Bosnian Serb Soldier ‘Shot at Roma Villagers in Prijedor’
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The witness said he was recruited by the Sixth Ljubija Battalion with the 43rd Prijedor Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army was travelling from the village of Miska Glava towards the village of Hambarine, both near Prijedor, in a small truck with the defendant Milojica and another man, Pero Djuric.
“In the village of Volarici, we came across a group of people who were digging something. I recognised a Roma man who had participated in a voluntary work action with me,” S-3 recalled.
“When I approached him in order to greet him, I heard gunshots. Men began falling down,” he said.
He testified that he saw Djuric and Milojica shoot at the Roma men and said he asked them: “What are you doing, guys?”
But the two of them just shrugged their shoulders, and did not discuss the incident later on, he said.
The witness admitted that he did not report it to anyone.
“I found out later on that they were Roma people from the village of Volarici… There were around ten of them, I do not know exactly,” S-3 said.
He also said he saw other corpses near the people at whom Djuric and Milojica were shooting.
Responding to a question posed by Milojica’s defence, the witness said that he too had an automatic rifle, but did not shoot.
He said the three of them “had consumed alcohol, but were not drunk”.
Milojica and Zelislav Rivic, both former members of the Sixth Ljubija Battalion with the 43rd Prijedor Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, are on trial for killing 19 Bosniak, Croat and Roma civilians in June and July 1992.
The trial will continue on October 2.
