Saric: Order to Be Taken to Detention Camp

Witness Sakib Pandzic was brought to Jagomir hospital on June 19, 1992, along with his two sons. One of his sons was released that same day.The witness said that, two days later a list of names of the first group of men was read and that those men went out to the Jagomir hospital plateau.“We watched through the window and saw that Saric was telling them something. After that they went down the street,” the witness said.As he said, a short time later, the names of a second group of people, including him and his son, were read.“We went down to the plateau in front of the hospital. Goran Saric told us that we would go to Sonja in Vogosca and ordered us to get on a truck,” Pandzic said.The witness said that, prior to the departure of the truck, he cried and begged them to let his son go.“Saric released my son, saying that he would take him to the other side,” Pandzic said, explaining that he spent 26 days in the Sonja detention camp before being exchanged. Goran Saric, former Chief of the Public Safety Station in the Serb municipality of Centar, is charged with having ordered all male residents of Nahorevo to the come to the local community building on June 19, 1992. About 100 Bosniaks were then taken away and detained in the Jagomir hospital building. The indictment alleges that, on June 21, 1992 Saric divided the prisoners in Jagomir into three groups, selecting a group of 60 prisoners, who were forcibly transferred to Sarajevo, another group of 26 Bosniaks, who were transported to the Bunker detention camp in Vogosca, and a third group of 11 persons, who were later killed at Skakavac. Witness Vukasin Varesic, who had a military engagement, said that, acting on an order issued by his Commander Dragomir Djokic, he and two of his colleagues went to the Jagomir hospital, where the men from Nahorevo were held. Varesic explained that a person in civilian clothing told them to go to the upper floor of the hospital and keep guard. “That man had the keys. Whenever a prisoner wanted to go to the toilet, we would call him to unlock the door. I do not know that man, but he was a policeman,” Varesic said, adding that he was not present when the men were taken away from Jagomir. When asked by Trial Chamber Chairwoman Mira Smajlovic how they addressed the man, the witness said that they did not know his name, so they called him a guard.The trial is due to continue on November 5.

M.B.