Bosnian Serb Ex-Policeman Denies Rogatica Rape

I have two female children and three grandchildren. I am willing to swear on their lives that I never did that,” Ikonic told the judges at the state court in Sarajevo on Thursday.

Ikonic is on trial alongside Dragan Lubarda and Zoran Ilic, charged with raping women in July and June 1992 in Rogatica.

Ikonic said that that in July and August 1992, he never went into the High School Centre in Rogatica, where detainees were being held and where the rape of a protected witness at the trial, codenamed S1, took place.

He testified that he was a police officer who was a guard at a nearby checkpoint.

“I never went into the school and I didn’t have any need to… While listening to the testimony of S1, who said that I raped her, I could not understand it. It is so hard for me; me and my family,” said Ikonic.

In a separate case on Thursday, a prosecution witness at the trial of former Bosnian Serb serviceman Sasa Curguz said that residents of villages near Orasac and Kulen Vakuf surrendered to the Bosnian Serb Army and some were killed.

Curguz is charged with killing three civilians in Ripac.

Witness Alija Kurtagic said that the Bosnian Serb Army threatened to destroy the villages near Kulen Vakuf, after which all the residents went to Orasac – which was attacked the same night.

After a night spent hiding in woods, around seven to eight thousand people surrendered, he said.

Some were taken to Gorjevac, where he heard they were abused and some were killed. He said his brother was taken to Ripac and killed.