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Saric: Detained Neighbours

5. February 2013.00:00
Testifying at the trial for crimes in the Sarajevo area, a Defence witness says that he saw that his neighbours from Nahorevo were detained in the Jagomir hospital building.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

Mico Djukanovic, who used to live in the Nahorevo area in 1992, told the Court that, upon his arrival in Jagomir hospital, he saw some detainees, but he did not ask anybody why they were held in that building.

“I heard that paramilitary soldiers forced the local population to leave,” witness Djukanovic said, adding that he went to Jagomir in order to take his friend Ismet Gljiva out.

He said that, upon his arrival in Jagomir hospital, he spoke to Ljubomir Djokic, but he did not know whether he was in charge of that facility. The witness pointed out that he agreed with Djokic “to also release a sick young man” from Jagomir.

When asked by the Defence whether he met Goran Saric in front of the hospital, Djukanovic answered negatively.

Saric, former Chief of the Public Safety Station in the Serb municipality of Centar, Sarajevo, is charged with having participated in an attack against the civilian population in Nahorevo, Poljine and other Sarajevo neighbourhoods.

He is charged with having ordered all male residents of Nahorevo to gather in front of the local community building on June 19, 1992. About 100 Bosniak men were then taken away from there and detained in the Jagomir hospital building. A group of 11 detainees was later killed at Skakavac.

Djukanovic said that he was deployed to division lines in the Nahorevo area in 1992, but he never received a formal decision, indicating that he was a member of the Police Station.

Witness Zoran Todorovic said that he was a member of the reserve police forces as of April 1992 and that he kept guard in the Kromolj and Jezero hospital areas.

“The composition was multi-ethnic until the second half of April. It stopped being multi-ethnic when fire was opened at our checkpoint from the maternity hospital staircase. I think that the mentioned incident was the reason why Muslims left our forces,” Todorovic said.

The witness said that he was not paid by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska for his engagement, adding that this was the case of “a self-organisation”.

“I became member of the Centar Public Safety Station only after having returned from Pale in 1993,” Todorovic explained.

The trial is due to continue on February 11.
S.U.

This post is also available in: Bosnian