Memic et al: Dead People in the Road

Enver Mujala, former physician with the First Battalion of the 45th Mountain Brigade with the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that he was given the task to escort a soldier from Parsovici village, near Trusina, to a hospital in Suhodol, Hadzici municipality.

“I remember that his condition was bad. He was wounded in the stomach. Besides the driver, another soldier was in the vehicle with us. The soldier kept saying that the wounded man must not die. He called him Samko.

“The soldier died on our way to the hospital. While we were driving, I found out that the two men were members of the Zulfikar Unit,” witness Mujala said, adding that, prior to his arrival in Parsovici, the wounded man received medical assistance in the Buturovic Polje area, near Trusina.

Witness Mujala said that they drove the soldier to the hospital in Suhodol, adding that medical staff and some uniformed persons met them in front of the hospital.

Mujala told the Court that some time later a person, whose name he could not remember during the course of his testimony, told him that Nihad Bojadzic was among those people. He said that he heard that Bojadzic was “Commander or Deputy Commander of the Zulfikar Unit.

The State Prosecution charges Alispago, Bojadzic, Mensur Memic, Dzevad Salcin, Senad Hakalovic and Nedzad Hodzic with the murder of 18 civilians and four members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO in Trusina village on April 16, 1993.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina alleges that Memic, Salcin and Hodzic, former members of the Zulfikar Special Squad with the Main Command Headquarters of ABiH, and Senad Hakalovic, former member of the Neretvica 45th Mountain Brigade, participated in the attack on that village.

The indictment charges Alispago, former Commander of the Zulfikar Special Purposes Squad, with having failed to punish the soldiers who participated in the murders. Bojadzic, former Deputy Commander of the Zulfikar Squad, is charged with having commanded the attack on the village and giving an order to the Squad members “not to leave any survivors in the village”.

State Prosecution witness Kadira Poturovic said that members of the HVO detained her in the basement of a house in Buturovic Polje, together with her husband, child and neighbours the day after April 16, 1993.

Witness Poturovic said that they were detained in order to be exchanged for Croat civilians, adding that the exchange was organised two days later in the Trusina area.

“As we were going to the exchange location, I saw blood on the road, as well as a dead man up against a wired fence. Also, I saw Veljo lying in the road,” witness Poturovic said. She did not explain who Veljo was, but she said that she knew him.

During the course of her testimony, Poturovic said that HVO members attacked her house in Trusina at about 9:00 p.m. on April 16, 1993. She said that she fled to a neighbour’s house, adding that she went to Buturovic Polje, where she was detained in a building basement, on that same night.

The trial is due to continue on May 30.

A.J.