Karadzic: An Unforgettable Scene

Witness Sead Hodzic told The Hague Tribunal that, on May 16, 1992 Serb forces came to Zaklopaca village, near Vlasenica and killed 60 civilians,including women, old people and a few children aged less than 10.

According to Hodzic, his mother and sister-in-law surrendered to Serb soldiers on that day. He said that they were taken to Susica detention camp,while he managed to flee to the woods along with a few other local
residents. He was hiding in the woods for a couple of days.

“When the shooting in the village stopped, I decided to come out of the forest. After arriving in my village, I saw a scene that I cannot forget. Corpses of my cousins and neighbours were scattered in front of houses, on the road and all over the village. I saw dead women, old people and children. Most of them had been shot in the head or in their mouths,” the witness said.

The witness said that he went back to the woods because he was afraid. He said that, while he was in the forest he saw “some unknown soldiers”collecting corpses of killed local residents using tractors and dumping them into a joint grave that had been dug in the village.

Radovan Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, RS and supreme commander of RS armed forces, is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and the violation of the laws and customs of war in twenty
Bosnian municipalities, including Vlasenica.

As he continued testifying, witness Hodzic said that 28 of his cousins, whose bodies were found in a secondary grave near the village in 2006, were killed in the attack on Zaklopaca village on May 16, 1992.

The witness told the Tribunal that, after being held in Susica detention camp, his mother and sister-in-law were exchanged in Kalesija, where the witness saw them for the first time after the attack on the village.

During the course of cross-examination, Hodzic explained to the indictee Karadzic that he was not sure which units conducted the attack on Zaklopaca village,but he saw that soldiers were dressed in camouflage uniforms with white bands tied around their arms, adding that he heard that they were members of
the “Beli orlovi” (“White Eagles”) paramilitary unit.

As his examination continued, the witness said that, ten days prior to the attack on the village, he saw a tank in Vlasenica. He said that a member of reserve forces with the Novi Sad Corps of the Yugoslav National Army, JNA was in the tank and he told him that the JNA would withdraw from that area within the following seven days, but it would leave its weapons to Bosnian Serbs.

“The young member of reserve forces told me: ‘We had got information that you were killing Serbs, but we now see that it is not true. We shall withdraw, but you should beware your Serb neighbours.’ I now feel sorry
for not taking him seriously and listening to him,” Hodzic said.

At the beginning of the hearing Karadzic cross-examined witness Armin Bazdar, who was aged 15, when he survived the shooting in Duljevci village,near Rogatica.

Witness Bazdar repeated his earlier statement that the order for the shooting came from Dragoje Paunovic, adding that Paunovic and another soldier shot at the prisoners.

In 2006 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed down a second instance verdict, sentencing Paunovic to 20 years in prison for crimes in Rogatica, including the shooting of 24 civilians on a meadow in Duljevci.

During the course of Bazdar’s examination, Karadzic tried to prove that Serb forces took the witness’s family and other Seljani residents to Rogatica “for the sake of their own safety”, as an attack by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, was expected.

“That is what we were told. However, the truth is that they lied to us,”Bazdarevic said.

At the end of the hearing protected witness KDZ-607 began testifying before The Hague Tribunal, but his testimony was closed to public most of the time.

The trial is due to continue on Wednesday, September 7, 2011.

D.E.