Witnesses Recall Kokino Selo Killings in Sekaric Trial

Sekaric, a former member of the Territorial Defence forces and the ‘Osvetnik’ (‘Avenger’) paramilitary group, is charged with crimes against humanity within a wide-ranging and systematic attack by the Bosnian Serb Army on the civilian non-Serb population in the area of Gorazde and Visegrad.

Witness Amra Bekric, who was 13 at the time of the attack on Kokino Selo, told the Bosnian State Court in Sarajevo that explosions were heard in the village at around 6 a.m. on May 22.

“They said those were grenades,” recalled Bekric, who said she was in the home of a neighbour, Ibrahim Bogdanovic, at the time. “There were 50 of us from the quarter, there were women and children. My father came and said that we had to flee, my mother woke me up.”

Bekric said that her mother stayed in Kokino Selo and is still missing. She recalled seeing dead people on the road as she fled towards Gorazde with her father.

“A man with Fico [type of car] came and started shooting at us… They shot at us and at people who were standing near the supermarket,” Bekric recalled. She said a female neighbour named Mansura was among those shot.

“When she was hit and while she was falling, I had the feeling that she was flying,” the witness recalled.

Bekric also said her father was wounded twice as they fled.

Bekric said that last year she found a statement her father gave to the police in Gorazde, stating that he saw the accused during the attack.

“I do not remember whether he saw him or heard from someone else that he was in the attack,” she said.

She said that she knows Sekaric, who was a friend of her brother Edin.

Sekaric is charged with participating in the attack on Kokino Selo, abuse of a family and children in front of resident Bakir Hasecic’s house in Visegrad, rape of a witness identified only as S-1, killings of a large number of non-Serbs, and physical abuse of prisoners in the Uzanica camp in Visegrad.

Witness Pasa Zivojevic said that her husband was killed in the attack on the village and that his remains are still missing. Asked whether she was seeking compensation, she replied: “If I could find him to bury him, I do not need anything else.”

Zivojevic said that her husband was keeping guard on May 22, 1992, while she was also at the home of Ibrahim Bogdanovic. She fled from there towards the Drina river, along with others.

“I wonder how I stayed alive. We fled by following the Drina,” Zivojevic recalled. She said the noise of the attack was like “thunder, not shooting”.

Another witness, Ramiza Uhota, testified that she and her 15-year-old son were wounded in the attack on the village and that they were transferred to Serbia for treatment.

The trial resumes on April 14.