Vlahovic: Gunfire Coming from Behind

Ejub Pecar, who lived in Kovacici, Sarajevo at the beginning of the war, told the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that indictee Vlahovic and two other soldiers came to his brother’s house on June 14, 1992.

Pecar said that the soldiers lined them in front of the house and ordered them to come with them.

“There were seven of us, grown-ups, and six children. We followed the soldiers. When we came to a crossroads between two streets, they ordered me and my brothers to run through a minefield. The others started running too. Then we heard gunfire coming from behind us. I know that Batko and one other soldier were standing behind us,” the witness said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Vlahovic with having killed and participated in the murder of more than 30 people in the Grbavica, Vraca and Kovacici areas from May to August 1992 and, acting on his own or in collaboration with other armed persons, abused, beat and took money and other valuables from Croat and Bosniak citizens.

On May 25, 2011 the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed another indictment against Vlahovic, charging him in 14 counts with murders or taking in an unknown direction and forcible disappearances of 14 people, as well as the rape, torture, beating and abuse of civilians.

Witness Pecar said that, after the shooting had begun, he heard “screams” behind his back, but he did not dare turn around as he was afraid of stepping on a mine.

“Gunfire was coming from our right hand side too, from the direction of the military barracks, where the Republika Srpska Army, VRS was situated. After having run across that field, we kneeled down. VRS members then came and picked us up. When they realised that we were civilians, they took us over. Somebody brought my brother’s daughter to him. Half of her head was missing,” the witness said.

Pecar mentioned that her mother was killed and three other members of his family wounded that evening.

When asked by the defence if he could confirm that Batko had killed his mother and niece, the witness said that he “brought them into that situation”.

“The night before being exchanged, I found out that 29 people had been killed and slaughtered in the area in which I lived. I heard that Batko was among the people, who participated in those murders,” Pecar said, adding that he was exchanged in August or September 1992.

At the end of the hearing indictee Vlahovic addressed the witness, telling him that he felt sorry for what had happened to him. He said that he was never present at the Jewish cemetery, where members of Pecar family were killed.

The trial is due to continue on September 5 this year.