Koricanske stijene: Shot and Dumped into a Canal

Testifying in defence of indictees Sasa Zecevic and Petar Civcic, a witness says he found out that members of the Interventions Squad with the Public Safety Station in Prijedor shot “most of the people in the convoy they escorted” at Koricanske stijene.

At the trial of five indictees charged with crimes committed at Koricanske stijene, witness Bogoljub Kos said that Milutin Cadjo, Commander of the Police Station, called a meeting of assistant commanders at which he informed them about the shooting.

Kos is a former Assistant Commander for Combating Crime with the Public Safety Station in Prijedor.

“He said that members of the Interventions Squad shot and dumped a large group of people, who had joined the convoy they escorted, into a canal at Koricanske stijene. (…) People expressed their disapproval of the shameful thing that had happened, which resulted in the dismissal of the Squad and Simo Drljaca,” said Kos, who testified in defence of Sasa Zecevic and Petar Civcic.
 
In addition to Zecevic and Civcic, Radoslav Knezevic, Marinko Ljepoja and Branko Topola are charged with having escorted a convoy of more than 1,200 civilians, who were travelling from Prijedor to Travnik on August 21, 1992. They allegedly separated about 200 men, whom they then shot at Koricanske stijene.
 
The indictment alleges that Zecevic, Knezevic, Civcic and Ljepoja were members of the Interventions Squad and Topola was a member of the Territorial Defence, TD and a guard in Trnopolje detention camp.
 
Drljaca, Chief of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor, was indicted, before the Hague Tribunal, for crimes committed in Prijedor, but he was killed during his arrest in 1997.
 
“The Interventions Squad was formed as per a proposal made by the Crisis Committee. Drljaca, who was subordinated to it exclusively, established the Squad. I do not know who selected those guys, but they were extremely young,” Kos said, adding that he supervised the formation of the convoy in Tukovi, Prijedor municipality, which was guarded by members of the Interventions Squad.
 
The witness said that “a mass of people” were present in Tukovi, adding that one member of the Interventions Squad was in each of the vehicles. He said that he did not see indictee Civcic on that day, adding he did not know the other indictees at the time.
 
Zdravko Torbica testified in defence of Zecevic, Knezevic and Civcic at this hearing. Torbica was the leader of Patrol Traffic Section with the Police Station in Prijedor.
 
He said he met indictee Civcic when he came to Prijedor in May 1992, adding that he spent the night at the Police Station before being assigned to the Interventions Squad.
 
“He was commander of some squad section, but I did not notice that he had any authority over the squad. He used to tell us that he had some problems with that squad,” the witness said.
 
According to the charges, Civcic was Commander of the First Interventions Squad with the Public Safety Station in Prijedor.
 
The trial is due to continue on March 16.

     A.J.