Hell in Kukavice

State Prosecution witness Goran Vasiljevic said that he left Jabuka village, Gorazde municipality, by car with his wife and two small children and headed towards Rogatica, as they wanted to go to the territory controlled by the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.

As he said, the convoy of buses, trucks and cars mainly transported women and children.

“While we were traveling from Mesici to Kukavice, I spoke to my wife and children about where we should go and how we would manage in the future … All of a sudden the glass breaks. A bullet hits the windshield,” the witness said.

As he described, when they reached the straight part of the road leading to Kukavice, and the hell began: “The children were crying, glass was breaking … awful”.

He said that he was wounded twice and his wife once during only a 100-metre drive.

“When I was wounded for the second time after being hit on my head with a bullet or something else, the right part of my body became numb,” Vasiljevic said.

During those moments he saw an armed man running across the road, but he did not know who it was.

When they passed the location at which they were attacked, their vehicle broke, but some acquaintances of theirs picked them up, so they managed to get to Rogatica.

Vasiljevic testified at the trial of Muhamed Sisic, Emir Drakovac, Aziz Susa and Tarik Sisic, who are charged with having participated in an attack on a convoy in which at least 21 Serbs were killed and several tens were wounded.

The indictment alleges that Muhamed Sisic was Commander of the Reconnaissance Squad of so-called Kukavicka Company, while the other indictees were members of that unit.

Responding to the Defence’s questions, the witness said that the convoy was not marked in any way.

He told the Court that the convoy was organised after the Rogatica Brigade of the VRS had broken through to the Serbian population in Gorazde municipality, who had been surrounded. As he said, he considered that the road was safe.

Testifying for the Prosecution of BiH, Gordana Vasiljevic, who was crying, described the wounding of her husband.

“When he shouted that he was wounded, I got scared, because I did not know what would happen to us,” she said, adding that she was hit by a shrapnel piece on the left side of her head at the same time when her husband was wounded for the second time.

Responding to the Defence’s questions, the witness said that nobody told them that combat was being conducted in that area and that the road was not safe.

New Prosecution witnesses are due to be examined on February 3.