Witness at Stanarevic Trial Describes Expulsion of Bosniaks from Bihac

Zeljko Stanarevic, a former military police officer with the 15th Light Infantry Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with participating in the persecution of Bosniak civilians as part of a widespread and systematic attack by the military and police on the villages of Ripac, Cukovi, Orasac, Klisa and Kulen-Vakuf in the municipality of Bihac.

He has also been charged with participating in the murder of 11 prisoners held in a facility in Ripac in June and July 1992. He and other Bosnian Serb Army members allegedly transported the prisoners to the Bezdan Pit, where they were executed and buried.

Kajo Zoric, a former military police officer with the 15th Light Infantry Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, testified at today’s hearing. Zoric said he was a driver and worked as a security guard at the Brigade Command in Racic as of May 1992.

“I stayed at the command. There was an interventions squad, whose members were deployed to other locations to perform tasks and to man checkpoints. They also participated in operations aimed at breaking through the enemy lines…I know about the villages of Kulen Vakuf and Orasac. Muslims lived in those places. The local population was forced to leave. I didn’t participate in it, but I know it happened and I know those people left,” Zoric said.

Zoric said he knew that certain prisoners who were brought to the premises of the military police to be interrogated were held in the IMT workshop in Ripac. He said he didn’t participate in their detention. He said he never entered the workshop.

When asked whether he knew Stanarevic, Zoric said he knew him and said he was a member of the military police. However, he said he didn’t know that he was a member of the Interventions Squad.

A statement given by deceased witness Senad Bajahutovic was also read at this hearing. In his statement, Bajahutovic said that Serb forces attacked Kulen Vakuf in June 1992. He said that following the attack, a number of Bosniaks were detained in a school building in Orasac and then in the IMT workshop in Ripac.

“The food was bad. I lost 17 kilograms,” Bajahutovic said.

Bajahutovic said he was exchanged with approximately 70 other prisoners from Ripac a couple of weeks later. He said 70 more Bosniaks stayed behind in Ripac.

“All of them were killed and found in a mass grave,” Bajahutovic said.

Bruno Franjic, a state prosecution expert in ballistics, presented his findings from the Bezdan mass grave at today’s hearing. He said after analyzing a number of capsules and bullets found in the Bezdan mass grave, he said they were fired from a Kalashnikov automatic rifle.

“It was impossible to determine whether some of the bullets and capsules had been fired from that type of firearm,” Franjic said.

The trial will continue on November 2. At the next hearing, the state prosecution will examine its last two expert witnesses and present material evidence.