Interventions Squad near Carakovo

Zeljko Stojnic, former member of the First Section with the Interventions Squad of Prijedor police, who testified in defence of indictee Zoran Babic, said that his Section received an order to go towards Carakovo in July 1992.

“We arrived to the viaduct. We were not assigned any tasks, but to guard the road and prevent the civilian population from going towards the combat zone,” he said.

He told the Court that, at that location he saw two parked buses, civilians and members of military police. He said that members of the Interventions Squad did not enter Carakovo village at that time.

Witness Sasa Zecevic said that he spent about two hours near the viaduct with other members of the First Section of the Interventions Squad on July 23, 1992. Zecevic said that indictee Babic was one of the Squad members.

Babic is on trial, along with Dragomir Soldat and Velemir Djuric, for having shot men in front of a mosque in Carakovo village on July 23, 1992.

Third witness Ljubisa Cetic said that members of the Interventions Squad guarded the road in the vicinity of the viaduct.

“We were there when we received information that a colleague of ours was killed in Kurevo. All of us went to the Station in Prijedor. When we arrived, we were told to go to Kurevo, so our Section left,” Cetic said.

Witness Malden Timarec, former member of the Second Section with the Interventions Squad, confirmed that members of the First Section arrived in Kurevo in 1992.

“We were divided into two groups. We were supposed to guard the place in order to make sure that the forces would not take the road towards Ljubija. A colleague of ours was killed there,” Timarec said, adding that the First Section arrived to the area following his murder.

Timarec said that members of both Sections slept over in Kurevo and returned to Prijedor the following day.

Stojnic, Cetic and Zecevic were previously sentenced before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for having committed crimes at Koricanske Stijene. They are currently serving their sentences.

The trial is due to continue on February 3, when indictees Babic and Djuric will testify.