Bastah et al: Praying and cursing at night

Protected witness 8 was brutally raped and tortured in Susica detention camp in April 1992. She claims to have been raped by “Goran, also known as Vjetar, and a few other Serbian soldiers”.

“A few days after having been brought to the detention camp, Djordje Ilic came there in the middle of the night and took me to the sentry box, located next to the detention camp. Dragan Nikolic and Goran, known as Vjetar, were there. They examined me and then they hit me with their hands and legs on my stomach and back,” the witness recalled.

She claims that Djordje Ilic then “pushed her to the bed, spreading my arms and legs”. He handed her over to Goran “Vjetar”, who had a baton. He tore her clothes off.

“I could smell alcohol, as Goran was drunk. He placed the baton against my genital organ. Then he raped me. When he finished, somebody else came and raped me. I cursed my mother for having given birth to me. I prayed to God to take my life away. I begged them to kill me and stop torturing me,” witness 8 said.

Predrag “Tsar” Bastah and Goran “Vjetar” Viskovic are charged with having participated in the forcible disappearances of civilians from the Vlasenica area in the course of 1992, as well as murder, physical mistreatment and torture.

The indictment alleges that, in the first half of June 1992 Viskovic raped a female person in the presence of three other guards.

After having raped her, Viskovic took witness 8 to the detention camp. She said that, on their way to the camp, she saw “Serbian soldiers carving a cross on a young Muslim’s forehead”. At that moment Viskovic forced her to “glue her mouth against the young man’s forehead”.

In the course of cross-examination the Defence of Goran Viskovic pointed to “discrepancies between this statement and her earlier statement”. It was said that, in her previous statement she had not mentioned that a baton had been used. Witness 8 responded by saying that she was “ashamed of saying that” to somebody.

She was released from the detention camp two months later. In the course of that period she saw “Bastah, known as Tsar, and Goran Vjetar,” several times, when they “loading Muslims on a bus and trench digger and driving them to Mracnic”. Witness 8 said that those, who were taken away, never came back.

Another protected Prosecution witness was examined at this hearing. He testified under the pseudonym of 17. He said that, on May 15, 1992 Predrag Bastah captured him “in front of my weekend house” and escorted him to the police building in Vlasenica.

“I had known Bastah from before. We used to work in the same company. While I was in the police building he examined me about weapons. He told me that Avdo Ambeskovic said that I had a gun. I wanted to face Avdo, but he just said that Avdo was in the basement, adding that he was beaten up so severely that he could neither talk nor stand up,” witness 17 said.

The trial is due to continue on October 3, 2008.