Local Justice – Ristic and Devic: Lack of Information about Crime

Milan Vokic, former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS and Devic’s defence witness, said at the trial before the Cantonal Court in Bihac that he was in a column of soldiers, together with the indictees, on October 10, 1995, but he did not witness any murders.“I did not witness any murders and I do not know anything about it,” Vokic said.This witness said he left the column after Petar Arsenic had told him that his folks were waiting for him at home and the cart had stayed there.Lazar Ristic and Predrag Devic are charged with having stopped a cart, in which 15 Bosniak civilians from Vrse and Lukavice villages were riding on their way back home after having performed their civil duty, on a local road to Sanski Most, “as per a previous agreement and armed with automatic guns”, on October 10, 1995.According to the charges, Ristic ordered soldiers and civilians, who were riding on the cart, to get off. Ristic, Arsenic and Devic then allegedly took the civilians, “using force and threatening them with weapons” and killed them in the vicinity of Marjanovici-Domazeti hamlet later on.Arsenic concluded a guilt admission agreement with the Una-Sana Cantonal Prosecution. He was sentenced to ten years in prison.Testifying in defence of the second indictee, Uros Strbac, the indictee’s former comrade, said he had got no pieces of information about the event, but Devic told him, on October 10, 1995, that “the frontline was broken and Sanski Most would fall”.“I was taking food to soldiers on that day. On my way I met Predrag Devic, who told me not to go any farther as the frontlines had been broken. It happened at about 1.30 p.m. I did not see him again on that day,” Strbac said.Jela Lukic, who testified in defence of the first indictee, said that Ristic was on her field, picking corns, on that day, October 10.She said that, after having been informed that Sanski Most had fallen, all of them went back home, adding the first indictee was under the influence of alcohol. The witness said she did not know anything about the murder of Bosniak civilians.The trial is due to continue on February 23, 2011.Dž.Dž.———————————————————————————————–This article is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID.) The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Balkan investigative reporting network (BIRN) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.