Husband’s Body Found in Paklenik Pit

“During an exhumation conducted a few years after the shooting I recognised my husband’s body. When I picked up his sweater, I noticed many bullet holes on it,” Ziza Karaman said.
The witness said that she was at her sister-in-law’s in Bikavac village, Visegrad municipality, on June 14, 1992, adding that her husband came and told her that all village residents would be transferred to Skopje, Macedonia. The local residents gathered at the Visegrad square, where, as the witness said, nine buses and three trucks were parked.
“As far as I can remember, we got on the third bus. Some time later Milan Lukic got on the bus and told us that we would be taken to Sokolac and killed. Ljupko Tasic then got on the bus and took Lukic out,” Karaman said. Besides Ljubomir Tasic, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Predrag Milisavljevic and Milos Pantelic with having participated in the murder of several tens of Bosniaks near the Paklenik pit. They are also charged with having participated in the forcible resettlement of more than 500 Bosniak civilians from the Visegrad area.
According to the charges, Milisavljevic and Pantelic were members of reserve police forces of the Public Safety Station in Visegrad, while Ljubomir Tasic was a member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.The Hague Tribunal confirmed a first instance verdict against Milan Lukic, sentencing him to life imprisonment for crimes in Visegrad. The witness said that her husband told her that Tasic was the convoy organiser, adding that he was present at a meeting about the relocation of the local population from the surrounding villages, which was held in Bosanska Jagodina village.
“The buses moved. When we arrived at the crossroads in Sokolac, they said that all able-bodied men should stay, while women and children should get out of the buses,” Karaman said. As she said, they spent a few days in somebody’s house in a nearby village before going to Olovo. After that they joined a convoy and went to Vares.
“Ferid Spahic, who was on the bus with us, came to my mother-in-law’s in Kakanj one year later and told her that my husband was killed along with 12 other men in Paklenik pit,” the witness said. Second witness Mina Jahic told the Court that Ferid Spahic, who survived the shooting in Paklenik pit, came to Mrce village, Sokolac municipality in July 1992.“He stayed at our place for a month. We were hiding him. He told me that they were cheated, because the men were supposed to be taken to an exchange location by bus, but they took them to Paklenik pit instead. He took a risk and ran away. I do not know how he managed to do it,” Jahic said.
She said that Spahic was not wounded, but he was covered with blood and scared, adding that his hands were tied behind his back with wire. The trial is due to continue on April 23.