Planincic et al: Wife’s Testimony

Witness Diba Menzil said that she was deported from her village of Hrvacani, Kotor-Varos municipality, along with her children and mother-in-law, in June 1992, while her husband Sead Menzil worked in Austria.

Witness Menzil said that she first went to Plicka, a nearby Catholic village, to Cirkino brdo and finally to Hanifici village, but the Serb army expelled them from all those villages. As she said, the witness then went back to her village of Hrvacani.

“When we were halfway to our village, somewhere near Serdari village, a man stopped us and told us that we could not proceed. He then went to the Command building. Soldiers from Tepici village gathered us at the crossroads and told us to go to Vakufci village,” witness Menzil said.

Witness Diba Menzil told the Court that, while she was in Vakufci, she heard that her husband had come back from Austria.

“A neighbour’s son told me that Sead was there and that he would come to pick us up. However, we had to go to Bilice village,” the witness said, adding that the indictee then came and picked her and the children up and took them to her parents in Vecici village.

When asked by Prosecutor Dragan Corlija whether the indictee was uniformed and armed, Menzil answered affirmatively. She said that she then went to nearby Zebe village, adding that her husband occasionally went to frontlines from that village.

Besides Menzil, the State Prosecution charges Fikret Planincic, Rasim Lisancic and Mirsad Vatrac, former members of the Territorial Defence, with the attack on Serdari village on September 17, 1992, when 16 Serb civilians were killed.

The witness said that she heard that something had happened in Serdari, but she did not know much about it and that she had not discussed it with her husband.

The trial is due to continue on February 19 this year.