Witnesses Describe Hearing of Civilian Killings in Busovaca

Relota, a former member of the Nikola Subic Zrinjski Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), has been charged with participating in the murder of three civilians in the area of Busovaca on January 26 or 27, 1993. After leaving the bodies of the civilians in a house, a bomb was thrown into it. Relota allegedly acted in collaboration with two other soldiers.

The Bosnian state prosecution originally filed the indictment against Relota, but the case was referred to the cantonal court in Novi Travnik for further processing.

Witness Sabaheta Neslanovic said that she was in Slovenia when the murders took place. She said her brother told her in October 1993 that her husband had been killed, along with two other civilians, at the home of a protected witness known as B1. Her brother had told her that Relota participated in the murders.

During her cross-examination, defense attorney Branka Praljak asked Neslanovic whether she had heard from protected witness B1 that Josip Relota was the perpetrator of the murders.

“I didn’t get that information from witness B1. I heard it from one hundred other people,” Neslanovic said.

Defense attorney Praljak said that in a previous statement Neslanovic had given to the Bosnian state prosecution, she had failed to mention Relota. Neslanovic said that she knew of Relota’s involvement in the murders twenty years ago.

Witness Belkisa Hadzibegovic found out about the death of her husband Fikret from the Red Cross in Zenica. Some time later this was confirmed by detainees who had been released from Busovaca. In 1993, B1 had told Hadzibegovic about the killings that took place in his house.

“HVO fighters came to the door. Fikret said that Zoran Relota’s brother was among them. After that they killed them by opening fire and threw a bomb into the house,” Hadzibegovic said.

The trial will continue on March 26.