Protected Witness Describes Forced Labour of Husband at Radisic Trial

The Bosnian state prosecution has charged Radisic, the former commander of a work squad with the Teslicka Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, with participating in the physical and mental abuse of Bosniak civilians in Teslic from 1992-1995. The indictment alleges that Radisic took a number of civilians to locations where they performed forced labour, which led to death of at least six civilians and the injury of several more on the frontline.

A protected witness known as R-8 testified at today’s hearing. R-8 said she lived in the village of Gomilica in Teslic with her husband and her sons. She said Bosnian Serb Army soldiers searched their house for weapons during the war and repeatedly abducted her husband and sons.

“One day they took my husband and sons away, but they came back soon…A few days later they took one of my sons again. They blindfolded him and tied his hands up and took him to the Territorial Defense in Teslic. When I visited him, he was covered in blood. They beat him with baseball bats. His jacket was torn…He didn’t know who had beaten him,” R-8 recalled.

She said Radisic came to take her husband away on the pretense of his labour being required for certain tasks.

“Pero Radisic was in a camouflage uniform and was armed with a rifle…My husband begged him to exempt him because he was sick. After he exempted him, he came again later and took him away to cut firewood and dig trenches…A month later he was killed. A sniper shot him. Half of his head was missing,” R-8 said.

When asked by the defense whether Radisic mistreated her husband, R-8 said he didn’t beat him, but he did abuse him verbally.

Radisic said he knew R-8, but denied having abducted her husband or sons.

The trial will continue on September 11.