Local Justice – Bogdanic: Helping Bosniaks

At the trial of Miladin Bogdanic before the District Court in Banja Luka, Defence witnesses say that the indictee helped them during the war, adding that he was “well-behaved”.

Defence witness Petra Bogdanic, indictee Bogdanic’s mother, said that her son was always “well-behaved and responsible”, adding that she did not know Mujo Kovacevic, whose murder is charged upon the indictee.
 
“I met Mujo’s son Zijad when he came to our house to explain to us how a machine operated. One day I took coffee to the front of the house in order to offer it to my son and Salih Vehab, who were sitting there. I noticed that they were nervous. At first they did not want to tell me what was going on, but then they said that Zijad’s father had been killed. I was struck by the news, because he was a friend of my son’s,” Bogdanic said.
 
The District Prosecution’s indictment charges Bogdanic with having killed Mujo Kovacevic from an automatic gun in Vakufci village, near Kotor-Varos on September 9, 1993. Two other persons allegedly accompanied him, both of who were known to him.
 
Witness Salih Vehab said that he worked in Bogdanic’s carpentry workshop, where he met Zijad Kovacevic, during the war.
 
“While I worked in Bogdanic’s workshop during the war, I felt safe. He paid me and provided meals to me. He never treated me in a bad manner because I was a Bosniak,” Vehab said.
 
The third witness Predrag Momic, former Sector Chief with the Police Station in Kotor-Varos, said that his Commander told him in 1993, that Kovacevic had been killed and ordered him to go there with a patrol and cover the burial.
 
“We did as he told us. We helped the crime police conduct an investigation. I did not find out who had killed him. Later on I heard that Kovacevic’s wife was telling people that Bogdanic had committed the murder and that I had been with him. An attorney informed me about it later on, but I thought that she said that in order to get some benefits in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ,” Momic said.
 
Halil Rahmanovic testified as a Defence witness at this hearing. He said that members of the Republika Srpska Army captured him during the course of the war and took him to a school building in Maslovare, near Kotor-Varos.
 
“During the course of my detention no members of police or army beat me. I suppose they did not beat me, because Bogdanic told them not to do it,” Rahmanovic said, adding that Bogdanic used to bring him cigarettes while he was held in detention.
 
During the course of his testimony, Nisko Kovacic said that he met Bogdanic when he returned to Kotor-Varos after the war, adding that he would never forget what he did to help him.
 
“One day he came to my place and said that he knew where my cousin’s body was buried. My cousin, who was a young man, went missing during the course of the war. He took me to that place and showed me where the body was. Had he not helped me, we would have never found the body,” Kovacic said.
 
The trial is due to continue on June 28 this year.

G.O.

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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.