Father’s Head in a Shopping Bag

Meho Dzenanovic told the District Court in Eastern Sarajevo that he and his father went to a field to harvest vegetables at the beginning of August 1992. The witness, who was 13 at the time, said that, at some point he heard a gunshot and saw his father on the ground.“I noticed that my father was bleeding. I moved towards him. I heard a brief burst of fire and realised that I had been shot. Drago Cacic came to me running. He hit me on my back. He was accompanied by Vojo Motika, Milenko ‘Mican’ Cacic and an unknown man,” the witness said.As he said, Motika and Milenko Cacic took the witness away, while Drago Cacic stayed there.“Drago joined us later on. He carried a shopping bag. When we came to a place where soldiers were present, Drago was showing them what he had in the shopping bag,” said Dzenanovic, who returned home on the following day. When he came home, he found out that his father’s body was found, but his head had been cut off. He then realised that his head was in the shopping bag he had seen earlier. When asked by the Defence of the first indictee whether he saw who had cut his father’s head off, the witness answered negatively, but he said that Drago Cacic was the last person who stayed at that location after he had been taken away. According to the Eastern Sarajevo District Prosecution’s charges, Dragisa Cacic, Milenko Cacic and Vojo Motika, former members of Rogatica Military Post, killed one person and wounded a child in the vicinity of Starcici village on August 8, 1992. Dzenanovic said that, prior to going back home, he was taken to Rogatica, where he spent the night. As he said, he saw Motika before heading back home.When asked by the Defence why he said, in one of his previous statements, that the event happened on August 15, 1992, the witness said that he became confused and that he got the date from his family members.Second witness Muharem Dzenanovic said that, one day after his brother and father had gone to a field to harvest vegetables, he started searching for them. When he arrived to the field where they had been on the previous day, he saw his father’s body.“I saw my father’s body, but no head. It was a horrible scene. His body was headless,” he said, adding that his brother Meho, who returned home in the early evening, told him what had happened.The trial is due to continue on June 3.