Serbian Democratic Party Ethnically Divided Hadzic, Djelilovic Witness Says

Nusret Kaleta, a former delegate at the Hadzici assembly, told the court that a separate Serb assembly was formed in the municipality in mid-April 1992. The local authorities elected to that assembly represented parallel Serb authorities.

According to Kaleta, on May 7, 1992, the Serbian Democratic Party presented the municipality’s legal and police authorities with an ultimatum to ethnically separate Hadzici.

“They requested that our institutions move out of one part of the municipality. A map was attached to the ultimatum, which they said showed the division of the municipality into Serb and Muslim parts. The municipal bodies didn’t accept it, so certain incidents, like an attack on the police station and the evacuation of municipality employees, took place. Soon after the local population had to be evacuated as well,” Kaleta said.

Kaleta said that over the course of a few days six to ten thousand people were deported to Pazaric and Tarcin.

Kaleta said that after municipal authorities left Hadzici, they were accommodated on the premises of a school building in Pazaric and in privately owned houses.

At a municipal assembly session held on July 13, 1992, Kaleta was elected a member of the wartime presidency. Kaleta said the detention of the Serb population in Silos was discussed on the same day.

“During the session held on July 13 [1992] president Mustafa Djelilovic was asked about the isolation and processing of those people. Djelilovic pointed out that we, the municipality and assembly, did not have the basis to found a court in order to process those people,” Kaleta said.

Djelilovic, Fadil Covic, Mirsad Sabic, Nezir Kazic, Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember have been charged with the unlawful detention, inhumane treatment, physical and mental suffering and forced labour of detainees in Hadzici.

According to the charges, Djelilovic was the president of the municipal assembly, crisis committee and wartime presidency of the municipality of Hadzici, while the other defendants were members of military and police authorities and managers of detention camps. Kalember was a guard at the Silos detention facility.

Kaleta’s examination will continue on June 8.