Witnesses Undermine Key Prosecution Arguments: Police Not Present at Dobrovoljačka Events

By Amina Čorbo-Zećo

During the trial in the case against "Ejup Ganić and others," witnesses for the BiH Prosecution, Hamdija Hodžić and Ibrahim Herak, testified. Prosecutor Mladen Vukojičić questioned them about events in Sarajevo during April and May 1992.

Hodžić was a police officer at the Old Town Sarajevo Police Station, occasionally acting as shift leader. After Serbs left the police force and due to a shortage of personnel, he performed the function of shift leader. Vukojičić presented the witness with excerpts from the activity log kept by the shift leader, some of which were recorded by Hodžić.

The prosecutor then insisted that the witness explain why there was a break in the station's activity log, with the last entry before July 30, 1992, being on April 26 and 27. Vukojičić attempted to suggest to the witness through leading questions that he had stated this was an oversight, but the defense's objections prevented the prosecutor from pursuing his intentions.

Ultimately, Hodžić stated that he could not know why there was a break, but later admitted that other wartime headquarters had been formed, structured similarly to the main police stations, and that Dobrovoljačka Street belonged to Bistrik, not Logavina, where Hodžić worked.

He stated that his superiors were Ismet Dahić and Enes Bezdrob. It was Bezdrob who questioned the witness regarding the evacuation of other barracks, such as the Jajce, Sedrenik, and Trebević, Faletići barracks, in which the police did not participate; on the contrary, they were strictly forbidden from approaching the barracks.

Hodžić would go on to state that, to his knowledge, during April, Sarajevo was fired upon with weapons that only the JNA possessed at that time, and that even before April, the JNA had been massing units around Sarajevo.

"We were informed that something was happening in the Crepoljsko area, that the army was digging, setting up some material and technical resources. We started up there, but when I arrived at the Hreša station, I was told to turn back, that a helicopter would come, that we had nothing to scout the army," Hodžić said.

This witness could not confirm his earlier statement from 2011, when he said that the Territorial Defense was not organized on May 2nd or 3rd, 1992.

Hodžić stated that no order for any actions in Dobrovoljačka ever reached the police.

When asked by Dahić's lawyer, Sabina Mehić, whether previous evacuations of barracks from the Old Town area were recorded in the event log, Hodžić replied that they were not.

The second witness at today's trial, Ibrahim Herak, recounted that he was in front of the Second Military District Command on May 3rd, dressed in civilian clothes and unarmed. He described how Esad Raonić, in front of the command at Bistrik, fired at the opening of the transporter's embrasure, after which the rear door opened, and an officer in camouflage uniform emerged, saying, 'don't shoot, don't shoot,' followed by a young soldier with bloody fingers.

"Eso also took the officer's uniform. I know this because they later called him 'camouflage' because he was the only one with that camouflage uniform. He was a member of Caco's unit, which was not under anyone's command," Herak stated.

He added that "Eso shot at the transporter after the column started moving, and the doors were open, and legs could be seen."

Herak confirmed to the defense that Caco's units clashed with the police, occupied police stations, and that he was aware of the Trebević 1 and Trebević 2 operations in which members of Ćelo's unit were arrested and later convicted, and in which Mušan Topalović Caco was killed.

The trial in this case continues on March 25th.