Defendant ‘Never Beat Up Bosniaks’

“I assert that I did not beat anybody up. I did not order anyone to do it. I did not witness a beating,” former Serb paramilitary Kornjaca testified at his war crimes trial in Sarajevo on Wednesday.

“I did not watch it, because if I had watched it, I would not have allowed anyone from my unit do it,” he said Kornjaca.

He also said that he did not see or hear that Bosniaks were being locked up in a metal container in Mostina, on the edge of the eastern Bosnian town of Cajnice.

The indictment alleges that on May 19, 1992, or thereabouts, after the death of a member of the Blue Eagles unit, its leader Kornjaca participated in the murder of 28 civilians imprisoned at a hunting lodge in Mostina using automatic weapons and hand grenades.

But Kornjaca said he only visited the lodge for the first time with court officials and the prosecution and defence teams while the case was being investigated.

He is also charged with the expulsion of Bosniaks from Cajnice.

Kornjaca has previously testified that he didn’t give orders for the mass detention of Bosniaks in Cajnice or have any involvement in killing them.

He will resume his testimony on April 3.