Voluntary Contributions

“At a meeting with police leaders in Teslic it was agreed that voluntary contributions from citizens would be collected in order to purchase new radio stations, because police only had four half-working radio stations at the time. The invitation was announced over the radio. Some persons came themselves in order to give their contributions, while policemen also collected a certain amount of money in the field. All policemen, including the indictee, had the authority to do it,” Savic said.

Savic, former Manager of the Counter-diversion and Terrorism Service with the Safety Services Centre, CSB, in Doboj, said that he sent Pijunovic, along with Slobodan Tekic and Bato Spasojevic to Teslic in June 1992 at a request by “the Operational Group due to explosions in that town”.

“Pijunovic brought 30,000 German Marks, while Tekic and Bato brought 25,000, to the police building in Teslic… I took the money to the CSB in Doboj. As it was not possible to contact Belgrade at the time, because the corridor had still not been opened, I took the money back to Teslic, where operational officer Predrag Radulovic took them over,” Savic said.

When asked by the Prosecutor whether there was an official decision on collecting money, Savic said that it was agreed at the level of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.The Trial Chamber wanted to know whether there was any written decision on collecting money from citizens. The witness explained that it was “an oral decision” and that those who brought their contributions to the Police Station were given receipts, but those receipts were not issued in the field.

The District Prosecution in Doboj charges Pijunovic with having participated in the torture, taking away, rape and unlawful detention of civilians from May to July 1992. According to the charges, Miroslav Pijunovic, known as Piko, was member of “Mice–Red Berets” police formation, which was part of the Republika Srpska, RS armed forces.

Witness Savic said that the three reserve policemen, including the indictee, were not members of “Mice” Unit.

“Citizens told me that members of military police from Doboj and Teslic called themselves ‘Mice’ and that they committed murders of Teslic local residents. I think that their camp was situated in Barici. ‘Red Berets’ was a unit from Serbia. They were part of the Operational Command in Doboj. They went to Teslic as per its orders. I did not have any contacts with them,” Savic said.

Prosecution witness Vjera Galijasevic said that a group of uniformed persons took her husband Rasim Galijasevic away in the evening hours on June 4, 1992.

“When the curfew ended in the morning, I went to the SUP [Internal Affairs Service] building in Teslic. I saw him inside. He was standing next to a window. I stayed there until the men from SUP forced us to leave. It was the last time I saw him. In the end we found out that he was dead and that his body was in a basement in Pribinic. We could not get his body to bury it,” Galijasevic said.

The witness, who is now 81 years old, was not able to remember whether she looked for her husband in the Territorial Defence building in Teslic, so the Prosecutor reminded her of her statement given to the District Prosecution in Doboj in 2008.

“Jozo Martinovic told me that a person nicknamed Piko, whose last name was Pijunovic, took my husband away from the Territorial Defence building,” Prosecutor Izudin Berberovic said.

Galijasevic confirmed that she said that to the Prosecution, but she tended to forget people and events due to her age.

At the end of her testimony indictee Pijunovic told the witness that he “knows who took your husband away” and that he “will say that during the continuation of this trial”.

The trial is due to continue on April 18.