Zvornik Held Hostage by Paramilitary Formations

Grujic, who was sentenced, under a second instance verdict pronounced in Serbia in 2005, to six years in prison for crimes against Bosniaks in that municipality, said that paramilitary formations from Serbia, like Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan’s “Guard” and “Yellow Wasps”, committed crimes during 1992.
 
According to Grujic’s testimony, following “the unblocking” of Zvornik in April 1992, “Arkan and his major Peja took over the control”, leaving the local Serb leaders “without any powers”.
 
Grujic said that both Serbs and Bosniaks were “hostages and victims” of Serbian paramilitaries. He said that he informed Karadzic about the crimes in July 1992 and that Karadzic was “surprised and stunned”. Acting on Karadzic’s warrant, a special police unit then arrested members of paramilitary units, Grujic said.
 
Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, is charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage. In addition, he is charged with persecution of Bosniaks and Croats in 20 municipalities, including Zvornik.
 
During the cross-examination Prosecutor Catrina Gustafsson faced Grujic with evidence, indicating that Raznatovic’s paramilitary forces were invited by local authorities, namely by Police Station Commander Dragan Spasojevic. Grujic did not deny that.
 
“Arkan made all decisions and commanded the forces during the attack on Zvornik. Later on he gave that over to his major Peja,” Grujic said, confirming that, following the occupation of Zvornik, the local authorities invited and considered all Serb volunteers welcome and that they did not ask who they were or where they had come from.
 
Grujic did not deny having welcomed Vojin Vuckovic, known as Zuca, former leader of “Yellow Wasps”, whose members committed grave crimes against Bosniaks later on, on April 8, 1992. “Each hand and each man was welcome, as far as we were concerned… It is true that I did not ask them who they were or where they had come from,” he said.
 
After having been presented with some documents by the Prosecutor, Grujic confirmed that the local authorities paid “the volunteers”, who joined the local Territorial Defence unit. He said that it was done at a request by Commander Marko Pavlovic, whose name, as it turned out later, was actually Branko Popovic.
 
In 2010 the Belgrade Court sentenced Popovic, who stood trial along with Grujic, to 15 years in prison for crimes committed in Zvornik.

When the witness said that Bosniaks left Kozluk village at their own initiative in June 1992, Prosecutor Gustafsson presented him with a fact determined under the Belgrade verdict, saying that the Kozluk residents were deported after Grujic and others had given them a short deadline to pack and provided transportation.
 
“That is not true… The Court wanted to sentence me at all costs… The traitorous regime of (the then Serbian President) Boris Tadic needed it, so he could visit Brussels and Bosnia and apologise… I was sentenced without one single piece of evidence,” Grujic said.
 
The Prosecutor said that the verdict determined that “higher authorities”, in fact Karadzic himself, were involved in the deportation of Kozluk residents. Grujic denied her allegation. He said that Karadzic “did not even mention” the resettlement of Bosniaks.
 
Prosecutor Gustafsson then presented him with an extract from Ratko Mladic’s diary taken during a meeting in Zvornik in June 1992, indicating that Grujic said, in Karadzic’s presence, that “the President’s decision to populate Kozluk and Divic with our children has been carried out.”
 
“I neither said those words nor mentioned President Karadzic. Mladic was either drunk or did not hear it well… and, he liked to drink,” Grujic said.
 
The trial is due to continue on Wednesday, June 26.