Local Justice – Stjepanovic: Attack on Bosanska Bijela
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Witness Danko Stevic said that Croatian forces conducted an attack on Bosanska Bijela on June 11, 1992.
While I was at my neighbour Petar Lukic”s, someone shouted, telling us to surrender or else they would blow up the house. Milan Sekulic went out of the house. We heard shooting. He was hit at the doorstep. The rest of us tried to find shelter in the room, because the shooting continued” Stevic said. He said that a bomb was thrown at the house, adding that a shrapnel piece wounded him.
Stevic said that, once the shooting stopped, he went to his house, where he found his father, who was wounded.
Although the shooting had stopped, we decided to leave the village before dark and go to a nearby forest. Another attack happened after that. They started setting Serb houses in Bosanska Bijela hamlets on fire”, the witness said.
The witness said he had not seen indictee Stjepanovic during those attacks.
The Brcko District Prosecution charges Stjepanovic with having committed several murders, robberies and the destruction of property in Bijela,Cerik and Bukvik villages, near Brcko during the course of the past war.
Second witness Ilija Milicevic spoke about the attacks on hamlets in the vicinity of Bosanska Bijela.
I was in the field with my wife and son when we heard the first gunshots. A group of armed soldiers, who were dressed in camouflage uniforms, approached me. The pattern of the Croatian flag was carved in their rifle butts. They took us towards the nearby houses”, Milicevic said.
The witness said that while the shooting continued, they were locked in a hothouse. Some time later they were taken to Lukici hamlet. The witness said that an hour or two later all of them, except for two of his neighbours, were released home.
We fled from the village and went to a nearby forest before dark on that same day. Another attack started after that. They began setting our houses on fire” Milicevic said, adding that he did not see indictee Stjepanovic anywhere.
The trial is due to continue on September 27.
M.A.
