Disappearances in Teslić began with the 'Miće'

At the trial for crimes committed in Teslić, a Prosecution witness described how he secured a crossroads on Borje on the night of the 'execution'.

Zoran Jorgić said he was mobilised into a company in the village of Đulići (Teslić municipality), and that his superior was the accused Dragan Marjanović. As he stated, in the sixth month of 1992, members of the 'Miće' arrived at the barracks in Đulići, commanded by Ranko Šljuka, BIRN reported, as carried by the Patria news agency.

- They divided our existing company into a reconnaissance unit and a Military Police company. I was in the Military Police company. Then changes occurred in terms of discipline (...) There were line-ups, slapping - Jorgić recalled.

With the arrival of these men, he added, persons of non-Serb ethnicity began to disappear and looting occurred.

He said he did not know any of the 'Miće' beforehand, but he thinks there were eight of them.

- They were better trained than us, they had a shoulder strap on their left shoulder with the inscription 'Miće' - the witness stated, adding that before their arrival in Teslić there had been no combat operations.

He explained that on the orders of Ranko Šljuka, the Military Police company went on disarmament operations in the villages of Studenci-Slatina, Stenjak and Rankovići. He recounted that the 'Miće' mistreated people in the village of Stenjci, and that some civilians from the village of Rankovići were taken to the prison in Pribinić, otherwise intended for soldiers.

- The 'Miće' did that. These people here are them. Dević was there - the witness said.

Asked by the Prosecution, he specified that Zoran Šljuka and Saša Gavranović were also there, that he does not know Darija Slavuljica, and that he had heard of Dragomir Kezunović.

He explained that he heard the names of the 'Miće' when they were arrested, and in response to a question from the Defence, he answered that he cannot claim that all the people in the courtroom participated in the attacks on the villages.

Jorgić testified at the trial of Dragan Marjanović, Saša Gavranović, Vitomir Dević, Zoran Šljuka, Dragomir Kezunović and Darija Slavuljica, who are accused of taking 28 civilians, who were imprisoned in the police station in Teslić and the nearby Pribinić prison, to Mount Borje on the night between 17 and 18 June 1992 and killing them.

According to the indictment, Marjanović was the commander of the First Platoon of the Military Police of the Teslić Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), and the other accused were members of that platoon, and simultaneously members of the military part of the 'Miće' formation.

Jorgić said that one evening he was in front of the Police Station in Teslić, on the orders of Ranko Šljuka. He stated that he went after Dragan Marjanović and a certain Brana Jelić, and in front of the building he saw several members of the 'Miće'.

"A truck was parked in front of the police station. There was noise, people being loaded. I didn't see anyone because I was in front of the hood. (...) After an hour we set off, a red van, a 'Golf', a truck, a 'Jetta'. I think I was in the 'Golf' or the 'Jetta', last in the column," Jorgić stated.

He added that the column moved towards Pribinić and Borje, and that he was ordered to get out at a crossroads and secure it. Not far from him, as he stated, was another policeman, and the other vehicles continued on.

"You could hear: 'Get out!' Then gunfire was heard, like some kind of celebration. (...) I was there until morning, and the other vehicles did not move," the witness said, adding that he assumed what had happened.

He then said that one vehicle - the 'Jetta' - did leave the scene and that a man with a tent flap got into it. He could not state precisely whether he heard the gunfire before or after that.

The witness changed his statement again, claiming that this was before the gunfire. Jorgić stated that the 'Jetta' later returned to Borje and that he recognised Marjanović and Goran Dolić in it.

The next day, he said, he learned of the execution on Borje, when they were told not to talk about it, even to their families.

At this hearing, testimony was also given by Zumreta Botić, who stated that her brother Ibrahim Botić was taken from the village of Gomjenica. That day, a raid was carried out in the village by the military and civilian police, but she does not know who took her brother, who was exhumed in 1999 at the Bebe site.

The third witness at this hearing, Rahima Rašić, confirmed that her son Alija was taken from the village of Bardaci, whose body she also found in a mass grave in 1999.

The trial continues on 10 September, NAP reports.