Bosnian Serb Fighter ‘Organised Deadly Visegrad Convoys’

The protected witness codenamed M-5 told the court on Tuesday that defendant Ljubomir Tasic organised the convoys, during which the men were separated from the other Bosniaks and executed in the Paklenik pit in the municipality of Sokolac.

“Ljupko Tasic came to our village of Zagre on several occasions in June 1992 and tried to talk us into leaving with the convoy,” the witness said.

“He was saying he would organise it, because they could not defend us from the other army,” said the witness, adding that she knew Tasic, who lived in the village of Bosanska Jagodina in the municipality of Visegrad.

She said that on June 14, 1992, Tasic told people from Zagre to come to Bosanska Jagodina, saying that from there they would be moved on buses to free territory.

“My husband, children and I came by car, turned over the keys to Tasic, and he told us that if we survived, our car would be waiting for us,” said M-5.

She added that they were taken to a plateau at the Drina bridge in Visegrad, where the soldiers wrote down their names, and after that they set off for Gornja Lijeska.

“Ljupko was going behind us in a small army truck, and I saw him at the Iseric Hill, where they led the men out and separated them from women. The children were crying. My husband was 28, and he was returned to the bus with another two brothers of his,” said M-5.

She said that the defendant then set off after the buses transporting the men in his truck.

The witness said she did not know what had happened to her husband until the year 2000, when she learned that all the men had been executed in the Paklenik pit.

Tasic is charged, together with former fighters Predrag Milisavljevic and Milos Pantelic, with participating in murders, the forced transfer of people and other inhumane acts in Visegrad.

The indictment says the offences were committed in 1992 when Milisavljevic and Pantelic were police reservists in Visegrad and Tasic was serving with the Bosnian Serb Army.

Witness Mirsada Mutapcic also testified for the prosecution, saying she saw defendant Tasic at the plateau in Visegrad with Milan Lukic, who has already been sentenced by the Hague Tribunal to life imprisonment for crimes against the Bosniak population in Visegrad.

The witness said that the men, including her brothers, were separated from the others in the convoy at Iseric Hill.

“Four of my brothers were killed and the youngest was only 18. Three brothers were executed, while one was killed with a blunt object – I assume he tried to run,” she said.

The trial will resume on May 21.