Karadzic: Commander Who Survived Manjaca

 The indictment against Karadzic alleges that Kljuc was one of the seven municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the persecution committed by Serb authorities reached the scale of genocide against Bosniaks and Croats. 

Testifying via video link, Dzafic said that he was dismissed from the position of Deputy Commander of the Police Station in Kljuc in late May 1992, after having refused to sign “a statement, confirming loyalty” to Republika Srpska, RS authorities. All other Bosniak policemen, who refused to sign that statement, were fired too. Also, all Bosniaks, who performed managerial functions in state-owned and public companies, were fired.

Prosecutor Ann Sutherland presented, as evidence, an order issued by Stojan Zupljanin, the then Chief of the Public Safety Services Center in Banja Luka, saying that all policemen, who did not express loyalty to Serbian authorities, should be fired.

The witness said that “the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS” previously “took over the control in the town and divided its police forces”.

Dzafic said that he was arrested and detained at the beginning of June, just like hundreds of other Bosniaks. He was first detained in the school building in Kljuc and then Manjaca detention camp.

The witness said that the Bosniak detainees were held in inhumane conditions, while being deprived of food, beaten up and sent to other locations where they performed forced labour. He said that many of them were killed in Manjaca.

Dzafic was released in December 1992 and sent, along with other Bosniaks, to Croatia. He was only able to go back to Kljuc “after its liberation” in 1995. He said that he went to Laniste in 1996, where he attended an exhumation of 189 bodies of Bosniak civilians from Biljani village, Kljuc, including “a three-month old girl”, who were killed in July 1992.

During the course of cross-examination Karadzic said that Dzafic was arrested on suspicion that he “trained Muslim extremists” and “participated in the murder of his assistant Dusan Stojanovic” in late May 1992.

“Do not insult me. Stojanovic was my colleague and friend…Had they had any pieces of evidence about it, I would not have arrived in Manjaca alive, let alone come out of it…This was just an excuse for questioning,” Dzafic said.

He gave the same answer to Karadzic’s question on whether he attended a Part for Democratic Action, SDA meeting about the establishment of “the Muslim municipality of Kljuc” at which he was “proposed as commander of Muslim police”. Dzafic underlined that he was “the only police commander who came back from Manjaca alive”. He said that he saw one of the meeting participants, named Esad Bender, “for the first time in my life, when he was killed in stable number 1 in Manjaca”.

Dzafic said that 1,163 Bosniaks from Kljuc were held in Manjaca at some stage, adding that the number “does not include minors or persons aged more than 60”. Karadzic responded by saying that “17,000 Muslims” lived in Kljuc.

During the first part of today’s hearing Karadzic completed the cross-examination of Prosecution witness Nusret Sivac about crimes committed in Prijedor.

Among other things, Karadzic is charged with committing genocide in Srebrenica, terrorizing civilians in Sarajevo through systematic artillery and sniper attacks, and taking members of the United Nations, UN, hostages.

The trial of Karadzic is due to continue on Monday, October 3, 2011.

R.M.