Bosnian Serb Soldiers Tried for Kozarac Killings

Prosecutor Cazim Hasanspahic said in his opening remarks on Wednesday that he would prove that ex-soldiers Mitar and Rade Vlasenko and Drago Koncar were guilty of the murder and persecution of non-Serbs.

“Honourable court, all the evidence and all the witnesses will undoubtedly prove the guilt of the three defendants and after this trial is over, the chamber will be able to conclude without a doubt that they are guilty of all the charges,” said prosecutor Cazim Hasanspahic.

The prosecution alleges that the three men took part in the search of Bosniak houses in Kozarac on May 26, 1992, then took a group of civilians to one house where they were abused, and sent the men from the group to the Omarska, Trnopolje and Keraterm detention camps.

All three are also charged with killing a group of eight civilians hiding in a house in Kozarac on June 4, 1992.

Rade Vlasenko is further charged with taking two prisoners from the Trnopolje camp in July or August 1992 and killing one of them.

The prosecutor said he would call 23 witnesses who would describe the systematic and widespread attack on the Bosniak civilian population in Prijedor and the participation of the defendants in that attack.

The three defence teams did not present opening statements but claimed that the case was only opened under pressure from NGOs.

“The entire case was initiated by a criminal complaint last year and in the summer of this year, we already had an indictment, so we must ask ourselves, how can an investigation be dormant from 2005 and then opened so suddenly since the end of last year?” asked Savan Zec, Koncar’s lawyer.

Zec said that a criminal complaint was filed last year in a different case for the killings of three Serb civilians in Kozarac and the defendants were listed as witnesses. He suggested the war crimes prosecution could be an attempt to show they should not be trusted as witnesses in the other case.

The first witnesses will be called on December 10.