Mice Fighters Allegedly Forced Witnesses to Dig Trenches for Bodies

The witness, Petar Filipovic, testified at the trial of Dragan Marjanovic, Sasa Gavranovic, Vitomir Devic, Zoran Sljuk, Dragomir Kezunovic and Dario Slavuljica, who’ve charged with participating in an attack against the Bosniak and Croat population in Teslic. They allegedly detained captured civilians on police premises, buildings under the command of the Territorial Defense and a military prison in June 1992.

The defendants have been accused of taking 28 detained civilians from a Teslic police station and the nearby Pribinic prison to Mount Borje on the night of June 17 or 18, 1992. There, the defendants allegedly killed them.

According to the indictment, Marjanovic was the commander of the First Squad of the military police of the Teslicka Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army. The other defendants were members of that squad and also members of the Mice paramilitary formation.

At today’s hearing, Petar Filipovic said that he was passing through the village of Pribinic in mid-1992, when a soldier forced him to get onto a truck in order to dig a trench somewhere.

“He was waiting until he’d gathered about ten of us. He ordered two of us to take picks and shovels. He drove us to [Mount] Borje. He told us to get off the truck and bring the picks and shovels. He escorted us down a slope and told us to dig a trench, because they were expecting enemies from the other side,” Filipovic said.

According to Filipovic, they dug a trench about one meter deep by the time evening fell. When asked whether he knew the purpose of the hole, Filipovic said he didn’t know what it was for until bodies were found in the trench later on.

“Muslims were allegedly there,” Filipovic said.

Filipovic said he thought that the soldier who forced him to dig the trench was a member of the Mice paramilitary formation. He said he didn’t know him, but remembered that he was an elderly and physically large man.

“The members of the Mice spread terror among soldiers and policemen, as well as the Serb population,” Filipovic said.

Filipovic was eventually recruited by a civil protection unit during the war.

Branislav Popovic, also a former member of a civil protection unit, described digging a trench on Mount Borje. He said he was ordered to get on a truck one day, and was taken in the direction of Banja Luka.

“A person ordered me to get on the truck. I can’t describe the person. I think he was a member of the Mice,” Popovic said. Popovic said a few other people were on the truck as well.

When the truck pulled up to a forest, Popovic said, they were told to dig a trench because an attack was expected.

Popovic said he first heard about the Mice paramilitary formation in June 1992. He said members of the formation wore uniforms, hats, and glasses.

“I didn’t know any of them…Some men were afraid of them,” he said.

The trial will continue on May 28.