Site of Fire in Blace

Witness Midhat Cerovac, who was Chief of the Territorial Defence Headquarters in Konjic in June 1992, said that they received information about a crime in Blace village, “which was committed by Fisic, known as Kolumbo.”

According to the witness, this piece of information caused bad relations between the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, and the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Cerovac went to Blace, along with HVO representative Dinko Zebic and a few members of “Lesinari” (“Vultures”) Unit, in order to make a report.

At the same time he sent an order for a man named Fisic, whom the witness did not know, to wait for him at Zvekusa locality.

“At first I saw cattle and houses and noticed that they had been set on fire. On the ground floor of one of the houses I saw three or four corpses. They belonged to women. They had already begun to stink. They were dressed in local village dresses and had handkerchiefs on their heads,” Cerovina said, adding that another female corps was lying on a fence.

He said that they found “Vukosav Lazo”, who was still alive, but “looked traumatised”, in the village. He told them the name of the killed old women. After that they returned to the artillery positions at Zvekusa.

“Kolumbo waited for me at that location. I told him that we had been informed that he and his group had committed that thing in Blace. He then said that Midko Pirkic gave him the order to do that thing to the civilians,” Cerovina said.

Cerovina told the Court that he made a report on what Fisic told him, adding that both of them signed it. The witness handed the report to his superiors.

The murder of four Serb old ladies in Blace village in June 1992 is charged upon Osman Brkan and Ibro Macic, former members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH.

According to the charges, Macic began shooting and Brkan then did the same. The bodies of the killed people have still not been found.

Witness Jasminka Dzumhur, the then President of the Commission for the Wounded, Killed and Missing and Exchange of Bodies, went to Blace village on that occasion.

“The village stunk. Corpses, mostly belonging to older women, were scattered around. I saw cattle with swollen stomachs. A site of fire. A horrible scene,” Dzumhur said, adding that she noted down the names of the killed persons, which she received from people whom she met in the village.

Responding to questions by Prosecutor Sanja Jukic, Dzumhur said that she had not issued the order to burn the bodies.

Dzumhur forwarded all her reports to the State Commission in Sarajevo. As she said, “people from the wartime presidency”, as well as Hague investigators, confiscated many documents from her office and house.

Responding to a Defence’s question, Dzumhur said that she had not examined the bodies of the killed people.

“It should have been done by a paramedic. There was one from HVO but he did not want to do it.”

The trial is due to continue on October 15.