Bastah et al: Controversial statements in court

Prosecution witness Vukosava Klanco recalled that on June 2, 1992 Predrag Bastah, known as Car, and Rade Milic came to her house in Vlasenica and took her husband with them in a police car.

After having pronounced indictee Bastah’s name, while pointing at him in the courtroom, the witness asked the Trial Chamber not to force her to say his name. During the rest of her testimony, she called him “a thing”.

The State Prosecution charges Bastah, also known as Car or Dragan, and Goran Viskovic, known as Vjetar, former members of police and military structures of the Republika Srpska, with torture, deportation, murder and mental abuse of Bosniaks in the Vlasenica area during the course of 1992.

“As soon as they had left, I followed them to the police station. When I got there I asked where my Mujo was, but the ‘thing’ started beating me. He forced me to raise my hands while he beat me with his arms, legs and gun butt. After that he locked me up in a jail in the police station,” Klanco said.

After having spent three days in jail, in which she saw other Bosniak detainees, she was released, but she also found out that her husband had been killed.

During the course of cross-examination Bastah’s Defence attorney complained that his client was “offended by being referred to as a thing”. Defence attorney Milorad Potparic said that the witness’ statement was “full of hatred”.

The second witness, Petar Todorovic, said that in May or June 1992 he saw “Dragan Bastah and an unknown man” taking “Mujo Klanco towards the town periphery” in a police vehicle.

“Less than half an hour later they passed by my house again, but Mujo was not with them this time. I went in that direction to see what happened. I walked for about 15 minutes, before noticing Mujo Klanco’s body in a trench. He was facing the ground, but I recognized him,” Todorovic said.

In the course of cross-examination Rade Golic, Defence attorney for Viskovic, asked the witness about his previous convictions and alcohol use, calling him “an alcoholic and a thief”.

Witness Todorovic said that he “drinks from time to time”, adding that he was not a thief. However, Trial Chamber Chairman Zoran Bozic prohibited further questions of this type, giving a sharp warning to Defence attorney Golic.

Indictee Bastah asked the witness who was “commander of the police station in Vlasenica in 1992”. When the witness said that he could not remember, he said he would file a suit against him “for telling lies”.

“The point is that the person in question was Radenko Stanic, a current SIPA (State Investigation and Protection Agency) employee and this witness is protecting him. I have been thrown into this trial instead of Stanic,” Bastah said.

The trial is due to continue on November 14, 2008.