THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, June 2 (Hina) - Two Bosniaks (Muslims) who, by chance, survived mass executions in the Zvornik municipality in eastern Bosnia in the spring of 1992, on Monday testified at the trial of ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, June 2 (Hina) - Two Bosniaks (Muslims) who, by
chance, survived mass executions in the Zvornik municipality in
eastern Bosnia in the spring of 1992, on Monday testified at the
trial of ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at the U.N. war
crimes tribunal in The Hague. #L#
A protected witness, registered as B-1445, described how he had
been the only survivor among 92 men, including his father and three
brothers, in the village of Drinjaca in late May 1992. Witness 1083
spoke about how he had survived the mass execution of civilians in a
slaughterhouse near Zvornik.
The indictment for genocide in Bosnia accuses Milosevic, among
else, for the liquidation of 55 Bosniaks in Drinjaca and 190 in the
Gerina slaughterhouse.
B-1445 described the circumstances of the then Yugoslav People's
Army (JNA), Territorial Defence (TO) and paramilitary troops
attacks on Drinjaca in late May 1992, able-bodied men being
detained in the village's Cultural Centre and men being taken out in
front of Zeljko Raznatovic aka Arkan's firing squad outside of the
Cultural Centre.
Although he was shot in the thigh and shoulder, the witness remained
conscious and managed to escape unnoticed while the soldiers were
off to get ammunition.
Milosevic claimed this was "a fairly confused description of
events", and it was "impossible that somebody had ordered that
prisoners of war and civilians be shot".
He suggested to the witness that the executions was an act of Serbs'
revenge for "crimes which Bosniaks committed previously in Serb
villages in Podrinje", but the witness responded that "there was a
plan to kill all able-bodied Bosniaks, transport women and children
to Tuzla and destroy mosques and houses to erase any trace of their
existence".
The witness said he did not want to listen to Milosevic's comments,
adding that 91 victims of the liquidation, which only he survived,
had been found in a mass grave.
The second witness described how a trade school in Karakaj, near
Zvornik, had been transformed into a concentration camp in June
1992, in which Serbs held some 750 men from surrounding Bosniak
villages.
Witness 1083 spoke about murders to which he was eyewitness and
about the liquidation of a total of 180 people in the school.
Under the pretext of exchanging prisoners, the witness was first
transported to the Pilice village where his father and brother were
killed, and then, along with 63 other people, to the Gerina
slaughterhouse, where executions were carried out as soon as the
prisoners got off the truck.
Witness 1083 will continue testifying Tuesday.
(hina) lml sb