Bosnian Serb Refugee Recalls Son’s Murder

The first prosecution witness at the trial of four Bosnian Army ex-soldiers told the Sarajevo court on Friday that her son was killed on August 27, 1992, while the family was trying to escape the conflict.

Jelenka Matovic said that after had left the hamlet of Jabuka near Gorazde, along with her four children and other local residents, and was fleeing towards Rogatica. While they were driving from the village of Jabuka to Kukavice, she said she heard shooting.

“The driver said: ‘Run away from here. I am wounded.’ We got off the bus. I watched the children running along the road, running away. I was trying to see if my son was among them. I saw one of them, not the other,” Matovic said.

She said that she then went back to the bus and saw that her son had been shot through the heart.

“I got on the bus and approached the seat. I just saw that he looked like he was asleep. I do not remember anything else,” she said.

Muhamed Sisic, Emir Drakovac, Aziz Susa and Tarik Sisic are charged with having attacked a convoy of Serb civilians who were moving from Jabuka to Rogatica on August 27, 1992.

“They were aware of the fact that the vehicles transported civilians and that projectiles fired from firearms would lead to death or severe bodily injuries of those persons. The attack resulted in the death of at least 21 civilians and severe bodily injuries to at least 39 persons,” the indictment alleges.

According to the charges, Muhamed Sisic was the commander of the Reconnaissance Squad with the Bosnian Army’s Kukavicka Company, while the other indictees were members of the unit.

Drakovac is also charged with having brutally murdered a civilian in the Rogatica area in November 1992.

“He deliberately mutilated a civilian, who was still alive at that moment, by approaching him and cutting his head off using an axe, which he found next to a brandy-making machine. He then took off his trousers and cut his penis off. He then put it into the mouth of his severed head,” the indictment alleges.

The trial is due to continue on December 9.