Witness Recalls Brother’s Disappearance in Sarajevo

Muhamed Pandzic, who lived in the Sarajevo settlement of Nahorevo in 1992, testified that at the beginning of war, he was captured and taken to the Jagmir hospital building along with his brother, and other men. 


“Goran Saric said that some people would remain for questioning, while others would be released.  Goran wished those who were leaving the building ‘happy trails.’ I never saw my brother Ismet again. He stayed behind in the building when Saric did not read his name,” said Pandzic. 

Saric, a former police commander in the Serb municipality Centre in Sarajevo, is accused of attacking 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.  From there, around 100 Bosniaks were led to the Jagomir hospital building where they were imprisoned. 



The indictment specifies that on the same day, Saric ordered the rest of the non-Serb population to surrender.  Around 200 women, children and elderly were forcibly moved to territory controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.



Adil Pandzic, a second witness for the Prosecution, also testified at the hearing and said that he left Nahorevo on June 12, 1992, when the attack on the settlement began.

“Someone from the Nahorevo hills called people to surrender, and then I heard someone say that we should surrender.  I decided not to and started to run through the woods.  On the next day, I reached Bosniak territory,” Adil Pandzic said.


Pandzic said that his father stayed in Nahorevo after the attack and that he heard his father died in the camp at Pale, but they never found his remains.



Saric’s trial will resume on Friday, August 17.