Zecevic et al: Red Cross Activist

Testifying in defence of Branko Topola at the trial for crimes at Koricanske stijene, a Defence witness says that the indictee was neither uniformed nor armed, when he was in Trnopolje in 1992, adding that she considered him “a cheerful person”.

Ljubica Stojanovic said that she worked with “the reception center in Trnopolje”, as a Red Cross activist, in 1992. As she said Bosniaks from the territories that were endangered by the war used to come to the Center voluntarily.

Stojanovic said that her job was to register the people, who came to Trnopolje by foot or bus, adding that she used to see indictee Topola in Trnopolje, but he was neither armed nor uniformed.

“As far as I know, Branko was a Red Cross activist. (…) I do not think that a person of that kind could do any bad things,” Stojanovic said, adding that the indictee was a very cheerful person, who often made her laugh.

The State Prosecution charges Topola, Sasa Zecevic, Radoslav Knezevic, Marinko Ljepoja and Petar Civcic with having participated in the separation of civilians from a convoy traveling from Prijedor towards Travnik on August 21, 1992, and the murder of 200 men at Koricanske stijene.

The indictment alleges that Topola was a guard in Trnopolje, while the other indictees were members of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor.

Second witness Dosta Komjenovic, who testified in defence of indictee Topola at this hearing, was an activist with the Red Cross Headquarters as well. She said that, while she was in Trnopolje, her task was to distribute food, which indictee Topola used to bring from Prijedor.

Komjenovic said that people, who stayed in the Trnopolje reception center, could walk freely and they had access to medical assistance.

According to witness Komjenovic, the people, who stayed in the reception center in Trnopolje, could leave the country in order to be reunited with their families with convoys organized by the Red Cross.

“Each convoy was escorted by police, whose task was to make sure that the civilians left the country uninterruptedly,” Komjenovic said, adding that indictee Topola did not escort any of the convoys.

During this hearing the Defence of indictee Civcic presented 21 documents obtained from The Hague Tribunal. The Prosecution will file eventual objections at the next hearing.

The trial is due to continue on October 25, 2011, when two new witnesses will testify in defence of indictee Topola.