Witness Describes Husband’s Disappearance at Jovan Popovic Trial

Jovan Popovic has been charged with abducting civilians in Rodica Brdo in the Visegrad area in mid-June 1992 and taking them to a police station. Popovic allegedly acted in collaboration with a group of soldiers led by Milan Lukic, a Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader convicted of war crimes by the Hague Tribunal. The civilians have remained missing since.

State prosecution witness Mubina Zukic testified at today’s hearing. Zukic said two uniformed and armed men coming to her family’s home in the suburb of Rodica Brdo in Visegrad on May 29, 1992. She said the men asked about a red Volkswagen vehicle and then left. Zukic said fifteen minutes later she heard screams coming from the direction of her aunt’s house.

“I arrived there. I saw her crying and Jovan Popovic sitting in the house,” Zukic said.

She said her aunt and Popovic told her that her uncle had been taken away. She said that Popovic, who was her neighbour, offered to help find him. According to Zukic, Popovic agreed that she would get her car and he would bring fuel.

“My husband was waiting for me in front of the house. I told her Jovan needed the car to find out what was going on with my uncle,” Zukic said. She said her husband Seval decided to drive the car, while she went back inside the house to check up on her child.

After speaking to her father-in-law for a few minutes, she realized her husband was gone.

“The car was in front of the house. All four doors were open, but Seval wasn’t there,” Zukic said. Zukic said she saw Popovic approaching from the direction of his house. She said he told her he didn’t know where her husband was.

She said she hadn’t seen her husband since.

Zukic said her husband’s brother Fadil was taken away on June 17, 1992. She said when he was taken away she saw Popovic armed and uniformed, approaching from the direction of the main road.

She said she asked Popovic about her husband again. She said Popovic told her he knew nothing and that he was forced to participate in the search of the village. She said he told her that he searched the house searching for her father in law, and said he didn’t want to harm him.

Zukic said she didn’t see the arrest of her brother-in-law Fadil, but saw “people in police uniforms taking him away.”

According to Zukic, Popovic took her car and never brought it back again.

During cross-examination, Zukic said she hadn’t heard that the defendant participated in abducting anyone from Rodic Brdo. She said she denied having told Popovic to keep her car at his place.

The trial will continue on September 30.