Saric: Jagomir Police Commander

The protected witness S4 said that the attack by the Serb forces on Nahorevo began in June 1992, and afterwards the Bosniaks were ordered “not to leave their houses”.

“One day they called us to surrender and took us to the Nahorevo hills. We were there for several hours, after which we returned home. When we were coming down we saw them burning Bosniak houses. After that, policemen from Jagomir came to the house to look for weapons. They said their commander is ‘Sara from Bjelave’, and I knew that was Goran Saric,“ said S4.

He added that Serb policemen called Bosniaks from Nahorevo in mid-June 1992 to gather in front of the building of the local community centre, after which around 100 of them were taken to the Jagomir hospital and detained.

“Around June 19, a policeman came and read out the names of 15 of us and told us to stay, while all the rest were released into town. The rest of us were supposed to go Vogosca, but a guard named Boris came and said Sara told him he could release me,” said S4.

The protected witness, who then fled to Sarajevo, said that after the war he found out that a group of around a dozen people from Nahorevo were killed at Skakavac.

Goran Saric is charged, as chief of police in the Serb municipality of Centre in Sarajevo, with ordering all the men from the settlement of Nahorevo to come to the local community centre, and around 100 Bosniaks were led from there and locked up in the Jagomir hospital’s building.

According to the indictment, Saric was on June 21, 1992, separating prisoners in the Jagomir hospital’s building into three groups. Sixty prisoners were taken by force to Sarajevo, 26 Bosniaks in the second group were transferred to the Bunker camp in Vogosca, while 11 people from the third group were killed.

Kasim Muharemovic, second prosecution witness, also recalled being summoned to the community centre building.

“Over there they asked us whether we wanted to stay under the Serb rule, but that was all already decided. They moved us from the community centre into the Jagomir hospital, where they held us all prisoners. They told us to hand over all the belts, documents, shoelaces and money,” recalled Muharemovic.

He added that several days after that a selection was made in Jagomir, when a group of around 50 men was released, while the rest – including him – was supposed to go to Vogosca.

“When we started getting on the truck for Vogosca there was too many of us and I asked to be released, and they allowed it. After that, Goran Saric took me and another two men to the demarcation line,” said Muharemovic.

The trial will resume on August 31.