Trial for VRS crimes against Bosniaks of Nevesinje: 'The old man sat in front of the house, ears cut off, bloody...'

(Patria) - Zdravko Grahovac recounted how on June 19, 1992, he withdrew with the army from Bijelo Polje near Mostar and came to Zijemlje. He said that the army from Bijelo Polje was gathering in Rujište around Captain Zdravko Kandić, whose deputy was Dragan Đurđić. The witness stated that Kandić appointed him as his driver.

He recalled driving Kandić to the school in Zijemlje once, where there was a small group of civilians, and that Kandić was angry.

“He wanted those civilians to be released, but the command from Nevesinje said they would be exchanged,” Grahovac said.

He recounted being told once to go to Podporim in the municipality of Mostar and bring an elderly man and woman who had been captured. The witness said he thought a certain Bojanić told him to bring them.

Prosecutor Eldina Biuk reminded him that in the investigation, he stated that he thought Dragan Đurđić had ordered him to bring civilians from Podporim. Grahovac said that after giving his statement, he thought about it and concluded that it could not have been Đurđić.

“If there was an attack on Bijelo Polje at that time, he had to be there,” the witness said.

He said he left the civilians in Rujište and later came by and saw a man sitting in front of the house.

“I found that old man, his ears cut off, he was bloody,” Grahovac recalled.

He said he heard that the man was abused by a person nicknamed Šeš, whose last name was Pejak.

Dragan Đurđić, former deputy commander of the Fifth Battalion of the Nevesinje Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska and commander of the Intervention Unit, as well as Dragan Ivanišević, Goran Došli, Milan Trifković, Siniša Kandić, Dragoslav Aćimović, and Mladen Kandić, former members of the Fifth Battalion, are on trial for crimes in the Nevesinje and Mostar areas. The indictment charges them with the murder of about 100 victims of Bosniak nationality from the Nevesinje area.

The first defendant in this case was Zdravko Kandić, who recently passed away.

Witness Aner Bebanić stated that his grandparents Huso and Hava, who lived in Podporim, disappeared on July 13.

“They came down to us in Humilišane because they noticed uniforms. On July 13, in the morning, they went to tend to the livestock. That’s the last time I saw them, and all trace of them has been lost since then,” Bebanić said.

He recounted how his father learned from a neighbor, Lazar Golubović, that his grandparents, along with Alija and Fatima Pajić, were taken that day in the direction of Zijemlje.

According to his knowledge, they were taken to the school and thrown into a pit, where the remains of 18 people were found. He stated that he heard his grandfather was killed by Rajko Pejak, known as Šeš.

He added that later, following certain information, they found a bone near the Oštrak spring, and it was later confirmed to be his grandfather’s.

“The rest of the body was found on Mount Crna Gora, between Zijemlje and Nevesinje,” Bebanić said.

The continuation of the trial is scheduled for September 23.

(Detektor)