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“My late wife and I had coffee together in the morning when a child came and told me to hide, because an operation was underway. I ran out of my house. I saw soldiers running towards the houses, where Croats lived,” State Prosecution witness Salko Sahinovic said, adding that he hid behind a garage, together with a neighbour of his.
As he said, while he was standing next to the garage, a few soldiers, who said that they were from Gornji Vakuf, passed by. One of them showed him photographs of Croat residents from Trusina and asked him if he knew them, adding that they participated in an attack on Gornji Vakuf in 1992.
Sahinovic said that he saw a man known as Tito in Trusina and that he heard that he pillaged Croat houses with other soldiers later on.
The witness said that he and his neighbours buried the killed Croats a few days after the attack on Trusina.
“I found five killed men next to a stable – Franjo Drljo, a young man, known as Crni, Nedeljko Kreso, a man, whose name I do not know, and Pero Kreso. Bosanac was lying about ten metres away. I guess he tried to run away, when they lined them up against the wall,” Sahinovic said, adding that he found killed local residents inside houses as well.
He said that people said that Zolja committed the murders next to the stable.
After having admitted guilt for participating in the shooting of a few men in Gaj hamlet, Rasema Handanovic, known as Zolja, former member of “Zulfikar” Squad of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.
Dzeko, another former member of the “Zulfikar” Squad, is charged with having participated in the shooting of a few members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO and civilians, who had been lined up.
Witness Sahinovic agreed with Dzeko’s Defence attorney, who said that, prior to April 16 Trusina village was totally surrounded by HVO forces.
In addition, Dzeko is charged with crimes against Croat civilians and prisoners of war in Jablanica during the second half of 1993.
The trial is due to continue on October 9.
