Raped in Crnca

RV-6 told the Court that she was in Bikavac village, when four Serb soldiers came and ordered women to come out of the houses. She said that the only soldier, whom she recognised, was Vito Rackovic and that he drove the car, which transported the women from Bikavac.
 
“We stopped on a bridge over Drina. They opened the door and asked us how we would like to die. Vito and his associates asked that. As far as I can remember, none of us said anything,” the witness said.
 
She said that they were taken from the bridge to Crnca village, where a man raped her.
 
“A blonde man took me. I went to an empty house with him. I did not see what happened with the others. I was then raped by that man,” witness RV-6 said, adding that, after having returned to the car, she saw RV-5, who “looked sad and did not look like herself”.
 
The witness said that, after having left Visegrad, she spoke about those events with RV-5, who told her that Vito Rackovic had raped her in the car.  
 
When asked how she found out what Rackovic’s name was, the witness said that RV-5 told her his name after he had come to her house and asked the residents to give him money and golden jewelry. The Defence said that it was not what the witness said in her previous statements and that it would submit those statements to the Trial Chamber.
 
Rackovic, former member of the Republika Srpska Army, is charged with having participated in attacks on Bosniak villages, detention, torture, forced disappearances of persons from the Visegrad area and rape in the period from May to the end of August 1992.
 
Second witness Adem Berberovic said that he evacuated his family from Hamzici village for security reasons at the beginning of the war and that he decided to come back. As he said, on his way back to the village, he was wounded and captured. He saw indictee Rackovic among the soldiers, who captured him.
 
He said that the soldiers took him to Gornja Lijeska, where Rackovic examined and beat him.
 
“Vito asked me how many people were with me and how much dynamite we had. I said we did not have any. They began beating me. Milos Pantelic began hitting me first. He injured my eye,” he said.
 
The witness said that several persons beat him and that he fainted several times during the beating.
 
“Rackovic was there the whole time. While examining me, he put a knife to my throat and said: ‘Admit how much dynamite you brought’,” Berberovic said, adding that he was then taken to Uzamnica military barracks, where he was detained for more than two years.
 
The Defence said that, in some of his previous statements the witness did not mention Rackovic. The witness responded by saying that “we did not speak about that person” at that time.
 
The trial is due to continue on May 28.