BOSNIAN JOURNALISTS TESTIFIED AT TRIAL OF SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL NOVAK DJUKIC

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (September 3,2008) - At the trial of Serbian war criminal Novak Djukic the Bosnian State Prosecutior examined yesterday two journalists, who reported on the massacre on May 25, 1995, after the shelling of Kapija, in Tuzla,during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

The Prosecution considers that, on May 25, 1995 Serbian war criminal Novak Djukic ordered the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor's artillery squad, situated in Panjik village on mount Ozren, to shell the eastern Bosnian city of Tuzla, using 130mm cannons.

On May 25, 1995, a mortar hit the Kapija area in Tuzla, where young Bosnian people used to gather, killing 71 and wounding 240 Bosnian civilians.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor charges this crime upon Serbian war criminal Novak Djukic, former commander of a genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor's paramilitary unit (VRS).

Salih Brkic, journalist from Tuzla, told the Trial Chamber that he arrived in Kapija, together with a cameraman, "15 or 20 minutes" after the shell had hit the area.

"When I got there I saw an eerie scene. Then we went to the hospital. Only after we had arrived there, I realised how big the scale of the tragedy was. Bodies of killed people were lying in the corridor. It was a horrible scene. One of the most shocking scenes I saw was the body of three-year old Sandro Kalesic, who was the youngest victim. He was dead, but his eyes were open," Brkic said.

A video recording, made by Brkic in the premises of the Bosnian Army Headquarters in September 1995, was shown in the courtroom. The recording was made after the Ozren area had been conquered. It shows confiscated documents belonging to the genocidal paramilitary fascist formations of the Serbians living in Bosnia (VRS).

The video recording shows "an artillery operating map", containing VRS targets in Tuzla. Kapija was one of them.

Robert Andrejac, who was "chief of cameramen with Tuzla television" in May 1995, and journalist Adis Nisic, who was at Kapija when the grenade was fired, testified at this hearing.

"I cannot describe what I saw at that moment. There are no adequate words that could describe it. I saw bodies of all those people. I was totally paralysed. After that I received a message that I should report to work. We worked for two or three days, without any breaks. Most of the time our reports focused on the happenings in the Tuzla clinics," Nisic said.

The witnesses said that "a secret funeral" was organised. It was conducted at 4 a.m., because people were afraid of yet another shelling.

"Tuzla residents could not attend the funeral. Only those who had been informed about it came," Salih Brkic said.

The trial of Serbian war criminal Novak Djukic is due to continue before the Bosnian State Court on October 7, when the Prosecution will examine Vedo Tuce, court medicine expert.
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