Bastah et al: Murderous hands

Two prosecution witnesses said that they saw indictees Predrag Bastah and Goran Viskovic in the Vlasenica area at the beginning of the war in 1992.

The Prosecution charges Predrag Bastah, known as Tsar, and Goran Viskovic, also known as Vjetar, with having participated in the murder, mental and sexual abuse, torture and forced disappearances of civilians from the Vlasenica area from April to September, 1992.

Habiba Hadzic claims to have seen Viskovic at the very beginning of the war, “when they gathered Muslims in the Internal Affairs Secretariat, IAS, building.”

“I was going to hoe my potato field. On my way I passed by the IAS building. Goran Viskovic was standing in front of the building. His hands were bloody all the way to his wrists. I heard him say to someone: ‘See how many I have slaughtered so far. I am on my way to slaughter a few more’,” Hadzic said.

The witness said she saw Predrag Bastah taking her neighbours Meho Zeco and Dzemal Taindzic away. As she said, Bastah did not mistreat these two men, “but, after he had taken them away, nobody ever saw them again”.

Hadzic said that she was captured and taken to “Susica” detention camp, where she stayed for two and a half months.

“The women were mistreated, taken away and raped. I was raped too,” the witness recalled, adding that he did not see the indictees beating detainees, but he did see them in the detention camp. 

When the witness mentioned that she was raped, she was visibly shaken and she started crying. The Prosecution and Trial Chamber did not ask her to provide any further details about it. 

Second Prosecution witness Hasib Agic said that he was captured on May 27, 1992, as he was trying to escape to the territory controlled by the Bosnian Army. He was captured by members of “the Serbian forces”, who took him to the IAS building in Vlasenica.

“I stayed there for four days. I was held in a small room, together with 20 other people. They examined me on the last day of my stay. Goran Viskovic was there as well. He kept hitting me with his leg until I admitted that I had a gun at my house,” Agic recalled. He identified the indictee in the courtroom.

During the course of his detention in “Susica” detention camp Agic claims that he once saw Viskovic taking away Salko and Ibro Muminovic, “who have never been found”. He saw indictee Bastah on one occasion, but he did not mistreat anyone.

At the hearing held on August 22 the Defence of Predrag Bastah and the indictee filed a motion, requesting separation of his case and exclusion of the public from the trial. Citing the reasons for this request, they mentioned “the threats addressed at Bastah family members, arising from retelling of the courtroom testimonies”. 

The Trial Chamber rejected the proposal, adding that the public might be excluded from the hearing at which the indictee would appear as a witness. 

The trial is due to continue on August 25, 2008.