THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Aug 29 (Hina) - A protected witness, registered as B-1054, was called to the stand by the prosecution on Friday to testify in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague-based war crimes
tribunal.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Aug 29 (Hina) - A protected witness, registered
as B-1054, was called to the stand by the prosecution on Friday to
testify in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic at the Hague-based war crimes tribunal. #L#
The witness testified about 70 Bosnian Muslim civilians, herself
included, being set on fire while detained in a house in Visegrad,
eastern Bosnia, in June 1992. She survived.
She described how a Serb paramilitary unit, led by brothers Milan
and Sredoje Lukic and Mitar Vasiljevic, locked some 70 Bosniak
women, children and elderly people, exiled from the village of
Koritnik, in a house in Visegrad. On June 14, 1991, the Serbs burnt
them alive.
After they confiscated the prisoners' money and jewellery, the Serb
soldiers spilled gasoline on the carpets in the house and set fire
to it using explosives. They shot at windows to prevent anybody from
escaping, the witness said.
The witness said she had managed to save her 13-year old son and
herself by jumping out of a ground floor window. She was shot in the
arm and leg. After that, she hid in a manhole for three days and
managed to get to a hospital eleven days later.
Six members of her family were burned alive in the house, she said,
adding that she did not know whether her son was even alive until she
reunited with him five years later.
The witness testified that while she was hiding in the manhole, she
had heard screams from a house in which there were a six-month-old
baby and some fifteen more children.
B-1054 also spoke of another such war crime in Visegrad, when the
same paramilitary group, led by Milan Lukic, burnt 80 Bosnian
Muslims in a house. She said she had learnt of this from a woman who
was the only survivor of the entire group.
The cases of burning civilians alive in Visegrad are cited among
individual cases of war crimes of which Milosevic is accused in the
indictment regarding Bosnia-Herzegovina. The annex of the
indictment contains a list of 58 unidentified bodies recovered from
the first house.
Milan and Sredoje Lukic, against whom the tribunal had issued an
indictment, are still at large, while Mitar Vasiljevic was
sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of five Bosniaks in
Visegrad. He provided an alibi for the time during which the 70
Muslims were burnt alive, since he was in a hospital at the time.
The testimony of witness B-1054 in the Vasiljevic trial was
included in the Milosevic case file.
During his cross-examination of the witness, Milosevic claimed the
massacre had nothing to do with Serbia or the ex-Yugoslav People's
Army (JNA), adding he did not have to defend himself from anything
in this case.
Milosevic questioned the reliability of the testimony, pointing to
some contradictions in relation to the witness's previous
depositions and information on her letter of discharge from
hospital.
Josip Josipovic, a member of the Croatian National Guard Corps in
the 1990's war, completed his testimony today.
In response to Milosevic's questions, Josipovic said that he had
seen a JNA helicopter unloading weapons for Serbs in the Una River
valley and spoke about massacres in Croat villages and the killing
of prisoners after his home town of Hrvatska Dubica fell into Serb
hands.
Milosevic insisted that the killings had stopped after the JNA's
arrival, to which Josipovic replied that "even today I am not
certain who was in the JNA, the TO (so-called Territorial Defence
units), or Serb paramilitaries".
In response to Milosevic's claim that there had been "general
chaos", the witness said "it was well-known who gave out orders to
everyone", pointing the finger at Milosevic.
Another protected witness from Visegrad, registered as 1505, began
his testimony in the continuation of today's trial. He will
continue testifying on Monday.
(hina) lml