Human Cry

Witness Sead Zejnic said, testifying before the District Court in Banja Luka, that he lived in Vrbanja until September 1993 and that he knew Sabahudin Ramic, who was his neighbour.
 
The witness said that, on the day of the murder he was playing chess with his neighbour in the attic of his house. 
 
“We heard some noise coming from the road. We went in front of the house. I saw Tarandzic on the bridge and a policeman standing a couple of metres away from me. Slobodan told him to shoot. I thought that they were hunting some animal. The policeman, who was standing in front of me, opened a burst of fire from his automatic rifle towards the brook. At that moment I heard a human cry,” the witness said.
 
The witness told the Court that he and his neighbour then ran towards the brook. As he said, neighbour Alija Sabanovic also came running to the brook and lifted Ramic, who was wounded.
 
“When we approached him, he was unconscious already. Alija was trying to pull his tongue out so he would not suffocate. At that moment Slobodan told us to carry him in front of that place,” Zejnic said.
 
The witness said that he did not notice injuries on the policemen, who were present at that location.
 
Tarandzic and Zec, former members of the Police Station in Mejdan, Banja Luka, allegedly stopped civilian Sabahudin Ramic on July 22, 1993. The indictment alleges that, when they asked him to show them his personal identification document, Ramic refused to do it. The indictees then handcuffed him. After that the injured party ran away to the nearby Drenovaca brook.
 
The District Prosecution alleges that Tarandzic then told Zec to shoot at Ramic, which he did. He wounded Ramic, who died at the Clinical Medical Centre in Banja Luka later that day.
 
Slobodan Surlan testified as the second witness of the Banja Luka District Prosecution today. He said that he was member of reserve police forces during the war and that he was sent, along with his colleague Momir Berak, to guard a crime scene inspection, when a person was wounded in Vrbanja.
 
“I was standing about 30 metres away from the wounding location. I noticed that several bullet capsules were marked with numbers. I saw Tarandzic on that occasion. Zec was not there,” Surlan said.
 
When asked by Prosecutor Sanja Guzina whether he noticed injuries on Tarandzic, the witness answered negatively. He said that he did not remember the event very well, because it meant nothing to him.
 
Third witness Momir Berak, who too was a member of the reserve police forces, said that he did not remember the event well, because he tried to forget it, but also because of the fact that he and Surlan were drunk, when they were sent to the crime scene in order to guard it.
 
Court expert Milan Srdic presented his findings and opinion at this hearing. On the basis of medical documentation he determined that Ramic had been shot in his right knee and that his blood vessels were torn, so he bled to death.
 
When asked by the Defence whether his death was caused by a mistake made by doctors, Srdic said that they could not have saved Ramic considering the condition in which he was upon arrival at the hospital.
 
The trial is due to continue on November 26.