Karadzic: Executions by the road

Witness Suad Dzafic testifies at Radovan Karadzic’s trial how he survived the execution of group of 32 men from the Bratunac area in May 1992.

At the trial of former president of the Republika Srpska Radovan Karadzic, Dzafic who is the one hundredth witness in this case stated how he was detained in the police station building in Bratunac where the prisoners were beaten and harassed.

“When we exit the cells, a white ‘lada’ with skulls and white eagles drawn on it showed up. I saw Pero Mitrovic as well, my neighbour. There was one person whom they called ‘Macedonian’ and he ordered to us to drop all of the money and personal documents to the ground”, witness remembered.

On the road towards Bratunac, as he added, the bus stopped in Milici by the road bar where one policeman addressed Mitrovic with the words: “Give them to me to kill them so you don’t need to drive any further”.

Witness Dzafic stated that the bus continued towards Nova Kasaba where the prisoners were brought to nearby field where they were executed in groups of four and five. The witness was wounded and he lay on the ground pretending that he was dead.

“I felt warm and fell. I heard how Pero and Macedonian argued that they shouldn’t do this by the main road”, Dzafic remembered.

During the crossfire, indicted Karadzic displayed a police report on this event stressing how the Serb police were looking for information on what happened.

“80 percent of this is not true. It is stated that the policemen tried to stop this group. This is not correct. If this is the truth, why did the policeman in blue uniform say to Pero: ‘Let me finish this,” the witness stated.

Karadzic, the former Republika Srpska president is on trial for genocide, crimes against humanity and breaches of the laws and customs of war. According to the indictment he was a member of a criminal endeavor which aimed to expel the Bosniak and Croat population from the territories claimed by Serbs.

At this hearing, protected witness KDZ-603 gave a statement, describing how the Serb forces during the month of June 1992 attacked Drum village (Vlasenica municipality), killed ten men and took the others into Camp Susica.

Protected witness stated that in the Susica camp around 1000 people were detained and that approximately 800 of them signed the statement that they are leaving Vlasenica voluntary after which they left while the witness stayed.

During the cross-examination, Karadzic tried to discard witness’s statements on how the people of Drum did not have weapons as well as how the Muslim forces conducted the attacks on Serb villages.

“Do you know that I have a statement from Imam Munib Ahmetovic which stated: ‘We went to Ferid Hodzic’s house and they have asked me to do some tasks for them in order to arm Muslim people,” asked Karadzic. KDZ-603 replied that this is not known to him.

Ferid Hodzic, former Vlasenica Territorial Defense (TO) commander was released by the State Court in October 2010, after being found not guilty for the crimes gainst Serb civilians and prisoners of war in Cerska, Vlasenica municipality.

Karadzic’s trial will continue on Friday, 2 September.

M.T.