Witness Recalls Husband’s Death in Gorazde Massacre

Witness Nura Mocevic told the court in Sarajevo on Monday that her husband was among those who died when Kokino Selo, a village near the town of Gorazde, was attacked by Serb forces on May 22, 1992.

“That day we were at the house of Ibro Bogdanic, in the basement. There were about 60 women, children and elderly people when the shooting began,” recalled Mocevic.

She said that one of her neighbours said that they should flee to the River Drina.

She recalled how she started running with her husband, two sons and other villagers, but when they came to a road, some managed to cross it while others were wounded by gunfire, killed or captured.

“My husband was shot then, I was sitting next to him until he died,” she said.

She recalled how she managed to escape to Gorazde, but said that 33 people died during the attack, including her brother and sister, her sister-in-law and her niece Admira Sahman, who was only 12 years old, while many others were wounded.

She told the court that she knew the defendant Sekaric, who was a friend of her son.

“I did not see him that day, but I did not see anyone, because we were running under the rain of bullets,” she said.

Sekaric, a former member of the Bosnian Serb Territorial Defence forces and the ‘Osvetnik’ (‘Avenger’) paramilitary group, is on trial for crimes against humanity committed within a widespread and systematic attack by the Bosnian Serb Army on the non-Serb population in the Gorazde and Visegrad area.

Sekaric is charged with participating in the attack on Kokino Selo, the torture of family and children in Visegrad, the rape of a woman, the killings of large number of non-Serb civilians and the physical abuse of prisoners in at the Uzanica detention camp in Visegrad.

The defence said in court on Monday that it will prove that Sekaric is not guilty.

His trial continues on March 31.