Saric: Attack and Murders

State Prosecution witness Rasevic told the Court that an attack on Nahorevo was conducted in late June or in July 1992 and that “some army” later invited them to come to the local community building. “We went there. We were told to come inside the local community building and that people would go to Jagomir for examination,” the witness said, adding that he went to the Command in Radave village, where he was told that the people would be “examined and sent back”. The witness said that he was inside a house when he heard some shooting, adding that four men then came and said that Mujica Kozljak and two other people had been killed.“We went out to the street when the shooting stopped. All of the women came too. Somebody brought a piece of paper. The paper said that they should speak to the Territorial Defence and look for people to be exchanged for their husbands. Later on they said that the women had to leave as well,” Rasevic said.Rasevic testified at the trial of Goran Saric, former Chief of the Public Safety Station in the Serb municipality of Centar, Sarajevo, who is charged with having participated in an attack against the civilian population in Nahorevo, Poljine and other neighbourhoods in Sarajevo. He is indicted for having ordered all male residents from Nahorevo to gather in front of the local community building on June 19, 1992. About 100 Bosniaks were then taken away and detained in the Jagomir hospital building. A group of 11 detainees was later killed at Skakavac.It is alleged that Saric ordered the remaining non-Serbs to surrender. After that about 200 women, children and the elderly were forcibly transferred to territories controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH.Nedeljko Djokanovic, who testified as the second witness at this hearing, said that he lived in Kromolj in 1992. At the beginning of April 1992 local residents from Kromolj began organising patrols in the vicinity of their houses. “The first attack on our place happened on May 30, 1992. We were attacked from the direction of Bare, Sip. My father was severely wounded in that attack. He died the following day,” Djokanovic said. The Defence presented the witness with a list of members of police forces from the Serb municipality of Centar made in May 1992, which also contained his name. Djokanovic said that he was not member of police and that he could not explain why his name was included in that list.The trial is due to continue on February 25, when two Defence witnesses will be examined.

S.U.