Fire and Gunshots in Sijekovac

Petar Ceric said that he used to go to work at a construction site of the Oil Refinery in Bosanski Brod until March 20, 1992, but that armed soldiers in camouflage uniforms stopped him at a barricade near Sijekovac on that day and prevented him from passing.

According to Ceric’s testimony, while he was at his home a few days later, he heard shooting from Traktorska Street, which was about a kilometre away from his house. 

“I did not hear anything prior to the shooting. It happened in the early evening. I heard infantry weapons. I saw flame and fire. I thought that a firm’s garage was on fire but that was not true. Serb houses were burning,” Ceric said.

Ceric told the Court that the following day he found out that some local village residents were killed, but he did not know who participated in those murders. He said that television news was the only source of information about those events.  

Zemir Kovacevic, a former member of the Interventions Squad with the First Bosanski Brod Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, is charged with having committed crimes against Serb civilians in Sijekovac village in March 1992.

The indictment alleges that Kovacevic participated in an attack on the village. Acting in collaboration with other individuals, he allegedly took 15 adult Serbs and four children, some of whom were killed, out of their houses into the courtyard.

Witness Ceric said that he was taken, along with his brother, to nearby Kricanovo Hill in order to dig trenches at the beginning of May 1992.

“Military policemen came to pick us up. They told us to bring picks and other tools. They loaded us onto a truck. When we arrived on Kricanovo Hill, they told us to dig trenches,” Ceric said, adding that fire was opened at the civilians while they were digging trenches that day.

According to the statement of the witness, he was taken to a detention camp on August 19, 1992. He stayed in the camp until mid-November 1992.  

Kovacevic is charged with having participated in unlawful detention, forcing people to perform hard labour, pillaging and destruction of property owned by Serb civilians during 1992.

Ceric said that he did not know indictee Zemir Kovacevic.

The trial is due to continue on May 8 this year, when the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina will invite two protected witnesses.