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Witness Mirsad Becirovic told the Sarajevo court on Thursday that the situation in his village of Paros in the Prozor municipality deteriorated after it fell under the control of the Croatian Defence Council, when he was 15 years old.
“The arrests of men old enough to serve in the army started in April , and the rest of us were hiding in the woods during the night, and we were going to the village during the day,” said Becirovic.
He said that he was arrested one morning by an unknown soldier, who threatened him with a knife and a rifle to reveal the place where the village men were hiding.
“I thought it was better if he killed me instead all of them,” Becirovic said.
The soldier then took him to his house, which had been burned, and he saw many imprisoned civilians, including his younger brother, Suad.
“ Djuzel Becirovic was tied to my gate with handcuffs. He was saying that he was suffering from a heart condition and begged them to let him go,”
Becirovic said.
He said that a man in a black coat then approached his tied-up neighbour, untied him and hit him. He said he learned from other neighbour’s that the man’s name was Nikola Maric.
The witness said that his neighbour managed to get up and started running away, but the soldier in the black coat fired a round at him, as did another, unknown fighter.
Nikola Maric, a former member of the Croatian Defence Council, is charged with participating in murders, torture and other inhumane acts from November 1992 to October 1993.
He is accused, amongst other things, of the killing of Djuzel Becirovic in the village of Paros.
The witness said that the next day he saw his neighbour’s dead body lying in the same place, covered with a blanket, and that he was later expelled from the Prozor municipality alongside the other Bosniaks.
Mirsad Becirovic’s brother, Sead Becirovic, also testified and said that he was 12 years old when he saw his neighbour Djuzel Becirovic murdered by a man in black coat with blue eyes.
The trial continues on July 10.
