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Witnesses ‘Threatened’ At Bosnian Soldiers’ Murder Trial

24. September 2013.00:00
At the trial of two Bosnian Army soldiers for killing four elderly Serb women in the village of Blace in the Konjic area in 1992, a witness said he was threatened and urged not to testify.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

Testifying in Sarajevo on Tuesday, prosecution witness Hamdija Fisic said that his brother Mirsad Fisic, a wartime Bosnian Army commander known as ‘Columbo’, threatened him and told him to lie to the court.

“I fear for my family and children. My children are scared senseless. He beat up our father,” said Fisic.

‘Columbo’ is alleged to have commanded the soldiers who attacked the village of Blace near Konjic in southern Bosnia in June 1992 when the four elderly Serb women were allegedly killed by defendants Osman Brkan and Ibro Macic.

Witness Fisic said that he arrived in Blace with a group of soldiers led by Colombo where they found “crazy men and burned houses”. After stopping to eat, some of the soldiers, including defendant Macic, headed towards a house in the village.

“After that we heard shooting. When they came back, someone said: ‘Why didn’t you guys come to see the girls?’” recalled Fisic.

He added that one of the men then said: “We killed them.”

The second prosecution witness to testify on Tuesday, Zajko Fisic, said that defendant Brkan was his brother-in-law.

He said he also took part in the attack on Blace, but that he could not remember anyone going into the house where the women were killed.

He said however that he and his family were also recently threatened by Columbo.

After the attack on Blace, Fisic recalled that he was told by Columbo “not to mention this”.

The trial will resume on Friday.

Džana Brkanić


This post is also available in: Bosnian