Raguz et al: Daughter Killed at Doorstep

Fata Kaplan told the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that, on July 13, 1993 members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO came to her house in Pljesevica village, near Stolac, where she lived with her daughter and brother-in-law’s family.

As she said, soldiers in camouflage uniforms with HVO emblems were approaching the house, when her 18-year old daughter Sanida went out to the balcony on the first floor.

“I heard when she said: ‘Where are you taking us?’…Those were her first and last words…Then I heard shooting. Sanida fell down from the balcony…I ran out of the house and saw my killed child… She was lying a metre away from me,” Kaplan said.

The witness said that they transferred all the residents from the surrounding villages by truck to the school building in Crnici on July 13, 1993, adding that they were held in the building for 12 days.

“I was in shock all the time, so I can hardly remember anything that happened in the school. I know that the living conditions were scary. We were thirsty and hungry and slept on sheets of paper. We were not mistreated, but we were not allowed to go out,” Kaplan said.

As she explained, she did not recognise any soldiers during her stay in the school building, but other people told her that Veselko Raguz gave the order to bring the civilians to the school.

“I did not see Veselko anywhere, but other people said that. I know that he was some sort of commander, but I do not know if what they said was true,” the witness said, adding that she had known Veselko Raguz from before the war and that he used to be “a good and nice neighbour”.

According to the State Prosecution’s charges, Veselko Raguz, former Commander of the Fourth Battalion of “Knez Domagoj” Brigade with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, and Ivo Raguz, member of that Brigade, participated in crimes against civilians, who were held in detention in Stolac and Capljina, during the armed conflict between the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH and HVO in July and August 1993.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina alleges that Veselko Raguz “ordered, assisted and directly participated” in the unlawful arrest and detention of civilians, resettlement of Bosniak women and children and physical abuse and torture of detained civilians in those towns. He is charged with having failed to prevent such actions, although he knew about them, and punish members of the Brigade under his command and other HVO soldiers, over whom he had actual control.Ivo Raguz is charged with having participated in physical abuse of detained civilians.During the course of cross-examination Kaplan said that, after the war she found out that her daughter was killed by HVO member Dragan Bunoza, but she did not know who his commander was.In 2004 Dragan Bunoza was sentenced, under a second instance verdict, to nine years in prison for having committed crimes against the civilian population.The trial is due to continue on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. D.E.