Mladic Witness: Trnopolje Was a Sanctuary
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Branko Beric, who was a quartermaster at Trnopolje, testified at the UN-backed court on Tuesday that it was just a collection center for Muslims where they were offered help and sanctuary.
Beric said that no one was killed in the centre and that there was no barbed wire or machine-gun nests nearby.
According to Beric, unlike Trnopolje, the nearby Omarska and Keraterm detention centres were prison camps, from which Muslims came in very bad conditions.
Video footage of skeletal Bosniaks behind a partially barbed wire at Trnopolje shot by British ITN television journalist Penny Marshall in August 1992 fooled the international community, said Beric.
He said that the thinnest of the prisoners probably previously spent time at Omarska. That man, unfortunately, before the war had tuberculosis. His neighbours told me. He died, unfortunately, said Beric.
It is sad that Marshall fooled the world, because there was no wire in Trnopolje Only two square feet [of barbed wire], he added.
He clarified however that he had already left Trnopolje by the time the ITN report was filmed. When the tape was made I wasnt there But I can describe the place where they staged it, he said.
Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, is on trial for the persecution of Muslims and Croats, which allegedly reached the scale of genocide in several municipalities, Prijedor among them. He is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
Beric said that Bosniaks told him after the war that they felt as if they were in a hotel when they arrived in Trnopolje after being at the Omarska and Keraterm detention centres. He said they described Trnopolje as a camp to get privileges in other countries after leaving Bosnia.
The witness testified that he advised many young Muslims in Trnopolje to throw away their military boots so they wouldnt be sent to Keraterm and Omarska. I could not allow those young men to get hurt because of their naivety, said Beric.
During cross-examination, the Hague prosecutor told Beric that this meant that he knew about crimes being committed at Omarska and Keraterm.
I cannot say those were crimes, I know they were camps and that the conditions werent good, Beric answered.
He added that no one in Prijedor is denying this, it would be shameful.
He confirmed however that there was poor hygienic conditions at Trnopolje because there were so many Bosniaks there.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
