Vlahovic: Neighbour Killed on the Street

A protected witness, S28, lived in the Sarajevo nighbourhood of Grbavica in 1992 and was a member of a prisoners’ working squad. In July 1992 he was tasked with taking some packages to an ambulance in Kovacici. “I met three men. Batko was one of them. They had my neighbour Tahir Jahic with them,” the witness said, adding that he had heard a gunshot, after they had passed him. Jahic had been killed. A vehicle arrived later to take away the dead body.When he was asked by Radivoje Lazarevic, the defence attorney for Vlahovic, if he had seen who had shot Jahic, the witness answered negatively, but said he was sure that it was one of the three soldiers.The prosecution charges Vlahovic with having participated in the murder of several people in the Sarajevo neighbourhoods of Grbavica, Vraca and Kovacici in 1992. He is also accused of participating in the abuse of Bosniak and Croat civilians, and of confiscating their money and other valuable possessions.Witness S28 told the court that a group of soldiers, including Vlahovic, took his neighbour Lutvija Selimovic away.“I saw that they took had taken Lutvo from the building. I heard that they took him to the Digitron Buje building. Later on I saw footage on TV, depicting Lutvo with bruises all over his body. They beat him up brutally,” the witness said.Witness Branko Pucelj said that he watched through his window when Vlahovic came and took away three of his neighbours in the summer of 1992. He said that those men never came back.“Batko banged on the front doors. After my neighbour Zeljko Antolic and two others had opened their doors, he took them to his car. Judging by the direction they took when they left, I would say that they were taken to Digitron Buje,” the witness said adding that his neighbour Zlatko Alagic also disappeared after an encounter with Vlahovic.Pucelj also said that the indictee had come to the apartment of the Mujezinovic family, asking for jewelry and money.?“They told me later that Batko held a knife to a 16-month old baby’s throat and asked for more money,” Pucelj said.Members of the Mujezinovic family had told him that they had called the military police, after Vlahovic had left their apartment. They found out that Vlahovic had been arrested before, but that a member of the top military leadership had intervened, and he had been released.The trial is due to continue on April 5.M.B.