Witnesses Set Up Carakovo Checkpoint

Ranko Stojakovic said that, as member of the reserve police, he went to the Hurevo hill, where, he said, there was shooting between the Green Berets and their platoon.

Afterwards, they went through the woods to the villages of Zecovi and Carakovo.

“There were soldiers and vehicles there, but I don’t know why and what was their intent. I did not see civilians, nor military policemen. I did not see a mosque,” said Stojakovic.

The other witness, Radomir Denjak, who was a military policeman, said his superior was Dragomir Soldat, who “always had a neat haircut, was orderly and decent”.

“We controlled checkpoints and crossings. Soldat took us to the entrance to Carakovo, where a new checkpoint was set up,” said Denjak.

He added that he spent the night there and then went to his village, for the funeral of his neighbour Milorad Baltic.

In his words, the checkpoint was suddenly opened again, but the witness did not know why. He did not hear the shooting nor saw smoke.

Soldat is charged, together with Zoran Babic and Velemir Djuric, with the crime committed on July 23, 1992, in the village of Carakovo.

According to the indictment, Babic and Djuric, together with other people, on orders from third defendant Dragomir Soldat, led men out of their houses in Carakovo and took them to the local mosque, where they executed them.

The indictment alleges that some of the men who survived the shooting died when Djuric and Babic later set the mosque on fire.

The third witness for the defence, Mile Ciric, said that he participated in the organisation of the funeral for the killed neighbour Milorad Baltic. He confirmed what Stojakovic and Denjak said – that the funeral was held in late July 1992.

The trial will resume on October 28.