‘Prisoners’ Blood and Brains’ Spilled in Bosnia School

Prosecution witness Mirsad Karic told the court on Monday that the Vuk Karadzic primary school in Bratunac, where prisoners were detained by Serb fighters, was turned into a “slaughterhouse”.

“They would beat people without any order or rules. They would throw a ball and kill the person hit by the ball,” Karic said.

“They would force other prisoners to clean up human brains and blood that were spilled on the floor,” he said.

Karic said that he was detained at the school in Bratunac along with his family and other local residents on May 10, 1992.

“Arkan’s men [fighters led by Serbian paramilitary boss Zeljko Raznatovic, alias Arkan] came and called my name out. They escorted me to the school building. I did not even have the time to stroke my children’s hair before leaving. They began hitting me in the school hallway. I did not know whether I was on the ground or in the air,” Karic said.

The witness said that while he was in the primary school gym, the fighters gave him a piece of paper and told him to list the names of people who had automatic weapons. He said he did not know the answer and they began hitting him again.

He said that he then wrote down the names of people who had hunters’ guns which they had already given up before being detained.

“They beat me again. I fainted because of the blows,” the witness said.

He said that he witnessed the murder of prisoners by Arkan’s paramilitaries in the gym, and that he was tasked with cleaning “clotted blood stains from the walls”.

He testified that he saw indictee Babic at the school on three occasions.

Babic, then commander of the military police in Bratunac, is on trial for ordering, committing and failing to prevent the imprisonment of non-Serb civilians at the primary school in May 1992.

Around 400 detained civilians were beaten and tortured every day, and several dozen were killed or died as a result of the conditions at the school, the indictment alleges.

The trial is due to continue on May 27.