Shot in the Head

Witness Zecevic said that she left Sijekovac, where she lived at the time, with her son on March 25, 1992. Three days later her family members informed her that her husband had been killed in Sijekovac.

“I first heard on the news that members of the Zecevic, Milosevic families were killed… My brother-in-law came on March 28. He briefly told me that my other brother-in-law, father-in-law, neighbour were killed…,” Zecevic said, testifying for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

She said that her mother-in-law told her that Zemir Kovacevic grabbed her disabled son, whom she was holding in her hands, and killed the father-in-law of the witness by firing “a bullet to his forehead.”

Zemir Kovacevic, a former member of the Interventions Squad with the First Bosanski Brod Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with crimes committed in Sijekovac village, near Bosanski Brod.

According to the charges, on March 26, 1992 Kovacevic participated in an attack on Sijekovac and, acting in collaboration with others, took 15 adults and four Serb children out of their houses.

Some of them were then killed. Besides that, Kovacevic is charged with having participated in the unlawful detention, forcing people to perform hard labour, pillaging and unjustified destruction of property.

Witness Zecevic said that prior to leaving Sijekovac, she went to Bosanski Brod several times and saw armed people in the town.

Testifying at this hearing, second witness Drago Bacic said that she lived in Sijekovac until August 25, 1992. As he said, he later found out about the murders.

Also, he said that he heard about “the existence of an interventions squad” but he did not know in what period of time it existed.

“I was digging a trench on the playground. While I was at the stadium, I saw uniformed people,” Bacic said.

The trial is due to continue on April 17, when three State Prosecution witnesses will be examined.