Defense Witness Describes Giving Stanarevic Ride While Transporting Detainees to Hrgar

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 in the municipality of Bihac. He has also been charged with participating in the murder of 11 detainees held in a detention facility in Ripac.

Dusko Popovic, also a former military police officer with the 15th Light Infantry Bridage, testified at today’s hearing. Popovic said he met Stanarevic at the beginning of the war. He said the defendant performed the usual tasks assigned to military police officers and was deployed to a checkpoint near the Croatian border following his brother’s murder.

Popovic said he was on the frontline when civilians from the Ljutocka Valley were captured by Bosnian Serb forces and didn’t see the defendant on that occasion.

“I had nothing to do with it [the capture of civilians]. That was done by the Petrovacka Brigade. Those civilians were held in a car workshop in Ripac. They were guarded by civil police. Brano Vinjevic and Ratko Mihajlovic interrogated them,” Popovic said. Popovic said he didn’t know whether Stanarevic participated in the interrogations.

Popovic said he was ordered to transport five or six detainees from the car workshop to the village of Hrgar on several occasions. He said he transported the detainees by truck and sometimes stopped for soldiers travelling to and from the frontlines.

“Two soldiers may have gotten off the truck the first time. I remember, because I had to slow down at Gorjevac, because the macadam road began there,” he said.

Popovic said Stanarevic may have been one of those two soldiers, because his parents lived in the village of Lipa, near Gorjevac.

The prosecution asked Popovic how he was able to remember these two soldiers, since he drove the truck everyday and gave rides to numerous soldiers. Popovic was unable to give a precise answer.

The prosecution then asked Popovic what happened to the detainees he drove to Hrgar. Popovic said that wasn’t important, and then confirmed that they were killed.

The trial chamber prohibited defense attorney Milan Romanic from asking further questions to prevent Popovic from incriminating himself.

Goran Maricic was the second witness to testify at today’s hearing. He said he served as a military police officer for fifteen days during the war. He said he knew Stanarevic and his family from before the war, and had never heard anything negative about him. He said Stanarevic didn’t consume drugs or alcohol.

The date of the next hearing will be set at a later stage.