained, he was captured and escorted to the Cooperative complex in Kravica.
Hasanovic said that he watched people being taken away from the hangar and shot. His schoolmate was wounded in the leg. He never saw him again.
The witness testified at the trial of Dusko Jevic, Mendeljev Djuric, Goran Markovic and Nedjo Ikonic, who are charged, among other counts, with having participated in mass executions in Kravica.
The indictment alleges that Jevic was Commander of the Training Center on Mount Jahorina, Djuric and Ikonic were company commanders with the Center and Markovic was a squad commander.
The witness said that some time after being taken to Kravica he and a few other prisoners were given rifles and they were taken farther on along the road. A short time later Hasanovic was tasked with bringing water to a soldier.
“When I came to the water well, I saw a girl, a 13-year-old girl, who had been slaughtered. Her body was still shaking. I was so scared that I did not know anything at all. I was totally lost. I threw away the bottle and I started running towards the woods,” the witness said, adding that someone opened fire on him while he was running.
He explained that he somehow managed to reach the woods, where he met other Srebrenica residents, both soldiers and civilians. He went to Burnice village with them.
“We stayed in the village until they captured us. They lined us up. I remember them cursing us and saying that all of Serbia had allegedly come because of 500 of us,” Hasanovic said, adding they were then escorted to a meadow where he saw corpses.
As he said, while they were in the meadow, a soldier asked if there were any kids among the prisoners. He told the soldier he was 14 years old. Soldiers then loaded him and two other children onto a bus, which transported them to Bratunac and then to Kalesija.
The Defence attorneys presented the witness with his earlier statements in which he said, among other things, that he did not see any familiar faces in Kravica. In addition, he did not mention the arrests taking place in Burnice in those statements.
The Defence attorneys also said that he told investigators from the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, who took his statement, that he was 14 years old at the time when the crimes were committed.
The witness said he just answered the investigators’ questions, adding he could not remember some parts of his statements.
The trial is due to continue on November 29.
M.T.
