Gathered for their Own Safety

As the trial for crimes in Stupari, Kladanj municipality, continues, a State Prosecution witness says that Serbs from Kladanj and the surrounding villages were gathered in Stupari in 1992 “for the sake of their own safety”.

Witness Mehmed Gogic said that he was appointed Commander of a Military Police Squad in Kladanj in May 1992 and that the Squad used a room in the Public Safety Station building in that town.

“We arrested people, who ran away from frontlines, confiscated hunting guns. After that we found lists of persons, who were armed by the Yugoslav National Army and Serbian Democratic Party, so we collected those weapons as well,” Gogic said.

The witness said that he visited Stupari only once during the war, when indictee Ramiz Halilovic called him and said that members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, were robbing a shop owned by a Serb. 

Also, he said that he heard that Serbs from Kladanj and its surroundings were accommodated in apartments in Stupari for the sake of their own safety after a large number of refugees from Vlasenica and Bratunac had arrived in Kladanj.

“There was less and less food and all sorts of things happened. A brother would even shoot his brother in that situation, so somebody rendered a decision to gather Serbs and accommodate them in Stupari,” Gogic said. 

He mentioned that he heard that, at some stage Halilovic was appointed Commander of the Military Police Squad in Stupari, but he did not know when exactly this happened, adding that they “did not do anything together”.

Ramiz Halilovic is charged, along with Safet Mujcinovic, Zijad Hamzic, Nusret Muhic, Selman Busnov, Nedzad Hodzic, Osman Gogic and Kahro Vejzovic, former members of the Territorial Defence and military and civil police, with having committed unlawful detention of the Serb population, as well as beating and inhumane treatment.

The trial is due to continue on September 19.