Koricanske stijene: Entire Squad Assembled
13 July 2010 Prosecution witnesses at the trial of five men charged with crimes committed at Koricanske stijene said the entire Fifth Interventions Squad of the Prijedor police was tasked with escorting a convoy of Bosniaks and Croats to Travnik in August 1992.
"Paras assembled us. I think this was the first and last time we were arrayed. We were informed about a big convoy. We were told the entire squad should go. No squad members were missing," said First Interventions Squad member Miljan Zubanovic, adding he did not join his colleagues on that day but went home.
Miroslav Paras, who was killed during the war, was commander of the Interventions Section with the Public Safety Station in Prijedor which consisted of two squads.
Zubanovic was testifying at the trial of Zoran Babic, Milorad Radakovic, Milorad Skrbic, Dusan Jankovic and Zeljko Stojnic who are charged with participation in the shooting of about 200 men at Koricanske stijene on Mount Vlasic on August 21, 1992.
The indictment alleges that Jankovic was commander of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor and the other indictees were members of the Police Interventions Squad.
The second prosecution witness, Velibor Vrabicic, also a former member of the First Interventions Squad, did not join his colleagues escorting the convoy on August 21, despite the fact he was there when the squad was assembled.
"The convoy departed from a location near the stadium in Tukovi. Upon my arrival Paras told me to go back, telling me something like I was not capable of fulfilling the task. Me and him did not understand and like each other. He was rather close to some other guys, but he underrated me as a soldier," Vrabicic said.
He later heard that "something happened" on Mount Vlasic. He found out what it was when he was tasked to go to the location with several other colleagues.
"Upon our arrival we saw Simo Drljaca. Then I saw the mass grave. We were told to remove the corpses," the witness said, adding that some bodies were set on fire while the others were covered with rocks as it was not possible to access them.
When asked whether he found out who had committed the murders, Vrabicic said that "it was known that most murders were committed by our squad members", but he did not know who took part.
Drljaca, the former chief of the Prijedor police, was indicted before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, but has since died.
The trial will continue on July 16.
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The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
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