Hit in the Knee

Djula Beric said that members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, came to Lapsunj and requested local residents to gather at one location.

“They had guns. They forced us to get on their vehicles. I knew all of the soldiers. Zeljko Jukic was among them. I addressed him. I called him by his name, Zeljko. He turned around, cursed my mother and hit me in my right knee,” Beric said.

When asked by Prosecutor Sanja Jukic why she had previously left her apartment in Prozor, the witness said that she had to move out, because they forced them to leave.

The witness also said that she had known the indictee and his family from before the war.

Jukic, former member of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with murders, abuse and robbing of civilians in Prozor in 1993. Under a first instance verdict, Jukic was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but the verdict was quashed and a retrial ordered.

Second Prosecution witness Muharem Konjaric said that he was hiding in the woods, when HVO soldiers came to Donji Visnjani village and that he saw women and children come out of houses. He said that they lined the men in front of one house.

Konjaric said that Mirsad Pilav told him that he managed to escape shooting at a landfill site to which he had been brought by Zeljko Jukic, Vinko Papak and another soldier.

“He jumped into a pit. They opened fire at him,” the witness said.

The indictment alleges that Jukic, Papak and another HVO soldier participated in taking five men from the secondary school centre and escorting them to Duska Kosa landfill site. Those persons have been missing without trace since.

The witness said that he was held in the Secondary School Centre in Prozor for about ten days.

When asked by attorney Irina Pehar whether Zeljko Jukic did anything to him, the witness answered negatively, adding that he did not see the indictee during his detention in the School Centre.

Witness Amir Konjaric said that HVO soldiers, including indictee Jukic, entered his village Visnjani in mid-April 1993 and ordered the local population to gather in front of Juso Konjaric’s house.

“While I was in the woods, I saw Zeljko Jukic separating some men and taking them into Juso’s house. Then I heard shouting,” the witness said.

Also, he said that Jukic took Juso Konjaric away, holding a knife above his head and that, when somebody shouted: “He wants to slaughter Juso”, one of the soldiers approached them and stopped it.

The witness said that he was detained in the Secondary School Centre and that they forced him to perform hard labour.

Witness Dzevad Kovacevic said that HVO soldiers killed his grandfather Bajro Kovacevic at his doorstep in Donje Kranjce village.

The trial is due to continue on January 27.