Members of the Pandzic family testified at the trial for crimes committed in Sarajevo, how the defendant, Goran Saric, led away Zahid Pandzic, who was never seen again.
Armin Pandzic, who was ten years old in 1992, testified that he was approached by two men in camouflage uniforms and told to fetch his uncle Zahid Pandzic because “Goran Saric is here to see him”.
“I went and called my uncle. I saw these people telling him to come with them because he must give a statement. I never saw my uncle again,” said Armin Pandzic.
Saric, former police commander in the Serb municipality Centre in Sarajevo, is accused of taking part in the attack on the non Serb civilians in Nahorevo, Poljine and other Sarajevo neighbourhoods.
He is charged with issuing an order on June 19, 1992, to all the men from the neighbourhood of Nahorevo to come to the local community centre, and around 100 Bosniaks were led from there and locked up in the Jagomir hospital’s building.
On the same day, the indictment specified, Saric ordered the rest of the non-Serb population to surrender, after which around 200 women, children and elderly were moved by force to the territory controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Zahid Pandzic’s wife, Amila, confirmed that in 1992 Armin Pandzic came to her house and told her to tell “Zahid that Goran or Zoran Saric is here to see him”.
“My husband then went away and I never saw him again. I know he was killed and buried at Radave,” said the witness.
The court also examined Aldijan Pandzic, son of Zahid Pandzic, who said that he recalls his father being taken away in a red golf.
“Cousin Armin came and said that Goran or Zoran Saric, I don’t recall his name, was looking for my father. Father left (…) We know where our father was killed, but we still haven’t found his remains,” said the witness.
The trial will resume on August 13.
Timeline of events in the case against 13 former Serb fighters charged with committing war crimes in the villages of Cuska, Zahac, Ljubenic and Pavlac in Kosovo in 1999.