Witness at Mladic Trial Recalls Legal Vacuum in Prijedor
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“In 1992 and 1993 in Prijedor, we tried to put in place some semblance of a government. The [legal] vacuum we had was abused by criminals and thieves who thought they could do whatever they wanted. That’s when all the crimes took place,” Radulj said.
He said he fought to preserve the property of citizens who were forced to leave their homes as a result of the conflict.
Radulj said he knew nothing about crimes committed in the Omarska and Keraterm camps.
Slavka Matic, the next defense witness to testify, said the Bosnian Army killed her husband Radivoje and their two daughters during an attack on the village of Bjelovac near Bratunac.
“There were no police or Serb military, only civilians, but the Muslims killed them,” she said, adding that 68 civilians in the area were killed in December 1992.
Mladic’s defense attorney, Miodrag Stojanovic, asked Matic what her life has been like since she lost her family.
“Alone, like a tree with no branches,” she said.
Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with genocide in Srebrenica, taking UN peacekeepers hostage and terrorizing Sarajevo citizens. According to the charges, Prijedor is one the municipalities where the Bosnian Serb Army’s persecution of non-Serbs reached the scale of genocide.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
