Memic et al: Witness recalls shots and screams in Trusina
This post is also available in: Bosnian
In his testimony before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, witness Hasan Poturovic, former member of the 45th Brigade of Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that in April, 1993, several unknown soldiers in black uniforms with painted faces rushed through his settlement of Brdo in Trusina, and that afterward the shooting “from all sides” started.
“I heard shooting and screaming from the settlement of Gaj in which Croats lived. The killed were buried several days later and that’s when I learnt that they were Croats,” said witness Poturovic.
The witness said that a day after the killings in Trusina, he went to the nearby Kriz hill to guard the newly established line held until the clash by members of the Croatian Defence Council.
Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charged Mensur Memic, Dzevad Salcin, Senad Hakalovic, Nedzad Hodzic, Nihad Bojadzic and Zulfikar Alispago, also known as Zuka, with the murder of 18 civilians and four members of Croatian Defence Council in the village of Trusina on April 16, 1993.
The indictment specifies that Memic, Salcin and Hodzic, former members of the Zulfikar Special Detachment with the Headquarters of the High Command of Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Hakalovic, former member of the 45th Brigade Neretvica of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, participated in the attack on Trusina and in the murder of civilians and prisoners of war.
The attack, according to the indictment, was led by Bojadzic, the then deputy commander of the Zulfikar detachment. Indictee Alispago, a former commander of the same unit, is charged with failure to punish the soldiers who had taken part in the executions.
Witness Poturovic said at the trial that he knew the defendant Hakalovic, adding that he did not see him on April 16, 1993, in Trusina, but that he did not walk through the village on that day either.
The trial is set to resume on February 6 with the examination of the protected witness for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
