Vlahovic: Obsessed with Killing

Protected witness S19, who lived with her husband and son in their house in Vraca, said that she met the indictee for the first time at the beginning of June 1992, when he came to their house.

“Our neighbour Samir brought Batko to the door of our house. We watched them through the window. I told my son to run away. He hid in the cellar. Batko was looking for him in the house and then he left,” the witness said, adding that her son then ran away to the territory controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH.

According to the charges, Vlahovic killed and participated in the murder of more than 30 persons and, acting on his own or in collaboration with other armed persons, abused and beat non-Serb citizens and took their money and other valuable possessions away in the period from May to August 1992.

A second indictment was filed against Vlahovic, charging him in 14 counts with the murder and forcible disappearances of 14 persons, as well as the rape, torture and abuse of civilians.

After having been told by some soldiers in the street that all Muslims would be killed, witness S19 and her husband hid in a shelter in a nearby building, where they stayed at night. They would go back to their house during the day.

The witness said that, on June 10, 1992, she looked through a window and saw indictee Batko, who was accompanied by brothers Nenad and Predrag Baricanin, taking her neighbour Ahmet Hasanovic out and beating him.

“A short time later my neighbour Olga Sparavalo asked me to come to her house. She then locked the door. I heard my husband moaning. I knew that they came to pick him up. I wondered what they were doing to him,” the witness said, adding that she went home in the morning and saw some things which were covered with blood, in the courtyard and blood on the walls.

The witness said that her neighbours told her that Batko first hit her husband with a gun butt. The other soldiers then hit him in front of the house. Later on she found out from her neighbours that he had been taken to the Digitron Buje building.

After that she hid at her neighbour Andjelko Campara’s place. Campara told her that Batko was in the garages near her house, where he was allegedly waiting for her to come back. The witness said that she then went to see Batko and speak to him.

“I approached him and asked where my husband was. At first he said that he had been murdered, but, following our conversation, he said that he was still alive, but beaten up,” witness S19 said, adding that, while she was standing there with Batko, a cat passed by them. Batko pointed his gun at the cat and wanted to kill it.

When the witness told him not to kill the cat, Batko said that he could not sleep unless he killed ten people.
She said that her husband came back home that night. He was covered with bruises. He was in a very bad condition.

“He was dying, but he could not die,” the witness said, adding that her husband died in 2006. The witness told the Court that she met the indictee again, when he invited her for coffee.

“One day Batko threw small stones on my house window and invited me for coffee, but I did not want to come,” the witness said, identifying the indictee in the courtroom. She said that both men and women were brought to the house, where Batko used to stay, later on. She heard screams coming from that house.

As she said, Batko lived in the vicinity of her house. On one occasion, when he was away, she saw a corpse near the fence.

Second witness Sead Aganovic lived in Grbavica from May to October 1992. As he said, he ran away from the indictee with his wife in July.

“We were going to see our neighbour, who lived close to us. I saw Batko, who was in a white VW Golf, watching us and then calling us. We started running and ran into our neighbour’s apartment. A short time later somebody banged on the door,” Aganovic said, adding that he and his wife jumped through the window and ran away. His neighbour told him later on that Batko was looking for them.

The trial is due to continue on November 10, 2011.