Wounding instead of Negotiations
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Nermin Grahic, former member of the Seventh Muslim Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, said that Commander Elvedin Camdzic told him, in January 1993, that he had arranged negotiations with Croats, so they headed towards Dusina.
“As soon as we reached the houses, the shooting began. Camdzic came out to a clear space, raise his hands up and said that he had come to negotiate. As soon as he said that, he was hit by a bullet. I was angry, so I took a gun, but I was then hit as well,” the witness said, adding that he fainted after having been wounded.
He said that only five or six people came to attend the negotiations.
Grahic testified at the trial of Vehid Subotic, known as Geler, who is charged, as former member of the Second Battalion with the Seventh Muslim Brigade of ABiH, with having intruded Dusina village, along with other Battalion members, and ordered the capture of about 40 civilians and several disarmed members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO.
According to the charges, Subotic singled out eight Croat civilians, escorted them to a house and ordered members of his Company to kill one civilian each.
Witness Grahic said that he had never seen the indictee in the Seventh Muslim Brigade, adding that he was certainly not member of his Company.
Second Defence witness Enver Sisic said that he was in the Usce area, together with other members of his Unit, in January 1993, when they were told to go towards Dusina.
“I arrived in Brdo village. I saw Patkovic and six other Croats walking in front of him. He was leading them along a forest pathway,” the witness said, adding that he assumed that he was taking them to the military police checkpoint.
He said that some people were accommodated in a house in that village and that he saw a Zvonko being killed after having tried to flee.
“My Company did not even reach Dusina on that day. I was not in Dusina. I did not see anything there. All I saw happened in Brdo village. Later on I went to a school building in Lasva. When I got there, I heard that some men had been killed,” Sisic said.
Third witness Senad Helvida said that he was not in Dusina during the conflict, because he was at work. When asked by the Defence why anybody would say the opposite, the witness said that he did not know.
The trial is due to continue on February 5.
