Karadzic: Bosnian Serb Army Saved Muslims

Mihajlo Vujasin, who started to testify on Wednesday, claimed that the Army of Republika Srpska, VRS, positioned around Sarajevo, only defended itself.

In the cross examination, prosecutor Kimberly West presented the witness with documents indicating that he led the attack of the VRS’s Rajlovac Brigade on the village of Ahatovici in May 1992.

Vujasin, who was deputy commander of the Rajlovac Brigade, denied this, claiming that on the day of the attack he was in a meeting with the Army commander, Ratko Mladic, who is currently on trial before the Hague tribunal.

Responding to the prosecutor, the witness confirmed that after the attack, “several hundred” Bosniaks from Ahatovici were “put into custody” in the Army barracks in Rajlovac.

He maintained that he and Mirko Krajisnik “barely survived” while trying to protect these Bosniaks from Serb refugees who had been expelled from the Sarajevo settlement of Pofalici and had sought shelter in the barracks.

Krajisnik is the brother of the former senior Republika Srpska offical Momcilo Krajisnik, sentenced by the Hague Tribunal to 20 years of prison for expelling non-Serbs across Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Muslims fled, we saved them and put them there,” Vujasin said.

Karadzic is charged with terrorising civilians in Sarajevo through protracted shelling and sniper campaigns and is charged with expelling Bosniaks and Croats across Bosnia. He is also charged with genocide and violation of the laws and customs of war.

Asked whether he knew that only one Bosniak family remained in Ahatovici by the end of war, the witness said he did not. “I know only that the population fled to Rajlovac, then into the city, wherever they wanted to go… Whoever wanted, could have returned,” he said.

Asked by West whether he knew that Bosniaks held in Rajlovac barracks were “abused, beaten and held in inhumane conditions”, Vujasin replied positively, explaining that “individuals” attacked Bosniaks and it “created enormous problems for him.”

Karadzic, defending himself, asked the witness whether Bosniak civilians in Rajlovac were considered prisoners. Vujasin replied that they weren’t and that the Bosnian Serb Army made efforts to have them “released” as soon as possible.

The trial of Karadzic will resume on January 15, 2013.