Koricanske stijene: Convoy Travelling to Travnik

Zoran Babic, who testified as a Defence witness, was previously sentenced, under a first instance verdict, to 22 years in prison for crimes committed at Koricanske stijene.

He said that Knezevic came in a yellow minivan and he drove a few policemen to Trnopolje.

“We found out about the convoy on its departure date. I was in Tukovi at about ten o’clock. Eighty per cent of the people had already got into the vehicles. I stayed there for about an hour. The convoy was still there when I left the place and went to the police station,” Babic said, adding that he found out about what happened at Koricanske stijene a few days later.

Babic said that Petar Civcic was Commander of the First Section with the Interventions Squad of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor, while Sasa Zecevic, Knezevic and Ljepoja were members of the Squad. The indictment alleges that Branko Topola was a member of the Territorial Defence.

They are charged with having participated in the escort of a convoy of more than one thousand civilians, who were travelling from Prijedor to Travnik on August 21, 1992, as well as the murder of about 200 men at Koricanske stijene.

Babic said that he learned from Ljepoja’s statement, given on December 14, 2009, when he testified in his own defence before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that he was one of the convoy escorts and he was in a bus which broke down at some stage. He said that Topola was not a member of the Interventions Squad, adding that he did not see him in Tukovi.

Babic told the Court that the convoy consisted of between 10 and 15 buses and trucks, adding that one policeman was in each of the vehicles travelling to Travnik.

The trial is due to continue on March 30 this year.