Witnesses Describe Abuse, Killings of Civilians by Jovanovics
Testifying at a trial dealing with the wartime murder of civilians in the Cajnice area, a state prosecution witness said his neighbour told him he had been taken away by Milosav, Marijan and Slavko Jovanovic, who were members of the Bosnian Serb Army at the time.
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The witness, Ibrahim Popovic, said while travelling back to the village of Popovici in 1992, he met Mevludin Medosevic, who was injured and covered in blood.
“I asked him, ‘Medosevic, what are you doing here?’ He said his neighbours, the Jovanovics, ‘killed’ him…He was dressed in civilian clothing. It [his clothing] was totally covered with blood,” Popovic said. He said he didn’t know the Jovanovics at the time and Medosevic did not mention their first names.
Popovic said Medosevic told him that the Jovanovics had asked him and others to hand over their weapons and made them walk along a road. Medosevic said he heard shooting and fell down. He ran across a field to a river.
“He said his family had left and he didn’t know who they had shot at,” Popovic said. He said Medosevic didn’t provide any further details.
Medosevic said he also knew Aisa Popovic and said she was killed inside her house. He said his son told him the Jovanovics had killed her.
Milosav, Marijan and Slavko Jovanovic have been charged with killing five Bosniak civilians in the village of Medosevici in July 1992. Two of the civilians were killed with firearms, while another died from a blow to the chest. The defendants then killed the children of one of the victims, whom they had locked inside a house. They burned the house afterwards.
The three defendants and Stevo Jovanovic have also been charged with killing a person in the village of Buckovici on June 4, 1992. According to the charges, all of them were members of the Third Podrinjska Light Infantry Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army at the time.
Rade Tupesa, the second witness to testify, was a member of the same unit as the defendants as of May 1992. He said he found about the murder of members of the Medosevic family from rumours.
“I heard they were killed. I was not present…They said the Jovanovics killed them. I don’t know which Jovanovics they were referring to,” Tupesa said.
Cedo Jovanovic, the third witness to testify, said he didn’t know what happened to the Medosevic family. He said when he visited his parents in the area, he saw that their house and barn had been burned down.
The trial will continue on May 8.
