Witness Describes Abduction of Prijedor Civilian by Kajdic and Rokvic

Kajdic and Rokvic, former members of the Bosnian Serb Army, have been charged with abducting a civilian named Safet Besirovic from the village of Gornja Puharska and taking him to the Crna Dolina mine on August 17, 1992, where they killed him in an unknown manner. The victim’s body was never found.

Hamid Kurtovic told the district court of Banja Luka said he had lived in Gornja Puharska, near Prijedor, until 1993. He said he knew Besirovic and his family well.

Testifying via video-link from Denmark, Kurtovic said he and his wife were fetching water from a well when they saw Besirovic being escorted by the defendants.

“At that moment I saw Sasa [Sabahudin Kajdic] and [Sreto] Rokvic escorting Sefer [Besirovic]. I asked them, ‘What are you going to do to that man?’ Sasa asked me why I had failed to report him, since I knew about him. He also said, ‘Do you want me to take you away as well?’ They took him in the direction of the school building,” Kurtovic said.

Kurtovic said he went to sleep, and that his wife woke him up and told him they were taking Besirovic towards Crna Dolina.

“I ran out of the house right away. I followed them, while they escorted him. They stopped next to Esad’s house. They took a shovel and moved on in the direction of the mine. They came back later on. Sasa came to the well, took some water from my wife and washed his hands,” Kurtovic said.

According to Kurtovic, Besirevic was a good bricklayer and had done some work on a military officer’s house in Gornja Puharska when the war broke out.

“He stayed there. He was hiding with a cousin’s family,” Kurtovic said.

The trial will continue on December 29.