Vlahovic: He Said He Killed Manuela

Protected Prosecution witness S-25 told the Court that he was 14 years old when he was brought to Digitron building in June 1992 and that he met the indictee shortly later. He said that the indictee then took him to his apartment.

“While we were on the transit road, he picked me some cherries. I thought he would kill me after that, but he proposed to introduce me to his wife,” witness S-25 said.

As he said, upon their arrival to the apartment, he noticed some chains were attached to the radiator, but he could not tell whether the girl, whom Batko introduced as Manuela, was chained.

S-25 spent the night in the hallway, while the indictee and Manuela were in one of the rooms.

“Ten days later Batko told me that he took Manuela to Zlatiste and killed her,” the witness said.

As he said, Vlahovic and Sasa Baricanin used to take him with them, when they asked for money and mistreated people in Grbavica.

In November 2011 the first instance Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Sasa Baricanin to 18 years in prison for crimes in Sarajevo. He was pronounced guilty of having killed three persons, raped a woman several times and enslaved another person.

Witness S-25 said that Baricanin and Vlahovic took two men from an apartment for an interview, while he stayed in the apartment, guarding two young women and one elderly woman, who were transferred to another apartment later on.

“They tied all of them. Then they took the elderly woman and two men away. Those people got lost without trace. I stayed with the two younger women. When the two of them came back, they said I could go,” the witness said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Vlahovic with murders, rape, abuse, robbery, disappearances and other inhumane acts committed against Bosniak and Croat civilians in Grbavica, Vraca and Kovacici, Sarajevo in 1992.

Witness S-27, who worked for the Commission for Exchange of Republika Srpska from 1992 to 1995, said that he heard a gunshot, while he was passing by a locality above Vraca.

“I saw some shimmer after the gunshot. Then I saw a vehicle leaving the place,” the witness said, adding that he went closer and saw two dead people lying on the road.

As he said, he then started his car and caught up with the other car. He noticed that the driver of that car had “a traditional Serbian cap”.

“I recognised Batko. I know that many people from Grbavica complained about him,” the witness said, adding that he reported the incident to military police, which “banished Batko from Grbavica”.

The trial is due to continue on April 18, 2012, when three State Prosecution witnesses will testify.
M.B.