Holding Positions on Zaglavak

“At the beginning of June 1992 we were on Zaglavak. Zaglavak is a mountain 21 kilometres away from Visegrad. We had those old Yugoslav Army uniforms. We had semi-automatic guns and old plain rifles,” Miroslav Mirkovic said.

According to his testimony, about 100 people, including indictee Rackovic, were present on Zaglavak.

“During that time we did not leave the front line at all,” Mirkovic said, adding that there were not many people on those positions.

Responding to a Defence’s question, the witness said that Rackovic was a common soldier and that he was sure that he did not leave the front lines in that period of time.

Rackovic, former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is on trial for having participated in attacks on Bosniak villages, detention, torture and forced disappearances of persons from the Visegrad area as well as rape, from May to the end of August 1992.

Witness Mirkovic said that the Army withdrew from Zaglavak on July 12, 1992 and that he remembered that date as it was St. Peter’s Day.

When asked by judge Mira Smajlovic whether he remembered where he was on St. Peter’s Day in 1993 and 1994, the witness said that he was not able to say that.

“I remember the holiday, because we withdrew from that fierce and dangerous place on the 12th,” Mirkovic said.

When asked by judge Mediha Pasic where they slept and how they kept their hygiene during those 40 days, the witness said that they slept in trenches and that it was very bad.
 
“We nearly reached the decay stage,” witness Miroslav Mirkovic said.

Second Defence witness Dragan Mirkovic also said that he was on Zaglavak with the indictee for 40 days and that they withdrew from those positions on St. Peter’s Day. He said that the soldiers had hunting rifles.

The trial is due to continue on November 5.