Incidents against Serbs in Visegrad

Bozo Tesevic said that he lived in Visegrad, where he worked as a traffic policeman, in 1991 and 1992. He said that, at that time two thirds of Visegrad residents were Bosniaks and one third were Serbs, but inter-ethnic relations were good until the forming of nationalistic parties.

“At that time the security situation in the town deteriorated, certain tensions appeared. Serbs were beaten up and killed by Bosniaks,” the witness said, adding that, among other things, a group of Bosniaks destroyed a monument erected in honour of Ivo Andric.

As he said, the situation became worse in the spring of 1992, so police and local authorities were no longer able to establish public order and peace.

“Muslims civilians had rifles, while we, the policemen, had batons and pistols,” the witness said, adding that some of the Serb policemen left their jobs.

He mentioned that several incidents happened in the Police Station itself, adding that those incident were caused by Bosniaks.

This lasted until the beginning of April, when an incident in which a group of armed Muslims took over the control of the hydroelectric plant, threatening that they would open the dam, which would bring Visegrad and other downstream towns in danger,” the witness said, adding that the local population, which lived in the downstream area, began moving out after that.

According to Tesevic’s testimony, the arrival of the Uzice Corps of the Yugoslav National Army, JNA, in the town was crucial for the normalisation of the situation, but after its departure on May 17, incidents and attacks on Serb villages began happening again. As he said, many civilians were wounded, killed and captured in those incidents.

Responding to a Prosecution’s question, the witness said that some incidents in which Bosniak civilians too were killed probably happened after April 1992, but he could not confirm that. Also, he said that he heard about the happenings in Pionirska Street in Visegrad from the media after the war.

In June 1992 more than 50 Bosniak civilians were burnt inside a house in Pionirska Street. The Hague Tribunal sentenced Milan Lukic to life imprisonment and Sredoje Lukic to 27 years in prison for this crime. They were sentenced for other crimes against the Bosniak population in Visegrad as well.
Tesevic said that, following the breakout of the war conflicts, the Bosniak population moved out of Visegrad voluntarily.
 
He testified at the trial of Goran Popovic, whom the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, charges with having participated, as a guard in “Uzamnica” detention camp, in the abuse, beating, torture and sexual abuse of men and women in the period from April to September 1992.
 
The Chamber said that the trial would continue on Wednesday, November 26 provided that video link with the last Defence witness, who lives abroad, was established.