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Nihad Bojadzic, the former deputy commander of the Bosnian Army’s Zulfikar Squad, said that he did not lead a wartime attack on the village of Trusina, where 22 Croats were killed.
Bojadzic told the Sarajevo court on Monday that he did not command the attack on Trusina on April 16, 1993, or give an order that no one in the village should remain alive.
“Stories that I was in the village of Gostovici and that I led the attack on Trusina were fabrications and lies,” said Bojadzic.
“I am terribly offended that I am connected to that, because injustice is being done to me. Some say that I said that no one should stay alive, but only a sick mind could make this up in order to cover up its own crimes,” he said.
He said that he only found out about the violence in Trusina in the afternoon of April 16 after two wounded members of the Zulfikar Squad were transported to Bradina, and he was told that they were wounded in the village.
He said that in the afternoon of April 15, 1993, he was in Pazaric in the Hadzici municipality, where he met a cleric in order to arrange the commemoration of the anniversary of his mother’s death the next day, and that on April 16 he went again from Bradina to Pazaric to “pray for my mother”. After he came back to Bradina in the afternoon, he saw the wounded members of the squad.
“I would like to address this chamber, because I want to express my regret about the victims’ families, but also to give them a message that I personally did not contribute their suffering,” Bojadzic told the court.
“I can look anyone in the eyes, because I have never ordered such things. That date, April 16, is the most difficult day for me, because I lost my mother then and I want to say that I did not contribute for a second to someone else losing their loved one,” he added.
The prosecution charges Bojadzic, along with Mensur Memic, Dzevad Salcin, Senad Hakalovic and Nedzad Hodzic with the murder of 18 Bosnian Croat civilians and four captured Croatian Defence Council soldiers in Trusina.
The indictment alleges that Bojadzic commanded the attack on Trusina.
He will continue his testimony on May 5.
