THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, May 7 (Hina) - Protected witness B-1070, who testifies in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, spoke on Wednesday about the execution of several
hundred Bosniak civilians in Bratunac, eastern Bosnia, after the occupation of the town by Serb paramilitary and Yugoslav People's Army units in April 1992.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, May 7 (Hina) - Protected witness B-1070, who
testifies in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, spoke on
Wednesday about the execution of several hundred Bosniak civilians
in Bratunac, eastern Bosnia, after the occupation of the town by
Serb paramilitary and Yugoslav People's Army units in April 1992.
#L#
The witness described how the Serb forces took over control over
Bratunac without encountering any resistance, and how in May around
3,000 Bosniaks, including women and children, were taken to a local
soccer stadium, where more than 700 men fit for military service
were separated and taken to a local gymnasium and a nearby hangar.
Around 300 more men were brought to the two buildings in the
following days.
More than 600 prisoners were killed during three-day executions,
which started in the gymnasium and in front of it on May 10, the
witness said, adding he had personally seen five men kill dozens of
prisoners, his relatives, friends and acquaintances.
"The killing started after the arrival of special police forces
from Belgrade and Arkan's and Seselj's troops," the witness said,
adding the lists of people to be executed had been compiled by local
Serbs and leaders of the Serb Democratic Party.
The JNA's Semberija Corps, which was stationed around the stadium
and gymnasium, did not prevent the executions, but helped in the
ethnic cleansing of surrounding Bosniak villages, the witness
said.
A mass grave, believed to contain the bodies of people killed in the
gymnasium, was discovered in the village of Rezici late last year.
After the executions stopped, which he believes happened so
prisoners could be swapped, 401 survivors, including the witness,
were taken to Pale and exchanged for Serb prisoners.
Speaking about the bestialities and horrors which happened in the
gymnasium, the witness described how the executors had ordered a
man to choose between his two sons the one who would be spared, and
when he refused to do so, he was killed along with his sons.
Milosevic accused the witness of having participated, as a member
of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in crimes in the Serb villages of
Sikiric, Bjelovac and Loznicka Rijeka, but the witness dismissed
the accusations, stating that at the time he had been at Kladanj.
Milosevic avoided questions about the massacre in the gymnasium,
distancing himself with the claim that it had been committed by
criminals. Instead, he tried to prove that Bosniaks had been arming
themselves before the war, setting up paramilitary units and
committing crimes in Serb villages.
Since the end of March the tribunal's prosecution has been calling
witnesses to war crimes from the Croatian and part of the Bosnian
section of the indictment to fill in voids in the schedule of
witness testimonies.
(hina) rml sb