Vranjes et al: Participant in Murder

Darko Gajic, a former member of the Special Police Squad with the Public Safety Centre in Banja Luka, told the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that he heard about the murder of the two Grgic brothers, adding that he learnt that indictee Vranjes was “a participant”.
 
“I asked Vranjes what had happened. I noticed that he was angry and nervous. (…) He told me that Goran Markovic, who was given an order to transfer the Grgic brothers from the house in which they stayed to a detention unit, took him with him,” the witness said.
 
Besides Ljubisa Vranjes, the former member of the Public Safety Centre in Banja Luka, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Mladen Milic, former member of the “7551 Military Post in Banja Luka”, with having come to a house, in which three civilians were held, on June 6, 1992 and ordered them to come with them for an examination. The civilians allegedly carried out the order.
 
The indictment alleges that two of the detainees were killed next to a monument erected in honour of fallen soldiers of the Second World War, while the third one was severely wounded.
 
Goran Markovic, a former member of the “7551 Military Post in Banja Luka”, was charged under the same indictment for having shot at the detainees who had been brought to the fallen soldiers’ monument. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina decided to separate the case of Markovic from the case of the two other indictees.
 
Witness Gajic said that indictee Vranjes informed him that indictee Milic was there, together with him and Markovic, on the night when the Grgic brothers were killed.
 
“He told me that, while they were driving to the detention unit, they stopped at some stage for security reasons and continued walking. However, I do not know why the tragedy happened,” the witness said.
 
Gajic told the Court that, after the incident Vranjes looked scared, adding that he wanted to “shoot at Markovic” that night.
 
“Vranjes is not the type of man who would do it. (…) Neither he nor I came to Kotor-Varos to commit crimes. Had I been in Vranjes’ shoes, I would have killed Markovic,” witness Gajic said.
 
The next hearing is due to be held on June 16, 2011.

S.U.