Rackovic Involved in Illegal Detentions
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The protected prosecution witness codenamed RV-7 told the court in Sarajevo on Wednesday that he and his brother were captured by Serb soldiers on May 31, 1992, and taken to the village of Vlasinje, where he saw the defendant Rackovic.
I had known Rackovic from before the war. He used to work for a construction company. He was between 10 and 15 years older than me The men who escorted us ordered us to sit down and rest. When we sat down, Rackovic sat on the road and pointed his machine gun towards us, RV-7 said.
Rackovic, a former member of the Bosnian Serb Army, is charged 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. The bodies of some of those who were detained have never been found.
A second witness on Wednesday, Alma Cukojevic, told the Court that she lived in the village of Prelovo near Visegrad until late April 1992, when she left her home for security reasons. She said that her husband stayed, and she found out later on that he had been arrested and taken to the police station, where she went to inquire about him.
The guards allowed me to see him briefly I went to the police station with a neighbour of mine later on and saw him briefly again. This was the last time I saw him, she said.
She mentioned that she found out later that her husband was arrested on a hill near Prelovo.
At that moment I heard that [fighters called] Tanaskovic, Markovic and Vitomir Rackovic had taken them away. I knew that man, Rackovic, if that is the man in question, while I was still a child, she said.
She told the court that she went to the police station in search of her husband for the last time on May 28, 1992, adding that she saw many other people standing there, all hoping to find their relatives.
I saw a man who was searching for his son. There was a boy in rubber shoes, looking for his father. His mother had been killed earlier that day, the witness said.
The trial is due to continue on March 12.
