Vlahovic: Coming to Collect 100,000 Marks

Witness Kenan Cengic said that he met the indictee in Vraca, where he lived with his parents in 1992, on several occasions, adding that a Serb neighbour, who was member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, had told him that the indictee was a dangerous man.

“We watched Batko in a TV spot. My neighbour told me that he was dangerous and that we should beware of him, because he was out of control,” Cengic said, explaining that he saw Vlahovic in person for the first time, when he looked through his window and saw him entering houses in his neighbourhood.

The witness said that, in late May 1992 the indictee and two other men came into his apartment and asked for weapons, but they left soon. He said that he came back a few days later. He was accompanied by a young man, who told them: “Batko will not harm you. You just have to give him money”.

Cengic said that the indictee threatened them by saying that he would kill them until his mother gave him money and golden jewelry.

“Batko tied my father’s hands and legs in one of the rooms and asked him to give him money. While my father was begging him not to kill him, he took me to another room and threatened me with a knife, which he had taken from our kitchen. He told me he would slaughter me,” the witness said, adding that his mother then took “a bag with golden jewelry and money” out and handed it over to the indictee.

The witness said that Vlahovic and the young man then left.

When asked by Prosecutor Behaija Krnjic what was the value of the money and golden jewelry the indictee took, the witness said that the total value was about 100,000 Deutschemarks.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Vlahovic with having killed and participated in the murder of several persons in Grbavica, Vraca and Kovacici in 1992 and participated in the abuse of Bosniak and Croat civilians, taking their money and other valuable possessions away.

A second indictment was filed against Vlahovic, charging him with the murder and disappearances of 14 persons and rape and abuse of civilians.

Second Prosecution witness Petar Naprta said that he lived in the “Digitron” building in Grbavica, where “a military unit’s headquarters” was situated. He said that civilians were brought to garages in the vicinity of that building and beaten up.

“My neighbours, who lived on the first floor, often heard screams of people, who were being beaten up,” the witness said.

The witness said that, after a grenade had hit the building roof, he and his family moved one floor down, where a neighbour lived with his family.

“Batko came once and shouted: ‘Muslims, I shall slaughter all of you’. He then entered the apartment, where we lived, and forced us to leave it. We went back to our apartment,” the witness said, adding that they left Grbavica soon after that.

The trial will resume on Wednesday, 25 January.