18 years ago: What Ranisavljevic said about the crime in Strpci

Those three are Obrad Poluga, Novak Poluga and Boban Indjic. All of them were arrested by the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) on December 5. In addition, 12 more suspects were arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
 
In the statements that were read at the Ranisavljevic’s trial before the High Court in Bijelo Polje (Montenegro), all three denied involvement in this crime. Ranisavljevic was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He completed his sentence three years ago.
 
On February 27, 1993, an armed group which consisted of about 20 people kidnapped passengers from the express train in Strpci, which was traveling from Belgrade (Serbia) to Bar (Montenegro).
 
In Musici, a village near Visegrad, 20 kidnapped passengers were murdered, out of which 18 were Bosniaks, one Croat, and one was a foreigner, probably of African or Arab origin.
 
Ranisavljevic’s verdict stated that the kidnapping was organised by Milan Lukic.

Together in action
 
In the statement given to the investigating judge in Bijelo Polje in 1996, Ranisavljevic described in detail the kidnapping and murder of 20 passengers. Here, we give parts of his testimony, which are parts of the second instance verdict against Ranisavljevic.
 
He said that he went as a volunteer from his hometown of Despotovac (Serbia) to Croatia to wage war. In 1992, he returned to Despotovac, and in January 1993 he went to visit his father in Belgrade, where he met one girl, Dragana. He agreed on her proposal to come in Visegrad, as a volunteer. As he said, a few others joined him.
 
According to him, they became members of the Visegrad Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), which was under the command of Luka Dragicevic, who, along with nine other suspects, was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
In his testimony, Ranisavljevic said that that they joined the Intervention Troop of the Visegrad Brigade which was commanded by Indjic, who was also arrested along with the other suspects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered them into custody.
Three days before the kidnapping, Ranisavljevic stated that he went to Serbia, but that he returned to Visegrad along with Mico Jovicic on the day the crime was committed.
 
Before entering the military barracks, where they were located, Ranisavljevic noticed a group of soldiers, and that Poluga’s brothers, commander Indjic and Milan Lukic were among them. Regarding Lakic, “Dragana said to him that he is the cause of fear and terror in Visegrad.”
 
After they approached the group, as is written in the statement, Indjic said: “You are also going into action with us.” Ranisavljevic understood this as an order.
 
In the morning hours, the group of 20 armed fighters headed towards Strpci in one truck. While traveling, Ranisavljevic said that someone in the group was saying: “We’ll be late”, “It will pass”, and the like, after he realised that this was not the usual course of action.

As he stated, he soon realised that they will attack the train. According to Ranisavljevic, when they arrived at the train station in Strpci, they were divided into groups and waited for the arrival of the train.
 
“When the train stopped, the group which was assigned to enter the train did so. He went along with the group, although he was not assigned to the task. When Milan Lukic entered the train, he said that it was just a routine control and that the people who will leave the train will return to the train after computer verification,” read the statement given to the investigating judge in the High Court in Bijelo Polje.
 
All together, they headed towards Visegrad in the truck. According to the statement, they came to village of Prelovo (municipality of Visegrad), and escorted the passengers to a gym and lined them up against the wall.
 
“Milan Lukic and Boban Indjic ordered those persons to remove everything from their pockets and place the items in front of them and to separate the money, jewellery and watches from other items and personal documents,” said Ranisavljevic, adding that almost all of them were beating the civilians, but that he does not remember whether he hit somebody.
 
The armed group ordered the passengers to enter the truck again and they went to the direction of Visegrad. As Ranisavljevic said, the truck stopped in the village of Musici, near a burnt house with garage on the ground.
 
Muffled gunshots
 
According to Ranisavljevic, Lukic, Indjic and another two or three fighters escorted the kidnapped passengers in small groups from the truck to the garage. While Lukic and Indjic were entering the garage, Ranisavljevic said that he heard muffled gunshots.
 
In the end, two groups of five to six civilians were taken out. According to Radisavljevic, Lukic and Indjic brought the first group into the garage, while the other group remained at the entrance door. In one moment, Ranisavljevic saw how one of them started to run away and he began to shoot, and then he heard him say: “Oh, mother”, and then he fell down.
 
“At that moment, Milan Lukic came out of the garage and asked with a raised voice: ‘Who shot?’”. He replied to Lukic that he did it and showed the person who was groaning. Lukic then approached that person and slaughtered him with his bayonet, and said: “That’s how this should be done”, said Ranisavljevic.
 
After the murder of the last group, they entered the truck and left the village. According to statement, Lukic said that one elderly man from the village would remove the bodies and throw them into the Drina River. They arrived in Visegrad one hour before the midnight, and were ordered not to talk about what happened.

Ranisavljevic said that he signed this statement out of fear for his life and the life of his family, stating that he was beaten and blackmailed while he was interrogated while he was in custody.
 
However, the judges did not believe him, explaining that “such a detailed description and description of the smallest details could only be brought by a person who was really there at the critical time.”
 
They concluded that the police, the investigating judge or anyone else could not have forced Ranisavljevic to present such details of the kidnapping and the murder of passengers because of reasons that they could not be known to them. According to the verdict, his statement from the investigation is confirmed by the testimonies of other witnesses.
 
During the trial, the investigation of the house where the killings took place was conducted and at one of the inner walls, the following names were written: Nebojsa, Boban, Branko, Boca and Brane.
 
The post-mortem information of all of the victims has still not been found.
 
The Hague Tribunal sentenced Lukic to life imprisonment for crimes in Visegrad. He was not on trial for the kidnapping and killing of passengers from the train in Strpci.