Images of My Dying Brother

The witness stated that his brother Mujo Alihodzic worked in the Poliester company in Priboj, Serbia and that he commuted to work by bus.

“He had a certificate of free passage through Bosnia. I was in the countryside and I learned of their capture on the second day… We heard that there were 17 people there, one of whom was a woman. Only one child was left. The rumours had it that a driver saved them,” the witness stated.

According to the indictment, on 22 October 1992 in Rudo Municipality, Oliver Krsmanovic participated in the capture of 16 Bosniak civilians from Sjeverin.

According to the indictment, they took the civilians off the bus in Mioce , on the part of the road passing through BiH, whereupon they took them to Vilina Vlas in Visegrad, where they were beating them with wooden batons, and eventually murdered them.

The witness stated that he had heard different rumours about what happened after the civilians were taken by trucks to Visegrad.

“Mile Udovicic, who loaded the truck, testified in the trial in Belgrade that my brother was murdered in Bijela brda, decapitated… Mile said that Oliver pressed a rifle to his throat… In Belgrade he told him that he knew him and that he has a tattoo on his arm,” witness Alihodzic stated.

In clarifying these allegations, defence council Slavisa Prodanovic told the witness that Krsmanovic was absent from trial in Belgrade. Following these proceedings Krsmanovic was sentenced in absentia to 20 years of imprisonment for crimes committed against civilians in Sjeverin.

Witness Alihodzic was presented with photographs of the abducted men, which were taken in Vilina Vlas. He stated that one of them might depict his brother but he could not clearly recognise him for the condition they were in.

“This could be him. It appears to be his face and build… Here I see bloody hands and scars, he is a dead-man walking,” the witness commented on while looking at the photos.

Out of four witnesses who were to take the stand, Alihodzic is the only one who appeared at this hearing.

The Panel proposed that six witnesses be summoned for the next hearing scheduled for 2 April.