Kornjaca et al: Murders Committed by “Drunk Fools”

During the course of his testimony before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mujo Jasarevic said that he knew indictee Zivkovic, adding that he told him after the end of the war, that “drunk fools” had “executed” Bosniaks in Mostina.

“Zivkovic told me that drunk fools did that. He said that Veljo Tadic participated in the murders. He probably said it because he is not alive,” Jasarevic said.

Jasarevic told the Court that a protected witness told him, in 2000, that Dusko and Veljo Tadic participated in the murder of Muslims in Mostina.

The State Prosecution charges Milun Kornjaca, Milorad Zivkovic and Dusko Tadic, known as Rus, with the persecution of Bosniaks in 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, Tadic was member of that Unit and Zivkovic was Chief of the Public Safety Station in Cajnice and member of the Crisis Committee of Cajnice municipality. The separate trials of Kornjaca on one hand and Zivkovic and Tadic on the other, are being conducted before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but joint witnesses are examined at the same hearings due to better efficiency of the proceedings.

Second Prosecution witness Nura Hurlov said that her husband and 16-year old son were killed in Mostina, but she said she did not know who was responsible for the murders.

The witness said that 15 armed soldiers came in front of her house in April or May 1992 and said: “Surrender. You are surrounded”.

“They took my husband and son to Mostina. While we lived in Kosovo as refugees, we learnt that they had been killed,” Hurlov said.

Amela Drakovac testified for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina at this hearing. She said that her husband was killed in Mostina in 1992. During the course of her testimony Drakovac said that “the town was ravaged” by masked and armed people in April 1992.

“Our neighbours had guns, cockades, uniforms. It was frightful…” Drakovac said, crying.

Drakovac said that she left Cajnice with her baby in May 1992, while her husband and five cousins stayed in Brdo village, Cajnice municipality. “When I was in Bradarevo, I first heard that they had killed all of them,” Drakovac recalled.

Witness Drakovac testified at the trial of Zivkovic and Tadic only, because indictee Kornjaca can only follow the trial for 90 minutes, as per a recommendation from a physician.

The trial is due to continue on July 4 this year.A.S.