Armed Civilians Defend Serdari

”Commander of the Kotor Varos Brigade should have relocated civilians from Serdari to a safe place, without putting them in a position to defend the village”, Senad Kljajic, a retired brigadier of the BiH Armed Forces.

An expert witness who presented the findings and opinion in relation to the proposal by the defence of the third accused Sead Menzil, testified that Serdari village was located in the zone of conflict between the forces at war and that there was a large concentration of arms of the Serb Army in the vicinity of the village.

“That was an important spot in terms of strategic targets, because it was located near the Kotor-Varos-Teslic-Banja Luka road infrastructure”, the expert witness stated.

He added that the arms were distributed to Serb civilians in local communes.

“Serdari put up resistance, because civilians in the village were fired from their houses during the attack,” he said.

For the attack on Serdari on 17 September 1992, in which 16 civilians were murdered, in addition to Menzil, the State Prosecution charged Fikret Planincic, Rasim Lisancic and Mirsad Vatrac, former members of the Territorial Defence (TO).

According to the expert witness, the attack on the village was the result of prior events.

“The villages with Muslim majority in Kotor-Varos were ethnically cleansed, whereas in August 1992 Bosnian Serb forces attacked Hanifici and Cirkino brdo villages setting them on fire, which launched the attack on Serdari,” the expert witness explained.

On 2 April, the BiH Prosecution will continue the expert witness examination.