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The witness, Ljubisav Gladanac, was a bus driver in the convoy which was used to transfer Bosniak population from Visegrad on June 14, 1992.
He said that the convoy was organised by the Red Cross and the population’s departure was voluntary.
“In Sokolac two soldiers boarded with a civilian. He told Perica that none of the men of the fighting age can pass through, because our children were fighting them,” said Gladanac, adding that soldiers stayed with him on the bus.
He said that Perica Markovic was a policeman from Visegrad and leader of the convoy. The buses were, the witness said, escorted by reserve policemen.
Gladanac said that he saw defendant Ljubomir Pantelic among the convoy’s escort, but that he did not see Ljubomir Tasic, member of the Army of Republika Srpska.
Pantelic and Tasic are charged together with Predrag Milisavljevic with participating in the forced transfer of Bosniaks from Visegrad on June 14, 1992.
Milisavljevic and Pantelic, reserve policemen, are charged with participating in the execution of 48 men at the Paklenik pit in Sokolac municipality on June 15, 1992.
Gladanac, who is a joint witness for the defence of both Tasic and Pantelic, said that up to 15 men remained on his bus after others left the convoy, and that he assumed that in other buses men of fighting age stayed behind too.
After they spent the night in Sokolac on their way back, they resumed their trip and stopped first in Rogatica, where the witness slept, and then at the Sjemec mountain near Visegrad.
“That is when a colleague of mine told me we are waiting for the bus which drove these to the exchange. We waited a long time. That’s when I saw Pantelic standing by the bus,” said Gladanac, adding that he later heard people were killed.
Another witness for the defence of Tasic testified, Luka Dragicevic, chief of the headquarters of the Visegrad Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska, also testified at this hearing.
He came to Visegrad after June 14, but said that he heard the convoy was organised by the Red Cross. He confirmed that Tasic was a company commander, whose task was to protect the population and vital facilities.
The trial will resume on November 12.
