Karadzic: Ideology of Detention

Isak Gasi, former member of the Executive Board of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, in Brcko, said that he was arrested in May 1992 and detained in the “Elektro brcko” company building and then to “Luke” prison, where he stayed until June 7, 1992

“During the course of my ten-day detention in ‘Luke’ I saw about 200 people. They were wretches, just like me. 95 percent of them were Muslims. There were a couple of Croats too. I guess this fitted the ideology at the time. They managed to throw us out. I think that not more than five percent of Muslims remained in Brcko in the period from 1992 to 1994,” Gasi said.

Radovan Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, is on trial before The Hague Tribunal for genocide, crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war, as well as persecution of the non-Serb population in 20 Bosnian municipalities, including Brcko.

In his testimony Gasi said that, during the course of his detention in Luke detention camp he was taken to other locations to perform forced labour and saw prisoners being mistreated.

“I remember Goran Jelisic entering the hangar once. He was holding a revolver and silencer. He started waving with it and cursing our Muslim mothers. He said he had killed 98 Muslims and he would kill 98 more. A guard than took him by his hand, talked to him and calmed him down. They turned around and left. As he was going out he kicked two or three prisoners,” Gasi said.

In 2001 The Hague Tribunal sentenced Jelisic, former guard in the Luka detention camp, to 40 years in prison for participating in the beating and murder of detainees.

According to Gasi, he was once taken out of the Luka detention camp and forced to throw “corpses of Bosniaks into the river”.

“We threw three of them into the water. I could see three more, because I took a closer look at them. I think that all of them had bullet wounds on their backs or heads,” Gasi said. His examination is due to be continued at the next hearing.

The examination of Hague Prosecution expert witness Christian Nielsen, who spoke about the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP of RS for five days, was completed at this hearing. Nielsen said that Bosniaks and Croats, who worked with police forces, which were controlled by Serbs in 1992, were not allowed to continue working.

Indictee Karadzic disagreed with expert witness Nielsen, adding that MUP RS “just gave oral recommendations for non-Serbs to be temporarily removed for the sake of their own safety”.

“I disagree with that. As an example, I would like to mention that, in some municipalities Muslims and Croats were not allowed to give a solemn statement of loyalty to the Serbian MUP, even in the few cases when they wanted to do it,” Nielsen said.

When asked by indictee Karadzic if he had ever seen “a letter dismissing someone from MUP RS on an ethnic basis”, Nielsen answered negatively, but he said that there were “various ways for letting Croats and Muslims know that they were not welcome as workers with the MUP RS”.

The trial is due to continue on Friday, July 15.