Witness Did not See Defendant During the War

Witness Remzija Ajanovic said that he lived in Holijaci when the attack on the village began at the end of May in 1992. He said that armed people headed towards the village and men from the village fled to the woods because of it.

“They found me in the woods and they took us towards Orahovci (…) We went in the column and we were not allowed to turn around. We could not run away, because they would immediately kill us,” he said adding that they were placed in a school after they came to Orahovci.

He also said that 33 male Muslims were imprisoned in the school, and some of them were interrogated and beaten. He was taken from the school to the Uzamnica barracks, and after that, as he said, he was released to go home.

Ajdanovic said that he knew Rackovic from before the war, but that he had never seen him during the war.

“When I came back to the village, I heard from my brother Meho that Vitomir came and shouted: ‘Come Meho to have a coffee, why are you hiding?’. Meho was in the woods, hiding. He saw some people carrying out some things from the house,” witness said adding that was the only thing he heard about the defendant during the war.

Rackovic, a former Bosnian Serb Army serviceman, is charged with participating in attacks on Bosniak villages, taking part in illegal detentions, torture, forced disappearances and rapes in the Visegrad area from May to August in 1992. The bodies of some of those who were detained have never been found.

The statement of Esef Mulaomerovic, who died in 2011, was read out in the court. In the statement he gave to the police in Gorazde in 2004 Mulaomerovic said that group of people, including Rackovic, came to his village Kabernik at the end of May 1992.

“I think that this group of Chetniks was led by Rackovic. They led the group of civilians in the human shield and they were shooting above our homes,” said witness.

Mulaomerovic, according to the statement, was taken with that group of men towards Orahovci.

“At one point Momcilo took me from the human shield and told me to run and hide for two or three days until the situation calms down. I came back home and put out the fire,” said the statement which was read out by the prosecutor Dzevad Muratbegovic.

Defence said that if that was possible they would ask the witness about Rackovic and other soldiers coming to the village and how he left the column.

The prosecutor Muratbegovic presented 14 material evidences, mainly related to the security situation and organization of the authorities in Visegrad at the beginning of the war, as well as birth and death certificates.

The trial continues on June 11.