Bosnian Serb Boy Watched Fighter Murder Neighbours
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The witness, Sasa Milosevic, told the court in Sarajevo on Wednesday that on March 26, 1992, he was at home in the village of Sijekovac in the Bosanski Brod municipality with his parents and two brothers when he heard someone demanding over a megaphone that Serbs hand over their weapons.
After that, a minute or two later, we heard shooting. My father and brother Zeljko stayed inside the house while we set off to the basement of the house of [neighbour]Milan Zecevic, the witness said.
There were a dozen of us there and we heard shots. The house was set on fire and 20 minutes later a soldier came in. They took us out, cursed us, threatened us and hit us with rifle butts and kicked us. They ordered us to lie down in a puddle, said Milosevic.
He added that a soldier also put a knife to his throat and threatened to cut him.
They ordered us to go further towards the road. My brother Dragan was separated from his mother and later I learned that he was killed, the witness continued.
We got out on the road and I saw [the defendant] Zemir Kovacevic approach [Serb villager] Jovo Zecevic and tell him to walk faster. Zecevic said something back and Zemir shot him. Then Zemir walked over to [villager] Petar [Zecevic], hit him with the rifle butt and shot him too, he said.
The witness said that Jovo Zecevic was around 80 years old, while Petar Zecevic had a mental disorder since birth.
Kovacevic, a former fighter with the First Bosanski Brod Brigade of the Croatian Defence Forces, is charged with taking part in the armed attack on the village of Sijekovac, where, together with others, he took 15 people and four children from their houses, some of whom were killed.
During cross-examination, Kovacevic said that the real truth about Sijekovac will never be known if he [the witness] carries on testifying like that.
Another witness, Mara Bacic, also testified at the court session on Wednesday. She said that she slept at a neighbours house on the day of the attack because she feared for her life.
I heard shooting coming from the direction of Sijekovac. I could not see anything, but there was a flame and you could hear shots, said the witness, who fled the next day.
She said that she later learned that her husband, who stayed behind in Bosanski Brod, was killed in April 1992.
The trial will resume on May 29.
