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Simo Drljaca’s
body was pierced with four bullets. On the other hand, according to the
Investigation Report, four bullet shells were found at
the sight, three 9mm shells and one 5.56mm shell but, only
two 9mm bullets were found, even though the Investigative Judge
stated that all material traces at the sight had been
preserved.
All things
considered, it was decided to do a reconstruction of events on March
10th, 1998. Pictures 1 and 2 show the exact
place where Simo Drljaca’s son and brother-in-law were forced to the
ground by a group of soldiers. In Pictures 3 and 4,
Simo’s son, Sinisa, is shown pointing to the spot where his father was
killed.
A computer
animation was made based on what Simo Drljaca’s son and brother-in-law had
indicated, and on the reconstruction of events. The animation shows how
these eyewitnesses saw Simo Drljaca being murdered. Simo, his son and
brother-in-law were sitting on tree stumps eating breakfast. Simo was
dressed in a shirt and shorts with slippers on his feet and with a
revolver ("22 Magnum") tucked at his waist. Suddenly, two groups of
soldiers appeared, armed with rifles and automatic handguns. One group
came from the direction of the road while the other group came from the
clearing on the right side of the fence placed in a vertical position
leading down towards the lake. The soldiers immediately started to shout,
in local dialect, "Simo, lie down!". Since they didn’t know which soldiers
were in question and considering the fact that they were near the border
with the Muslims and the Croats, Sinisa thinks that his father started
running towards the lake to draw attention to himself, thus protecting his
son and brother-in-law. The group of soldiers coming from the direction of
the road then caught and threw Sinisa and Spiro to the ground, stepping on
their necks and pointing rifles to their backs. However, Spiro and Sinisa
were facing the lake and they were able to see what further happened to
Simo. Also, during this entire time, a third witness was watching all this
from a nearby cabin. While running towards the lake, Simo lost one of his
slippers. When he reached the sand, the soldiers who were running from the
direction of the wooden fence were only one to 2 metres away from him,
they then opened fire wounding Drljaca in the back and righ lateral side
of his chest. By then, the soldiers reached Simo, who had not yet fallen,
and threw him face-down to the ground. During this commotion, Simo fired
his gun wounding one of the soldiers in the leg. While two soldiers held
Simo, who was already wounded, pressed to the ground, another soldier
approached him and kneeled on his back, pointing his gun to the right
lateral side of Simo’s chest. He then pulled the trigger and gave Simo
Drljaca a fierce blow to the head with the butt of the gun. After this,
Drljaca "became still". The soldiers proceeded to bandage their mate’s
wound while Simo remained motionless. The other group of soldiers, at the
same time, cuffed Sinisa and Spiro. Two helicopters soon landed on the
nearby clearing. A dead Simo Drljaca was thrown into one of the
helicopters, while the other transported his son and brother-in-law to
Tuzla.
THE CLAIMS OF THESE
EYEWITNESSES SHOULD HAVE BEEN EITHER CONFIRMED OR DISMISSED. BUT
HOW?
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