Protected witness G, former member of the BH Army Prozor independent battalion, stated at the trial of Sefer Halilovic that the HVO had targeted Uzdol from its own artillery during the attack of the BH Army on this Croatian village, where 29 Croat civilians were killed on 14 September 1993


Protected witness G, former member of the Prozor independent battalion, testified at the trial of Sefer Halilovic that the HVO had opened fire from its own artillery on Uzdol during the attack launched by the BH Army against this Croatian village in the early morning of 14 September 1993.

“It is a fact, and that is certain," the witness said when Judge El Mahdi asked him if he was certain about what he was saying. The witness added that he had been on the spot, a few hundred meters away from the places where the shells fell and that he had been able to see "very clearly" where the rounds had been fired from.

When Judge El Mahdi asked him whether what he had seen could in fact have been fire from BH Army positions behind HVO lines, the witness said it could not have been the case. The witness claims that BH Army at that time did not have "even two percent of the artillery capabilities" that were used that morning.

The witness also said that "chaos reigned" that night and that "under intense artillery fire" it had been very difficult to tell civilians from soldiers and to see whether a person was armed or not.

Twenty-nine civilians – ethnic Croats – were killed in the attack of the BH Army on Uzdol on the night of 13 April and the morning of 14 September 1993. Most of them were the elderly, women and children. Two residents of Uzdol testified last week – Ivka Stojanovic from the hamlet of Kriz, who survived the attack, and Kazo Zelenika, former HVO soldier. His father, mother and young daughter were killed in Uzdol.

Sefer Halilovic, general in the BH Army, is charged with failing to punish the perpetrators of the crime against the Croat civilians in Uzdol. As alleged in the indictment, the crimes were committed during of the Neretva '93 operation. Halilovic, who was the Chief of the General Staff at the time, commanded the operation.

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