Family Recalls Bosnian Serb Assault in Kljuc Village
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Witness Mirsad Nezic told the court in the north-western town of Bihac on Tuesday that a group of Serb soldiers entered his house in the Kljuc municipality in July 1992 and started to demand money.
“They threatened, cursed and shot… At that moment, [trial defendant] Predrag Bajic, followed by [another fighter called] Milan Lukic, entered my room,” the witness recalled.
“Predrag hit me. I think I was unconscious for a few moments. He then said: ‘Give us a knife to slaughter them.’ A soldier said: ‘Not them. We will take this one.’ Then they left and took my uncle Ibrahim Kumalic away,” he said, adding that his uncle’s body was found the following day.
The witness’s mother, Fatima Nezic, also told the court that her brother Ibrahim Kumalic was taken away from the house by Serb fighters.
“They asked for money. We gave them all we had. However, it was not enough. They began cursing and shooting. They even asked the children to give them money. I told them that they were students and that they did not have money,” she recalled.
“Then they took Ibrahim away… As he did not return on the following morning, I went towards Ramiz’s house together with my nephew. I noticed my brother’s body in a meadow. There were many bullet holes in it,” she said.
Predrag Bajic is charged, along with Nenad Bajic, Sinisa Babic, Mladenko Vrtunic and Slobodan Dragic, all former Bosnian Serb Army soldiers, with having participated in the murders, rape and inhumane treatment of people in the villages of Humici, Vojici and Pudin Han in the Kljuc municipality in 1992 and 1993.
The trial is due to continue on March 25.
