Gunshot – a Sign of Death

Nijaz Skoric said that armed Serb soldiers captured him and other male residents of Kotor village, Kotor-Varos municipality, on June 25, 1992 and that they beat, mistreated and verbally insulted them in the Tatar’s family’s shop.

“They beat Hasan Smajlovic up, because he had a very small foldable knife, which they found. (…) I also heard gunshots. I recognised Rajko Skoric, who was shooting,” Skoric recalled, adding that the men were then transferred in front of Stipe Zeba’s house and that women and children were held in Zeba’s garage.

According to the witness’ testimony, the men had to squat and look down to the floor, while crying and moaning could be heard from the garage.

“Somebody said: ‘Take out and shoot seven men for one wounded man’. I personally saw them separating five men from the others. Those were Resid Vilic, his son Mevlid, Esad Muminovic, Seval Djuveleg. (…) I heard a gunshot – a sign that they were dead,” Skoric said.

He said that all men from Kotor village were then taken towards the Ambulance Station in Kotor-Varos, adding that 28 people were killed on the way.

“I saw Serif Djuveleg, who was killed on the bridge. Somebody hit Kerim Smajlovic on his neck. He fell down from the bridge into the River Vrbanja. He stayed there,” the witness said.

Skoric said that, as they were entering the Station, he recognised the voice of his work colleague Dusan Maksimovic, who was yelling and cursing.

Responding to a Defence’s question, the witness said that he saw indictee Dusko Maksimovic at the gate, but he did not see him hitting anybody. Witness Skoric said that unknown soldiers beat them within the Station complex and that he personally was “beaten up brutally”.

As testified by Skoric, in the early evening on that same day the men from Kotor were taken to an old prison in Kotor–Varos, where special policemen from Banja Luka beat them up at the entrance.

“I lost 22 kilograms during my 33-day detention at that location,” Skoric said, adding that he was also taken to frontlines in order to dig trenches.

Dusko Maksimovic is on trial, along with Savo Tepic, Dragoslav Bojic, Dusko Vujicic, Radojko Keverovic and Ilija Kurusic, for having participated in the detention, torture and other inhumane acts against Bosniaks and Croats in Kotor-Varos. According to the charges, Tepic was Chief of the Public Safety Station, Bojic was Commander of the Police Station in Kotor-Varos, Vujicic was an active policeman, Maksimovic and Keverovic were reserve policemen, while Kurusic was member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.

Another State Prosecution witness testified at this hearing, but he asked the media not to announce his name in public. He too said that he was taken from Kotor village to prison on June 25, 1995.

According to his testimony, on his way to the prison, the men were beaten up and killed within the hospital complex, while he fainted due to the beating. The witness was taken from the prison to the Police Station in Kotor-Varos in order to be examined, but he did not know the person, who examined him at the Station.

The trial is due to continue on December 29.