Witnesses Hadn’t Heard of Cajnice Murders Committed by Bosnian Serb Soldiers

The state prosecution has charged Marjan, Milosav and Slavko Jovanovic with killing five Bosniak civilians in the village of Medosevici in June 1992. According to the charges, they killed two civilians with firearms and another with a blow to the chest. The defendants then killed children after locking them inside a house in the village, and setting the house on fire.

The defendants and Stevo Jovanovic have also been charged with killing an 86 year old woman and setting her house on fire in the village of Buckovici on June 4, 1992.

According to the charges, all of the defendants were members of the Third Podrinjska Light Infantry Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army.

A defense witness Smail Pirija said he knew the defendants since they were children and had maintained a good relationship with them after the war. He said Marjan Jovanovic cultivated his agricultural land, which Pirija left when he went to Gorazde as a refugee in June 1992. Pirija said Jovanovic helped him organize his brother’s funeral.

“Some Bosniaks are mad at me. They would be happy to see me dead, because I have a good relationship with them. However, I’ve known the Jovanovics my whole life. I’ve never heard any bad things about them during or after the war. We socialize with each other, but we don’t talk about the past, as we consider it finished,” Pirija said.

Pirija said he didn’t know what happened to members of the Medosevic family or elderly woman Ajsa Popovic, all of whom were killed. However, he said he knows who abducted Izet Pirija, his nephew, in front of his family’s house.

“I heard all sorts of rumours about people having been taken away. However, I was present and I saw it. They weren’t the Jovanovics. My nephew was taken away by Veljo Tadic, Rade Tupesa and another soldier, who they said was from Pljevlja,” Pirija said.

The defense then examined Vukasin Radovic, asking him whether paramilitary formations were in Cajnice and the surrounding area. Radovic said he used to see such formations in the complex of a company he worked for with Stevo Jovanovic. He said the local residents complained about them.

“They walked around the villages, pillaging houses and setting some of them on fire. We requested that they be removed from our village, because they ruined our reputation,” Radovic said.

He said he doubted that the Jovanovics committed the crimes charged upon them.

“Knowing them, I don’t believe they murdered anyone. I’ve never heard anyone say they committed murders,” Radovic said.

The trial will continue on February 26.