Kornjaca et al: Surrounded and Hit from All Sides

Dzevad Seko said that on April 16, 1992, he was arrested and detained in a container in Mostina, Cajnice municipality, where he was beaten up by Milun Kornjaca, who was armed and dressed in a camouflage uniform and fur cap.

“He started cursing me and hitting me with his fists all over my body. I defended myself, but then other soldiers came and started hitting me. They surrounded me and hit me from all sides. It was scary.

“Later on Kornjaca hit me with his rifle butt on my neck. I fell and lost consciousness for a moment,” the witness recalled, adding that Kornjaca then grabbed him by his hair, placed a bayonet on his neck and said: “Come here so I can slaughter you away from the children’s eyes”. He then forced him to go inside a container, Seko said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Milun Kornjaca, Milorad Zivkovic, known as Zika, and Dusko Tadic, known as Rus, with the persecution of Bosniaks from the Cajnice area and the murder of 11 civilians in Mostina on May 19, 1992.

The indictment alleges that Kornjaca was Commander of the Plavi Orlovi (Blue Eagles) paramilitary unit, Zivkovic was Chief of the Public Safety Station in Cajnice and Tadic was a member of the Plavi Orlovi.

Separate trials against Kornjaca, and against Zivkovic and Tadic are underway before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but joint witnesses are examined at the same time to improve efficiency.

Seko said that he saw Veljo Tadic and Ignjet Bejatovic in front of the container. However, in his statement given to the Prosecution on September 15, 2008, he said that he saw Dusko Tadic on that occasion.

“It was a mistake. I was talking about Veljo Tadic, a taxi driver from Cajnice, all the time. I did not know Dusko Tadic,” Seko said.

He recognised indictee Zivkovic in the courtroom, saying he was his former schoolmate. He said that he did not see him in Mostina, but he heard his voice and other soldiers addressing him as Zika.

“When Dusko Kornjaca, President of Cajnice municipality, took me to the Crisis Committee, I saw Zika in the building. I think he was commander of police. When he saw me in that condition, he said he did not know that I had been arrested, because it was his child’s birthday,” Seko said.

Responding to Defence questions during the course of cross-examination, the witness said that Zivkovic helped him by indirectly providing him with transportation from Cajnice to Gorazde, adding that the indictee “treated him in a proper manner”.

In the courtroom Zivkovic greeted his schoolmate and apologised to him for his mental suffering, adding that he helped him as much as he could.

The cross-examination of witness Seko is due to continue on April 4.