Bastah et al: Praying to God in the street

Testifying at the trial for crimes in Vlasenica, protected witness 3 said that, in early June 1992, indictee Predrag Bastah used to come to her apartment in Vlasenica “every second day” and “enlisted Bosniaks for exchange”.

“One nights soldiers came to our building and forced us, Bosniaks, out. I saw about ten soldiers there. I recognised Goran ‘Vjetar’ and Bastah. Goran started beating my neighbour Rasid and his wife and slapping their two children. Goran was hitting Rasid with a gun butt and then he forced him to practice Muslim prayers on the asphalt,” witness 3 said. 

The State Prosecution charges Predrag Bastah, known as Tsar, and Goran Viskovic, known as Vjetar, former members of police and military structures of Republika Srpska, with “rape, torture, deportation and murder” of Bosniaks in the Vlasenica area in 1992.

Under the same indictment Viskovic is charged with having forced witness 3 to leave her house in Panorama settlement on an unknown date in June 1992 and with having beaten one person, in the presence of witness 3, by hitting the person with his “legs and a butt” and forced the person to pray to God like Muslims do on the road. 

As she said, witness 3 was taken, “together with her family”, to Susica detention camp the same night. She claims to have spent “about a month” there. 

“A couple of days prior to my exchange and arrival to Kladanj, they allegedly took my husband away to perform some work. However, he never came back from there,” the witness said, adding that she saw indictees Bastah and Viskovic “bringing Bosniaks” to the detention camp on several occasions during her stay there. 

Second Prosecution witness 4, whose identity and face were protected as well, said that the crimes against Bosniaks in Vlasenica were committed in “a planned and systematic” way, adding that they were organised by the Crisis Committee in Vlasenica.

“Following the arrival of the Yugoslav National Army, people starting disappearing at night. This was done by so-called police and authorities. In May 1992 in Pijavci village 11 Bosniak men were killed. After that the massacre was committed in Zaklopaca. Then Djamdjici and Alihodzici villages were attacked. It was obvious that those actions had been planned, because they were cleaning the borderline areas,” witness 4 explained. 

The indictment charges Bastah and Viskovic with having prosecuted the non-Serb population, “as part of a broad and systematic attack conducted by paramilitary and police forces of the so-called Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina” in the period from April to the end of September 1992. 

Witness 4 told the Court that he was taken to Susica detention camp on June 2, 1992 and he stayed there for 16 days, when he was exchanged, “after having been forced to exchange his property” for property belonging to a Serb from Zavidovici. 

“We were exposed to such an incredible amount of fear, that it is hard to explain it,” witness 4 said.

Third Prosecution witness Izet Huric said that “members of Serb army”, lined up as groups of shooters, attacked his village Piskavice on June 2, 1992. 

“I am one hundred percent sure that not one Bosniak from the village offered any resistance,” Huric said.

The trial is due to continue on December 18, 2008.