Witnesses Recall Mother and Daughter’s Brutal Murders

Former police officer Nedjeljko Djakovic told the court in the north-western Bosnian town of Bihac on Tuesday that when he arrived at the house where the two women were killed in the village of Mali Reizovici near Kljuc, the lights were on and the door was open.

“The furniture was scattered around and there was a woman on the bed, leaning on the nightstand, with head injuries. Part of her skull was missing. In the room next to her, there was a dead woman covered with a duvet. When we uncovered her, we saw a pool of blood,” said Djakovic.

He added that traces of blood and cartridge cases were found around the house.

“I was not informed about the further investigation and I don’t know who the perpetrators of those crimes are, because soon after that I had a car accident and I was in treatment in Serbia for more than a year,” said Djakovic.

Edhem Hasanbegovic, a neighbour of the women who were killed, Fatma Strkunic and her mother Djema, testified meanwhile that his wife saw their dead bodies in the house.

“She told me that Fatma was shot in the head, that her brains were all over the curtains and that her mother was slashed from one ear to another. I saw [Fatma’s husband] Alet [Strkunic] that day at the funeral. He was barely walking and he was lost,” Hasanbegovic recalled.

“Ale [Alet Strkunic] told me, when we met after the war, that his wife and mother-in-law were killed by Mladenko Vrtunic, Predrag Bajic and ‘Budimir’, I don’t know his last name,” he added.

Former Bosnian Serb Army soldiers Predrag Bajic and Mladenko Vrtunic are charged, alongside Nenad Bajic, Sinisa Babic and Slobodan Dragic, with taking part in killings, rapes and inhumane acts in the villages of Humici, Vojici and Pudin Han near Kljuc in 1992 and 1993.

Another villager, Akif Skabic, also testified at the trial on Tuesday about the murder of his neighbours.

“At the time we did not talk about it, because of fear, but Ale [Strkunic] told me last summer, when he came for a vacation, that his wife and mother-in-law were killed by Predrag Bajic with the help of Bogadan Vrtunic’s son,” he said.

The trial continues on April 1.