Karadzic: Mistreated and Robbed

Testifying at the trial of Radovan Karadzic, a protected Hague Prosecution witness says that she was “mistreated and forced to leave her home” in Grbavica, Sarajevo in 1992.

Witness KDZ 354, who testified under voice and face alteration measures, recalled that Veselin ‘Batko’ Vlahovic took her and her mother from their apartment in Grbavica, “while pointing his gun at our foreheads”, and “mistreated, hit and robbed” them in June 1992.

“I reported the incident by Batko. Although he had threatened me, I went to the Serb military hospital, which was situated in the shopping centre in Grbavica during the war. I told them what happened in a few words. I said that my mother and I had been savagely tortured by a man, who also insulted us and called us names,” witness KDZ 354 said, adding that military policemen told her “there was nothing they could do”.
 
The witness said that, judging by his uniform, she thought that Vlahovic was a “member of an organised Serb army”.  
 
Vlahovic, former member of Serb paramilitary formations, is awaiting the beginning of his trial before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for a series of crimes committed in Grbavica and Vraca.
 
Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and supreme Commander of its armed forces, in on trial before the Hague Tribunal on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war and a sniping and shelling campaign against civilians in Sarajevo.
 
The indictment alleges that Karadzic participated in a joint criminal enterprise, in collaboration with other Bosnian Serb leaders and members of paramilitary formations, with the aim of persecuting the non-Serb population in 20 municipalities, including Novo Sarajevo, where Grbavica is located.
 
The protected witness said that in 1992 she saw Bosnian Serb forces undertaking “arbitrary arrests and searches of Bosniak houses”, which was followed by deportation of the non-Serb population.  
 
“I saw some unsightly people in the shopping centre, where the military command was based. Those people were fully armed. I used to see mine-throwers and tanks in the vicinity all the time. As of May 1992, I heard mine-thrower and tank fire and I saw snipers going inside a building in 58 Lenjinova Street, from where they opened fire,” she said.   
 
Cross-examination of protected witness KDZ 182, a former UNPROFOR member, was completed at this hearing. The witness spoke about the shelling of Sarajevo during the course of 1994 and 1995. He began his testimony on March 9.  
 
Answering Karadic’s questions, witness KDZ 182 explained that he knew that Serb forces, which he said were situated at the Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo, shelled the building that housed the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but he was not able to say if this was “a legitimate target”.
 
The cross-examination of witness KDZ 354 is due to take place on Friday, March 11.