Grujic: Captured Neighbours

“I cannot remember their names, but men, women and children, all of them civilians, were among those neighbours. They were lying on the ground, facing down. Their hands were tied on their backs. I saw them on my way to Baljkovci village, where we all lived together,” said Prosecution witness Milos Grujic, indictee Slobodan Grujic’s cousin. 

As he said, on that day he saw many unknown soldiers, mainly members of the Yugoslav National Army, JNA, on the road to Baljkovci.

“At some stage a burst of fire was opened from the surrounding hills. I was caught in crossfire. I heard a soldier shouting that all of them should be killed,” the witness explained, adding that, once the shooting was over, he saw that one of the civilian captives, called Safet Subasic, ran away. 

As he said, he did not see where or when the civilians were captured or what happened to them later on.

“All I know is that Safet ran away. He is the only survivor,” Grujic said.
When asked whether he saw his uncle, indictee Slobodan Grujic, among the soldiers, the witness said that he could not say for sure, but he thought that he was present there. 

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Grujic, former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, with having participated, along with a few other persons, in the capture and murder of ten Bosniak civilians in Zvornik municipality on May 10, 1992. The indictment alleges that the civilians were exhumed from the Pandurica grave in 1997.

Witness Himzo Memisevic, whose step-brother, his wife and child were killed on May 9, 1992, said that his brother was found in the Pandurica grave after the war, but the remains of his brother’s wife and child had never been found.

“Safet Subasic was the only one who survived. He told me that my step-brother and his family were in that group of people. But, that is all I know. Even today Safet does not want to talk much about it,” Memisevic said. 

The next hearing is due to be held on July 4, 2012.
                                                                                                                           D.E.