Vlahovic: Taken away After Murder of a Soldier

Witness Muhamed Kalota lived with his disabled mother in Grbavica in 1992. He said that all people, who lived in the building with five units, used to share one basement, adding that Serb soldiers often came uninvited.

“One day we heard shooting. I heard that a Serb soldier was killed in the basement. A couple of days later four neighbours carried him somewhere,” the witness said.

Two days after the event they were told that somebody would come in order to investigate the murder of the Serb soldier. The witness said that indictee Batko came.

“He came to our apartment and asked for our ID cards. He then ordered me to unlock Miroslav Babic’s apartment, where he and another guy searched for something. When I told them that the neighbour was Serb, Batko hit me and forced me to go back into my apartment,” the witness said.

The witness said that, after that Batko and another soldier took his neighbours Mustafa Zele, Zvonko Bodulovic, Hajrudin and Sabaha Hasanovic, who went missing, and Zdravko Perisic, who joined the Republika Srpska Army later on.

Witness Ibrahim Zele, whose father was taken away, along with other neighbours, in June 1992, told the Trial Chamber that he found out from his mother why his father and neighbours were probably taken away.

“Following the murder of the Serb soldier, my father and three neighbours carried his dead body to a corner in Grbavica and handed it over to someone, but they did not kill that man,” the witness said, adding that his mother, who has since died, told him that Batko and the soldiers, who took those neighbours away had their names written on a piece of paper.

Witness Zele said that his mother found out that his father was mistreated in the Digitron Buje building and that all the bodies, except for his father’s, were found at different locations in the vicinity of Sarajevo.

This witness said that he received a report with details about the event through the daughter of the killed Hasanovic couple, who hired the “CIPOS 007” detective agency in order to find out how her parents were killed.

“They were killed in Vraca. Besides Batko, Zoran Bakic, known as Krompir, and Triso Zinunovic, members of Beli Andjeli, were present at that place,” the witness said.

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

Witness Eldina Korac said that her neighbours told her that her husband was taken away and beaten up in the Digitron Buje building and that Batko and his men participated in it.

“I heard that he was beaten up so brutally that he lost conscience. After that they drove him somewhere by truck. He has been missing since,” Korac said, adding that she tried to find out where her husband was, but with no success.

Korac said that she would never forget her children’s tears and words: “Mummy, find our daddy”. He husband was found in a grave in Visoko in 1997.

The next hearing is due to be held on April 19.

M.B.