Witness Describes Arrival of Paramilitary Group Known as “Mice” to Teslic

Mehmedovic testified at the trial of Dragan Marjanovic, Sasa Gavranovic, Vitomir Devic, Zoran Sljuk, Dragomir Kezunovic, and Darijo Slavuljica. They have been charged with illegally detaining and abusing Bosnian Muslims and Croats at the police station, Territorial Defence warehouse, and Pribinic prison in Teslic. They are also charged with taking 28 prisoners from Teslic to Mount Broje and killing them there, on June 17, 1992.Sabahudin Mehmedovic said the defendants’ unit was called “Mice” or the “Red Berets” and that they abused the civilian population. He said they wore red berets. Mehmedovic said he saw members of this unit in front of the Teslic municipal building. Several hours later, he was detained at the local police station. He had worked as a commander there until April 1992.Mehmedovic described how two police officers brought him in for questioning, and said he was then transferred to the Teslic police station.“I saw ten to twelve people there, I can’t recall exactly how many. They were professors, intellectuals of non-Serb nationality,” Mehmedovic said.According to Mehmedovic, two unknown men came for him that night. They ordered him to face a wall. Mehmedovic assumed they were members of the “Mice” or “Red Berets” formation.“They beat us,” said Mehmedovic. He said he was forced to sing patriotic Serbian songs, such as ‘Who Says that Serbia is Small.’Mehmedovic said some prisoners were taken outside, and that their screams could be heard. Several days after his detention at the police station, he was taken to the Territorial Defence warehouse in Teslic. Members of the “Mice” or “Red Berets” formation were stationed there.According to Mehmedovic, non-Serbs from the village of Pribinic were brought to the warehouse and were “broken from beatings.”The indictment states that Marjanovic was commander of the First Unit of the Teslic Brigade Military police, while the others belonged to same unit. All of the defendants were members of the “Mice” or “Red Berets” paramilitary formation.The witness said he didn’t know the defendants. The trial continues on March 12.