Ramic apologises to Visoko victim

Niset “Mindusa” Ramic, who is charged with crimes committed in central Bosnia, has apologised to the prosecution’s first witness for killing his parents in June 1992.

“I’m sorry that I shot at you, your father and mother,” Ramic said.
 
Zoran Damjanovic, who survived the shooting which took place on June 20 in village Hlapcevici near Visoko with which Ramic is charged, was taken from his house with his father and mother.
 
“They told us to leave the house and give over any weapons. Then they tied our hands with a rope,” Damjanovic said.
 
According to the indictment, members of the Visoko Territorial Defence took Damjanovic and his parents from Hlapcevici village, as well as Sretko Masal and Zeljko and Dusanka Ristic, after which Ramic shot at them.  Four persons were killed and two were wounded.
 
During the investigation Ramic admitted to being guilty of this crime, but after the charges were pressed he pleaded not guilty.
 
Damjanovic described how the detainees were taken to a house in the village where they were lined up by a wall, then shot at.
 
“Mindjusa first killed Zeljko, and then shot a burst of fire at us,” Damjanovic said and added that he was wounded at that time.
 
Sretko Masal, another prosecution witness who survived the attack, said, “I heard someone cursing and saying that we were still alive. Then they started shooting at us again.”
 
Masal did not know the indictee at the time the crime was committed, but, as he said, he later found out his name.
 
Ramic announced at the hearing that he planned to join other war crimes indictees in a hunger strike because his “basic human rights” are being violated.
 
The main hearing will be continued on January 16.