Memic et al: Crime Location

Sead Brankovic, former security officer with the Fourth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, who began testifying on July 18 this year, said that Trusina looked like a location of crime, because houses had been burnt, but he said he did not know anything about the crimes in the village.
 
“At first sight Trusina looked like a crime location to me. I had not known about the crimes committed in the village until the monument was inaugurated,” witness Brankovic said.
 
The State Prosecution charges Mensur Memic, Dzevad Salcin, Senad Hakalovic, Nedzad Hodzic, Nihad Bojadzic and Zulfikar Alispago with the murder of 18 civilians and four members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO in Trusina village on April 16, 1993.
According to the charges, Memic, Salcin and Hodzic, former members of “Zulfikar” Special Purposes Squad, and Hakalovic, former member of “Neretvica” 45th Mountain Brigade, participated in the attack on Trusina and the murder of civilians and prisoners of war, while Bojadzic, the then Deputy Commander of “Zulfikar” Squad, commanded the attack. Indictee Alispago, former Commander of that Squad, is charged with having failed to punish the soldiers, who participated in those murders.
 
During the course of the examination indictee Alispago presented the witness with a short video recording made at a meeting held in May 1993. In addition to the witness, the meeting participants included, among others, Sefer Halilovic, former Chief of Headquarters of the Supreme Command with the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Arif Pasalic, former Commander of the Fourth Corps with the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
The mentioned video recording depicts Halilovic requesting Pasalic to “investigate Trusina, because there are indications that members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina committed a crime there”. The witness confirmed that the video recording was authentic, but he could not remember the part of the meeting when Trusina was mentioned.
 
Alispago then asked witness Brankovic who was responsible for conducting an investigation following Halilovic’s order. The witness responded by saying that it should have been done by the security bodies of the Fourth Corps.
 
“Had Halilovic ordered me at that meeting to investigate the crimes in Trusina, I would have certainly done it,” the witness said.
 
Halilovic was indicted before The Hague Tribunal for crimes in Grabovica, Herzegovina, and Uzdol, Central Bosnia. Under a second instance verdict pronounced in 2007 he was acquitted of the charges. Available data suggests that Pasalic was since killed.
 
The trial is due to continue on September 2, when a new Prosecution witness will be examined.

A.J.