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Koricanske stijene: Witness tells of Shooting Discussions

Korićanske stijene

06 July 2010  

A former member of the Prijedor police force Interventions Squad said several indictees told him about the shooting at Koricanske stijene on the day the crimes were committed.

Protected witness KA1 escorted the convoy of Prijedor residents who were transported to Travnik on August 21, 1992. He said the bus broke down and after a few hours on Mount Vlasic he travelled back with other members of the Interventions Squad of the Public Safety Station, PSS, in Prijedor.

Zoran Babic, Milorad Radakovic, Milorad Skrbic, Zeljko Stojnic and Dusan Jankovic, former members of the Interventions Squad, are charged with participating in the killings of 200 people at Koricanske stijene. The indictment alleges that Jankovic was commander of the squad.

"Babic, Stojnic, Cetic, Mrdja, Djuric were in the bus... I do not know who else was there. The bus passengers spoke to each other. Someone said that the people who had come out of the bus were taken to a cliff and shot at," KA1 said.

Gordan Djuric and Ljubisa Cetic were also charged with the same crimes and pleaded guilty during the course of their trial. They were sentenced to eight and 13 years in prison. Darko Mrdja was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, to 17 years.

The witness said he first heard about the events at Koricanske stijene while he was driving in a minivan towards the convoy departure point in Tukovi village.

"While the minivan passengers were talking to each other, they said something like 'something is going to happen today'. (...) There were some insinuations suggesting some people would be killed," KA1 said, adding that prior to his departure for Tukovi he saw Petar Civcic talking to Jankovic in the police station corridor.

The trial of Civcic, Sasa Zecevic, Radoslav Knezevic, Marinko Ljepoja and Branko Topola, who are charged with the same crimes, is also underway before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Witness KA1 testified at that trial in February this year.

The witness said that Jankovic left Tukovi driving in a police VW Golf, adding he was on "the top of the command chain" and often issued instructions to squad commanders.

KA1 said the convoy stopped in the vicinity of Trnopolje when Civcic and Mrdja gave him a bag, instructing him to collect all money and jewellery from the bus passengers.

The trial continues on July 12.