Bosnian Serb ‘Blue Eagles’ Fighter Denies Killings

Former fighter Milun Kornjaca, accused of the imprisonment, torture and murder of Bosniaks in the Cajnice area in 1992, told the court that he had nothing to do with any of the crimes.

In his closing statement to the Sarajevo court on Wednesday, Kornjaca said that said that it had not been proved that he was involved in the killings of 28 imprisoned Bosniak civilians at the ‘Lovacki Dom’ (Hunting Lodge) in Mostina in the Cajnice area in May 1992.

“Prosecutor Dzevad Muradbegovic interrogated 80 witnesses [and provided] material evidence. Out of these 80 witnesses, there is no one who said that Milun ordered the killings and that he was at the Lovacki Dom,” Kornjaca said.

“Milun Kornjaca has nothing to do with the detention of people from Brdo, their relocation and what happened to them,” he added.

Kornjaca is charged, as commander of the Blue Eagles paramilitary unit, with taking part in a wide-ranging and systematic attack on the population of Cajnice from April to the end of May 1992, which resulted in “the detention of Bosniaks, killings, forced relocations, torture and other inhumane acts”.

He also charged with participating in the killings at the Lovacki Dom.

The defendant said that witnesses who claimed that he beat them up had no medical records of their injuries to prove it.

“Anyone, if they possess a medical certificate for injuries, I beg them to bring it to the prosecutor,” he said.

The defendant also said that he was in hospital from May 4 to 11, 1992, and that any charges relating to that period were false. He denied that he was a member of any paramilitary unit, saying that he has evidence that he was a regular Bosnian Serb soldier.

The verdict in the case will be handed down on May 8.

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