Former Military Police Officers Recalls Mount Borje Executions and Burial

The state prosecution has charged Dragan Marjanovic, Sasa Gavranovic, Vitomir Devic, Zoran Sljuk, Dragomir Kezunovic and Dario Slavuljica with participating in an attack against the Bosniak and Croat population and detaining them at the Teslic police station, on Territorial Defense premises and in a military prison from June 1992 to 30 June 1993.
 
The defendants have been accused of taking 28 detained non-Serb civilians from a Teslic police station and the nearby Pribinic prison to Mount Borje on the night of June 17 and 18, 1992. There, the defendants allegedly killed them.
 
According to the indictment, at the time Marjanovic was the commander of the First Squad of the military police of the Teslicka Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army. The other defendants were members of that squad and also members of the Mice paramilitary formation.

State prosecution witness and former Bosnian Serb Army military police officer Marijan Gacic testified at today’s hearing. Marjanovic was Gacic’s commander.

Gacic said members of the Mice paramilitary formation, including Sasa Gavranovic, a man called Devic and another person, participated in the killings. Gacic was able to identify Vitomir Devic in the courtroom.
 
He said 10 to 13 members of the Mice paramilitary formation came to his platoon headquarters prior to the killings.
 
“They took us and lined us up. Some were kicked. I wasn’t,” Gacic said. He said Ranko Sljuka told him he was the commander of the Mice formation, but he didn’t see him give any orders.

Gacic said that one night, Marjanovic ordered him and three others to go to the Teslic police station.
 
“There were civilian police, members of the Mice formation, and the four of us,” Gacic said. He said he saw 15 civilian detainees escorted out of the police station and onto a truck. He said they all went to Mount Borje.

Gacic said he initially thought he was witnessing a prisoner exchange. However, when they arrived to the village of Babe on Mount Borje, the civilians were ordered to get off the truck and lie on their stomachs. He said he saw members of the Mice paramilitary formation holding guns and automatic weapons.
 
“They brought the guns and shot the prisoners in the back of the head,” Gacic said. He said Marjanovic witnessed the killings as well.
 
After the first group of prisoners was killed, Gacic said Marjanovic left with other members of the Mice formation and got 13 more prisoners from the Pribinic prison. They were all killed in the same way.

Gacic said Marjanovic ordered him and three others to bury the bodies. They asked Marjanovic for help and got four men to work with them.

“It was raining, and we were soaking wet,” Gacic said.  

Gacic said Zoran Sljuka was not on Mount Borje. One of the defense attorneys asked Gacic why Sljuka had been indicted. Gacic paused, and the trial chamber intervened, saying it wasn’t an appropriate question for the witness.
 
The trial continues on July 14.