Vlahovic: Never Heard of Batko

State Prosecution witness Arsenije Skipina said that he was Commander of the Police Station in Novo Sarajevo in 1992, adding that he received an official letter from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Bijeljina asking for the arrest of “a person nicknamed Batko” in the autumn of that same year.

“The letter said that a person, whose nickname was Batko, was suspected of having committed several grave crimes in the Grbavica area,” Skipina said.

Skipina told the Court that policemen, who were acting in collaboration with the Military Police, went to Digitron Buje building after having discovered that Batko was in that building, but they did not find him, because he had allegedly left Grbavica already.

“I do not know if his departure was the reason, but the situation in Grbavica was much better,” the witness said.

The State Prosecution’s indictment alleges that Vlahovic is charged with having killed and participated in the murder of more than 30 persons in the Grbavica, Vraca and Kovacici municipalities from May to August 1992 and participated in the abuse of non-Serb citizens and took money and other valuable possessions from them.

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

During the course of his testimony Skipina said that he had not heard of nickname Batko prior to receiving the letter from Bijeljina.

Trial Chamber member Mira Smajlovic asked the witness how it was possible that, being Commander of the Police Station, he had never heard of Batko, while common citizens of Sarajevo knew about the nickname. Skipina responded by saying that he too found that strange.

“Military police was responsible for some zones, while our Police Station was responsible for other zones. I never received any reports related to that person,” Skipina said. Following the examination, the witness was presented with a photograph of the indictee. He said that the face depicted on that photograph did not seem familiar to him.

Second Prosecution witness Alhidada Jakupovic said that, in 1992 an acquaintance told her that Batko had raped her in front of her husband. The witness said that, in June 1992 she tried to leave Vraca along with her husband and neighbours, but, because of snipers in Grbavica, they decided to hide in an apartment owned by a neighbour’s sister.

According to witness Jakupovic, the neighbour’s sister told them that they could stay for two days only, adding that she had already suffered “plenty of tragedies”.

“On the following day she told me: ‘Batko made cuts on my disabled husband’s neck and called him Balija [an offensive term for a Muslim]’. He then told me to come and raped me in front of my husband. My husband cried all the time’,” Jakupovic said.

The next hearing is due to be held on November 21, 2011.