Martic Was “Cowardly and Ill”

Testifying before the Cantonal Court in Zenica, Branko Tadic said that he was Commander of a Logistical Company’s unit with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, in the Lovnica area, Zepce municipality, in July 1993, and that cowherds, including indictee Mato Martic, were members of that unit.

“I assigned those tasks to him. He was among the elderly men, with poor health and fearful. Following the breakout of the conflict between the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, and HVO, we brought cattle, which had to be watched over. Our task was also to prepare food and distribute it to soldiers on the frontlines,” Tadic said.

He said that cowherds never received any other commands and that Martic neither had uniform nor arms.

Tadic said that, in 1993 it was not possible to travel between Lovnica, Ljeskovica and Perkovici, between Gornja Lovnica and Zepacko crossroads or Varda and Ljeskovica, which are mentioned in the indictment against Martic, by an ambulance or cart.

Martic, former member of HVO, is charged with having taken, in July 1993, a group of captured members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina from a school in Perkovici to military positions, where he abused them and hit them with a rifle butt on various parts of their bodies and shot at two of them.

Responding to questions by the Cantonal Prosecution, witness Tadic said that there were no captives in the summer of 1993 and that the trenches were built and arranged by HVO soldiers exclusively.

The trial is due to continue on December 3.