Forensic Expert Describes Injuries on Mount Borje Remains

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.

Testifying on behalf of the prosecution, forensic expert Sabiha Silajdzic-Brkic said 28 mortal remains were found on Mount Borje in 1999.

“I found injuries caused by firearms on the skull, ribs and other bones…I also found broken bones in hands which indicated defensive injuries,” Silajdzic-Brkic said, adding that the injuries were caused by weapons and hard objects.

Silajdzic-Brkic also described clothes and personal items found on Mount Borje.

She said most of the victims were identified through the classical method of recognition, and that some of the bodies were identified through DNA analysis after 2003.

Silajdzic-Brkic also said there was no record for two mortal remains.

“If there is no official record, the person wasn’t identified or the record was lost,” she said.

At the beginning of trial, the defense objected to the fact that Silajdzic-Brkic did not prepare a written report. The state prosecution said she was a member of the team that prepared the judicial and medical expertise.

The trial continues on November 19.