Indictee Took His Mask off

In her statement given to the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA in 2007 protected witness M-4 said that her brothers were taken away from their house in Hranca village and that they never returned, adding that she was transferred to Kladanj together with a group of women.  

Witness M-4 said that she saw indictee Najdan Mladjenovic at the location where men were separated from women, on May 3, 1992.

“Masked Serb soldiers came to the bus station where we had gathered. I think they were our neighbours. I recognised Najdan Mladjenovic. He was armed and masked. However, at some point he drank some water and pulled his mask off his face,” the witness said.

She said that her mother had been wounded and a cousin killed earlier that day, but soldiers, who came to their house, did not allow her brother to bury his daughter, telling him to come with them and that he would return soon.  

M-4 said that, later on about 100 civilians, mostly women and children, as well as nine men, were forced to go to the bus station, where they were separated.

“The men were taken away by bus, while we were told to go home, ‘feed the chicken and milk the cows’. A couple of days later we were ordered to gather again. We were then transported by bus to Kladanj,” M-4 said.

Considering the fact that the witness died, the Defence of indictee Mladjenovic said that it would have asked M-4 in the courtroom about the differences between her statements given in 1992 and 1997 and the statement given to SIPA.  

“This witness did not mention Najdan in her previous statements. As the time passed by, she mentioned him,” Mladjenovic’s Defence attorney Dejan Bogdanovic explained.

Najdan Mladjenovic is charged, along with Savo Zivkovic, with having committed crimes in Hranca village on May 3, 1992, when several Bosniak civilians were killed and captured.
 
Additional State Prosecution witnesses are due to be examined at the next hearing scheduled for December 24.