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Witness Salko Moro said, testifying at the trial of six former members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, that he was surprised to hear that Hakalovic was arrested four years ago due to a suspicion that he committed crimes against Croats in Trusina. However, as he said, he did not believe those allegations.
“There is no way I can believe that. I know that he was not there,” he said.
According to the witness, a group of members of the 45th Brigade of ABiH did not leave Buturovic Polje, where they kept guard in shifts in trenches from the second half of March 1993 onwards.
“All of us were there. I know that nobody was absent,” the witness said.
Hakalovic, former member of the 45th Brigade, is on trial, along with five former members of “Zulfikar” Squad – Mensur Memic, Dzevad Salcin, Nedzad Hodzic, Nihad Bojadzic and Zulfikar Alispago, known as Zuka, for crimes in Trusina.
According to the charges, 18 Croat civilians and four captured members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, were killed.
Moro said that he did not know that Trusina village, which was in the vicinity of Buturovic Polje, would be attacked. As he said, a day or two later he found out that Trusina was “done”, that “Zuka’s men” participated in it, that civilians were killed and soldiers captured.
Moro said that he went from Buturovic Polje to Parsovici, where the Command of the 45th Brigade was located. He said that he began forming a police station in June 1993. Responding to questions by Alispago, former Commander of “Zulfikar” Squad, the witness said that he did not know whether somebody had requested an investigation procedure related to Trusina.
The Trial Chamber prohibited some of Alispago’s questions, which, as he said, were of key importance for acquitting him of responsibility, because the Chamber considered them irrelevant for this witness. The indictee protested due to the decision.
One of those questions was whether the witness asked the Criminal Service to undertake pre-investigation activities. When he made the question, Trial Chamber Chairwoman Zeljka Marenic said that the witness was not Commander of the Police Station at the time when the crime was committed.
Alispago is charged with “having failed to undertake the necessary and reasonable measures” to punish soldiers subordinate to him.
The trial is due to continue on September 23.
