Mosque Murders Defendant ‘A Decent Man’

Defence witness Milan Djukanovic, a cousin of defendant Dragomir Soldat, told the court on Monday that in late July 1992 he went to Prijedor where he joined the Bosnian Serb Army’s military police platoon in charge of checkpoints. Several days later, he said, he was assigned to a checkpoint near Carakovo.

“We were told to check only conscripts. When we arrived, there was no shooting there. It was quiet, there were no civilians either,” said Djukanovic.

He said he spent two days there and did not see any civilians during that time. He said that the commander of his platoon was defendant Soldat.

The indictment alleges that on the morning of July 23, 1992, the other defendants, Zoran Babic and Velemir Djuric, together with other people and on Soldat’s orders, led men from their houses in Carakovo to the local mosque, where they executed them.

It claims that some of the villagers who survived the shooting died when Djuric and Babic set the mosque on fire afterwards.

Dusko Kos, another former Bosnian Serb Army military policeman, also testified on Monday that Soldat was commander of the platoon in charge of checkpoints and that members of the military police never went to fight.

“The assignment was to establish checkpoints after combat,” Kos said.

The third witness at the hearing, Rade Padjen, who also said that military policemen did not participate in combat operations.

“No one issued such an order to me,” he said.

Responding to questions from the defence, Padjen said he never heard of Soldat commanding any other armed group.

“At the time, Soldat wore a uniform and a white belt [worn only by military police]. To my knowledge, he caused no trouble. He was a decent man. And he was responsible in his job,” said the witness.

The trial will resume on October 14.