Memic et al: Reporting to Superiors

“A brigade command is responsible to the corps to which it belongs. The corps commander is obliged to inform his superiors in case a crime is committed. Smaller parts of a unit, which has been attached to another unit, are not exempted from an obligation to use the regular reporting lines,” witness Arnautovic said, responding to questions made by indictee Zulfikar Alispago.

The witness said that, in April 1993 he did not notice that the “Zulfikar” Special Purposes Squad had a military police unit or intelligence and security body to which an eventual crime could be reported.

Arnautovic, former Assistant Commander for Security with the First Corps of ABiH, said that he did not know that the “Zulfikar” Special Purposes Squad belonged to his Corps.

“The Commander never informed me if the Squad had been attached to the First Corps. I never saw anything like that written in reports either,” witness Arnautovic said.

The murder of 18 civilians and four members of HVO committed in Trusina on April 16, 1993 is charged upon Mensur Memic, Nedzad Hodzic, Nihad Bojadzic, Dzevad Salcin, Senad Hakalovic and Zulfikar Alispago.

The indictment alleges that Memic, Salcin and Hodzic, former members of the “Zulfikar” Special Purposes Squad with the Main Command Headquarters of ABiH, and Hakalovic, former member of the “Neretvica” 45th Mountain Brigade, participated in an attack on Trusina and the murder of civilians and prisoners
of war.

According to the charges, 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 the shooting.

Witness Arnautovic, who began testifying on October 17 this year, said, at that hearing, that he did not hear in 1993 about crimes having been committed in Trusina.

The trial is due to continue on October 24, 2011, when two new Prosecution witnesses will testify.

A.J.