Koricanske stijene: Saved by Ride in White Cargo Truck

Sefik Santa said he left Trnopolje detention camp, in which he was held for 75 days, on August 20, 1992, adding he joined a convoy which departed from Tukovi, Prijedor municipality, towards Vlasic on the following day.

“My sister told me that the ‘Prijedor’ radio station announced the departure of a convoy from Tukovi. 1,500 people gathered in Tukovi on August 21. They got on buses and cargo trucks. A soldier was saying that men capable of serving in the military should get on the buses, while women and children should get on the trucks.

“This looked suspicious to me because we were loaded like persons who were supposed to die. So I got on a white cargo truck,” the witness said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has charged Sasa Zecevic, Radoslav Knezevic, Petar Civcic, Marinko Ljepoja and Branko Topola with crimes committed at Koricanske stijene.

The indictment alleges that on August 21, 1992, they participated in escorting a convoy of more than 1,200 civilians from Prijedor to Travnik, and separated about 200 men from the rest of convoy passengers. They allegedly shot the men at Koricanske stijene.

The indictment also alleges that they robbed the civilians.

The Prosecution considers that 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.

Santa said that the convoy’s first stop was in Kozarac, where four buses from Trnopolje joined the others. He also said that the passengers “were robbed for the first time” at that location.

“They gave a bag to a rather skinny guy, telling us to give him all valuables we had. The same scenario was repeated several times until we reached our destination. At some stage the guy entered the truck and we saw he was covered with blood. He begged us to fill the bag,” the witness recalled.

He said the convoy stopped somewhere in the woods on Mount Vlasic and he saw an officer shouting “who was to be blamed and who started it first”.

“The vehicles moved on and we came to a ramp. Protected witness K2 was there, gesticulating to us not to stand up. Although he said that, I got up and I saw that five buses had been separated from the rest of the convoy,” the witness said, adding he did not see any buses, but rather only cargo trucks upon his “arrival at the final destination”.

Santa recognised Topola in the courtroom, saying he “met him in the detention camp” and he saw him hitting a prisoner. He also said he did not see the indictee escorting the convoy.

The trial is due to continue on December 2, when the Prosecution will continue presenting evidence.

A.S.