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Survivor Recounts Trnova Killings
Witness said to have been severely wounded in 1995 shootings in which 11 others
were killed.
By Velma Šarić - International Justice - ICTY
TRI Issue 678,
4 Feb 11
A witness said to have been the sole survivor of a September 1995 massacre this
week told the trial of two former Yugoslav State Security Service, DB, officers,
of his ordeal in the village of Trnova close to Sanski Most in north-western Bo
snia.
Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic are charged with participating in a joint c
riminal enterprise, with the objective of forcibly and permanently removing non-
Serbs from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia through persecution, murder and dep
ortation of the Croat, Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat populations.
Stanisic served as head of the DB, part of Serbia’s interior ministry, from 1991 t
o 1998, while Simatovic worked under the authority of Stanisic as commander of t
he Special Operations Units, JSO.
According to the indictment, Stanisic and Simatovic established, organised and f
inanced training centres for Serb forces, with the purpose of establishing milit
ary actions in Croatia and Bosnia.
The indictment states that they then sent these forces to Croatia and Bosnia, wh
ere they committed crimes and took control of towns and villages in Serb-held ar
eas in Croatia and Bosnia, forcing non-Serbs to leave the territories.
The protected prosecution witness, who testified with face distortion and was id
entified only as JF-064, is said to have been the only survivor of a shooting of
12 civilians by a paramilitary unit, the Serb Voluntary Guard - known as the Ti
gers - on September 20, 1995.
The witness, originally from the town of Kljuc in north-western Bosnia, also gav
e evidence in June 2003 in the trial of the former Serbian leader Slobodan Milos
evic.
Transcripts of that testimony and two statements he had given to prosecution inv
estigators were included onto the record this week.
At the beginning of the trial, prosecutor Grace Harbour read a statement given t
o the Milosevic trial by the prosecution witness that “in April of 1992, Serb forc
es occupied Kljuc municipality and forced the witness and other Bosniaks to work
for the Serb forces, including working on the front line”.
Harbour continued that when in September 1995 the Bosnian army penetrated Serb d
efence lines in the region, the witness was taken from Kljuc to Sanski Most and,
together with four of his neighbours, was handed over to the Tigers, led by Zel
jko Raznatovic, also known as Arkan.
According to the indictment against Stanisic and Simatovic, in September 1995, A
rkan and members of the Tigers, came to Sanski Most.
“On September 20, 1995, or approximately that date, Arkan s troops had collected 1
2 non-Serb men from various places in Sanski Most and taken them by truck to a s
ite in the village of Trnova, some five kilometres away. Eleven of them were sho
t dead on site, while the twelfth survived the shooting with severe wounds,” the i
ndictment reads.
Continuing to read from the witness statement, the prosecutor said, “Once they [th
e victims] came there, one of Arkan’s men told them to help in carrying the ammuni
tions and equipment from the Velprom warehouse toward the Sanus hotel in Sanski
Most. The witness JF-064 and his neighbours were there, Arkan personally asked t
hem in the Sanus hotel what their names were," the prosecutor read.
“Arkan then sent them to a narrow corridor, where they were verbally abused by Ark
an s men and… called Turks , and forced to sit with their legs crossed and their
head to the ground for several hours.”
Then, at around 2.30 am, “the witness JF-064 and 11 more people were tied with han
dcuffs in pairs and taken by Arkan s men by truck from the Sanus hotel to the pl
ace the witness later found out was called Trnova”, the prosecutor continued.
People on the truck were being taken out two-by-two, and the witness is said to
have heard shooting.
“All four neighbours [of the witness] from Kljuc came out of the truck before he d
id. Once he came out, Arkan s men took off the handcuffs with which he was tied
to a man he didn t know, and one of Arkan s man ordered them to enter a small ro
om, which was filled with bodies and splattered with blood,” the statement continu
ed.
“As they were coming in, shooting was heard, one bullet hit the witness and he fel
l to the ground, laying there while Arkan s men were bringing in people from the
truck and shooting them in that room,” the prosecutor continued.
“Arkan s men cut one man’s throat so that blood flew all over, including onto the wi
tness’ face. He was hit twice again, yet not lethally… he was hit a total of three t
imes," she read out.
According to the statement, JF-064 was able to escape after being left for dead
by Arkan s men.
Answering a question from the prosecutor about the clothes Arkan s men were wear
ing, the witness answered that they were dressed in uniforms and that “when we met
them in Sanski Most, we would recognize them by clean, identical, good uniforms
.
“The marking on their sleeves was a double-headed eagle with four S letters, and t
he words Serb Voluntary Guard.”
Most of Arkan s men, he added, wore black wool caps, but Arkan and soldiers clos
e to him wore red berets. The prosecution has alleged that these red berets were
a sign of the units which were controlled by the DB led by the accused.
Arkan, whose indictment by the Hague tribunal was announced in March of 1999, wa
s one of the most notorious paramilitary leaders of the war in Bosnia and the Ti
gers, formed in Belgrade in the early 1990s, was active throughout the conflict.
The indictment against Arkan listed a number of crimes, including crimes against
humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions and war crimes.
He was assassinated in Belgrade in January 2000.
Stanisic and Simatovic, arrested by Serbian authorities on June 13, 2003, both p
leaded not guilty.
The trial continues next week.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.