Bastah et al: A cooperative man
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Ljubomir Pepic, a former policeman from Vlasenica, told the Court that he started working in the Police Station in Vlasenica in September 1992, adding that no Bosniaks were captured and brought to the Station at that time. He also said that he did not know whether any Bosniaks had been captured prior to his arrival.
Pepic appeared as a Defence witness for Predrag Bastah. The State Prosecution charges Bastah and Goran Viskovic with a number of crimes committed against the non-Serb population in Vlasenica during the course of 1992. The Prosecution contends that Bastah was a member of the reserve police forces and Viskovic was a member of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, at that time.
“I had not known Predrag Bastah from before, but I met him soon after my arrival, as he was a procurement commissary, who used to purchase potatoes and other food supplies and transport them by truck. I cannot imagine him having committed any bad things. He was always ready to cooperate, socialize and work,” Pepic said.
The second Defence witness, Milivoje Kovacevic, said that, “acting on an order issued by the Staffs based in Vlasenica”, he used to transport Muslims to the division line in Luke as of June 1992.
“Bastah was a driver, just like me, but he was with the police forces. After having loaded Muslims onto my truck a couple of times, I noticed him in a civilian car, escorting the truck. No incidents happened on those roads ever. Whoever says the opposite is lying. All I have is my honesty and my word,” Kovacevic said.
He told the Court that he never witnessed any “separation or taking away” of girls at the checkpoint in Luke. He added that he had “never even heard of something like that having happened”.
The indictment alleges that Bastah, acting in cooperation with other members of the Serb Army, participated in the separation of women and girls from the buses transporting Bosniaks from Vlasenica in Luke village in June 1992 and incited Serb soldiers to rape them.
In the course of cross-examination Kovacevic said that he transported Muslims from Susica to Luke several times, but he never saw Bastah in that area.
The trial is due to continue on March 9, 2009.
