Memic et al: Civilians Crying
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Witness Salko Sultic said that he was having breakfast with his family in the morning on April 16, 1993, when the shooting began. He then saw a few armed soldiers running towards Krese hamlet, which was inhabited by Croats.
As he said, an hour later he saw a group of up to 30 civilians, who were escorted by one or two soldiers, coming towards his and his brother’s house in Bare hamlet.
“Seven to eight civilians entered my house. Rade Sagolj’s wife was wounded in her arm. She was bleeding heavily. Her wrist was smashed. She was about to loose conscience. It was hard to stop the bleeding. Her child’s arm was injured, but the bleeding was stopped immediately,” witness Sultic said.
He said that the soldiers left and the civilians cried and wailed, adding that Marija Ivankovic said that her father and mother had been killed.
Sultic said that they transferred the civilians to their Croat neighbours’ and that he guarded them, along with his brother and cousin, in order to make sure that nobody would harm them.
One day after the attack the witness and his family went to his home village. A few days later he found out that the civilians were exchanged and that several people were killed in Trusina. Those people were buried by local Bosniak residents at the location at which they found them.
The witness heard that the murders were committed by “Zuka’s unit”.
Mensur Memic, Dzevad Salcin, Senad Hakalovic, Nedzad Hodzic, Nihad Bojadzic and Zulfikar Alispago, known as Zuka, are on trial for having conducted the attack on Trusina, where 18 civilians and four members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO were killed.
According to the charges, Memic, Salcin and Hodzic, former members of “Zulfikar” Squad with the Main Command Headquarters of ABiH, and Hakalovic, former member of “Neretvica” 45th Brigade, participated in the capture and shooting of civilians and soldiers.
Bojadzic, former Deputy of “Zulfikar” Squad, is charged with having commanded the attack, while Alispago, Commander of the Squad, is charged with having failed to sanction the Squad members, who committed the murders.
The trial is due to continue on May 18, when Jovan Divjak, retired ABiH general, will testify.
