Witnesses Describe Exhumation of Murder Victim in Jovanovic Trial

Stevo, Milosav, Marijan and Slavko Jovanovic have been charged with murdering a civilian named Aisa Popovic in the village of Buckovici in the Cajnice area on June 4, 1992. The defendants were all members of the Third Podrinjska Light Infantry Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army.

The defendants have also been charged with killing five Bosniak civilians in the village of Medosevici during the first half of July 1992. Two civilians were killed with firearms. One was killed with a blow to the chest. The defendants then killed two children by locking them inside a house and setting it on fire.

A protected witness known as J-1 testified at today’s hearing. J-1 said his friend Nurija Makota invited him to the village of Buckovici in the municipality of Cajnice in 2003. J-1 said Makota went to Buckovici to find out more about the death of his mother, Aisa Popovic.

“Not knowing where his mother’s bones were buried was a heavy burden for Nurija. He was searching for them…this would have been in May 2003. Zlatko Milicevic accompanied us. He died in the meantime, unfortunately,” J-1 said.

J-1 said they obtained information about Popovic’s death from a neighbour named Petar Pljevacic.

“He said, ‘Look in the basement, where your old sofa was.’ He was angry, cursing those who failed to arrest the perpetrators,” J-1 said.

J-1 said Pljevacic told them members of the Jovanovic family killed Popovic.

J-1 said Pljevacic identified the perpetrators by name, but he was unable to remember them. The defense said that in a statement J-1 had given in 2011, he’d failed to mention the last name Jovanovic. J-1 was unable to explain this.

Continuing his testimony, J-1 said they found a few burned bones of small size in Aisa Popovic’s house, as per the information obtained by Pljevacic. Makota took the bones to the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina. J-1 said he attended Popovic’s exhumation a few days later. He said she was identified on the basis of golden coins that belonged to her, and was afterwards buried.

J-1 described Pljevacic, since deceased, as a correct and decent man. He said he heard that Pljevacic had had a close relationship with the Jovanovic family.

Sefik Delahmet, an investigator with the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, also testified at today’s hearing. Delahmet said he remembered the Buckovici exhumation, which was initiated by family members of Aisa Popovic.

“A few workers accompanied me. One of her sons drove us. The exhumation was conducted in a devastated house. Human bones were found at the entrance, on the left hand side,” Delahmet said.

He said the burnt remains were sieved and golden coins and bullet capsules were also found. He said no other state level institutions attended the exhumation, which he said was conducted in accordance to official protocol.

Delahmet said he participated in the exhumation of three other bodies, a man and two women, in the village of Medosevici in the same municipality.

The trial will continue on August 28.