SOLDIER KRSTO RAKIĆ TESTIFIED ABOUT ATTACK ON JNA CONVOY IN DOBROVOLJAČKA STREET

SARAJEVO, OCTOBER 15 /SRNA/ - At today's hearing in the case of Ejup Ganić et al., former JNA soldier Krsto Rakić testified that he was captured on May 3, 1992, in Sarajevo's Dobrovoljačka Street and, wearing only military underwear, taken to the FIS hall, where individuals in military and police uniforms beat and interrogated him.

Rakić said that as a result of this captivity, he is now 40 percent war-disabled and suffers from PTSD. He stated that in 1992 he was performing compulsory military service in the JNA and that in March of that year he was assigned to guard the command headquarters in Bistrik. The witness recalled that in March 1992, civilians wearing emblems with lilies approached JNA soldiers, offering them civilian clothes to desert the army, and that he had heard of an incident in which two soldiers were shot in the back and killed in one of the cafés or billiard clubs. "During that period, the command was on a kind of alert, and there were minor provocations. We came under attack even before May 2 and were cut off from our parent units. Food supplies were halted, and we had three or four lightly wounded soldiers," said Rakić, who testified for the prosecution. According to the witness, on May 2, a fierce attack was launched on the command headquarters in Bistrik, and the soldiers were informed that a ceasefire had been agreed after wartime Muslim leader Alija Izetbegović became involved in the negotiations. Rakić recalled that during the attack from the direction of the Austrian Park, Lieutenant Bjelić and soldier Divović were killed. They had arrived in a TAM truck to deliver food, and their bodies were recovered under fire — mostly from small arms, with occasional rifle grenades. After the ceasefire had been agreed, Rakić said, Izetbegović - accompanied by his daughter and several civilians - visited the then commander of the Second Army District of the JNA, General Milutin Kukanjac. "We were loading mostly administrative items, material and technical equipment, along with soldiers' personal belongings, into a convoy of trucks. A UNPROFOR vehicle was at the end of the convoy. I was in the fifth or sixth vehicle from the rear, and we had only gone about 200–300 meters when the attack began again," Rakić said. He stated that he was in a covered truck together with soldiers from his class, and that their lieutenant told them there must be no rounds in the chambers of their personal weapons, as it was a peacetime convoy. According to Rakić, during the attack, a soldier riding in a Pinzgauer vehicle was hit, while the UNPROFOR vehicle at the end of the convoy disappeared from sight. "The truck I was in was moving under fire and hit the sidewalk and a dumpster because the driver had been killed. The tarp started tearing under a rain of bullets, and people began falling wounded while the lieutenant kept saying not to return fire. Then three armed men appeared, one in uniform and two in civilian clothes with berets, demanding that we surrender our weapons," Rakić said. Rakić stated that he was then struck in the head with a rifle butt and lost consciousness, and that he woke up without clothes, wearing only his military underwear. "I watched them rob the guys, taking their transport bags, personal belongings, and documents. There were also some civilians serving in the army, including two women. They put one of them in a car and took her away. They were kicking us and cursing our `Chetnik mothers,`" the witness recounted. He added that they were then taken across the Princip Bridge to the FIS hall, dragging the wounded with them, where they were continuously interrogated by people in army and police uniforms. Rakić was exchanged in a prisoner swap on May 6 and taken by bus to Lukavica. Ejup Ganić, Zaim Backović, Hamid Bahto, Fikret Muslimović, Jusuf Pušina, Bakir Alispahić, Enes Bezdrob, and Ismet Dahić, who held high political, military, and police positions, are accused of the attack on the convoy, as well as the killing, wounding, and abuse of JNA personnel and civilians. The trial in this case will continue on October 22, when the prosecution's witness number 51 is scheduled to testify.