Veselinovic: Command function

A Prosecution witness, who testified under protection measures and the pseudonym of A, said that, “when he went with his wife to fetch water”, he saw Rade Veselinovic, “accompanied by a group of soldiers, taking a few people, who have never been found after that”.

“I think that Veselinovic had some command function, because of the way he waved with his hand and the way he behaved,” the witness said.

The State Prosecution charges Rade Veselinovic, as member of the Military Police Squad with Republika Srpska Army, VRS, with having participated in the murder, torture, forcible disappearances, detention and mistreatment of the non-Serb population from Hadzici municipality in 1992.

Witness A said that he had left his house in Hadzici, adding that his Serbian friends had helped him do that.

“Me and my father were taken to the municipal garage in Hadzici. A person named Nemanja Jovicic took me there. Three persons from Musici had already been there. I was released, with the help from Jovo Djurdjic,” witness A said, adding that he spent another 15 days in his house.

Jovicic is currently tried, before the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, with war crimes against civilians in the Hadzici area.

Second Prosecution witness Indira Music said that the indictee told her, in 1992, that he could not help her leave Musici village, in Hadzici municipality.

“I was afraid when Dragan Damjanovic came to the village and took away our jewelry and money. As Veselinovic used to come there often and jest with me, I asked him if he could help me go to the free territory. He said he could not help me, because Chetniks were in Hadzici,” Music said.

The State Court sentenced Dragan Damjanovic to a long-term 20 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed in the Vogosca area.

Witness Music claims to have heard of Veselinovic for the first time “some time in May 1992”, when he came to the village, accompanied by a group of soldiers, and spoke to her mother-in-law Hasnija Music.

“My mother-in-law told me that Rade Veselinovic asked her if there was anybody else in our house. She said that there was not. He told her to go back to the house. The rest of us, who were in the house, sheltered in the basement, where we stayed the next day and night,” Music said, adding that, when they got out of the basement, they saw that three people had been killed in the village.

Music told the Court that she tried to flee, together with her husband, his two nephews and cousin, but “a group of Serb soldiers captured them” soon and took them to Hadzici for an examination. She said that she was soon released, so she went back home, but the men were kept in the sports hall.

“I still have not found my husband. I do not know what happened to him. He was among 48 other persons from Musici, who have never been found,” the witness said.

Music said that Veselinovic was present during the course of the exchange, conducted in Kobiljaca. As the exchange was unsuccessful, they were all taken to the sports hall in Hadzici. The witness said that she stayed there for 11 days, adding that she then left the village, with the help from two friends.

The trial is due to continue on December 3, when two more Prosecution witnesses will be examined.