Bosnian Serb ‘Rambo’ Fighter Seized Passenger from Train

Eyewitness Zoran Bogetic told the trial of five Bosnian Serb paramilitaries at Belgrade Higher Court on Tuesday that a passenger who was sitting in his train compartment on February 27, 1993 was taken away by two fighters.

Bogetic said that he was travelling on the Belgrade-to-Montenegro train when it stopped in Strpci, just over the border in Bosnia, and a man who might or might not have been a policeman checked the passengers' documents in the compartment in which he was sitting.

After that, two fighters entered the compartment, one of whom looked "like Rambo", according to Bogetic.

"He did not look at my ID, just asked for name and last name and said: 'You are staying where you are.' To one of those two men [sitting in the same compartment], he said: 'Pack up and leave!' Bogetic said.

"I think he did not have time to take his coat. He said to the other man, 'Please give this pillow to my family', in a desperate mood," he added.

From the train, Bogetic saw other fighters - who he and other witnesses during the trial so far have said were all in different uniforms - take passengers who had been removed from the train into a vehicle.

"Someone was walking and behind him was another person with a gun, pointed to the first man's back," he recalled.

Bosnian Serb ex-fighters Gojko Lukic, Ljubisa and Dusko Vasiljevic, Jovan Lipovac and Dragana Djekic are on trial for war crimes against civilians over the abductions and subsequent killings of the 20 passengers who were seized.

They were members of the Avengers paramilitary unit, which was part of the Bosnian Serb Army, and are accused of participating in stopping the train and taking away the non-Serb passengers.

According to the indictment, they first took the...