Kornjaca et al: Killed People

Testifying at the trial for crimes in Cajnice, a State Prosecution witness says that a neighbour, who was held in a container in Mostina, near Cajnice, told her that indictee Milun Kornjaca “killed people”, among whom was her husband.

Sevala Sehovic told the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that aIbro Gadzo told her that he was held in a container facing the hunters house in Mostina, while men were being killed in that house.

“Ibro said that he was detained in the container, that Milun came and fired bursts of bullets, killing men and threw a bomb at the ones whom he had not already killed,” Sehovic said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Milun Kornjaca, Milorad Zivkovic and Dusko Tadic 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 “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.

Separate trials of Kornjaca on one hand and Zivkovic and Tadic on the other are held before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but joint witnesses are examined at the same hearing due to better efficiency of the proceedings.

Responding to questions made by the Defence of indictee Kornjaca, witness Sehovic said that Gadzo told her in 1996 that he “heard and saw” indictee Kornjaca, when those men were killed.

Sehovic said that her husband was arrested and taken to Mostina on May 6, 1992, when she last saw him. She said that his remains had still not been found.

Fehdo Kesan, who testified for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina at this hearing, said that his brother and two nephews were killed in the hunters’ house in Mostina.

Kesan told the Court that his cousin, Ibro Gadzo, who died after the war, told him that, while being held in a container separately from the other prisoners, he heard his brother Hamso’s voice.

“He told me that he heard Hamso saying: ‘No, please don’t’. And then he became silent,” Kesan said. Witness Kesan recalled having seen his dead nephew Muko on television.

“I saw a recording and recognised my nephew Mujo. He was lying on top of other dead people,” Kesan said, adding that he was in Sarajevo, when his brother Hasim and nephews Mujo and Ismet were killed in Mostina.

Safet Tanjo was due to testify for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina was supposed to testify at this hearing, but, due to the fact that the witness has some hearing problems and that Prosecutor Dzevad Muratbegovic has not examined him before, it would be decided later on whether this witness would testify before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The trial is due to continue on September 26 this year.