SURGEON FROM PETROVAC HOSPITAL DESCRIBES HORRIFIC SCENES OF A DECAPITATED CHILD BEING BROUGHT IN

BELGRADE, APRIL 28 /SRNA/ – Doctor Milovan Kerkez testified today at the trial of four Croatian pilots accused of shelling a Serb refugee convoy on the Petrovačka cesta in August 1995, stating that the most difficult moment for him was seeing a decapitated child brought to the medical center in Bosanski Petrovac.

Kerkez, who was a surgeon at the time of the tragedy, said the child was no older than six and added that it was also extremely difficult to witness the child's grandmother, who arrived alive with severe burns but later died in hospital.

Due to illness, Kerkez was unable to appear in person before the Special Department of the High Court in Belgrade for war crimes and testified via video link from Banja Luka.

The hearing was attended by Savo Štrbac, director of the Documentation and Information Center ",Veritas" who told SRNA that Kerkez’s testimony was highly emotional. He said the doctor stated there were 10 killed, at least 35 seriously injured and so many lightly wounded that he did not even count them.

Štrbac noted that the events were so deeply etched in Kerkez’s memory that even after nearly 31 years he remembered details, including the surname of the grandmother and other names.

Kerkez also testified that he saw the convoys passing through Bosanski Petrovac, describing them as filled with children, elderly people and women, with no visible military equipment or soldiers.

He said he heard the sound of aircraft followed by explosions while he was outside the hospital, and only realized what had happened when the dead and wounded began arriving.

A resident of Svodna, who was also scheduled to testify about Croatian pilots striking civilians after the attack near Bosanski Petrovac, was unable to attend due to a fractured hip.

The next hearing is scheduled for July 8, when three members of the Drča family are expected to testify. From that family, grandmother Darinka Drča, her six-year-old grandson, her 21-year-old granddaughter, and the granddaughter's unborn child were killed.

Four Croatian Air Force pilots - Vladimir Mikac, Zdenko Radulj, Željko Jenić and Danijel Borović - are being tried in absentia by the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office for allegedly attacking a Serb refugee convoy on the Petrovačka cesta in Bosnia on August 7, and on the Prijedorska cesta on August 8, 1995, during Operation Storm.

They are charged with war crimes against civilians, including killing and wounding civilians and destroying property.

Witness accounts describe attacks on a convoy consisting of tractors, cars and pedestrians, with no military vehicles present.