Serbian indicted war criminals of Bosnian war

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Case Study:The Srebrenica Massacre, July 1995

2006-04-29T04:55:00.000-07:00

Summary

In the Bosnian silver-mining town of Srebrenica in July 1995, one of the most notorious modern acts of gendercide took place. While the international community and U.N. peacekeepers looked on, Serb forces separated civilian men from women and killed thousands of men en masse, or hunted them down in the forests.

The background

The events at Srebrenica mark the climax of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the most vicious and genocidal battlefront in the Balkans conflict. The conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina began in 1992 and featured largescale genocidal and gendercidal atrocities from the first. These are dealt with in a separate Bosnia case study. One of the largest massacres of the early part of the war took place at a gymnasium in the village of Bratunac in April 1992, when an estimated 350 Bosnian Muslim men were tortured to death and massacred by Serb paramilitaries and special police. Bratunac lay just outside Srebrenica, and would again serve as a killing ground when the city fell to Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

Srebrenica headlines (Photo, 9k)Although the Serbs seized Bratunac, they were not able to take Srebrenica itself. The city was defended by Naser Oric, a Rambo-like figure whose troops (and associated squads of civilian torbari, or "bag people") inflicted a number of smaller atrocities on Serb villages around the Srebrenica pocket. Eventually, in April 1993, Serb forces closed in for a final crushing of the town and Oric's forces. Serb General Ratko Mladic made it plain that he held a special grudge against the menfolk of Srebrenica, armed or unarmed. In scenes that gripped the attention of the world, hundreds of women and children were evacuated from Srebrenica before the Serb noose tightened and shut off all refugee flow. The plight of the city prompted the international community to declare Srebrenica one of five "safe areas" in Bosnia (the others were Zepa, Gorazde, Tuzla, Sarajevo, and Bihac in northwestern Bosnia). The meaning of the ambiguous term "safe area" was never properly defined, and sufficient forces were never committed to ensuring the safety of the Bosnian inhabitants. As events at Srebrenica two years later so grimly demonstrated, "the safe areas were among the most profoundly unsafe places in the world" (Silber and Little, The Death of Yugoslavia, p. 274.)

The gendercide

Srebrenica headlines.In June 1995, Bosnian Serb forces, pushing for a resolution to the ethnic "anomaly" of the Muslim enclaves, closed their noose around Srebrenica and the other "safe areas." In Srebrenica, mass panic took hold of the civilian population. Women and children gathered at the U.N. base of Potocari, together with about 1,700 men,while most of the "battle-age" males -- mostly unarmed non-combatants -- took to the hills in a desperate attempt to flee to Muslim-held territory to the west. At Potocari, Dutch troops meekly allowed the Serbs access to the camps and the refugees they held. Then, the following day -- July 11 -- some 1700 men, disproportionately the elderly and infirm, were separated from women and children. The peacekeepers "stood inches away from the Serb soldiers who were separating the Muslim men, one by one, from their families" (Sudetic, Blood and Vengeance, p. 306). At Serb command, the Dutch drew up a registry of 242 Bosnian men remaining in the camp, again mostly elderly and infirm. Then they handed the men over to the Serbs. Not one of the 242 men is known to have survived. The children and women were bused, with isolated exceptions, to safety in Tuzla. Men, almost without exception, were carted away to their deaths. (Note: Other sources cite 239 as the total number of men named on the list; for an account of how the 242 total was eventually arrived at, see the letter from Hasan Nuhanovic posted to the Women of Srebrenica website. The letter also gives a harrowingly detailed account of the separation of men and boys from the remainder of the population at the U.N. base, and the blatant Dutch complicity in the process. Thanks to Kate Myers for bringing this source to our attention.)

Many of the men were killed in the school gymnasium in Bratunac that had already served as the site of a gendercidal massacre in the Bosnian war. Many hundreds more were massacred at a football field near Nova Kasaba, the worst killing ground of the entire five-day slaughter. Human Rights Watch recorded the testimony of one eyewitness to the gendercidal massacres at Nova Kasaba. The Serbs, he said,

picked out Muslims whom they either knew about or knew, interrogated them and made them dig pits. ...During our first day, the Cetniks [Serbs] killed approximately 500 people [men]. They would just line them up and shoot them into the pits. The approximately one hundred guys whom they interrogated and who had dug the mass graves then had to fill them in. At the end of the day, they were ordered to dig a pit for themselves and line up in front of it. ... [T]hey were shot into the mass grave. ... At dawn, ... [a] bulldozer arrived and dug up a pit ..., and buried about 400 men alive. The men were encircled by Cetniks: whoever tried to escape was shot." (Quoted in Mark Danner, "The Killing Fields of Bosnia", New York Review of Books, September 24 1998.)

A great many of the men who had sought to flee through the hills to Tuzla were doomed as well. The Bosnian Serb commander, Gen. Radivoj Krstic, in a radio transmission intercepted by western eavesdroppers, told his forces: "You must kill everyone. We don't need anyone alive." (Mark Danner, "Bosnia: The Great Betrayal", New York Review of Books, March 26 1998.) Serb forces took special pleasure in isolating trees where men had sought to hide, and riddling them with shrapnel from anti-aircraft guns.

Map of the course of the Srebrenica massacre.

Trapped in the hills under Serb bombardment, sleepless and thirst-maddened, men succumbed to hallucinations, paranoia, and despair. "The psyches of the men ruptured. Muslims mistook other Muslims for infiltrators. They threw hand grenades and fired their automatics at one another. ... Men shot themselves hoping the Serbs would show the wounded mercy" (Sudetic, Blood and Vengeance, p. 301). Many committed suicide. Thousands finally surrendered to Serb troops along the "Ring of Iron," who lured them with the sight of captured UN vehicles and promises of safe passage. All of those captured were taken to nearby fields and warehouses, executed, and buried in mass graves.

Summarizing the catastrophe in 1997, David Rohde -- who as a journalist with the Christian Science Monitor won a Pulitzer Prize for uncovering the first mass graves around Srebrenica -- offered a blistering critique of the moral lapse on the part of the "safe area's" alleged guardians: "The international community partially disarmed thousands of men, promised them they would be safeguarded and then delivered them to their sworn enemies. Srebrenica was not simply a case of the international community standing by as a far-off atrocity was committed. The actions of the international community encouraged, aided, and emboldened the executioners. ... The fall of Srebrenica did not have to happen. There is no need for thousands of skeletons to be strewn across eastern Bosnia. There is no need for thousands of Muslim children to be raised on stories of their fathers, grandfathers, uncles and brothers slaughtered by Serbs." (Rohde, Endgame, pp. 351, 353.)

How many died?

The Red Cross lists 7,079 dead and missing at Srebrenica. Other estimates range as high as 8,000 or 10,000. David Rohde notes that the massacre "accounts for an astonishing percentage of the number of missing" from the brutal Balkans conflict as a whole. "Of the 18,406 Muslims, Serbs and Croats reported still missing ... as of January 1997, 7,079 are people [men] who disappeared after the fall of Srebrenica. In other words, approximately 38 percent of the war's missing are from Srebrenica." By any standard, it was one of the worst and most concentrated acts of gendercide in the post-World War II era -- and the worst massacre of any kind in Europe for fifty years.

Who is responsible?

Chuck Sudetic writes of the Srebrenica massacre that "the men who carried out the executions were reportedly under orders handed down by General [Ratko] Mladic and Radislav Krstic, a colonel in the Bosnian army who was promoted to general and named commander of the army's Drina corps by Mladic within a few days of the killings. Among the units that took part in the killings was the Tenth Commando squad, which answered directly to Mladic's headquarters ... Men from Srebrenica, Bratunac, Kravica, Milii, Visegrad, Bajina Basta, Loznica, Zvornik, and other towns also participated." (Sudetic, Blood and Vengeance, pp. 317-18.)

Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.In 1996, the International Criminal Tribunal indicted Mladic and Krstic for crimes of humanity committed at Srebrenica. Joining them on the list of indicted war-criminals was Radovan Karadzic, leader of the self-styled "Republika Srpska" or Serb-controlled territories in Bosnia. Karadzic was intimately involved in planning the "endgame" in the Bosnian war, for which Srebrenica was to serve as a centerpiece. In July 1999, the Tribunal found that these mass murderers had been operating under "a direct chain of military command" from Belgrade and the Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic. For the first time, the Tribunal defined the Bosnian war as "an international conflict," recognizing both Bosnian independence and Serbian aggression . As yet, however, Milosevic remains unindicted for the atrocities he directed in Bosnia.

The United Nations must shoulder a large share of responsibility for allowing the massacre to take place under the noses of its troops. In November 1999, the UN released a highly self-critical report on its performance, stating that "Through error, misjudgment and the inability to recognize the scope of evil confronting us, we failed to do our part to save the people of Srebrenica from the Serb campaign of mass murder." (See Barbara Crossette, "U.N. Details Its Failure to Stop '95 Bosnian Massacre", The New York Times, November 16 1999.)

The blame surely extends to the member states of the United Nations -- perhaps especially to its most powerful member, the United States. As The Economist magazine has noted,

The received version [of events] ... is that Bill Clinton and Al Gore vowed to "bomb the Serbs" and end the war when they were shocked to learn that thousands of Muslims had been massacred at Srebrenica. But, the reader cannot help asking, was news of this impending massacre -- the worst in Europe since 1945 -- really not available to America's two most powerful figures beforehand?

At earlier stages in Bosnia's war, when Muslim strongholds like Gorazde or Bihac had been on the verge of falling, America had worked (without the promise of ground troops) to galvanise its allies -- insisting that battle-plans be drawn up, and threats of bombing be issued, so as to warn off the Serbs. Yet in the final days and hours of the advance on Srebrenica, which American intelligence could monitor closely, Washington fell strangely silent. Srebrenica duly fell, with consequences which were unspeakable in human terms, but not inconvenient diplomatically.

Perhaps it is conspiratorial to assume that America's tardy reaction to Srebrenica reflected calculation rather than negligence. But the question needs asking ... ("Inside Out," The Economist, September 8, 2001).

The aftermath

The Women of Srebrenica. Extensive forensic investigations of the Srebrenica massacre sites has so far turned up some 3,000 bodies. Only a few have been successfully identified. They are held at a combined memorial and mortuary in Tuzla (see photo at the top of this page). The forensics teams who worked on the Srebrenica and Vukovar sites gathered vital experience in their exhumation of the graves, and were able to employ their skills anew in the Kosovo gendercide four years later. (See Stover and Peress, The Graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar.)

The memory of Srebrenica's men was kept alive by their womenfolk. They stormed Red Cross offices in Tuzla in early 1996 to protest the stalled investigations into the fate of their missing men, and did so again on the fourth anniversary of the massacre in 1999. Organized as "The Women of Srebrenica," they have recently launched their own website (www.srebrenica.org). The group's list of primary demands reads as follows:

* The full facts of Srebrenica should be revealed and publicised.
* All graves should be exhumed and bodies identified without delay.
* Any survivors of Srebrenica held prisoner in Republika Srpska [Bosnian Serb territories] or the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia should be released immediately.
* The people of Srebrenica should be enabled to return to their homes.
* There should be a full & open international investigation into the failure of the UN to protect the Safe Area of Srebrenica.
* All indicted and suspected war criminals, including Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and Slobodan Milosevic, and all those complicit with genocide, should be arrested and brought to trial.

quote1.jpgIn Spring 2000, General Radislav Krstic, "the highest-ranking Bosnian Serb commander before the UN War Crimes tribunal in The Hague," stood trial for the genocidal atrocities at Srebrenica. (See "Peacekeeper Tells of Serb Massacre", The Sydney Morning Herald, April 8, 2000.) In August 2001, Krstic was convicted and sentenced to 46 years in prison.

In March 2003, the first 600 identified victims of the Srebrenica massacre were returned to the town and buried in a powerful ceremony

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2006-03-24T19:35:00.000-08:00

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Indictments against Vojislav Seselj(notorious warlord)

2006-03-24T19:30:00.000-08:00

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

Case No. IT

THE PROSECUTOR OF THE TRIBUNAL
AGAINST
VOJISLAV SESELJ

INDICTMENT

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, pursuant to her authority under Article 18 of the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ("the Statute of the Tribunal"), charges:

VOJISLAV SESELJ

with CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY and VIOLATIONS OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR as set forth below:

THE ACCUSED

1. Vojislav SESELJ, son of Nikola SESELJ, was born on 11 October 1954 in Sarajevo, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Bosnia and Herzegovina"). He is a graduate of the faculty of law of Sarajevo University. He holds a Bachelor's Degree, a Masters Degree and a Doctorate obtained in 1976, 1978 and 1979 respectively. From 1981 to 1984 he worked as an assistant professor lecturing on political science at Sarajevo University.

2. Although he was originally a communist, Vojislav SESELJ eventually became critical of the communist regime in the former Yugoslavia and in the early 1980s he developed close relations with a group of Serbian nationalists. In 1984 he was convicted of "counter-revolutionary activities" and sentenced to eight years of imprisonment. Upon the commutation of the sentence by the Supreme Court of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ("SFRY") he was released in 1986.

3. After his release Vojislav SESELJ settled down in Belgrade and continued to engage in nationalistic politics. In 1989 he travelled to the USA and met the chairman of the "Movement of Chetniks in the Free World", Momcilo Dujic, who on the day of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo - 28 June 1989 – appointed him a Chetnik "Vojvoda", meaning a "Duke" or leader. Following this appointment Vojislav SESELJ travelled in the USA, Canada, Australia and Western Europe collecting funds to support his nationalistic activities. On 23 January 1990, Vojislav SESELJ became the leader of the Serbian Freedom Movement and on 14 March 1990, formed an alliance with Vuk Draskovic, another Serbian nationalist, and started the "Serbian Renewal Movement" ("SPO").

4. In June 1990 Vojislav SESELJ founded the "Serbian National Renewal Party", subsequently renamed the "Serbian Chetnik Movement". In the elections of December 1990 his party received almost 100,000 votes. Shortly thereafter, the authorities of the SFRY banned the "Serbian Chetnik Movement". On 23 February 1991, Vojislav SESELJ was appointed President of the newly founded "Serbian Radical Party" ("SRS"). In June 1991, he was elected a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. In almost daily rallies and election campaigns, he called for Serb unity and war against Serbia’s "historic enemies", namely the ethnic Croat, Muslim and Albanian populations within the territories of the former Yugoslavia. Additional relevant historical and political facts are set out in Annex I to this indictment.

INDIVIDUAL CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY
Article 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal

5. Vojislav SESELJ is individually criminally responsible for the crimes referred to in Articles 3 and 5 of the Statute of the Tribunal and described in this indictment, which he planned, ordered, instigated, committed or in whose planning, preparation, or execution he otherwise aided and abetted. By using the word "committed" in this indictment, the Prosecutor does not intend to suggest that the accused physically committed all of the crimes charged personally. "Committed" as used in this indictment includes the participation of Vojislav SESELJ in a joint criminal enterprise. By using the word "instigated", the Prosecution charges that the accused Vojislav SESELJ's speeches, communications, acts and/or omissions contributed to the perpetrators' decision to commit the crimes alleged.

6. Vojislav SESELJ participated in a joint criminal enterprise. The purpose of this joint criminal enterprise was the permanent forcible removal, through the commission of crimes in violation of Articles 3 and 5 of the Statute of the Tribunal, of a majority of the Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb populations from approximately one-third of the territory of the Republic of Croatia ("Croatia"), and large parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from parts of Vojvodina, in the Republic of Serbia ("Serbia"), in order to make these areas part of a new Serb-dominated state. With respect to Croatia the areas included those regions that were referred to by Serb authorities as the "SAO Krajina" (i.e. the Serb Autonomous Region of Krajina), the "SAO Western Slavonia", and the "SAO Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem" (after 19 December 1991, the "SAO Krajina" became known as the RSK ("Republic of Serbian Krajina"); on 26 February 1992, the "SAO Western Slavonia" and the "SAO Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem" joined the RSK), as well as the "Dubrovnik Republic /Dubrovacka republika/". With respect to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the areas included Bosanski Samac and Zvornik.
7. The crimes enumerated in this indictment were within the object of the joint criminal enterprise and Vojislav SESELJ had the knowledge and intention necessary for the commission of each of the crimes. Alternatively, the crimes enumerated in Counts 1 to 9 and 12 to 15 of the indictment were the natural and foreseeable consequences of the execution of the object of the joint criminal enterprise and Vojislav SESELJ was aware that such crimes were the possible outcome of the execution of the joint criminal enterprise.

8. The aforesaid joint criminal enterprise came into existence before l August 1991 and continued at least until December 1995. Vojislav SESELJ participated in the joint criminal enterprise until September 1993 when he had a conflict with Slobodan Milosevic. Vojislav SESELJ worked in concert with several individuals in the joint criminal enterprise to succeed in its objective. Each participant or co-perpetrator within the joint criminal enterprise played his or her role or roles that significantly contributed to the objective of the enterprise. Other individuals participating in this joint criminal enterprise included Slobodan MILOSEVIC, General Veljko KADIJEVIC, General Blagoje ADZIC, Colonel Ratko MLADIC, Jovica STANISIC, Franko SIMATOVIC also known as "Frenki", Radovan STOJICIC, also known as "Badza", Milan MARTIC, Goran HADZIC, Radovan KARADZIC, Momcilo KRAJISNIK, Biljana PLAVSIC, Zeljko RAZNATOVIC, also known as "Arkan", and other members of the Yugoslav People's Army ("JNA"), later the Yugoslav Army ("VJ"), the newly-formed Serb Territorial Defence ("TO") of Croatia and of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the army of the Republika Srpska Krajina ("SVK") and the army of the Republika Srpska ("VRS"), and the TOs of Serbia and of Montenegro, local Serb, Republic of Serbia and Republika Srpska police forces ("MUP forces"), including the State Security/Drzavna bezbednost/ ("DB") Branch of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia, and Serb special police forces of the SAO Krajina and the RSK commonly referred to as "Martic's Police", Marticevci", "SAO Krajina Police" or "SAO Krajina Milicija" (hereinafter "Martic's Police") and members of Serbian, Montenegrin, Bosnian and Croatian Serb paramilitary forces and volunteer units including "Chetniks", or "Seseljevci" (translated into English as "Seselj’s men") (collectively, "Serb forces"), and other political figures from the (S)FRY, the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Montenegro and the Bosnian and Croatian Serb leadership.

9. Vojislav SESELJ, as President of the SRS, was a prominent political figure in the SFRY/FRY in the time period relevant to this indictment. He propagated a policy of uniting "all Serbian lands" in a homogeneous Serbian state. He defined the so-called Karlobag-Ogulin-Karlovac-Virovitica line as the western border of this new Serbian state (which he called "Greater Serbia") which included Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and considerable parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

10. Vojislav SESELJ, acting alone and in concert with other members of the joint criminal enterprise, participated in the joint criminal enterprise in the following ways:

1. He participated in the recruitment, formation, financing, supply, support and direction of Serbian volunteers connected to the SRS, commonly known as "Chetniks", or "Seseljevci". These volunteer units were created and supported to assist in the execution of the joint criminal enterprise through the commission of crimes in violation of Articles 3 and 5 of the Statute of the Tribunal.

2. He made inflammatory speeches in the media, during public events, and during visits to the volunteer units and other Serb forces in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, instigating those forces to commit crimes in violation of Articles 3 and 5 of the Statute of the Tribunal.

3. He espoused and encouraged the creation of a homogeneous "Greater Serbia", encompassing the territories specified in this indictment, by violence, and thereby participated in war propaganda and incitement of hatred towards non-Serb people.

4. In public speeches he called for the expulsion of Croat civilians from parts of the Vojvodina region in Serbia and thus instigated his followers and the local authorities to engage in a persecution campaign against the local Croat population.

5. He participated in the planning and preparation of the take-over of villages in two SAOs in Croatia and in the municipalities of Bosanski Samac and Zvornik in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the subsequent forcible removal of the majority of the non-Serb population from these areas.

6. He participated in the provision of financial, material, logistical and political support necessary for such take-overs. He obtained this support, with the help of Slobodan Milosevic, from the Serbian authorities and from Serbs living abroad where he collected funds to support the aim of the joint criminal enterprise.

7. He recruited Serbian volunteers connected to the SRS and indoctrinated them with his extreme ethnic rhetoric so that they engaged in the forcible removal of the non-Serb population in the targeted territories through the commission of crimes as specified in this indictment with particular violence and brutality.

11. Vojislav SESELJ knowingly and wilfully participated in the joint criminal enterprise, sharing the intent of other participants in the joint criminal enterprise or being aware of the foreseeable consequences of their actions. On this basis, he bears individual criminal responsibility for the crimes under Article 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal, in addition to his responsibility under the same Article for having planned, ordered instigated, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation and execution of those crimes.

GENERAL LEGAL ALLEGATIONS

12. At all times relevant to this indictment, a state of armed conflict existed in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. A nexus existed between this state of armed conflict and the alleged crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of Vojvodina, Serbia.

13. At all times relevant to this indictment, Vojislav SESELJ was required to abide by the laws and customs governing the conduct of armed conflicts.

14. Conduct charged as crimes against humanity was part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilian populations within large areas of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Vojvodina, Serbia.

THE CHARGES:

COUNT 1
(PERSECUTIONS)

15. From on or about 1 August 1991 until at least September 1993, Vojislav SESELJ, acting individually or in concert with known and unknown members of the joint criminal enterprise, planned, ordered, instigated, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of persecutions of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilian populations in the territories of the SAO Western Slavonia and the SAO SBWS (Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem), and in the municipalities of Bosanski Samac and Zvornik in Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of Vojvodina in Serbia.

16. Throughout this period, Serb forces, comprising JNA (and subsequently the VJ) units, local Serb TO units (which were subsequently transformed into the army of the RSK ("SVK") and the army of the Republika Srpska ("VRS")), and TO units from Serbia and Montenegro, local Serb and Republic of Serbia MUP police units and volunteer and paramilitary units, including the volunteers recruited and/or instigated by Vojislav SESELJ, attacked and took control of towns and villages in these territories. After the take-over, these Serb forces, in co-operation with the local Serb authorities, established a regime of persecutions designed to drive the non-Serb civilian population from these territories.

17. These persecutions were committed on political, racial and religious grounds and included:

1. The extermination or murder of many Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilians, including women and elderly persons, in the municipality of Vukovar and the villages of Vocin, Hum, Bokane and Kraskovic in Croatia, in the municipalities of Bosanski Samac and Zvornik in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as described in detail in paragraphs 18 to 23.

2. The prolonged and routine imprisonment and confinement of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilians in the detention facilities within Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, including prison camps in Vukovar, in and near Vocin, and in Bosanski Samac and Zvornik, as described in detail in paragraphs 24 to 26.

3. The establishment and perpetuation of inhumane living conditions for Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilian detainees within the detention facilities referred to.

4. The repeated torture, beatings and killings of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilian detainees in the said detention facilities.

5. The prolonged and frequent forced labour of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilians detained in the said detention facilities or under house arrest in their respective homes in Vukovar, Vocin, Bosanski Samac and Zvornik. The forced labour included digging of graves, loading of ammunition for the Serb forces, digging of trenches and other forms of manual labour at the frontlines.

6. The sexual assaults of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilians by Serb soldiers during capture and in the detention facilities.

7. The imposing of restrictive and discriminatory measures against the Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilian populations, including persons in Vocin in Croatia and Bosanski Samac and Zvornik in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in parts of Vojvodina, Serbia, such as restriction of movement; removal from positions of authority in local government institutions and the police; dismissal from jobs; denial of medical care, and arbitrary searches of homes.

8. The torture, beating and robbing of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilians.

9. The deportation or forcible transfer of tens of thousands of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilians from the territories as specified above, and from parts of Vojvodina, Serbia as described in detail in paragraphs 27 to 29.

10. The deliberate destruction of homes, other public and private property, cultural institutions, historic monuments and sacred sites of the Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilian populations in the municipality of Vukovar and in Vocin, in Croatia, and in the municipalities of Bosanski Samac and Zvornik in Bosnia and Herzegovina as described in detail in paragraph 31.

By his participation in these acts, Vojislav SESELJ committed:

Count 1: Persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, punishable under Articles 5(h) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

COUNTS 2 to 4
(EXTERMINATION and MURDER)

18. From on or about 1 August 1991 until June 1992 in the territory of the SAO SBWS in Vukovar and the SAO Western Slavonia in Vocin, from on or abourch 1992 until at least September 1993 in the municipality of Zvornik in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from on or about 1 April 1992 until at least Set 1 Maptember 1993 in the municipality of Bosanski Samac in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vojislav SESELJ, acting individually or in concert with other known and unknown members of a joint criminal enterprise, planned, ordered, instigated, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation, or execution of the extermination and murder of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilians as specified in paragraphs 19 to 23 of this indictment.

CROATIA

SAO WESTERN SLAVONIA

19. Beginning in August 1991, Serb forces including the volunteer units known as "Seselj’s men" were in control of Vocin. In November 1991 Vojislav SESELJ visited Vocin and addressed the volunteers. Incited by Vojislav SESELJ’s speeches, the volunteer units, in particular "Seselj’s men", started burning houses of Croat citizens and killing Croat civilians in the villages of Vocin, Hum, Bokane and Kraskovic until their withdrawal from the region on 13 December 1991. They went from house to house and killed whomever they found, in total forty-three civilians. Some of those who hid survived. The names of the victims are set out in Annex II attached to this indictment.

SAOSBWS - VUKOVAR

20. In November 1991 while Serb forces fought to take over Vukovar, Vojislav SESELJ visited the town and publicly pronounced "Not one Ustasha must leave Vukovar alive", thus instigating the killing of Croats. On or about 20 November 1991, as part of the overall persecution campaign, Serb military forces including members of the JNA and TO and volunteer and paramilitary forces under the command, control or influence of the JNA, the TO SBWS and other participants of the joint criminal enterprise, including volunteers recruited and/or incited by Vojislav SESELJ, removed approximately four hundred Croats and other non-Serbs from Vukovar Hospital in the aftermath of the Serb take-over of the city. Approximately three hundred of these non-Serbs were transported to the JNA barracks and then to the Ovcara farm located about 5 kilometres south of Vukovar. There, members of the Serb forces beat and tortured the victims for hours. During the evening of 20 November 1991, the soldiers transported the victims in groups of 10-20 to a remote execution site between the Ovcara farm and Grabovo, where they shot and killed approximately two hundred and fifty-five non-Serbs from Vukovar Hospital. Their bodies were buried in a mass grave. The names of the murder victims are set out in Annex III attached to this indictment.

21. After Serb forces took control of Vukovar on 18 November 1991, over one thousand civilians gathered at the Velepromet facility. Some were compelled to go there by Serb forces and others went voluntarily seeking protection. By 19 November 1991, approximately two thousand people were gathered inside the Velepromet facility. The JNA considered about eight hundred of these persons to be prisoners of war. By the evening of 19 November 1991, shortly after the JNA began to transfer the alleged prisoners of war to their Sremska Mitorovica detention facility in Serbia, Serb forces, including volunteers recruited and/or incited by Vojislav SESELJ, separated a number of individuals from the alleged group of prisoners of war. They took these selected individuals out of the Velepromet facility and killed them. The bodies of some of those killed were transported to the Ovcara farm and buried there in the mass grave while the bodies of six other victims were left lying on the ground behind the Velepromet facility. The names of these six victims are set out in Annex IV attached to this indictment.

BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA

ZVORNIK

22. In March 1992, Vojislav SESELJ gave a speech at a rally in Mali Zvornik, located across the Drina river from Zvornik. Vojislav SESELJ said: "Dear Chetnik brothers, especially you across the Drina river, you are the bravest ones. We are going to clean Bosnia of pagans and show them a road which will take them to the east, where they belong", thus instigating the persecution of non-Serbs in Zvornik. In April 1992, Serb forces, including volunteers known as "Seselj's men" and "Arkan's tigers", attacked and took control of the town of Zvornik and surrounding villages. During the attack, Serb forces killed many non-Serb civilians. On or about 9 April 1992, members of Arkan's unit executed twenty Bosnian Muslim and Croat men and boys in Zvornik town. Following the take-over, non-Serbs were routinely detained, beaten, tortured and killed. Hundreds of non-Serb civilians were detained in or near Zvornik from April to July 1992 in the "Standard" shoe factory, the "Ciglana" factory, the Ekonomija farm, the Novi Izvor building and the Celopek Dom Kulture. On or about 12 May 1992, at the Ekonomija farm, Serb forces, including the leader of a group of "Seselj's men", beat to death a detainee named Nesib Dautovic. In May 1992, Serb forces killed two non-Serb male detainees at the Novi Izvor building. Between 1 and 5 June 1992, Serb forces killed more than 150 Bosnian Muslim males at Karakaj Technical School. Between 7 and 9 June 1992, Serb forces killed more than 150 detainees at Gero's slaughter-house. Serb forces killed more than forty non-Serb male detainees between 1 and 26 June 1992 at Celopek Dom Kulture. The names of the identified victims at Karakaj Technical School, Gero's slaughter-house and Celopek Dom Kulture are set out in Annex V to this indictment.

BOSANSKI SAMAC

23. In April 1992, Serb forces, including volunteers known as "Seselj's men", attacked and took control of the town of Bosanski Samac and surrounding villages. Following the take-over, hundreds of non-Serbs were routinely detained, beaten and tortured in the police headquarters building ("SUP"), the Territorial Defence building ("TO"), the primary and secondary schools, as well as the warehouse of the agricultural co-operative located in Crkvina, to the south-west of the town of Bosanski Samac, and dozens were killed. On or about 7 May 1992, two leaders of a unit of "Seselj's men" shot and killed eighteen men and boys in the warehouse of the agricultural co-operative in Crkvina. The names of the victims at Crkvina are set out in Annex VI to this indictment.

By his participation in these acts, Vojislav SESELJ committed:

Count 2: Extermination, a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, punishable under Articles 5(b) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 3: Murder, a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, punishable under Articles 5(a) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 4: Murder, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR, as recognised by Common Article 3(1)(a) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, punishable under Articles 3 and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

COUNTS 5 to 9
(IMPRISONMENT, TORTURE, OTHER INHUMANE ACTS and CRUEL TREATMENT)

24. From August 1991 until September 1992 Vojislav SESELJ, acting individually or in concert with other known and unknown members of a joint criminal enterprise, planned, ordered, instigated, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of the imprisonment under inhumane conditions of Muslim, Croat and other non-Serb civilians in the territories listed above.

25. Serb military forces, comprising JNA (and subsequently the VJ), Croatian and Bosnian Serb TO units (which were subsequently transformed into the army of the RSK ("SVK") and the army of the Republika Srpska ("VRS")), volunteer and paramilitary units, including those volunteer units recruited and/or incited by Vojislav SESELJ, acting in co-operation with local police staff and local Serb authorities, captured and detained hundreds of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilians. They were detained in the following short- and long-term detention facilities:

1. The Velepromet warehouse, Vukovar, SAO SBWS, November 1991, run by JNA, approximately twelve hundred detainees.

2. The Ovcara farm, near Vukovar, SAO SBWS, November 1991, run by JNA, approximately three hundred detainees.

3. The basement of the bank building in Vocin in October 1991, several detainees.

4. The "Lager Sekulinci" near Vocin in August 1991, three detainees.

5. The "Standard" shoe factory, the "Ciglana" factory, the Ekonomija farm, the Novi Izvor building and the Celopek Dom Kulture in Zvornik, Bosnia and Herzegovina between April and July 1992, hundreds of detainees.

6. The police headquarters building ("SUP"), the Territorial Defence building ("TO"), the primary and secondary schools in Bosanski Samac, and the warehouse in the agricultural co-operative in Crkvina, near Bosanski Samac, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, between April and September 1992, hundreds of detainees.

26. The living conditions in these detention facilities were brutal and characterised by inhumane treatment, overcrowding, starvation, forced labour, inadequate medical care and systematic physical and psychological assault, including torture, beatings and sexual assault.

By his participation in these acts, Vojislav SESELJ committed:

Count 5: Imprisonment, a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, punishable under Articles 5(e) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 6: Torture, a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, punishable under Articles 5(f) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 7: Inhumane acts, a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, punishable under Articles 5(i) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 8: Torture, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR as recognised by Common Article 3(1)(a) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, punishable under Articles 3 and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 9: Cruel Treatment, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR as recognised by Common Article 3(1)(a) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, punishable under Articles 3 and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

COUNTS 10 to 11
(DEPORTATION, FORCIBLE TRANSFER)

27. From on or about 1 August 1991 until May 1992 in the SAOs in Croatia and the RSK, from on or about 1 March 1992 until at least September 1993 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in May 1992 in parts of Vojvodina, Serbia, Vojislav SESELJ, acting individually or in concert with other known and unknown members of the joint criminal enterprise, planned, instigated, committed, or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation, or execution of the deportation or forcible transfer of the Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilian populations from their legal domiciles, in Vukovar (SAO SBWS) in November 1991 and in Vocin (SAO Western Slavonia) in November and December 1991, in the municipality of Zvornik in Bosnia and Herzegovina between March 1992 and September 1993, in the municipality of Bosanski Samac in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and September 1993, and in parts of Vojvodina, Serbia, including the village of Hrtkovci, in May 1992.

28. In order to achieve this objective, Serb forces comprising JNA (and subsequently the VJ), local Croatian and Bosnian Serb TO units (which were subsequently transformed into the army of the RSK ("SVK") and the army of the Republika Srpska ("VRS")) and those from the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro, and volunteers and paramilitaries, including the "White Eagles" and "Dusan Silni", as well as volunteers recruited and/or incited by Vojislav SESELJ, in co-operation with local and Serbian police units, surrounded Croatian and Bosnian towns and villages and demanded that the inhabitants surrender their weapons, including legally owned hunting rifles. Then, the towns and villages were attacked or otherwise taken-over, even those where the inhabitants had complied with the demands. These attacks were intended to compel the population to flee. After taking control of the towns and villages, the Serb forces sometimes rounded up the remaining Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb civilian populations and forcibly transported them to locations within Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina not controlled by Serbs, or deported them to locations outside Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, in particular Serbia and Montenegro. On other occasions, Serb forces, in co-operation with the local Serb authorities, imposed restrictive and discriminatory measures on the non-Serb population and engaged in a campaign of terror designed to drive them out of the territory. The majority of the non-Serbs that remained were deported or forcibly transferred from their homes on a later date.

29. In May 1992, Vojislav SESELJ came to Vojvodina and met with his associates in the SRS. Vojislav SESELJ instructed his associates to contact non-Serbs and threaten them with death if they did not leave the area. On 6 May 1992 Vojislav SESELJ gave an inflammatory speech in the village of Hrtkovci, Vojvodina, calling for the expulsion of Croats from the area and reading a list of individual Croat residents who should leave for Croatia. After this speech, a campaign of ethnic cleansing directed at non-Serbs, particularly Croats, began in Hrtkovci. During the next three months, many non-Serbs were harassed, threatened with death and intimidated, forcing them to leave the area. Homes of Croats were looted and occupied by Serbs. Serb families who had been displaced from other parts of the former Yugoslavia often occupied the homes of those non-Serbs who were compelled to leave.

30. By his participation in these acts, Vojislav SESELJ committed:

Count 10: Deportation, a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, punishable under Articles 5(d) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 11: Inhumane Acts (Forcible Transfers), a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, punishable under Articles 5(i) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

COUNTS 12 to 15
(WANTON DESTRUCTION, PLUNDER OF PUBLIC OR PRIVATE PROPERTY and UNLAWFUL ATTACKS ON CIVILIAN OBJECTS)

31. From on or about 1 August 1991 until May 1992 in the territories of the SAOs in Croatia and the RSK, from on or about 1 March 1992 until at least September 1993 in the municipality of Zvornik in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from on or about 1 April 1992 until at least September 1993 in the municipality of Bosanski Samac in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vojislav SESELJ, acting individually or in concert with other known and unknown members of the joint criminal enterprise, planned, ordered, instigated, committed, or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation, or execution of the wanton destruction and plunder of public and private property of the Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb populations, acts which were not justified by military necessity. This intentional and wanton destruction and plunder included the plunder and destruction of homes and religious and cultural buildings, and took place in the following towns and villages:

SAO SBWS: Vukovar; (hundreds of homes destroyed)

SAO Western Slavonia: Vocin and Hum; (dozens of homes and a Catholic church destroyed) and

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosanski Samac (hundreds of homes and a mosque destroyed) and Zvornik (hundreds of homes and dozens of mosques destroyed).

32. By his participation in these acts, Vojislav SESELJ committed:

Count 12: Wanton destruction of villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR, punishable under Articles 3(b) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 13: Destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion or education, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR, punishable under Articles 3(d) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 14: Plunder of public or private property, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR, punishable under Articles 3(e) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Mass rape of Bosnian Muslim women

2006-03-24T19:28:00.000-08:00

Newsday, Monday, April 19, 1993.

By Roy Gutman (Newsday)
EUROPE CORRESPONDENT

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Using flashlights and torches of lighted paper, the Serb military police stole through the darkened indoor sport center in search of female victims.

Each night they selected 10 or more Muslim women. The men led them at gunpoint to a nearby house and raped them, witnesses and victims said. One 27-year-old woman told Newsday she was raped up to six times at night. Another woman was raped in the hall before the eyes of the others held there, witnesses said.

The site of these crimes, known as the Partizan sports hall, was in the center of Foca, a small, predominantly Muslim town in eastern Bosnia. At time, it was used as a transit facility for women and children about to be deported from the town. But for two months in 1992, between June and August, it functioned as a rape camp, holding 74 people, including about 50 women.

Partizan was but one of dozens of Serb rape camps in Bosnia - some are said to be still in operation - and it was prominently located, next door to the police station. Muslim women victims said they complained about the routine raping to the police, but police said they had no power to intervene.

Power in Foca had been seized by three top associates of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. Velibor Ostojic, a minister in Karadzic's breakaway government, and other two close aides, Vojislav maksimovic and Petar cancar, organized the military assult on Foca in April 1992, and took charge of the town, even stationing their own guards in front of the police station.

Until now, report on "ethnic cleansing" have focused on the men and women who implemented the policy - paramilitary groups led by self-promoting nationalists from neighboring Serbia aided by local extremists. In Foca, the apramilitaries wore camouflage fatigues and called themselves the "Serbian Guard."

But a three-month Newsday investigation into ethnic cleansing in Foca suggests that close those directing the process were members of Karadzic's inner circle. They called in paramilitary troops to conquer the town and gave the orders to "cleanse" Foca of all non-Serbs, a broad array of witnesses said. They set up concentration camps and rape camps, and on their orders, Serb forces destroyed the mosques abd nearly every other sign of half a millenium of Muslim culture, according to a variety of government and Muslim sources.

Karadzic said in a telephone interview last week that he had no knowledge of systematic rape anywhere in Serb-coqnuered Bosnia. "We know of some 18 cases of rape altogether, but this was not organized but done by psychopaths," he told Newsday. Claims of mass rapes were "propaganda... designed" by "Muslim Mullahs," he added. (A special mission of the European Community estimated that 20,000 or more Bosnian Muslim women had been raped by Serb forces through the end of last year; numerous investigations by other governmental and non-governmental organizations all have concluded that rape has been widespread.)

In Sarajevo, the besieged capital of the devastated state of Bosnia, the State Commission on War Crimes, headed by Croat Stjepan Kljuic, is in investigating all three men. Its allegations against Ostojic alone read like a page from the Nuremberg Nazi War Crimes Tribunal. It says Ostojic conceived and organized war crimes in the Foca region, helped plan and organize the arming of the Serbian Democratic Party members, prepared the attack, and invited paramilitary forces from Serbia "to undertake the armed conquest of a large portion of the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina and ethnic cleansing through annihilation, terror, persecution, detention, mistreatment and murder."

Ostojic refused to comment. A Newsday special correspondent in Belgrade submitted to Ostojic seven questions in writing about his role in the conquest of Foca in April, 1992, asking him to describe the structure and authority of the crisis staff, and to comment on the extensive eyewitness accounts of the rape camp in the middle of Foca.

The questions were submitted by fax at Ostojic's insistence, but after considering them for several days, he refused ..... questions, " he said in a telephone interview. During a subsequent visit to Belgrade, he again refused to comment.

Bosnian Serb sources who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that Ostojic had been in Foca during the height of the terror and said he had traveled frequently to Pale, Karadzic's war headquarters on a mountain outside Sarajevo, for consultations.

Serb forces have denied foreign reporters and international organizations access to Foca since the conquest, and the Newsday investigation has relied on witnesses and victims how in Germany, Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the remaining Yugoslavia, as well as Bosnian officials in Sarajevo and abroad.

Seven victims at a refugee camp at Kirklareli, Turkey, and in southern Serbia retold the story of systematic rape in and around Foca and of the rape camp in the heart of the town. Written statements by 10 others were made available by the gynecologist who first examined them after their release last August. All spoke on condition that they not be identified. But current and former Bosnia government officials spoke on the record.

Foca, whose population of 40,000 was 52 percent Muslim and 45 percent Serb prior to the Serb conquest, was among the first towns Serb forces seized in Bosnia, and some observers believe that what happened there set a pattern for ethnic cleansing in the rest of Bosnia. Foca could be a case study in the role played by civilian politicians in the brutality against the non-Serb population.

According to a witness, Ostojic was spokesman for the conquering Serbs, while Maksimovic actually picked up the phone and called in the troops. For Ostojic, it was a familiar role. Prior to the Serb insurrection one year ago, he was minister of information in the coalition of Muslims, Serbs and Croats who ran the Bosnian government, and he held the same job in Karadzic's self-declared government of the "Serbian Republic" of Bosnia until January.

Famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal in an interview with Newsday called him the "Goebbels" of the Bos..... out of Pale. Karadzic and Ostojic were born in neighboring villages at the foot of Montenegro's Mount Durmitor did not meet until 1990, Karadzic said. Both are 47.

Maksimovic was a professor of literature at the University of Sarajevo and the leader of Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party in the Bosnian Parliament. Karadzic has just named him head of the "University of the Serbian Republic," which he said will be established in Serb-controlled territory in Sarajevo. Cancar, an attorney, was formerly president of the chamber of municipalities, the second chamber of the Bosnia parliament. He is now a member of Karadzic's parliament.

According to Bosnia Muslim sources, Ostojic played a critical role in establishing a pattern of abuse of women. Alija Delimustafic, who was Bosnia's interior minister at the time of the capture of Foca, said he had received direct evidence from wiretaps that proved Ostojic had ordered the raping of women in Foca. Delimustafic left the Bosnia parliament some months ago and is now working in Vienna as a private businessman.

Jusuf Pusina, Delimustafic's successor in Sarajevo, said he was unable to find any such evidence in his files and denied Newsday direct access to them. Although Delimustafic has been regarded in government circles with distrust since he quit his post, Kemal Kurspahic, editor of Sarajevo's independent daily newspaper, Oslobodjenje, said Delimustafic was a trustworthy source.

In a written statement to Newsday, Pusina did not, however, that Ostojic had been fired as a high school teacher for his "sexually deviant behavior toward young female pupils which on many occasions led to physical showdowns with individual parents. " While employed in the personnel department at Sarajevo television, his next job, Ostojic "continued to satisfy his sick desire for girls by promising them certain work if they fulfilled his desires, " Pusina said. His last job was as proof-reader at Sarajevo television, but he also had been Communist Party secretary.... and was appointed by him to the Bosnian Serb governments, in fact used the incidents to advance his political career. In May, 1991, the ministry said, Ostojic was beaten up on his doorstep by an angry husband but he "and the extreme wing of the SDS [Karadzic's Democratic Party] built this up into a political thriller of a Mujahedeen conspiracy that was the beginning of the night of the long knives against the Serbian prince, " the ministry said.

Ostojic arrived in Foca around April 5 last year, three days before the attack, according to Enver Pilaff, who subsequently fled to Sarajevo, where he was interviewed.

Ostojic then demanded that all Muslims leave Foca for a concentration camp at nearby Jabuka mountain "or else the last Muslim seed will be destroyed in Foca, " according to a public statement cited by the Bosnian Interior Ministry.

The next day, Ostojic, Maksimovic and Cancar met at their favorite restaurantm the Ribarski Dom. "I was outside when Maksimovic came out and told his people that if they would not take up arms and start shooting Muslims, he would call for reinforcements from Serbia, " Pilaff said.

In the presence of his two associates, Maksimovic went to the telephone and "invited in" troops from nearby cities of Niksic in Montenegro, and Uzice in Serbia, Pilaff said. Pilaff said he heard the call through the open door.

"I said to the three of them: 'Aren't you ashamed for what you did?' " Pilaff said. As the first of 40,000 paramilitary troops arrived in trucks and buses. Pilaff and his family prepared to flee.

Molestation of Muslim women began almost immediately. On April 11, the third day after the attack on Foca, Pilaff said he heard from a close associate that a local Serb nationalist had raped a Muslim woman. Ostojic's forces also began rounding up Muslim civilians, taking them to the state correctional prison in Foca where the Bosnia government says more than 1,000 men were executed.

By mid-April, the trio set up their headquarters at a villa just outside Foca, next to the Velecevo state prison for women and overlooking the Cehotina River.

There, guarded by several hundred paramilitary troops, they established a summary military court, witnesses said. Newsday has obtained a sworn statement by a former Yugoslav army officer of Muslim descent who said he was brought before them and other Serb leaders. On the advice of a senior Serb officer, they spared his life. According to other Bosnia state and Muslim party sources, Ostojic, Maksimovic and Cancar decided the fate of hundreds of Muslims in the area, whether they would be executed by the paramilitary forces or sent to the concentration camp at Foca prison. According to Pilaff and Muharem Omerdzic, an official of Riyaset, a Muslim benevolent association in Sarajevo, they then turned the women's prison at Velecevo into a woman's concentration camp.

Both Pilaff and Omerdzic said their information came from refugees or the families of women still being held in Bosnia. Omerdzic believes those taken to Velecevo either were killed there or still are being held. He also estimated that thousands of Muslim women are still held in Serb camps inside Bosnia, where widespread rape continues. Newsday was unable to confirm assertions.

Karadzic told Newsday he had not visited Foca since the conquest and was unaware that aides had set up their headquarters at Velecevo. He also said he had not known that Velecevo was the site of a woman's prison. Karadzic said that he had not heard that women had been held and systematically raped nightly over two months at Partizon hall. "We will investigate any allegations of rape, including this one, " he said.

Systematic destruction of mosques in Bosnia

2006-03-24T19:23:00.000-08:00

Expert Testifies to Systematic Destruction of Cultural Monuments Translate
International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Milosevic Trial - The Hague - Court Room One
Day 213, 08 July 2003

THE HAGUE - Harvard expert on the cultural heritage of the Ottoman-era Balkans, András Riedlmayer, returned to the ICTY to advise the Court on the results of his study on the Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war. He provided a similar assessment early in the trial on cultural destruction in Kosovo (See CIJ Report of 9 April 2002).

Mr. Riedlmayer studied 392 cultural and religious heritage sites in 19 municipalities in Bosnia, in a broad arc from Visegrad and Zvornik in the east to Prijedor in the northwest and Nevesinje in the south. He found that 92% of the 277 Islamic mosques were either heavily damaged or destroyed. The same was true for other Islamic religious monuments, such as turbes (shrines) and tekkes (dervish lodges). "Virtually no minarets survived the 1992-1996 war intact in the parts of Bosnia controlled by Bosnian Serb forces," he concluded in his report filed with the Court.

The study included Roman Catholic churches, mostly associated with the Croat population of Bosnia. Of the 57 churches, none escaped undamaged. More than 75% were either heavily damaged or destroyed. In addition, Mr. Riedlmayer stated in his report, "As in the case of the mosques, Catholic churches of historic and cultural importance appear to have been disproportionately targeted."

The Bosnian National Library and the Institute for Oriental Studies were both totally destroyed from bombardment with incendiary shells. Mr. Riedlmayer called the destruction of 1.5 million books (the bulk of the Library's collection) "the largest single incident of deliberate book-burning in modern history." The losses at the Oriental Institute included, "the country's richest collection of Islamic manuscripts (5,263 codices in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Persian and Bosnian), many of them unique, the products of five centuries of Bosnian Muslim cultural history."

As a result of his study, Mr. Riedlmayer concluded that the Bosnian Serb destruction of Islamic and Catholic cultural and religious heritage sites was intentional and systematic. "The damage to these monuments was clearly the result of attacks directed against them, rather than incidental to the fighting." As evidence, Mr. Riedlmayer cited blast damage showing explosives had been placed inside the buildings, the lack of damage to surrounding buildings, the absence of bullet holes, the absence of fighting in the area, and the fact that in a number of towns the destruction took place while the areas were under the control of Serb forces.

The likely intent of destroying the cultural and religious heritage of a people, he said, was reflected in a comment by Simo Drljaca, Bosnian Serb police chief in the Prijedor area: "With their mosques, you must not just break the minarets. . . . You've got to shake up the foundations because that means they cannot build another. Do that, and they'll want to go. They'll just leave by themselves." The intent was to erase history, to destroy a people's connection with place, to create a condition of anomie.

The intent to destroy the cultural identity of a people was also evident in the complete removal of any sign that the monument had ever existed. Mr. Riedlmayer showed the Court a number of photographs where empty sites of former mosques were covered with grass, often with a rubbish tip or rusting vehicle marking the spot as a further desecration. A video clip taken by a news agency at the time, showed a bulldozer clearing the rubble of a blown-up mosque in the town center of Bijeljina, while soldiers stood casually by and civilians went about their business. In some cases like that of the 18th Century Sava Mosque in Brcko, "the rubble . . . was dumped on top of a mass grave site and used to cover the remains of Muslim civilians killed by Serb forces."

In on-site research, Mr. Riedlmayer talked with people from the local communities, some who witnessed the destruction of their monuments. Though not part of his research, he collected reports of civilians killed or burned alive when mosques and Catholic churches were torched. More than 30 members of the Muslim congregation were reportedly burned alive when the mosque at Hanifici in Kotor Varos was destroyed. In the Prijedor village of Carakovo, he was told that Serb forces "gathered 18 Muslim villagers in front of the mosque and killed them, wrapped the imam (clergyman) in a prayer carpet and burned him to death, then burned down the mosque and blew up the minaret. . . ." Similar incidents occurred at Catholic religious sites. "In the town of Prijedor the Roman Catholic parish church was mined twice (Sept. 1992 and Aug. 1995). After the second explosion, which levelled [sic] the remains of the church, Bosnian Serb police detained the parish priest, Father Tomislav Matanovic, and his aged parents, who were not seen alive again; their bodies were discovered six years later, shot in the head and dumped into a well near Prijedor." In another incident in Prijedor municipality, the Catholic church was burned along with all the houses in the village of Brisevo and "78 parishioners, including women and children, were reportedly killed."

Mr. Riedlmayer also reported that "[s]ome of the destruction in the spring of 1992 has been linked to JNA forces." He provided several examples where JNA aircraft, tanks and troops were sighted firing on religious or cultural monuments. Milosevic singled out one example of a mosque at Orasje which the report said was "destroyed by uniformed JNA troops arriving in a military transporter." "Weren't Croatian forces in control of Orasije?" Milosevic asked. Mr. Riedlmayer replied that they were in control of the Orasje in Northern Bosnia, but not of the Orasje in Doboj municipality where JNA troops were seen by an eye witness.

Addressing Judge May, Milosevic attempted to distinguish between mutual destruction of religious monuments by all three sides and the destruction of cultural monuments. The former, he said, occurs in civil wars, while the latter is genocide. Mr. Riedlmayer, however, denied that the destruction was equivalent on all sides. While acknowledging Serbian Orthodox monuments suffered some destruction, he testified "it didn't happen to equal degrees or simultaneously. In areas under the control of Bosnian Serb forces, there seems to have been nearly complete eradication of non-Serb religious structures. In areas under the control of the Sarajevo Government (i.e. Government of Bosnia-Herzegovina), especially urban areas, by and large Serb Orthodox sites survived intact."

Judge May noted that destruction of Serbian Orthodox monuments was not part of the indictment. It would nevertheless have some relevance if it supported Milosevic's theory that mosques and Catholic churches were targeted out of revenge, rather than in a systematic campaign. None of Mr. Riedlmayer's evidence supported the revenge theory. From the study, he said, "one can conclude that the vast majority of destruction of mosques and Catholic churches happened in the first year or year and a half of the war, at the same time as the forcible expulsion of the minority population." When Milosevic asserted that a particular Serbian Orthodox church in Mostar was destroyed in June 1992, one year before any mosques or Catholic churches in the area were destroyed, the witness showed the breadth of his expertise when he replied that nearly all mosques and Catholic churches in Mostar were destroyed prior to June 1992, during the Yugoslav People's Army April-May siege of the city.

The Accused also attempted to distinguish between cultural heritage and religious monuments, stating that only the former were covered by international covenants. Mr. Riedlmayer, while acknowledging he is not a legal expert, said he believed other conventions protected religious monuments. In fact, one of the charges against Milosevic is for violating the laws or customs of war, including "seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art and science."

Milosevic then asserted that religious buildings, the Sarajevo Library and Oriental Institute were being used for military purposes to fire against Serb forces. With respect to the Oriental Institute and the National Library, Mr. Riedlmayer said if that were the case he "would have expected allegations [to that effect] to surface during or immediately after the war, and they didn't." In other cases, mosques and Catholic churches were destroyed while under Bosnian Serb control in areas where there was no fighting -- and they alone were targeted. The surrounding buildings showed no damage.

The Accused produced an order from Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic dated 12 May 1993 to the effect that Serbian forces were to guard all religious sites in Banja Luka and protect them from repeated terrorist attacks. On redirect examination, the prosecutor asked the witness if any mosques were still standing on that date in Banja Luka. Mr. Riedlmayer replied that only three had been destroyed as of that date. However, thirteen were destroyed in succeeding months, such that by December 1993, none were left. The witness said he had no knowledge that anyone had been prosecuted for disobeying Karadzic's order or destroying the mosques.

Mr. Riedlmayer ended his testimony by quoting a Muslim citizen of Banja Luka, following the destruction of the 16th Century Ferhadija mosque, "It is as though they have torn our heart out. They wanted us to understand we had no place here." The testimony and the report are cogent evidence that ethnic cleansing involves more than killing and dislocation. The destruction of a people's cultural monuments effectively separates them from place and casts them rootless into the world. It destroys their self-identity as a community existing over time. As the Prijedor police chief said, it is an essential element in ethnic cleansing.

Indicted Serb war criminals from the former Yugoslavia

2006-03-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

Wanted for War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia
Radovan Karadzic
Up To $5,000,000 Reward

Radovan Karadzic has been indicted by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for the murders and rapes of thousands of innocent civilians in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina between April, 1992 and July, 1995.

Karadzic also is indicted for genocide, as well as numerous counts of crimes against humanity, including hostage taking of peacekeepers, destruction of sacred places, torture of captured civilians, and wanton destruction of private property.

To bring Karadzic to justice, the United States Government is offering a reward for information.

Individuals who furnish information leading to the arrest or conviction, in any country, of Karadzic or any other indicted war criminal may be eligible for a reward.

In addition to the reward of up to $5 million, informants may be eligible for protection of their identities and relocation for their families.

A reward may also be paid for information leading to the transfer to, or conviction by, the International Criminal Tribunal of an indicted war criminal.

Arrested for War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia
Slobodan Milosevic

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was turned over to the UN War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague on June 29th, 2001.

He was originally arrested in Belgrade on April 1, 2001 after a tense standoff between security forces and heavily armed loyalists.

Slobodan Milosevic has been indicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws of war.

These crimes were committed in the Province of Kosovo and include the murders of innocent women and children, deportation, and religious persecution.

Milosevic is on trial at The Hague. The trial started in February 2002.

Wanted for War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia
Ante Gotovina
Up To $5,000,000 Reward

(Son of Milan)
Born: 12-10-55
Pasman Island, Croatia
No known alias

Ante Gotovina has been indicted by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws or customs of war.

To bring Gotovinac to justice, the United States Government is offering a reward for information.

Individuals who furnish information leading to the arrest or conviction, in any country, of Gotovina or any other indicted war criminal may be eligible for a reward.

In addition to the reward of up to $5 million, informants may be eligible for protection of their identities and relocation for their families.

A reward may also be paid for information leading to the transfer to, or conviction by, the International Criminal Tribunal of an indicted war criminal.

He is also arrested now