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Testifying at the trial of Radovan Karadzic, a Hague Prosecution witness says that “Serb forces” killed 68 Bosniaks in Glogova village, Bratunac municipality in May 1992.
Musan Talovic said that tensions increased in that area as of April 1992, adding that residents of nearby villages fled to Glogova, where they were arrested by Serb forces on May 9.
Talovic said that he was among 20 men who were escorted to the river and ordered to turn away. After that they were shot at, but he survived the shooting. He woke up a little later and realised that he was wounded.
“Seco Delic survived as well, but he was killed by a grenade later on,” Talovic said, adding that 68 men, who had been arrested in Glogova, were killed on that day.
The witness told the Court that two boys, aged 12 and 13, were among the killed people, adding that many of the victims were young men aged 19 and 20 years.
The murder of at least 65 men in Glogova village is covered by the indictment, charging Radovan Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and supreme commander of its armed forces, with genocide, crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Talovic said that none of the victims had ever participated in military operations, adding that they were not armed.
“I had a hunter gun, which I handed over to the municipality… Serb police guaranteed my safety, provided that I handed my hunter weapons over,” the witness said.
He said that the local Muslim population neither kept nightwatch nor put roadblocks.
The indictee asked the witness if he knew that “Muslim extremists” opened fire at police and beat a group of young men up, set the Serb Democratic Party’s flag on fire in Bratunac and tried to kill a representative of local Serb authorities in the summer and autumn of 1991.
Talovic said that those events were not known to him.
A protected Hague Prosecution witness was examined at this hearing, but his testimony was closed to public. The trial is due to continue on Tuesday, August 23.
