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Witness Describes Attack of Serb Civilian Convoy by Bosnian Army Soldiers

17. March 2015.00:00
Testifying against four former Bosnian Army soldiers, state prosecution witness Slavica Lukic said she was wounded while travelling in a civilian convoy from Gorazde to Rogatica on August 27, 1992.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

The state prosecution has charged Muhamed Sisic, Emir Drakovac, Aziz Susa, and Tarik Sisic with participating in an attack on a civilian convoy in which at least 21 Serb civilians were killed and several more were injured. According to the charges, at the time Sisic was the commander of the Reconnaissance Squad of the Kukavicka Company, while the other defendants were members of that unit.

Slavica Lukic said she was travelling with her husband’s parents to Rogatica as part of the convoy. They left from the village of Jabuka, and the convoy was attacked close to the turn towards the village of Musici.

“Suddenly the gunfire started, like the concrete was burning. Everything was flying around us. I was driving and I only looked ahead, I didn’t see who was shooting or where it was coming from. I drove until I felt my right leg stiffen and I felt myself losing control of the vehicle,” Lukic said.

Lukic said she remembered realizing she was shot and bleeding only after she stopped the car.

“I remember very little from that point onwards. I couldn’t walk and my mother-in-law said I lost consciousness. I woke up in the hospital in Rogatica with two pieces of shrapnel in my stomach and one in my spine,” Lukic said.

During cross examination, Lukic said no one explained to the people in the convoy as to how to arrive safely to Rogatica. She said she didn’t know why the column of vehicles turned right near Musici. She said she didn’t know who shot at them.

Miodrag Spasojevic was five years old on August 27, 1992, when he made the same journey. He was in the column of vehicles near Kukavice when they were attacked. He said he didn’t remember a lot, but some images of that day stayed with him.

“Commotion, screams, and blood. That’s what I recall. I remember that was the last day I saw my mother alive. She was killed in the convoy and me and my sister were injured,” Spasojevic said.

Nikola Knezevic also testified at this hearing, and said that he walked his parents to the convoy on August 27, 1992. He heard from his parents that a military police vehicle was at the front of the convoy and should have turned left at the Musici village.

“That is the turn the column should have taken. No one knows why they turned right, although my parents told me that the military vehicle was not fired at, but only the police vehicles,” Knezevic said.

The trial will resume on March 31.

Dragana Erjavec


This post is also available in: Bosnian