Headless Body

An Eastern Sarajevo District Prosecution witness says, at the trial for crimes in Rogatica, that he found his brother’s headless body in August 1992.

Testifying before the District Court in Eastern Sarajevo, Hasan Dzenanovic said that he found out that his brother and nephew were not in their house in Stricevici village on August 8, 1992. The following morning he searched for his brother and he saw his body in Podvode village.
 
“There was no head on his body. His head had been cut off. We went back in order to bring some blankets, so we could carry the body back home. He was buried that same day,” Dzenanovic said.
 
The witness said that his nephew Meho returned home that day and told them that he was with his father when he heard shooting, and that his father fell down after that.
 
“When he got up he saw Drago and Milenko Cacic, Vojo Motika and another man,” Dzenanovic said, adding that he knew those people because they were his neighbours.
 
According to the Eastern Sarajevo District Prosecution’s charges, Dragisa Cacic, Milenko Cacic and Vojo Motika, former members of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, from Rogatica, killed one person and wounded a child in the vicinity of Starcici village on August 8, 1992.
 
When asked by Prosecutor Mirza Hukeljic how he was sure about the exact date of his brother’s murder, the witness said that he “can never forget the tragedy”. The Defence teams pointed out that, in his previous statements the witness mentioned some other dates in relation to these events.
 
Second witness Lutvo Dzenanovic told the Court that his father was killed on August 8, 1992.
 
“On that day I heard a gunshot and brief burst fire. I searched for my father and brother, together with my uncle Hasan and others, the following day. We found my father’s body. It was headless,” said Lutvo Dzenanovic.
 
He said that his brother Meho told him what had happened to his father. When asked by Nenad Rubez, Defence attorney of the first indictee, whether Meho saw who had shot his father, the witness said that Meho “did not see it directly” and that he did not see who had cut his father’s head off.
 
During the cross-examination the witness addressed the first indictee and said: “Dragisa, my father would not have done that to you”.
 
The trial is due to continue on June 24.