Mother Recalls Teenage Son’s Murder by Croat Fighter

Witness Hasija Kovacevic told the cantonal court in Zenica on Tuesday that Crepulja came to her house in the village of Ratanj on October 16, 1993, and called for her to come out.

“He had a black uniform which was shining in the sun. He had a hat with the large yellow letter U [representing the Nazi-allied WWII Croatian Ustasa regime], and he was armed with a small black rifle,” Kovacevic said.

She said that she told the defendant to wait because she planned to bath her children and give her elder son Mirzet something to eat.

“That’s when my Mirzet went out in front of him and said: ‘Neighbour, ask me what you need’… [Crepulja] turned his rifle towards the house and started firing. I was at the door with the younger child in my hands. I saw when he shot Mirzet. He caught hold of his stomach, took a step or two and said: ‘Did you kill me, neighbour?’, and fell down,” she said.

Crepulja, a former member of the Croatian Defence Council, is charged with killing the teenage civilian for no reason.

The witness, who said she already knew the defendant before the war and recognised him in the courtroom, said that she fled the village after her son’s death and only returned the next year.

Her family heard several months later that the bodies of several people were buried in a field about an hour’s walk from their house, one of whom turned out to be Mirzet.

“The doctor gave me some pill that day and they took me to Mirzet to see him,” the witness said, after which she fell ill and fainted.

The trial continues on November 12.