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On the second day of testimony in his own defence, Bosnian Army fighter Dzevad Salcin, alias Struja (Electricity) told the court on Monday that he did not witness the murder of Croats in Trusina near the town of Konjic on April 16, 1993.
Salcin, a former soldier with the Zulfikar detachment of the Bosnian Army and Herzegovina, said he was with women and children behind a house in Gaj, the hamlet next to Trusina, when he heard an unknown voice shout: Firing squad!
I didnt see the dead, said the defendant.
He said that he did not recognise the voice that shouted as that of one of his fellow Zulfikar soldiers.
On trial with Salcin are other former members of the Zulfikar detachment, Zulfikar Alispago, Mensur Memic, Nedzad Hodzic, and Nihad Bojadzic, and Senad Hakalovic, a former soldier with the Bosnian Armys Neretvica brigade.
They are accused of having participated in the attack on Trusina on April 16, 1993 and the murder of 18 civilians and four Croatian Defence Council soldiers.
Salcin is also accused of lining up 14 civilians and three soldiers next to a house in Gaj, insulting them and threatening them with death, and taking their money, gold and other valuables.
He denies these charges, insisting that he acted humanely.
Salcin said that during the attack on the village he did not see two of the other defendants, Hodzic and Memic, and said he was surprised when he learned that Memic was also charged.
As deputy commander of Zulfikar, Bojadzic is charged with leading the attack on Trusina, while Alispago, as the detachments commander, is charged with failure to punish subordinates who participated in the crime.
Salcin said that he did not see Bojadzic and Alispago at all during the attack, and that he saw Hakalovic for the first time after their arrest.
His defence lawyer Kerim Celik entered into the courts register a report by the Human Rights Committee Zagreb on the crimes in Trusina, which noted, he said, that someone called Struja saved a man called Dragan Drljo in Trusina in April 1993.
The trial is scheduled to resume on May 6.
