“Explosions and Shooting” in Sijekovac

Petar Milosevic told the Court that he worked with the oil refinery in Bosanski Brod in 1992, but he stopped coming to work on March 23 due to “the tense situation and barricades”. According to the testimony of the witness, he saw indictee Zemir Kovacevic, who had a white belt, on one of the barricades in Sijekovac.Milosevic said that he was sitting in front of his house in Sijekovac with his uncle on March 26, 1992, when he saw his neighbour Nedo hurriedly driving a bicycle.

“All of a sudden we heard explosions and shooting. I said: ‘This must be a war’… So we continued sitting until the nearby houses began burning. At that moment we decided to leave. We went to Zboriste via Ribnjak, while the shooting continued behind us,” Milosevic said.The witness said that other local residents told him that many Serb civilians had been killed. He said that he found out, later on, that his house was set on fire a few days after the murders in Sijekovac.Zemir Kovacevic, former member of the Interventions Squad with the First Bosanski Brod Brigade, which turned into the 101st Bosanski Brod Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, later on, is charged with having committed crimes against Serb civilians in Sijekovac village in March 1992. The indictment alleges that Kovacevic participated in an attack on Sijekovac village and that, acting in collaboration with others, he took 15 Serb adults and four children, some of whom were killed, out of their houses into the courtyard. Testifying for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina at this hearing, Dusan Kusic said that he moved from Bosanski Brod to Sijekovac on March 20, 1992, because he was afraid for his safety, considering the fact that he heard “shooting and saw armed soldiers in the town”. The witness recalled having been in his house basement, along with his brothers and their families, on March 26, adding that he heard noise and cursing outside the house. “We did not sleep at all that night. At dawn we wanted to go to my sister’s in Lukavac, but they did not allow us to go. The following day we tried again to go to Lukavac via Slavonski Brod and we succeeded,” Kusic said, adding that, upon his arrival in Sijekovac in 1994, he saw that his house had been burnt. Kusic said that he did not know indictee Zemir Kovacevic.The State Prosecution invited another witness to this hearing, but she requested protection measures prior to entering the courtroom, so the Trial Chamber postponed her testimony.The trial is due to continue on April 24.