Mladic’s Trial Hears of Village Deaths

Prosecution witness Munira Selmanovic told the Hague Tribunal hearing that Serb forces killed her husband and son along with more than 40 other people who lived in the village of Novoseoci in eastern Bosnia in the autumn of municipality of 1992.In her written statement, which was included in the case file as evidence, Selmanovic said that Serb forces attacked Novoseoci on September 22, 1992 and ordered all local Muslim residents to gather at a factory complex while they pillaged their houses.Male residents, including Selmanovic’s husband and 18-year-old son, were then separated from women, children and the elderly, who were transported to Sarajevo by buses.She said that Serb commander Momcilo Pajic ordered the separation, adding that a woman was killed on her way to the bus because she was walking faster than the orders.According to Selmanovic, Pajic kept the healthy adult men in the village with the excuse that they would perform some labour. However, nobody has ever seen them alive again.Mladic is charged with the persecution of Muslims and Croats from 20 municipalities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Sokolac where Novoseoci is situated.The remains of 42 victims from Novoseoci were found in a mass grave in autumn 2000.Munira Selmanovic said that she attended the exhumation and identified her son’s remains.Prosecutors then showed her a list of 45 residents of Novoseoci who the witness saw at the factory complex on September 22, 1992.“All of them were alive when they loaded us onto buses. I have never seen them again. Never,” said Selmanovic.