Bundalo et al: Askraba’s order

A Prosecution witness speaks about the participation of the three indictees in crimes committed in Kalinovik in 1992.

In the course of soul-stirring testimony Fatima Keso, who appeared as a Prosecution witness in the trial of three men accused of committing crimes in Kalinovik, spoke about the loss of close family members and the participation of the three indictees in the capture, detention and persecution of Bosniaks in that area in 1992.

“In June 1992 my husband and other men received calls to register themselves for civil duty in Kalinovik. They went there and they never came back to their homes. A short time after that Nedjo Zeljaja and others came to Jelasac,taking away my father-in-law and my neighbour, Ibro Pervan,” Keso said.

The State Prosecution charges Nedjo Zeljaja, Ratko Bundalo and Djordjislav Askraba with a number of crimes committed in the Kalinovik area in 1992.

Keso said men from Jelasac village were detained in a school building in Kalinovik before being transferred by “Askraba’s order” to “Barutni magacin” (“Gunpowder Depot”), where Keso saw her father-in-law and husband for the last time. She stated that she found their bodies in a mass grave in the Kalinovik area after the war.

“Askraba came to the school building and told them that they had to transfer them to ‘Barutni magacin’, as the situation was chaotic in Kalinovik.In late July 1992 I went there with my son to visit them. Guard Nedjo Vukovic said that Askraba had prohibited all visits,” Keso said, adding that, thanks to the guard, her son managed to see his father and grandfather on that occasion.

The indictment alleges that Askraba was supervisor of “Barutni magacin” detention camp.

Keso said that, in early May 1992, Bundalo visited Mjehovina village, where her parents lived, and asked the village residents to hand over their weapons,claiming that nothing bad would happen to them.

Following the examination of this witness, Bundalo said that he had never been in that village.

With the help of her Serb neighbours Keso and her four young children, as well as other village residents, managed to leave the village and escape to the territory controlled by the Bosnian Army in late July 1992.

In the course of cross-examination the Defence of Ratko Bundalo asked the witness to explain why she did not mention the first indictee in her earlier statement,given to the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, in 2007. Keso responded by saying that she was “shaken-up” at that time, because she knew that some people whom the victims linked to the crimes committed in Kalinovik are employed in that institution.

Prior to examining this witness, the Defence cross-examined Prosecution witness Elvir Cemo, whose testimony began on Friday, November 7, but this was interrupted due to an electricity cut in the State Court building.

Cemo said that he was detained in the school building in Kalinovik when he was 12 years old, adding that some people from Gacko and Trnovo used to be brought there. He claimed to have seen Zeljaja in the school building on one occasion, adding that he “had a moustache and he was dressed in a police uniform”.

The trial is due to continue on Friday, November 14.