Karadzic: Entire Family Raped

“My daughter was seven-and-a-half years old. She was raped a few times. My 13-and-a-half–year old son was raped for months. They raped me too, but I have somehow dealt with it. What hurts the most is the rape of my children… I have still not asked my wife if she was raped, because I am not strong enough to do it. I probably do not have the right to ask her. They took her away too, but we have never spoken about it,” protected witness KDZ-051 said, crying in The Hague Tribunal’s courtroom. 

The witness said that, all this “was done by neighbours, people whom I knew”, in collaboration with “Chetniks from Pancevo”, over the course of three-and-a-half months.

“All Serbian commands, including the police, military and Chetnik ones, knew about it, because nearly everybody committed those acts,” the witness said.

Radovan Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, RS, is charged, among other things, with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats from Rogatica and 19 other municipalities all over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Witness KDZ-051 said that hundreds of Bosniaks, who were held in inhumane conditions in the “Veljko Vlahovic” school building, were beaten up, tortured, sexually abused and forced to perform hard labour on a daily basis. The witness said that many people, who were taken away by members of Serbian forces, never came back alive.

According to the witness’ testimony, Rajko Kusic, Commander of the Rogatica Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, visited the detention camp in the school building on several occasions. He said that Kusic insisted on being called “a Duke” by the prisoners.

The witness confirmed that he and Kusic used to be “close friends” before the war, but he “never had a chance” to tell him what had been done to his family, because Kusic was “avoiding” him.

He said that Kusic told the prisoners that he was “late in cleaning Rogatica” and “had to submit a report to Pale and Karadzic”. The witness said that he threatened Bosniaks by mentioning “members of Bijeli orlovi [White Eagles] and Arkan’s men, who were situated in Borike”.

The witness said that, starting on May 22, 1992 Kusic’s forces “helplessly shelled” Rogatica for three months, although “no fire was opened” from the town, as it was inhabited by unarmed Bosniak civilians only.

During the course of cross-examination Karadzic said that the witness was in “a privileged position” in comparison to other prisoners, who were held in the school building.

“You have to ask the person who said that whether it is considered a privilege to have you family raped, mistreated and beaten for three-and-a-half months. I did not have any privileges, but they beat me up so hard that I could not go out and perform forced labour… My son, who was 13-and-a-half years old, had to go instead of me and dig sniper nests and bury corpses in the Rogatica surroundings. At the end of the day, he was sexually abused too,” witness KDZ-051 said.

Responding to Karadzic’s suggestion that prosecutors instruct most of the witnesses to repeat the same statements about Bosniaks disappearing thanks to Serb forces, KDZ-051 told the indictee “not to insult” him.

“Nobody has ever told me what to say in my life. I do not hate you. I have come here to speak about my pain and experiences, about three-and-a-half months of shelling and 17 months of abuse by Serb soldiers, Serb police and Chetnik units from Serbia,” the witness told Karadzic.

Karadzic is charged with genocide in Srebrenica and seven other Bosnian municipalities, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo through shelling and sniping activities and taking hostages.

The trial is due to continue on Tuesday, September 27.

R.M.