Rackovic’s Visegrad War Crimes Trial Opens

Prosecution witness Rasid Tvrtkovic, who lived in the Visegrad area in 1992, told the Bosnian state court on Wednesday that he saw the defendant arriving in the village of Kabernik, where he is accused of illegally arresting civilians.

“I saw him getting out of the car. He started cursing and he said: ‘My soldiers are being killed and you are just sitting there,’” Tvrtkovic testified.

“Vito [Vitomir Rackovic] told my brother and me to get on the vehicle. My brother and a cousin got on to it, and I asked Vito, who was in charge of that car, to let me get my sweater and I ran away,” he continued.

He said that he has not seen his brother or his cousin ever since.

Rackovic is charged, as a former member of the Bosnian Serb Army, with participating in attacks on Bosniak villages, taking part in illegal detentions, torture, forced disappearances and rapes in the Visegrad area from May to August in 1992.

According to the indictment, in July 1992 Rackovic took part in illegal arrests in the village of Kabernik. Some of those arrested were never found, while the bodies of others were later exhumed in the Zepa municipality.

Rackovic has denied the charges.

Prosecutor Dzevad Muratbegovic said in his opening statement that he would prove there was wide-ranging and systematic attack on non-Serbs, and that the accused was aware of it.

“Witnesses will testify about the situation in Visegrad, the destruction of property, the disarming of non-Serbs, detentions and beatings at the police station and the Uzamnica barracks, Serb army attacks on Bosniak villages and the arrest of people who remained missing, as well as rapes that the accused committed,” said the prosecutor.

Defence lawyer Petko Pavlovic said in his opening statement that the prosecution evidence was “weak” and that he would challenge the existence of the wide-ranging and systematic attack.

“It has been established in other cases that the Uzice corps was in the municipality from mid-April and that it was peaceful and safe there,” Pavlovic said.

“After this corps left, paramilitary units ruled in Visegrad, doing harm to all the citizens, and there was suffering among the Serb population as well,” he said.

The trial will resume on February 19.