Bastah and Viskovic: Agents of Hell in Vlasenica

More than seven months since the State Prosecution started presenting its evidence, the defence of two indictees charged with committing crimes against Bosniaks in the Vlasenica area in 1992 is due to do likewise, starting on February 19.

The Prosecution examined 50 witnesses and presented about 80 pieces of material evidencee against Predrag Bastah (53)and Goran Viskovic (54).

The Prosecution charges Bastah , also known as Dragan or Car, a former reserve policeman, and Viskovic, known as Vjetar, a former member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, with acts that “contributed to and strengthened the functioning of the abuse and prosecution system” in the Susica detention camp and other prisons in Vlasenica in 1992.

The indictment says the two men participated in a broad and systematic attack on the community as well as in the “deportation, murder, torture and rape” of Bosniaks.

The Prosecution originally charged Veljko Basic with the same crimes but the Trial Chamber separated his case after a court expert determined that at 82, he was incapable of following the trial.

The first Prosecution witnesses, Latif Zulfalari and Miralem Dzamdzic, recalled that the arming of the Serbian population in Vlasenica began in April 1992.

Local Bosniaks were then detained in the police station and often beaten. The two witnesses maintained that both indictees took active part in these beatings.

Dzamdzic recalled seeing Bastah and Viskovic on April 21, 1992, taking “some young men, holding their hands up”, to the police station in Vlasenica.

Zulfalari said that two days later, Bastah brought him to a cell in the police station, where he stayed for six days. “He and two other men beat me up. They handcuffed me to a chair and radiator and hit me with their boots,” he said.

Witness Vukosava Klanco said Bastah beat many people in the police station. She said Bastah and a person named Rade Milic came in a police car and took her husband away in June 1992.

“As soon as they left, I went to the police station. On my arrival, I asked where Mujo was but Car started hitting me. He forced me to lift up my hands and beat me with his hands, legs and gun butt. After that, he took me to jail in the police station building.”

Nedim Salaharevic, almost 14 in 1992, refused to mention Bastah by name during his testimony, referring to him as “monster” and accusing him of causing “suffering and agony among the Bosniaks from Vlasenica”.

He said: “I used to see that monster in my street. He personally turned Smail Durakovic’s house into a house of torture and rape of little girls.

“He brought sisters Ferhatovic and Tima Lelo’s 13-year old daughter there. At night we could hear screams of girls being raped.”

Salaharevic added: “The screams were so loud that we could not sleep.”

“Protected witness 7” said that, in September 1992 she saw Bastah and a group of soldiers “taking away and killing” some of her neighbours from Vlasenica.

“Bastah, known as Car, was the leader of the group,” this witness said.

“He gave orders to everybody. They entered the houses of Zeno Ambeskovic, Dzemila Hasanbegovic and Ahmo and Tifa Hadziomerovic and killed them all. When they took out the bodies and loaded them onto tractors, they were covered in blood,” the witness added.

Hasib Agic told the court that Viskovic physically abused him in the police station in Vlasenica in May 1992. “I spent four days there,” he said.

“I stayed in a small room with more than 20 other people. They examined me on the last day of my stay. Goran Viskovic was there. He hit me with his legs until I admitted I had a gun at my place,” Agic recalled.

Witness Habiba Hadzic claimed she saw the two indictees at the beginning of the war, “as they gathered up the Muslims and took them to the police station”.

“I was on my way to a potato field and I passed by the police building,” she said.

“Viskovic was standing in front of the building. His hands were covered with blood up to his wrists. I heard him say to somebody: ‘Look how many I have slaughtered so far. I am going to slaughter some more’,” Hadzic said.

Hadzic also told the Court that she was arrested and taken to Susica and detained there for two-and-a-half months.

“Women were taken away and raped. I was raped, too,” she said. As she was visibly shaken, neither the Prosecution nor the Chamber sought further details.

Many Prosecution witnesses recognized the two indictees as the persons who captured and escorted
them to Susica camp, where they were exposed to torture.

Fadila Muranovic said that following her arrival at Susica on June 4, 1992, she met “about 400 women and 190 men”, already there.

“I counted them. I wanted to meet them all. There were that many people in that hangar, which was a death camp,” Muranovic said. “This is what it actually was. People disappeared from there. I could never sleep. I watched what was happening.”

Muranovic added that in early July 1992 a soldier came to the camp. She found out later that his name was Car. She said he took “18 or 19 men” away with him and “they never came back”.

One count in the indictment alleges that Bastah took 12 Bosniak civilians away from Susica between July 10 and 19, 1992, who never came back and are still considered missing.

Salko Mehcic said Viskovic used to take him from Susica to various locations to perform forced labour. There, he beat him.

“After having mown the grass, Viskovic carried out an inspection and found some grass not far from me. A boy had mowed that part of the meadow. He ordered me to hit the boy. When I refused, he told him to hit me. When he realized the boy was not hitting me very hard, he started hitting me with his fists and legs and cursing me. I finally fell down,” Mehcic said.

Viskovic is charged also with having forced witness 3 to leave her house in Panorama settlement in June 1992 and with then beating another person in her presence.

“One night some soldiers came and forced us Bosniaks to come out. I saw about ten soldiers. I recognized Goran ‘Vjetar’ and Bastah among them,” she said.

“Goran started beating my neighbour and his wife. He then started slapping their two children. He beat my neighbour with a gun butt, forcing him to say his prayers, kneeling on the asphalt,” witness 3 said.

Protected witness 16 told the court that on July 11, 1992, “Viskovic and a few other soldiers” had collected him and beat him until they “broke his ribs”.

“I started spitting blood. After that they dragged me and forced me to say my prayers, kneeling on the concrete floor. They stuffed my mouth with burdock and sand. I do not know who did all that as I was half dead and covered in blood,” witness 16 said.

Viskovic, alias Vjetar, is further charged with the rape of one female, in presence of three other guards, in Susica in June 1992.

The alleged victim, “protected witness 8”, recalled what had happened before the court.
“A few days after I was brought to the detention camp, Djordje Ilic came in the middle of the night and took me to a guard house, next to the detention camp,” she said.

“Dragan Nikolic and Goran ‘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 said Ilic then “vigorously pushed her to the bed, stretching out her arms and legs,” and “handing” her over to Vjetar who tore her clothes off.

“I could smell alcohol, as Goran was drunk. He pushed his baton up my vagina and then raped me,” she continued.

“When he finished, another soldier came, wanting to rape me. I cursed my mother for having given birth to me, begging God to take my life. I begged them to kill me, not to torture me anymore,” witness 8 concluded.

Other witnesses spoke of rapes allegedly committed by the indictees in Vlasenica in 1992 against girls as young as 13.

Tima Lelo confirmed the allegations in the indictment that “Dragan Bastah, known as Car” had transported her and other women to Kladanj, by truck, after they had spent 21 days in Susica.

“After they loaded us onto those trucks, we drove for some time before the truck stopped,” she said.

“‘Car’ whistled, inviting somebody to approach. Some Serbian soldiers appeared and took my little girl Nihada and about ten other girls away.

“Nihada was 13. I have never seen her again. I have not found her or even buried her remains,” Lelo said.

Witness Ramiza Handzic echoed her account, claiming that Viskovic took her to Susica camp in the summer of 1992.

“They transported u, by buses and trucks from Susica. Bastah the ‘Car’ was driving one of the trucks. Upon our arrival to Luke, some soldiers started separating young girls and women from the rest of the people.

“Bastah was standing there, saying: ‘Take as many as you can and then sow your seed.’ Those women never came back alive,” the witness said.

Denis Dzidic is BIRN – Justice Report journalist. [email protected] Justice Report je BINR weekly online publication.