War-Time Video Triggers Dispute
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Responding to the broadcasts, Dudakovic told Federation Television, FTV, on Wednesday evening, “This footage is a part of the [Bosnian Serb] propaganda war, that is still ongoing and is nothing new.”
During the operation shown on the video, three enemy soldiers were killed in fighting and two were imprisoned, Dudakovic said. He stressed that both prisoners shown in the video are still alive, living and working in the western town of Bihac.
The incriminating video aired on several Bosnian Serb stations on Wednesday and was also uploaded on YouTube and several other internet portals.
The video dates from July 1994, when the Bosniak-dominated Bosnian government army had taken over a northwestern Bosnian enclave previously controlled by followers of renegade Bosniak leader Fikret Abdic.
From the beginning of the war in 1992 till his defeat in 1994, Abdic and his men were freely cooperating and trading with Bosnian Serbs and fought the Bosnian army. Abdic is currently in prison in Croatia sentenced for war crimes committed in Bosnia.
During the war, Dudakovic was the commander of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in north-western Bosnia. He was a war-time hero and one of the most popular military figures among Bosniaks.
The incriminating video shows Dudakovic, brandishing a Kalashnikov and wearing a bullet-proof vest and wide-brimmed military or hunter’s hat, entering the village of Izacic near Bihac in the company of his soldiers.
The footage shows two imprisoned Abdic loyalists, and then Dudakovic, who says “execute them immediately”. The video and audio are so poor that it cannot be seen whether Dudakovic was moving his lips or whether it was really his voice.
In his phone interview with FTV, Dudakovic said he is available for any investigation or questioning by Bosnia’s public prosecutor.
Bosnia’s Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that an investigation is underway that relates to Dudakovic, but refused to confirm whether this is linked to the video footage.
Some in the Sarajevo media speculated that the video was a part of a Bosnian Serb campaign to show that Bosniaks, and not solely Bosnian Serbs, were involved in massacres and other misdeeds during the 1992-95 war.
(By Balkan Insight – www.balkaninsight.com)
