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At the beginning of the hearing the witness asked the Trial Chamber to prohibit the media from publishing his name. After that he said that he heard about conflicts between ABiH and the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, in Trusina in 1993, when Croat civilians were killed.
As he explained, he heard about the Trusina events in the Command of the 45th Brigade of ABiH, which was located in nearby Parsovici village.
“People spoke about Samko’s wounding a lot. I heard that he was commander, that he was severely wounded and that he died while being transported to hospital. I heard that Zolja was Samko’s girlfriend and that she shot at civilians following his wounding,” said the witness, former member of the 45th Brigade of ABiH.
He said that he heard that Samko and Zolja belonged to the Special Purposes Squad of the Main Command Headquarters of ABiH, which was “widely known as Zuka’s unit”.
He said that he had not heard that Bojadzic visited Parsovici, where, according to previous testimonies, a group of members of “Zulfikar” Special Purposes Squad stayed prior to participating in the attack on Trusina.
Bojadzic is on trial, along with Zulfikar Alispago, Mensur Memic, Dzevad Salcin, Senad Hakalovic and Nedzad Hodzic, with having participated in the attack on Trusina, where Croat civilians and soldiers were killed.
The indictment charges Bojadzic, former Deputy Commander of “Zulfikar” Special Purposes Squad, with having commanded the attack via communication devices from a nearby hill. It further alleges that 18 civilians and four HVO members were killed in the village.
Responding to questions by Prosecutor Vesna Budimir during the cross-examination, the witness said that he did not know where Bojadzic was on April 15 and 16, 1993.
The witness said that he met Bojadzic for the first time as member of the Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FBiH, after the war. As he said, his acquaintance with the indictee did not affect the authenticity of his answers. “As a commander, he was very strict and very fair,” the witness said.
Testifying in defence of Bojadzic, Reuf Hero recalled having distributed food to members of “Zulfikar” Squad in the Command of the 45th Brigade in Parsovici, where he worked as a logistics officer. He said that he did not see Boajdzic, whom he met for the first time later on, in Parsovici.
Hero said that he did not remember whether he gave them food prior to, or after the operation in Trusina.
The trial is due to continue on February 10.
