At a trial of persons accused of crimes against Serbs in the area of Orašje in Northern Bosnia, witness Zoran Sarić described before the Bosnian Court the incarcerations, mistreatments, the killings of prisoners, and the forced labor.

Sarić, who is a witness for the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia, told the court that he lived in Orašje until April 29, 1992, after which he and his family left for Bukova Greda due to the shelling of the village.

He has said that on May 9, men were gathered in front of houses and that /one of the accused/ Marko Dominković ordered them to surrender their weapons. Sarić has added that he and his uncle were on their way home because they were ordered to bring weapons and that his uncle was beaten up on the occasion.

“We went back, where they interrogated us, and after that, we were taken to Donja Mahala, where we were locked up in a shed,” Sarić said, adding that several people were locked up in the shed, whose clothes were partially torn.

While he was staying in the shed, Sarić said that several people were taken out, among them Čedo Cvijanović and Makso Gajić, who he later heard was killed.

He said that the next day he was taken to the sports hall in Orašje, where there were already imprisoned people. He stayed in the sports hall for three months, after which he was transferred to the sports hall at the elementary school in Donja Mahala.

According to him, uncle Savo Sarić was taken out on June 6, 1992, and he did not make it to June 7 alive.

The witness said that he had been exchanged in June, and his father in July 1993.

Đuro Matuzović, Ivo and Tado Oršolić, Marko Dominković, Joso Nedić, Marko Blažanović, Mato and Anto Živković, Stjepo Đurić and Mirko Jurić are accused of persecuting the Serbian population, murders, imprisonment, torture, rape and other crimes committed in Orašje.

According to the indictment, they committed the crimes as members of the command structures of the HVO and the military and civilian police in Orašje.