A Defence witness speaks about his acquaintance with protected witness 2 in Derventa after the war.
Radomir Dzigerovic, a former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, from Derventa, said that he met witness 2 “in the coffee shop in which she worked” in 1995, adding that “a Serb soldier, whom she dated,” introduced them.
“We used to see each other every day when I came to the coffee shop. A few months later they told me that she wanted to be christened. They asked me to be her godfather. The christening took place at their house. On this occasion she said she wanted to register the name she had already been using. Everybody was happy. I never noticed that she was forced into it,” Dzigerovic said.
The State Prosecution charges Predrag Kujundzic, former commander of the “Predini vukovi” (“Predo’s Wolves”) Unit, with having participated in crimes committed in Doboj Municipality in the course of 1992 and 1993.
The indictment alleges that from June to December 1992 Kujundzic raped and sexually enslaved witness 2, changing her “Muslim name into a Serb one” and forcing her to have sexual intercourse with other soldiers.
Testifying in the courtroom Dzigerovic said that the Serb soldier who had a love affair with the protected witness left for the USA “one year after the end of the war”, adding that witness 2 remained in Derventa. He said that the two of them “became close friends” after that.
“We traveled a lot. I tried to help her become a singer, as she wanted to do that. I promised I would help her reunite with her family. As soon as the conditions allowed it, I took her to Doboj, where she was supposed to meet her father. She did meet him, but the meeting did not go so well, as he did not want to talk to her,” Dzigerovic said.
He told the Court that witness 2 “was honest when she said she wanted to be christened”, adding that they visited some monasteries in Serbia together.
“She was an honest person. She even made me become more religious than I was,” the witness added.
Dzigerovic said that witness 2 never spoke about Predrag Kujundzic or her life in Doboj, because she did not “want to speak about annoying situations”, adding that they were in good relations until 1999, when they had “a conflict” in her mother’s house.
The second Defence witness, Brano Jekic, said that he worked as a reserve policeman in Doboj in 1992 and 1993, adding that he never participated in the search of apartments, as this was done by “active policemen only”.
“I accountably claim, before the honourable Court, that I do not know witness 14. I never searched any apartments, as I was a member of reserve police forces. Our task was to guard buildings. We did not have any competencies,” Jekic said.
The Prosecution charges Kujundzic with having come to the house of protected witness 14, accompanied by “five or six other soldiers”, in Doboj in September 1993.
Protected witness 14 testified at a hearing held in September 2008 (http://www.bim.ba/bh/131/10/12777/), saying that he was beaten up when Kujundzic came to his home accompanied by other soldiers.
The trial is due to continue on February 17, 2009.