Shooting in Sijekovac

Halid Sejdic told the Court that, at the beginning of 1992 Nijaz Causevic, known as Medo, tried to recruit him as his driver. The witness said that, after having refused to do it, he received death threats.

“I refused his oral invitation, but I received a written invitation for mobilisation from the Sijekovac Crisis Committee on March 11, 1992. I was then mobilised. Causevic told me that I would drive him. He was the chief in the Crisis Committee,” Sejdic recalled, adding that he heard later on that Causevic “led the Interventions Squad” as well.

According to Sejdic’s testimony, on March 26, 1992 he heard that Causevic had gone to negotiations with the Serb population in order to ask them to “hand over their weapons”.

“They sent me to the Crisis Committee to get reinforcements. I went to that place and brought ten guys with Croatian Defence Forces’, HOS, emblems to the Traktor street. I did not see Medo, as he was behind the houses, but I could hear the shooting. I just returned to the Local Office,” Sejdic said.

He told the Court that he heard soon that some Serb neighbours had been detained, so he visited them, but soldiers, whom he did not know, forced him to leave the place.

“I went home and called a friend of mine, who transferred me to Croatia on the following day,” Sejdic said.

The State Prosecution charges Zemir Kovacevic, former member of the Interventions Squad with the First Bosanski Brod Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, with crimes committed in Sijekovac village, near Bosanski Brod.

The indictment alleges that, on March 26, 1992 Kovacevic participated in an attack on Sijekovac, where he took 15 Serb adults and four children, some of whom were killed later on, from their houses acting in collaboration with other men. Besides that, Kovacevic is charged with having participated in the unlawful detention, forcing people to perform hard labour, pillaging and unjustified destruction of property owned by Serb civilians.

Milenko Barnjak testified for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina at this hearing. He said that he lived in Gornja Mocila village, near Sijekovac, on March 26, 1992, when a cousin called him and told him that the village had been attacked.

“She asked for help, but I could not help her in any way. We heard some shooting, but it was not possible to determine the exact direction. We saw flame reflections and light in Sijekovac in the evening. It looked as if houses were burning,” Barnjak said.

The witness said that, about ten days later some soldiers took him to another location, where he had to dig trenches, but he was not able to recognise any of them.

The trial of Kovacevic is due to continue on April 10.