Indictee Did not Mistreat People
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Witness Ante Pavlovic told the Court that he was member of the Special Purposes Squad with the “Rama Brigade, just like indictee Jukic. He said that members of their unit wore green uniforms.
We were active on positions towards Kupres, where our military lines towards Serbs were situated, the witness said.
When asked by Defence attorney Irena Pehar if he had ever heard of or knew that the indictee committed war crimes, the witness answered negatively.
Second witness Milenko Curic said that he was a member of the “Dimovi Unit with the Rama Brigade, which consisted of Croats and Muslims, who fought against Serbs. He explained that interpersonal relations within the Unit had been good until Muslims became alienated and left for Vakuf.
Responding to a Defence attorney’s question about the indictee’s participation in war crimes, Curic said that he had never heard that Jukic committed any war crimes.
Zeljko Jukic is charged with having participated, along with other members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, and Croatian Army, HV, in the persecution of Bosniak civilians, murders and forced disappearances from Prozor from July to September 1993.
Third witness Stipe Jelicic used to work as chief of a bakery in Prozor during the war. He said that it was the only bakery that functioned at that time.
He said that nobody but him and bakery workers entered the bakery uninvited in order to mistreat people, adding that the indictee did not do it either.
Zeljko Jukic did not mistreat anybody. Had he come to the bakery, I would have known that, Jelicic said.
Fourth witness Robert Knezevic lived in Jurici village, Prozor municipality, where Croats were the majority, during the war.
According to his testimony, he left the village with his family, because, as he said, Muslims occupied the village on October 23, 1992. The witness said that he and his family returned home a month later.
We thought that we would continue living in that village, but, in June 1993 Muslims broke into our house and killed my minor brother and sister, the witness said, adding that they killed an old lady in a neighbouring house on that same day.
The trial is due to continue on September 19, when new Defence witnesses will be examined.
