Bosnian Serb Troops ‘Burned Women to Death’

Prosecution witness Edin Kustura told the Sarajevo-based court on Monday that he was hiding in the woods with other Bosniaks from the villages of Zlatnik and Dobrun who were trying to avoid the conflict in the spring of 1992 but returned to see his mother on May 27, when Serb forces attacked Zlatnik.

“I was in the house of Vezir Kasapovic. We heard gunshots and neighbour Dzevad and I jumped in the creek. From there we heard that the army came to Vezir to ask him where his sons are. Then there were gunshots and Vezir was killed. Dzevad and I ran to nearby meadow and to the other side. They were shooting, but we escaped onto the hill and saw that village was on fire,” Kustura said.

The next day, according to the witness, he went back to the village to find his mother, who told him that their house had been torched.

Kustura told the court that his mother saw the defendant Petar Kovacevic passing by in one group of Serb soldiers that day.

He said that his mother stayed at a neighbour Dervis Kustura’s house for a couple of months while he was hiding in the woods, after which he left the village. He later found out from another neighbour, Islam Kustura, that his mother was killed and set on fire along with two other women.

“Islam said there was an attack, they heard screams from the house and then everything was silent. After the attack they went to look for them, but nothing remained. Allegedly soldiers were looking for me and my brother,” Kustura said.

“Budimir Kovacevic, the brother of Petar Kovacevic, came and said to Islam: ‘We “took care” of the Kustura family, I killed the father and Petar set the mother on fire,’” he added.

Petar Kovacevic, a former member of the Bosnian Serb Army, is charged with setting Asim and Dervis Kustura’s houses and barns on fire in Zlatnik in late July 1992. Three women who were inside were killed. He is also on trial for other crimes in Dobrun and Zlatnik.

The trial continues on December 8.