THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, May 9 (Hina) - At the Slobodan Milosevic trial in The Hague, a prosecution witness, Dzemal Becirevic, on Friday spoke about the engagement of troops and air force from Serbia in fights against Bosnian army in the
areas of Bratunac in 1993 and Srebrenica in 1995.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, May 9 (Hina) - At the Slobodan Milosevic trial in
The Hague, a prosecution witness, Dzemal Becirevic, on Friday spoke
about the engagement of troops and air force from Serbia in fights
against Bosnian army in the areas of Bratunac in 1993 and Srebrenica
in 1995. #L#
The witness, who was an employee in the local defence sector in
Bratunac, eastern Bosnia, in 1992 and later an officer of the
Bosnian army, testified before the UN war crimes tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) how Serb forces had overrun Bratunac and
how they perpetrated atrocities against Muslims, who made up a
majority of the population in that part of Bosnia. According to the
witness, more than 1,000 civilians were killed in those
operations.
The witness testified how Serb forces, that had attacked the area,
had arrived from nearby Serbia via bridges across the Drina River in
the towns of Zvornik, Bratunac and Bajina Basta and backed up by
Serbian helicopters and aircraft.
After the enclave of Bratunac was seized by Serbs, some 10,000
residents and about 150 members of the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina
withdrew to Srebrenica, Becirevic said, adding that Srebrenica
served as shelter for some 40,000 civilians from other areas in
eastern Bosnia occupied by Serbs. He spoke about grave conditions
in the last Muslim-populated pocket which had no electricity or
water supply.
Clashes were of low intensity until the spring of 1995 when the Serb
forces launched an offensive against Srebrenica, he said and added
that prior to the fall of the town on 11 July 1995, he left
Srebrenica together with some 12,000 to 15,000 men who were heading
toward Tuzla.
The witness Becirevic, who is now a lawyer in Sarajevo, said that in
early 1992 when he was a local official in charge of defence, he had
turned down an order from the then Bosnian defence ministry to
deliver to the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) a register with lists of
possible draftees and had so made it impossible for the JNA to
conscript local Bosniaks (Muslim) for the war it was waging in
Croatia.
The witness said that at the time JNA officers and Serb Democratic
Party (SDS) local officials had told him that "if you Muslims do not
want to fight in Croatia, we do, so give us the military register".
He added that he refused to do so.
Cross-examining the witness, the indictee Milosevic, former
Serbian and Yugoslav president, accused him of committing crimes
against local Serbs in eastern Bosnia while he had been a member of
the Bosnian army.
On Friday, the prosecution in the Milosevic trial before the ICTY
began questioning a new witness to war crimes committed in the area
of Zvornik.
(hina) ms