Kornjaca et al: Beaten by Kornjaca

Testifying for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Korora said that, in 1992 he was passing by a cafe, while returning from work with a colleague, when Kornjaca came out and told two policemen and protected witness 280 to take him to Mostina, near Cajnice.

“I asked them where I was going. Kornjaca told me: ‘You know what you did in that village’. Witness 280 asked me if I armed Muslims, but I said I did not,” Korora said.

Korora told the Court that he was detained in a metal container at Mostina, adding that Kornjaca came in the evening hours.

“He kicked the door with his leg and started hitting me. I fell down, but he continued beating me. The beating was brutally hard. He told me: ‘You shall be slaughtered before going out of here’,” the witness said.

Korora said that he was released on the following morning, after a Serb neighbour of his visited Milun’s brother – Dusko Kornjaca, and told him that he had not participated in the distribution of weapons. He went back to work afterwards.

During the course of cross-examination indictee Kornjaca asked the witness how he could work after being beaten up, but Korora said that nobody else knew how he was feeling.

Kornjaca is on trial with Milorad Zivkovic and Dusko Tadic for the persecution of Bosniaks in Cajnice area and murder of 11 civilians at 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 in that municipality.

Witness Korora said that he left Cajnice a few days after having been detained in Mostina, because the situation was getting more and more tense, adding that he was also afraid for his own safety.

“We left by buses. On that day I found out that some men, who had been taken away, were killed in Mostina. Upon our arrival in Pljevlja, Himzo Colak, whose brother Salko survived, told us that Veljo and Dusko Tadic had killed all those men. I heard that between 30 and 40 people had been killed,” Korora said.

The Defence of Tadic asked the Court to note down that the witness failed to recognise the indictee in the courtroom, but he pointed to one of the Defence attorneys instead. Also, the Defence wanted to know why Korora had not mentioned any of the murder perpetrators in his earlier statements.

The witness responded by saying that he had heard about it, adding that he probably forgot to mention it. He said that he had known indictee Tadic from before. He said that he used to work with the “Stakorina” company.

The trial is due to continue on October 10.