Bosnian Serb Paramilitary ‘Stole Gold and Cash’

Protected witness ‘A-2’ told the court in the Bosnian capital on Wednesday that Dragicevic – a Serb paramilitary nicknamed ‘Krompir’ (‘Potato’) – came to his apartment with two other fighters to demand money with menaces.

“While Batko [Veselin ‘Batko’ Vlahovic] was beating me, asking for the money, the defendant and the other one stood in the corridor, and my wife dared not leave the kitchen,” said the witness.

After that, the fighters took him and his wife to another part of Sarajevo.

“While the two of them stood by the car which my wife was in, Batko took me to a nearby place and told me he would show me the place where he slit people’s throats,” recalled the witness.

They then went back to his apartment.

“Krompir went up to the apartment with me and I gave him 14,000 Deutschmarks and 400 Swedish Krona, and there was a bag of gold there too. He took it all and went away with Batko,” said the witness.

Dragicevic is charged with robbing and abusing non-Serbs in the Sarajevo settlements of Grbavica, Vraca and Kovacici between May 1992 and December 1994, as well as with rape.

Vlahovic has been tried for war crimes in a separate case and the verdict is expected soon.

Haris Bajramovic, the second witness for the prosecution, testified that Dragicevic once showed him the place “where he killed his first Turk [Bosnian Muslim]… by shooting him in the head”.

The trial will resume on March 13.