Mladic Witness: Police Couldnt Stop Vlasenica Killings
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Mane Djuric, the former chief of the polices Public Security Station in the town of Vlasenica in eastern Bosnia, told Bosnian Serb military leader Mladics trial in The Hague on Monday that the Susica holding centre had a humane character when it was set up, but turned into a detention camp in May 1992.
Asked if he heard about the killings and beatings at the Susica camp, Djuric said that he learned that there had been incidents and informed security officers.
According to the indictment against Mladic, Vlasenica was one of six municipalities in Bosnia where the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats reached the scale of genocide.
At the Susica camp, the indictment says, 150 prisoners were killed from May to September 1992. Susicas commander Dragan Nikolic was sentenced to 20 years in jail by the Hague Tribunal in 2004 after admitting the murder and torture of Bosniak detainees.
Mladic is also on trial for genocide in Srebrenica, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
Testifying about alleged violence at the Public Security Station in Vlasenica, Djuric said that people were saying there were incidents, but that he didnt see any abuses. However, he insisted that he took precautions to prevent any incidents.
I insisted that it cannot happen. I said to the police officer at the entrance that he must register everyone who enters, he said.
Questioned about a massacre of Bosniaks in the village of Drum in the Vlasenica municipality in June 1992, Djuric said that it was hard to find the perpetrators, but in his opinion they were soldiers or paramilitaries.
When they were not thrown out [by the Bosnian Serb military leadership], it was common that paramilitary units were involved in planned military actions, which were conducted in cooperation with the police, and that they committed crimes, the witness said.
He confirmed that the mosque in Vlasenica was destroyed in August 1992 and that police was informed by the Bosnian Serb Army several hours before.
When they found out that the mosque would be attacked, he said, police took action to notify and remove people who lived close to it.
Presiding judge Alphons Orie asked why the police didnt stop this criminal act, but the witness responded that they were focused on protecting people. He also said that they were careful not to get into any conflict with the army over jurisdiction.
The trial continues.
