Voluntary Departure

Sena Kasapovic-Zubic, who used to live in Zagre village, near Visegrad until 1992, told the Court that, following the departure of Uzice Corps, the situation in the village became “dangerous and bad”, so the Bosniak population hid in nearby woods out of fear.
 
“When they withdrew, the situation became chaotic. Paramilitary units entered the villages. They mistreated Bosniaks, so we all hid in the surrounding woods together,” witness Kasapovic-Zubic explained.
 
According to her statement, her neighbour Ferid Spahic informed her that they had to leave the village due to the security situation. As she explained, Ferid told her that the Red Cross would organise a convoy and that all Bosniaks would have to leave, because nobody could defend them anymore.  

Kasapovic-Zubic said that all local residents from the village gathered at the station in Bosanska Jagodina on June 14, 1992 and that Bosniaks were then taken to Visegrad.
 
“All of our neighbours from the village, Serbs, went out of their houses and all of them cried. I got on a bus. I have to say that nobody forced us to leave or said any bad words to us. We left our houses voluntarily. I am wondering now whether I did the right thing,” the witness said.
 
As she said, while she was at the convoy departure point at the square in Visegrad, she did not see her neighbour Ljubomir Tasic.

Tasic is charged, along with Predrag Milisavljevic and Milos Pantelic, with having participated in murders, forced resettlement of the population, detention, torture, forced disappearances and other inhumane acts in Visegrad.

The indictment alleges that Milisavljevic and Pantelic, former members of reserve police forces in Visegrad, and Tasic, former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, committed those crimes in the period from April to June 1992.

Witness Ramiza Veletovac, who left Visegrad with the convoy on June 14, 1992, said that she did not see Ljupko Tasic on that day and that she did not know who organised the convoy.    

“I was just sitting under the truck awning, crying. I did not even know where I was going. I did not see my neighbour Ljupko. I certainly did not see him. I cannot say the opposite,” witness Veletovac said.
 
She told the Court that the convoy was stopped on a meadow and that they separated women and children from able-bodied men.
 
As she said, she found out later that those men were killed.

The trial is due to continue on November 19, when the Defence of the second indictee will present material evidence. Also, the first witnesses will testify in defence of indictee Milos Pantelic.