After the Funeral of Two Serbs, Danilo and Rade Went and Killed Bosniak Women and Children near Foča

A Defence witness said that in the summer of 1992 he arrested a man who killed civilians in Čohodor Mahala (Foča municipality), but claims that it was not the accused Radoman Fundup, BIRN reported, as carried by the Bosnian news agency Patria.

Branko Banović, a former military police officer of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), said that in May or June 1992 he received a call to come to Čohodor Mahala in Foča due to gunfire.

- There was a call that someone was killing the helpless. I got into a car with a colleague and we went there. In Čohodor Mahala I parked and saw a man. A man came out of a house with a rifle and I said to him: ‘You fool, what are you doing!?’ He said he was taking revenge because his relatives had been killed. I hit him, took the rifle and took him to the police”, Banović recounted.

According to his testimony, that man introduced himself as Fundup, but it was not the accused Radoman Fundup, whom he knew from before the war.

Radoman Fundup, a former member of the Foča Brigade of the VRS, is charged by the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the murders and abuse of civilians in Foča. Together with two other persons, as stated in the indictment, in Čohodor Mahala he participated in the murders of two children and five women and the wounding of one woman.

He is also charged with the abuse of three civilians, two of whom were children. Together with one other person, as stated in the indictment, he came to the settlement of Gornje Polje, where they lined up civilians and cocked their rifles, creating the impression that they would be executed.

At this hearing, two distant relatives of the accused also testified in favour of the Defence – Dragan and Dojčilo Fundup, who said that on the day of the murders in Čohodor Mahala they were at a funeral with Radoman Fundup.

Dragan Fundup recalled that the funeral of his son-in-law and relative was in the afternoon hours of a day in June 1992, and that afterwards everyone went for lunch at the deceased's house.

- Radoman and Danilo Fundup and Radoman's parents were sitting in a row. At one point Danilo jumped up and said to the others: ‘Get up, let's beat these...’ Radislav Radević obeyed him and they set off. Some asked what was happening, there was a commotion. Radoman said: ‘Sit down, you fool’, but they went towards the mahala”, Dragan Fundup stated.

A few minutes after the departure of Danilo Fundup and Radević, as the witness said, gunfire was heard from the mahala, and the next day it was rumoured that some women and children had been killed.

- The story was that Danilo and this other one did it - said Dragan Fundup.

Dojčilo Fundup also said that he was at a funeral in June 1992, where he saw Radoman and Danilo Fundup and heard a call “to go kill”.

- Danilo said that and Rade followed him. Radoman asked him where he was going and told him he was a fool. Within a few minutes shots were heard - Dojčilo Fundup stated, adding that the next day he heard that murders had occurred in Čohodor Mahala.

During cross-examination, the witness was shown a statement he gave to the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina in which he did not say that Danilo Fundup called people to kill and did not mention hearing about the murders. The witness said that in that statement he did not tell the truth because he felt uncomfortable given that Danilo Fundup is his relative.

The trial continues on 13 November, when the last two Defence witnesses will be examined.