Witnesses Describe Murder of Serb Civilians in Trnovo

Bunoza, Godinjak and Saric have been charged with participating in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at killing and detaining Serb civilians in the Trnovo area. The indictment alleges that Bunoza was the commander of Croatian Defense Forces units in the area, Godinjak was the chief of police in Trnovo and Saric was the commander of the Territorial Defense in Trnovo.

Jefija Popovic testified at today’s hearing. Popovic said she didn’t witness the murder of her husband, Nedeljko Popovic, who was a priest. She said a man named Jovan Eelez told her how her husband died.

She said Eelez told her that her husband had been captured and driven away in a car with three young men. He said he told her her husband was taken to the village of Godinjske Bare in the municipality of Trnovo.

“A gunshot was heard followed by another one,” Popovic said, conveying what Eelez told her. She said Eelez told her that the person who killed her husband ordered him to bury his body.

Slavko Vasic also testified at today’s hearing. He described the murder of his father Nenad, his mother Mara and his grandmother in Trnovo.

He said he wasn’t in Trnovo at the time, but found out that his parents had been killed in the village of Dejcici in the municipality of Trnovo in June 1992. His grandmother, who lived in the nearby village of Ledici, was killed with four other elderly women.

“My grandmother and four other old ladies were in a forest near the village. They found them in the forest and killed them,” Vasic said.

State prosecution witness Agan Durmo also described the murder of Nenad and Mara Vasic in Dejcici.

“Children ran by our house and said, ‘They killed Nenad!,’” Durmo said. He said the children said the murder was committed by members of the Croatian Defense Forces.

Durmo said they were killed in front of an ambulance station in the village. He said Croatian Defense Forces members came a few days later and ordered them to bury the bodies. He said he and another man volunteered to do so.

During the investigation phase of the case, Durmo said the soldiers were members of the Croatian Defense Council. At today’s hearing, he said they were members of the Croatian Defense Forces.

The trial will continue on November 3.