Witness Describes Alleged Attack on Police in Trnovo

Edhem Godinjak, Medaris Saric and Mirko Bunoza have been charged with participating in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at killing and detaining Serbs from villages in the Trnovo area.

According to the charges, Godinjak was the chief of the public safety station in Trnovo, Saric was the commander of the Territorial Defense headquarters and Bunoza was the commander of Croatian Defense Forces units.

Andjelka Knezevic told the trial chamber that her husband Dragoljub joined the reserve police forces in Trnovo in the second half of 1991 and was killed on April 21, 1992. She found out about his death from her brother.

According to Knezevic, her brother told her there was an ambush in which her husband and other policemen were killed. She said her brother told her that members of the Green Berets paramilitary formation were on a truck from which fire was opened. Knezevic said that later on a police officer who survived the shooting told her what had happened.

Knezevic said that during the afternoon shift, a patrol consisting of Bosniaks and Bosnian Serbs stopped a truck in the vicinity of a sawmill in Trnovo. She said the police officers asked the truck driver where he was going and what he was transporting. The truck driver allegedly shrugged.

“He said the cocking of rifles was the only thing heard,” Knezevic said.

Knezevic said armed soldiers were under the truck’s awning. They opened fire at the police officers and ran away. She said police forces in Trnovo were ethnically divided after this incident.

Knezevic said her mother-in-law was also killed in the Trnovo area. She was suffocated with a pillow.

Zuhdija Ozegovic also testified at this hearing. Ozegovic said he was the commander of the Focanski Battalion of a brigade stationed in positions in the vicinity of Trnovo during the first half of 1993. Ozegovic said he remained in the area until the summer of 1993, when Serb forces occupied Trnovo.

Prosecutor Vesna Ilic read a witness report from that period, which indicated that Godinjak participated in managing and commanding military activities and that the defendant’s opinion was accepted more often than his.

Ozegovic said Godinjak didn’t participate in managing and commanding activities in the area and that they didn’t participate in any operations together.

The trial will continue on June 9.