Witness Describes Fleeing Wartime Visegrad 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. The civilians have remained missing since. He has also been charged with pillaging houses in Rodica Brdo and other villages.

Popovic allegedly acted in collaboration with a group of soldiers led by Milan Lukic, a Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hague Tribunal for war crimes in Visegrad.

A protected witness known as S-2 testified at today’s hearing. He said he was among the few Bosniaks who decided to stay in Visegrad during the summer of 1992, when most of the city’s population had fled to Gorazde to “save their lives.”

He said he knew the defendant from before the war, because they were neighbours. He said he didn’t see him during the war.

“I didn’t see him, because I didn’t move around. While I was in my house, I saw his son when he returned from the army. I remember his son was carrying an automatic weapon…I only saw Jovan after the war,” S-2 said.

S-2 said he managed to run away the day a truck full of men pulled up in front of his house.

“I know it happened in June. I invited several of my neighbours [to leave] and we fled to the woods. The people who came with me saved themselves…Standing on a hill, I saw two men shooting in front of my house. I heard them calling my name…I stayed in the forest. I saved myself,” S-2 said. He said he hid in the woods until the end of July 1992, when he managed to get to Gorazde.

S-2 said he met his neighbour, another protected witness known as S-5, in Gorazde. He said S-5 told him she saw a truck pull up in front of his house and men carrying his furniture away.

S-2 said S-5 didn’t mention Popovic at the time.

“I only remember she said Jovan was walking around the neighbourhood. He protected some people, but not others,” S-2 said.

As his first piece of material evidence, prosecutor Seid Marusic presented a statement S-2 gave to the State Investigation and Protection Agency in December 2008.

In his statement, S-2 said S-5 told him she saw Jovan and Goran Popovic carrying furniture out of his house. At today’s hearing, S-2 said he thought S-5 would have been unable to see who was stealing his belongings, due to the distance between their houses.

Goran Popovic stood trial before the Bosnian state court for crimes against humanity in the Visegrad area in 1992 and 1993. Under a first instance verdict handed down in April 2015, Popovic was found not guilty due to inconclusive evidence and contradictory witness statements.

The trial will continue on December 9.