Kuvelja: Exemplary Neighbour

Witness Muharem Kulelija told the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that he remembered the indictee from before the war, adding that he was “a decent and nice neighbour,” whose family had never showed any nationalist behavior.

“We were surprised when we heard that Bozidar had been arrested. I have heard about bad things done by many people during the war but I have really never heard such thing about Kuvelja,” said witness Kulelija, confirming that he worked with the indictee’s father for years and that they had always been “nice and decent people”.

Kulelija said that he left Miljeno village, Cajnice municipality in May 1992, adding that, upon his return in 1999, he heard that Kuvelja had gone to Kosovo during the war but the Army looked for him, mobilised him and brought him back to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Our neighbours from the village said that. I do not know who brought him back to Bosnia and Herzegovina and when it happened. However, I do not know that we have never heard that he committed any bad things during the war,” the witness explained.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Kuvelja, former member of the Training Centre on Mount Jahorina, with having participated in the shooting of about 100 captured Bosniaks, who were cheated by being invited to come out of the Kravica warehouse in order to receive medical assistance.The indictment alleges that members of the Jahorina Training Centre were shooting the captured civilians in front of the warehouse, while indictee Kuvelja “verified” that there would be no survivors by shooting from an automatic rifle at each man, who was still alive.

Protected witness A, who spent his childhood in a “house next to the indictee’s”, testified at this hearing.

“Kuvelja was a friend of my brother’s. We grew up on the same meadow. Our families were very close to each other. None of them has ever, ever, made any nationalist statements, let alone anything else. They were exemplary neighbours,” witness A explained.

During the cross-examination witness A confirmed that a former schoolmate told him that Kuvelja deserted during the war and went to Kosovo.

“I think that he got a job, so he went to Kosovo. Actually, I never saw him again following my return to the village after the war,” the witness said.

The trial is due to continue on April 24, 2012, when the Defence will present its material evidence. D.E.