Mladic: Massacres in Ljubija
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Karagic, who was 17 years old in 1992, said that he was hiding in the woods, along with his father, cousins and other men, after an attack by VRS on Hambarine village, near Prijedor, but they were captured in July 1992.
After having transferred them to the Miska Glava Center, Serb soldiers took ten volunteers from a group of prisoners, who were held in the same room as Karagic. They said in advance what would happen to them, how they would end up, the witness said, adding that he heard screams by one of those men immediately after they had been taken away.
When asked whether it was his cousin Mustafa Karagic, he said: Maybe he was the person who was killed in front of the door. The voice sounded like his voice.
As he said, guards told him beforehand that the Sixth Krajina Brigade of VRS was going to come.
Karagic and other prisoners were then taken to a stadium in Ljubija and lined up against a wall. The killing then began. He said that he could hear gunshots and screams. Describing the killing of a prisoner, who was standing next to him, the witness said: I accidentally turned my head in that direction. They were killing him next to me. They were beating him with rifle butts and bayonets.
Karagic said that, when his turn came, a major stopped the murders. They wanted to kill us as well. The major said: Are you going to carry them away? So, they stopped killing us. We were then ordered to carry the dead bodies and load them onto a bus, the witness said.
Karagic confirmed that his father did not survive the murders at the stadium in Ljubija. While he was carrying the bodies, he thought he saw his fathers sweater, but he was not sure, because it was dark. According to Karagic, the dead and alive were transported by the same bus to Kipe mine. Serb soldiers ordered the survivors to come out in groups of three in order to carry the bodies out. Then they heard shooting.
Karagic described that, considering the fact that he was in the rear part of the bus, when some other prisoners tried to flee, he used the opportunity and jumped through a broken bus window and ran away to the woods.
Besides genocide in Srebrenica, the indictment charges Mladic, former Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS with genocide against Bosniaks and Croats in seven other municipalities, including Prijedor. Also, he is charged with crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war.
In the following days he was again captured by some soldiers, who forced him to bury two more bodies, while threatening him that they would impale me on a sharp stake. However, Karagic managed to flee again.
Besides his father, the witness lost seven other relatives in Ljubija.
When asked by the Prosecutor what consequences had it made on his life, Karagic said: I find it hard to go through my life. My marriage is destroyed. I have nightmares and so on… This has been following me for all these years.
During the cross-examination Mladics Defence attorney Branko Lukic pointed to discrepancies between various statements previously given by the witness. Also, the Defence suggested that the crimes described by Karagic were not committed by VRS members, but reserve policemen.
The trial of Mladic is due to continue on Monday, February 25.
