Tasic was not Responsible for Convoy

Miroslav Stjepic, former driver with the Second Company of Visegrad Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, said that the convoy with which Bosniaks left Visegrad was organised by the Red Cross. He said that Tasic commanded the Second Company.

The witness said that he was in Bosanska Jagodina in the morning on June 14 and that Bosniaks were transported from Bosanska Jagodina to a square in Visegrad.  

“I saw Muslims. They expressed a wish to leave and to be escorted to Visegrad by their neighbours,” said Stjepic, testifying in defence of Tasic.

According to the charges, Tasic, Predrag Milisavljevic and Milos Pantelic participated, along with several other armed members of the Serbian Army and police, in the forced resettlement of Bosniak civilians from Visegrad and several other surrounding villages from the town square in Visegrad to territories controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, on June 14.

The indictment alleges that Tasic was member of VRS, while Milisavljevic and Pantelic were reserve policemen.

As he said, prior to departure of the convoy on June 14, paramilitary units had arrived in Visegrad, so the local population was not safe. He said that he too sent his family away as refugees.

According to Stjepic’s testimony, Serbs and Bosniaks said goodbye to each other in Bosanska Jagodina on June 14. He said that “the atmosphere was friendly”.

The witness said that, prior to the departure of Bosniaks from Bosanska Jagodina, he and Tasic had gone to the Brigade Command at Bikavac in order to bring food. After that they stopped by the square, where buses on which he noticed the Red Cross signs, were parked. As he said, he did not see soldiers, but he did see policemen at that place.

“Ljubomir Tasic was with me at the square. We were standing there, watching the situation,” Stjepic said.

He told the Court that, when the convoy moved, a uniformed person wanted to get on a bus, but indictee Tasic prevented him from doing so.

“Ljupko jumped and pushed him away,” the witness recalled.

The witness said that he heard that the convoy was under the responsibility of the Red Cross and civilian authorities, adding that no order to “move the population out” was issued by the Second Company. He said that he and Tasic then went back to the Company Command in Veletovo village.

Testifying in defence of Tasic, Avdo Demir recalled the arrival of paramilitary units in Visegrad in the first half of 1992.

“They began persecuting people, robbing them. (…) They took people away, killed them, set houses on fire,” he said.

The witness said that he did not know about the convoy that departed the place on June 14, 1992, but he did remember an earlier convoy, which, as he said, was organised by the Red Cross.  

“People wanted to leave in order to save themselves from paramilitary units,” he said.

New witnesses are due to testify in defence of Tasic at the next hearing scheduled for Tuesday, October 29.