Death On Salvation Road
Two Italian humanitarian workers were killed in May 1993. The convoy in which they were escorting women from Bosnia to Italy was stopped, they were brutally forced out of their cars and shot. Three of them survived the attempted murder and two of the survivors have filed criminal charged against the attackers. The survivors claim that Hanefija Prijic, also known as Paraga, ordered the killings and emphasize that he used their stolen green four-wheel drive vehicle in the period after the killings... Prijic today lives in the village of Voljice, he is a father of six children and claims that he is innocent, while the documentation from the police investigation that was conducted at the time is - missing
by Esad HECIMOVIC
Dani, Sarajevo. Federation Bosnia-Hercegovina, B-H, August 4, 2000
After a good portion of an investigation has been completed by the Cantonal Court in Travnik, the local prosecutor expects the final approval from the Hague Tribunal to indict Hanefija Prijic Paraga, the wartime commander of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina unit from Gornji Vakuf, and accuse him of ordering the murder of three Italian humanitarian workers on May 29, 1993 and thereby "committing a war crime against civilian population". Questioning of numerous witnesses and collection of other evidence in this case was initiated on the basis of the criminal charges filed two years ago by the members of the family of murdered Guido Puletti and two humanitarian workers who survived the execution of their colleagues - Christiano Penochio and Agostino Zenotti. The plaintiffs were represented by the lawyers Lorenzo Trucco from Turin and Zarko Bulic from Sarajevo.
Escape to Forest
The Italian state investigators, in cooperation with the British soldiers in Gornji Vakuf, organized in 1993 a video-projection for the survivors. "That's him! That's him!", Zanotti and Penocchio jumped off their chairs in the projection room when they saw on the recording of a reception held in the British military base Hanefija Prijic, known as Paraga, and a female person who was with him. During the questioning in Travnik, Zanotti and Penocchio again identified Paraga as the leader of the group that shot the humanitarian workers and looted their convoy. In their statement given to the investigative magistrate in Travnik, Cristiano Penocchio explained that he was taking food to Zavidovici in a truck with a trailer together with four colleagues. On the way back, they were supposed to take 67 widows to Brescia, within the project of hosting guests in Italy. They were stopped on the road Gornji Vakuf - Novi Travnik (the so-called Salvation Road) by a group of soldiers who jumped on the road, armed with machine guns. One of them, apparently their leader, drew their attention. He wore a military uniform, a green beret with a badge with a green crescent moon and a star. After a search, the leader of the group got in a jeep with a woman who was among his escorts, while the five Italians were loaded into a tractor trailer, together with armed soldiers. Soldiers took all the money that Fabio Moreni had on him. More than 20 million Lire was earmarked for renting a bus and buying tickets for women and children who were supposed to be taken from Zavidovici to Italy. When they reached a clearing, the leader of the group issued orders and five Italian humanitarian workers went to the forest followed by two armed soldiers. Noticing that the soldiers were loading their guns, Italians started running away and shooting started at that moment. Fabio Moreni, Guido Puletti and Sergio Lana were killed, while Agostino Zanotti and Cristiano Penochio managed to escape.
"I saw that Sergio had been wounded behind me. I shouted at him to keep running, and I continued running down the slope. I heard shooting behind me. I hoped that my friends had managed to get away. After a while, walking through the forest, I reached a small village. Some soldiers took me in there and later took me to Bugojno. I met Cristiano there and he told me that the other three had been killed. Together with the British soldiers and members of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina we went again to the scene of the crime to pick up the bodies of the victims. We first found Guido, on the spot where we were attacked, and then we also found Fabio's body," Agostino Zanotti said in front of a magistrate in Travnik.
While the Italians themselves identified Paraga, the investigation of the Travnik court has so far managed to identify two persons who were with him on that day. They are Sabahudin Prijic Dino and Rasema Handanovic. The Federation Police has established that they are currently abroad. Dino is in Canada and Rasema in the USA. In Gornji Vakuf it is believed that they, as the key individuals who are currently out of reach of the court in Travnik, are actually in hiding. Further checks will show whether the Bosnian Interpol office, led from the position of a deputy director by Asim Fazlic, a policeman from Travnik who at the time of these murders and the initial investigation was the head of police in central Bosnia, has discovered the real current location of Paraga's followers. At the same time, the investigators are concerned about their safety, as well as the safety of other witnesses in this case. That is why American and Canadian, besides Italian and British investigators and diplomats, are also involved through Interpol in this investigation.
"Transformation" of Evidence
Besides the surviving Italian humanitarian workers a whole string of Bosniak witnesses form Gornji Vakuf connected Paraga with the looting and murder of three humanitarian workers from Brescia. According to their testimony, a lot of people and soldiers gathered around a "Mercedes" truck with a trailer full of food at the plateau Hraskrsce, on the Radovan Mountain. They unloaded the food. The goods were transferred to tractor trailers and then taken to the village and stored in the school storage house. So far it hasn't been established what happened later with the food (whether it was sold or distributed to the villagers) nor how the looted money was spent - whether it was used to purchase weapons or for personal needs. It is true that this crime took place at the start of the worst period of hunger in central Bosnia, but even such circumstances, according to the standards used by the Hague Tribunal until now, do not excuse or reduce the responsibility of a commander who orders, does not prevent or does not punish a crime against civilians. And witnesses claim that Paraga himself issued orders. According to the witnesses Paraga was also seen on several occasions riding with his collaborators in the green jeep that belonged to the Italian humanitarian workers. Legal sources, knowledgeable about the case, demand that the identity of these witnesses be protected from the public, justifying that demand by fear "that some of the witnesses may be found tomorrow dead in a ditch by the road". Their fear is based on the fact that, in spite of strong pressure on the authorities, this investigation has been blocked for years. Namely, the Federation Police claimed that it had no documentation about the crime, as the investigation was initially conducted by the Military Security Service of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina, "which consequently has all the available documentation about this incident". The joint chiefs of staff of the Army of the Federation BH also denied that they had any documentation about this crime. The military leadership explained that "due to transformation of units in the archives of the current units there is no documentation about the incident". The investigators nevertheless believe that the military leadership is hiding the existing documentation and reactions from the Hague Tribunal Prosecutor are still expected. In an earlier statement given for Dani Paraga confirmed that "there was a group of military policemen that was supposed to conduct an investigation and find the perpetrators," and explained that he "did not know what were the results of that investigation". "It is in my interest that it be found out who the true perpetrators are, so that I could clear up my alleged guilt and the burden that has been haunting me for seven years already," Paraga said. After a completed investigation the Travnik Cantonal Court has sent the complete documentation to the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office, which forwarded the file to the Hague Tribunal Prosecutor's Office for "consideration and decision". In accordance with the Rome Rules of the Road, the Hague Prosecutor's Office has the right to give initial evaluation of the validity of suspicions and evidence collected in any case including war crimes charges. In the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Travnik, the cantonal prosecutor Marinko Jurcevic refused to in any way comment on the so far conducted investigation and a possible reaction of the Hague Tribunal. Legal sources knowledgeable about the case claim that the Hague Tribunal has already given a go-ahead for a trial of Hanefija Prijic Paraga in Travnik, but has also requested that the charges in the indictment be modified. As so far there has been no official public reaction by the Hague Tribunal about this case, such claims are still only speculations, regardless of whether they are justified or not.
Paraga's Rule in War and Peace
Hanefija Prijic Paraga was born on March 4, 1963 in the village of Voljice, Gornji Vakuf Municipality, where he still lives. By profession he is a locksmith, he is unemployed and a father of six children. His friends say that his poverty is the best proof that as a commander of a military unit he did not loot humanitarian assistance, like others, but shared everything he had or obtained with the people in this region.
He was a commander of an Army unit, a Police detective and a representative of the Party for Bosnia-Hercegovina in the local council in Gornji Vakuf. Paraga has so far not been officially questioned about the accusations from Italy, but he has unofficially been advised to "move to Turkey". In a statement for Dani, Paraga said the following: "I do not know the origin of the video recording on which they allegedly identified me. I do not know when that recording was made. When I see it, I will be able to say when and how it was recorded. I do not know about which woman they are talking either, or when they claim that she was with me during the murder of the Italians. I do not want to talk about that until I see the recording. I do not want to harm someone else". According to Paraga this is a case of mistaken identity as during the crime he was somewhere else. Paraga did not want to present evidence about his innocence to us, saying that he is saving it for the trial. The surviving Italian humanitarian workers have been repeating for seven years that exactly Paraga had ordered the murder of their three colleagues. Paraga has even received summons to appear in front of an Italian court in Brescia that he ignored, and the court in Travnik obviously is waiting for a go-ahead from the Hague Tribunal. Due to lost inter-ethnic trust in central Bosnia, destroyed by the war and crimes, such judicial procedure under international supervision is one of important conditions for mutual cooperation of Croat and Bosniak prosecutors, judges and policemen. The so far conducted investigation about the murder of three Italian humanitarian workers has demonstrated that they can cooperate well - as long as the victims are neither Croats nor Bosniaks. The Hague Tribunal has in a series of trials dealt with the crimes against Muslim civilians in central Bosnia and announced similar investigation of crimes in which victims were Croats. The investigation of murders of Croat returnees and policemen in the Travnik region between 1997 and 1999 remains the most difficult unresolved task of the Police, prosecutors and judges in Travnik, as so far not a single culprit has been identified.
Translated on June 14, 2001
