Krsmanovic: Taken away from Rodic Brdo

Witness OK-16 told the Court that her neighbours Resad Mucovski and Fadil Zukic were taken from Rodic Brdo village and killed in June or July 1992.

“Resad’s mother Bahra told me that her son was taken away and that our neighbour Jovan Popovic killed him. He told her: ‘I killed your son. The river Drina took him away.’ (…) She told me that indictee Oliver Krsmanovic and Milan Lukic took OK-13 away one night and kept her for three or four hours. She said that the two men raped her,” witness OK-16 said.

Responding to a Prosecutor’s question, she confirmed that Bahra “mentioned Oliver in relation to the taking of people away too.”

The Defence objected, because the rape she mentioned was not covered by the indictment and because witness OK-13 did not mention it in her statement.

Krsmanovic’s Defence attorney Slavisa Prodanovic asked the witness why she mentioned, in her statement given two years ago, that she was present, when “Jovan Popovic and Serb soldiers” came.

OK-16, who testified in a separate cabin, responded by saying that she did not see the indictee, but she heard that he was present “in other houses in the village”.

Krsmanovic is charged with the arrest and disappearance of two men from Rodic Brdo village, Visegrad, who were last seen on June 10, 1992.

The former member of the Second Podrinje Light Infantry Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army is charged with murders, rape and forcible disappearances of the Bosniak population from Visegrad.

Protected witness OK-5 testified for the Prosecution at this hearing. She said that she used to see the indictee in a restaurant in Visegrad, while she worked in the restaurant kitchen.

“Milan Lukic used to come. He was accompanied by Sredoje and Mitar Vasiljevic. I used to see Momir Savic too. He was with Bosko Savic and a Jevdjic. They were uniformed and armed, when they came. Oliver sometimes had black paint on his face. He had a headband too,” witness OK-5 said.

She mentioned that she did not know whether Krsmanovic committed any crimes, adding that she sometimes “saw him with Milan and at other times with Momir” in the restaurant.

Responding to indictee’s questions, she was not able to say whether he approached them or they approached him. “They used to sit at my table, because I had money at the time,” Krsmanovic commented.

Milan Lukic, former leader of “Beli orlovi” (“White Eagles”) paramilitary formation, was sentenced, under a first instance verdict pronounced by The Hague Tribunal, to life imprisonment for the crimes committed in Visegrad, while Sredoje Lukic was sentenced to 30 years.

Mitar Vasiljevic was previously sentenced at The Hague to 15 years, under a second instance verdict, while the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed down a second instance verdict against Momir Savic, sentencing him to 17 years in prison. He is currently on the run.

The trial of Krsmanovic is due to continue on Tuesday, November 20.