WAR CRIMINALS IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
[ This report is almost 10 years old, but many war criminals mentioned in it are still free ]
WAR CRIMINALS IN BOSNIA'S REPUBLIKA SRPSKA:
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD?
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD?
A. Bijeljina
1. WAR CRIMES REPORTED IN BIJELJINA
Bijeljina, a mid-sized city in north-eastern Bosnia, had a pre-war population of 96,796, of whom 59.4 per cent identified themselves as Serb and 31.3 per cent as Muslim. The remaining citizens identified themselves as Croat, Yugoslav or "other." Strategically located on the main road connecting Serbia with the Krajina and Posavina regions of Bosnia, Bijeljina was the first town occupied by Serb forces. Zeljko Raznatovic ("Arkan"), the notorious head of the Serbian paramilitary "Tigers," came to Bijeljina in March 1992 and together with the local SDS began arming local Serb units.
Serb forces occupied the town in the first week of April, and were assisted in ethnic cleansing operations by the "Tigers" and the "Panthers," as well as a large number of local Serbs. The "Panthers" were controlled by Ljubisa Savic Mauser, who personally co-ordinated the activities of the local community SDS Crisis Staffs.
Starting in April, Serb forces began a campaign of terror directed against local non-Serb residents, harassing them, robbing and destroying property and summarily executing unarmed civilians. There were reports of mass executions. "Although it is clear that many people were killed in Bijeljina in the first days of April 1992, in particular political leaders, businessmen and other prominent Bosniaks, the exact number remains unknown. Amnesty International claims that up to 40 people were killed, but other sources claim that the death toll may have been as high as several hundred or even a thousand."
The large village Janje, located just a few kilometres from Bijeljina town, fell to the Serbs quickly. Although, as in Bijeljina, Janje was handed over rather peacefully, terror followed. Many citizens remained in Janje, despite the killings, maltreatment, and forced mobilisation for the army and labour, until 1994, when in the space of a month a few thousand civilians were expelled, and about 1,000 detained in concentration camps.
During the war, thousands of Bijeljina residents were expelled or deported to Batkovic and other concentration camps established in the region. Following the occupation, a number of non-Serb residents stayed, but they were subject to systematic discrimination and harassment. Non-Serbs, especially Bosniaks, were subject to arrest and "disappearance." Most were fired from their jobs or forcibly conscripted as soldiers or labourers. Many were evicted from their homes or forced to accept Serb displaced persons from other areas into their homes, who eventually forced them out. Reportedly, any Bosniak was at the mercy of any Serb, not just the authorities. Ethnically motivated violence was high, mostly perpetrated by displaced persons, but also by local Serbs.
The approximately 5,000 Bosniaks and other non-Serbs who remained in Bijeljina continued to be harassed by Major Vojkan Djurkovic, the head of the so-called exchange commission, whose role seems to have been to expel systematically non-Serb residents while also extorting money and property from them. During the war, the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund learned that the "Bosnian Serb leadership has set a quota for the Bijeljina area, whereby only 5 per cent of the region's 22,000 Muslims will be permitted to remain."
1. WAR CRIMES REPORTED IN BIJELJINA
Bijeljina, a mid-sized city in north-eastern Bosnia, had a pre-war population of 96,796, of whom 59.4 per cent identified themselves as Serb and 31.3 per cent as Muslim. The remaining citizens identified themselves as Croat, Yugoslav or "other." Strategically located on the main road connecting Serbia with the Krajina and Posavina regions of Bosnia, Bijeljina was the first town occupied by Serb forces. Zeljko Raznatovic ("Arkan"), the notorious head of the Serbian paramilitary "Tigers," came to Bijeljina in March 1992 and together with the local SDS began arming local Serb units.
Serb forces occupied the town in the first week of April, and were assisted in ethnic cleansing operations by the "Tigers" and the "Panthers," as well as a large number of local Serbs. The "Panthers" were controlled by Ljubisa Savic Mauser, who personally co-ordinated the activities of the local community SDS Crisis Staffs.
Starting in April, Serb forces began a campaign of terror directed against local non-Serb residents, harassing them, robbing and destroying property and summarily executing unarmed civilians. There were reports of mass executions. "Although it is clear that many people were killed in Bijeljina in the first days of April 1992, in particular political leaders, businessmen and other prominent Bosniaks, the exact number remains unknown. Amnesty International claims that up to 40 people were killed, but other sources claim that the death toll may have been as high as several hundred or even a thousand."
The large village Janje, located just a few kilometres from Bijeljina town, fell to the Serbs quickly. Although, as in Bijeljina, Janje was handed over rather peacefully, terror followed. Many citizens remained in Janje, despite the killings, maltreatment, and forced mobilisation for the army and labour, until 1994, when in the space of a month a few thousand civilians were expelled, and about 1,000 detained in concentration camps.
During the war, thousands of Bijeljina residents were expelled or deported to Batkovic and other concentration camps established in the region. Following the occupation, a number of non-Serb residents stayed, but they were subject to systematic discrimination and harassment. Non-Serbs, especially Bosniaks, were subject to arrest and "disappearance." Most were fired from their jobs or forcibly conscripted as soldiers or labourers. Many were evicted from their homes or forced to accept Serb displaced persons from other areas into their homes, who eventually forced them out. Reportedly, any Bosniak was at the mercy of any Serb, not just the authorities. Ethnically motivated violence was high, mostly perpetrated by displaced persons, but also by local Serbs.
The approximately 5,000 Bosniaks and other non-Serbs who remained in Bijeljina continued to be harassed by Major Vojkan Djurkovic, the head of the so-called exchange commission, whose role seems to have been to expel systematically non-Serb residents while also extorting money and property from them. During the war, the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund learned that the "Bosnian Serb leadership has set a quota for the Bijeljina area, whereby only 5 per cent of the region's 22,000 Muslims will be permitted to remain."
2. TODAY
A spate of violence directed against Bosniak returnees to Janje and their property this summer met with little reaction from local authorities, demonstrating that powerful forces in Bijeljina still oppose implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords. It seems likely that politically radical forces from within Bijeljina contributed to the violence, as well as individuals from neighbouring municipalities. In addition to the individuals mentioned below, individuals allegedly implicated in ethnic cleansing in other parts of Bosnia now influence local politics in Bijeljina. For example, Vlado Vrkes, the Deputy Head of the Sanski Most wartime Crisis Staff, is today a rich and influential resident of Bijeljina. Some of the individuals allegedly involved in the ethnic cleansing of Bijeljina are described below.
(a) Mirko Blagojevic
One of the paramilitary leaders allegedly involved in the attack and ethnic cleansing of Bijeljina was Mirko Blagojevic, who led a group called "Mirkovi cetnici." His group also allegedly participated in the attack on Brcko. He is very active and powerful in the Serbian Radical Party (SRS). The Provisional Election Commission forbade the SRS from participating in the April 2000 elections because the party neither replaced Blagojevic as Vice-President of the party nor two other party officials, including party President Nikola Poplasen. In response, Blagojevic threatened to block elections. He was quoted as saying, "We will react by organising incidents, including very serious ones, to prevent holding the elections."
During the proceedings of the Dusko Tadic case in The Hague, a witness described Mirko Blagojevic, President of the SRS in Bijeljina and paramilitary leader, as someone who entered the Luka camp in Brcko frequently to abuse prisoners. The witness described one incident in which Blagojevic allegedly entered a cell and traced a cross into the forehead of a prisoner with a knife.
Today Mirko Blagojevic is one of the highest-ranking members of the Serbian Radical Party.
(b) Vojkan Djurkovic
A Major in Arkan's paramilitary group, the "Tigers," Djurkovic served as the head of the Commission for the Exchange of the Civilian Population in Bijeljina during the war. The Commission arranged for the supposedly "voluntary" transport of non-Serbs from Bijeljina to Bosnian-held territory. For this service, the commission charged huge fees, and usually the civilians were forced to hand over all their money, valuables and documents, and to sign away their property. Reportedly, Djurkovic co-operated closely with Mauser's Panthers and other groups in the forcible expulsion of the civilian population.
According to documents handed over to the ICTY by the Bosnian government, Djurkovic allegedly organised the detention of civilians in the Agricultural School in Bijeljina, from which they could only be released after handing over all their money and valuables. He also organised the separation of approximately 1,100 military age men who were detained in concentration camps and forced to dig trenches on the front lines. These documents also accuse Djurkovic of raping one of the civilians whom the Exchange Commission was "assisting" on the night of 17-18 September 1994.
According to several sources, Djurkovic and his cohorts allegedly forcibly expelled a massive group of civilians from the Bijeljina region in July 1994, rounding up groups of civilians and taking them to the front lines on trucks to be sent over to the other side. Djurkovic was named as a main organiser of the expulsion of an estimated 6,000 non-Serbs from Bijeljina between 17 July and 12 October 1994.
Vojkan Djurkovic lives in Bijeljina where he runs a detective agency.
(c) Jovan Acimovic
Jovan Acimovic, as a member of the special police of the RS, allegedly played a major role in the final wave of violent evictions of Bosniaks from Bijeljina just before the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Reports indicate that he continued to be involved in evictions following Dayton.
Jovan Acimovic is apparently a member of the Ugljevik municipality police.
UNMiBH confirmed that he is currently undergoing screening for UN provisional authorisation.
B. Bratunac and Srebrenica
1. WAR CRIMES IN BRATUNAC IN 1992
Bordering Serbia along the Drina River, the town of Bratunac fell under Serb control at the start of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. Local Serbs formed a Municipal Crisis Staff in charge of making administrative and military decisions necessary to create an ethnically pure municipality. During the 1992 take-over, local forces, the JNA's Novi Sad Corps and Serbian paramilitaries ethnically cleansed the area of more than 20,000 non-Serbs, committing rape, torture and murder against civilians, as well as establishing concentration camps where numerous atrocities were committed.
The ethnic cleansing of Bratunac and the conditions in the camps, particularly the local stadium and the notorious "Vuk Karadzic" Primary School camp, are described in Annex 8 of the UN Commission of Experts 1994 report:
By early May, Serb forces had robbed, burned, destroyed, and ethnically cleansed the villages of Hrancic, Glogova, Bijecevo, Krasnopolj, Miholjevici and a large part of Bratunac itself. ...Serbian extremists arrested Muslims en masse. Many were taken to the stadium or sport grounds and stripped of their possessions. The men were separated from the women and children and then transferred to other detention facilities.
One report cited by the UN suggested that 6,000 to 7,000 men were detained in the local stadium, where they were forced to donate blood. Many of those who survived the stadium were then transferred to the "Vuk Karadzic" Elementary School, where a number of other atrocities were committed.
The UN Special Reporter detailed these alleged atrocities. As many as 600 men were crammed into the school hall and those who could not fit inside were shot with automatic weapons in front of the hall. As in many other municipalities, authorities singled out influential members of the community according to a list for particularly harsh beatings. The authorities reportedly detained and beat the prisoners for three days, before transferring them to the self-declared Bosnian Serb capital of Pale. As many as 50 prisoners died on just the first night from the beatings, while "nine others suffocated in the crush as the 500 to 600 struggled to escape the beatings." "An Imam was allegedly beaten and stabbed to death after refusing to take the Christian faith and raise three fingers in the Serb manner."
A number of witness statements detailed the brutal torture and murder of hundreds of Bosniak prisoners by Serb paramilitary units and local authorities in April and May of 1992. This included beatings with wooden and iron poles, cutting off of noses, ears and genitals, cutting of crosses into the skin, burning victims alive in garbage containers. In the latter instance, "[t]he open containers were then placed under the windows of the containment area causing the smoke to fill the room. The dead were later transported by trucks and disposed of in the river Drina." Others prisoners died of starvation. Still others report that they were forced to jump up and down on the corpses of tortured and executed prisoners.
2. WAR CRIMES FOLLOWING THE FALL OF SREBRENICA, JULY 1995
Srebrenica adjoins the Bratunac municipality on the south, near the Serbian border. Following the fall of the UN "safe haven" of Srebrenica in July 1995, Serb forces systematically executed over 8,000 unarmed Bosniak men. Some of these men were separated from the women and children in the enclave and bussed to massacre sites, while others were apprehended in the following days trying to escape to Bosniak territory. Massacre sites were located in the Srebrenica, Bratunac and Zvornik municipalities. Strong evidence exists implicating the Bratunac and Zvornik authorities and local military police in these massacres.
Local Serb authorities from Bratunac have also been implicated in the massacre of thousands of unarmed Bosniak men, as many were slain at massacre points in that municipality. Other massacres occurred in the Zvornik municipality, located along the Drina River to the north of Srebrenica, after the fall of Srebrenica. One particularly damning piece of evidence is the statements of Dutch soldiers who were being held hostage in Bratunac. They witnessed a number of buses of terrified male prisoners pass by and heard frequent gunshots, especially from the direction of the soccer field, one of the massacre sites. They also observed Serb military police leaving Bratunac early in the morning and returning at night exhausted. "Some of the Serbs chatted to the Dutch. Johan Bos, a 31-year-old sergeant, was quoted in the Independent on Sunday on 23 July 1995: "They bragged about how they had murdered people and raped women..."
3. TODAY
Despite significant evidence of mass torture and murder committed by Serb authorities in Bratunac in 1992, detailed in the first part of this section, the ICTY has not issued a single public indictment related to these events. Nor has SFOR arrested a single individual under sealed indictment for involvement in the 1992 Bratunac atrocities. While The Hague has issued indictments against Karadzic, Mladic and RS Army General Radoslav Krstic for the Srebrenica massacre, only Krstic has been brought before the Tribunal. Moreover, no public indictments have been issued for the involvement of local authorities from Bratunac, Srebrenica and Zvornik in the massacres of men from Srebrenica, which took place in these municipalities, with help from the local police and paramilitary units, in July 1995.
As a result, individuals involved in planning and carrying out the 1992 and 1995 massacres remain in these municipalities, making further Dayton implementation virtually impossible. Five years after the Srebrenica tragedy and more than eight years after the massacres in Bratunac, almost no Bosniaks have returned to Srebrenica or Bratunac. In 1999, the Bosniak Secretary of the Srebrenica Municipal Assembly was reportedly attacked and stabbed in the bathroom of the municipal building. Recent violence and vandalism directed against minority returnees and their families in eastern RS included the burning of at least seven newly reconstructed Bosniak homes in Srebrenica in June and July 2000. In May of this year, a group of protesters in Bratunac stoned a convoy of buses bringing women who survived the Srebrenica massacre to a commemoration of the victims. Members of the international community received information from reliable sources that certain local public officials helped to organise this action.
Serb politicians and citizens alike continue to insist that no Bosniaks were massacred. Many of the same politicians and authorities in power in Bratunac in 1992 and 1995 remain active in local and regional politics, contributing to this ideology of collective denial. These politicians were also in power in September 1995, when US satellite imagery revealed attempts to destroy evidence of mass graves in Glogova and Pilica. In 1996 local officials denied that the Srebrenica massacre ever occurred, and continue to do so today.
(a) Miroslav Deronjic
One of the officials who denied that massacres took place was Miroslav Deronjic, who served as President of the Bratunac SDS and head of the Bratunac Crisis Staff in 1992, during the murderous ethnic cleansing of Bratunac. Numerous sources implicated Deronjic as one of the principal organisers of the atrocities committed in Bratunac during the war.
Deronjic allegedly played a crucial role in inviting and organising the arrival of Serbian paramilitaries, such as the "Beli Orlovi," and Arkan's and Seselj's groups to Bratunac in 1992. He reportedly contributed financially to the hiring of Arkan's paramilitaries to kill respected Bosniaks. A witness allegedly saw Deronjic accompany a group of Bosniak civilians into the Vuk Karadzic school where they were robbed and massacred.
The indicted war criminal General Radislav Krstic confirmed that Deronjic was named as the Commissar of the President of Republika Srpska for Srebrenica in 1995. The appointment was made on 11 July, the day Srebrenica fell. Deronjic, along with Mladic and Krstic, was present at the negotiations with Dutch UN peacekeepers and representatives of the Bosniak refugees in the Hotel Fontana on that day. An OHR document claims that at the time of the massacre Deronjic, minutes before a meeting with refugee representatives, urged Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic not to bother meeting with the Bosniaks because, "We are going to kill them all anyway."
On 17 July, Deronjic brought a document which he had already signed to the Dutch UN Commander Major Franken and Bosniak representative Nesib Mandzic, who were being held hostage in the UN compound in Potocari. The two were effectively forced to sign a declaration that the evacuation of civilians from Srebrenica had proceeded correctly and in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Later they would learn the full truth, that Serb forces had massacred thousands of unarmed Bosniak men.
Deronjic reportedly played a key role in organising wartime ethnic cleansing throughout eastern Bosnia and continues to wield his power to obstruct Bosniak return and Dayton implementation. He reportedly maintains close links with Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic and co-ordinates logistics and security for the former in eastern Bosnia.
Today Miroslav Deronjic is a member of the Bratunac municipal assembly.
His election was certified by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(b) Ljubisav Simic
Another official who served in a decision-making position on the Crisis Staff, and later denied that the Srebrenica massacre took place, is Ljubisav Simic. Simic allegedly served as President of the municipal assembly from 1992-1995, was a close associate of Deronjic and one of the main organisers of ethnic cleansing in Bratunac, and was involved in the massacre in the gym of the 'Vuk Karadzic' elementary school.
Today Ljubisav Simic is a member of the Bratunac municipal assembly.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
(c) Miodrag Josipovic
Yet another prominent Bratunac official whose alleged wartime profile matches the criteria for indictment by the ICTY is Miodrag Josipovic, the current mayor. According to a document provided by an international organisation, Josipovic was the chief of the guards in the "Vuk Karadzic" elementary school in 1992 and was seen together with Radovan Karadzic during a massacre at the school. This document reports that witnesses identified Josipovic as someone deeply involved in atrocities committed against Bosniaks throughout the war. Local sources indicate that Josipovic assumed the position of Commander of the Bratunac police in 1993, a position he held until Dayton. As head of the Bratunac police, following the fall of Srebrenica, he allegedly participated in organising massacres of Bosniak men. He also allegedly organised the deportation of prisoners from Srebrenica to Zvornik. Josipovic has also been allegedly closely connected to attempts to cover-up mass graves and evidence of concentration camps at the end of the war. More recently, Josipovic is reported to have been one of those who organised the stoning of a convoy of Srebrenica widows on 11 May 2000.
Miodrag Josipovic is the Mayor of Bratunac municipality.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
In May 2000, following the establishment of the Bratunac municipal assembly, a Bosniak refugee citizens group from Srebrenica and Zepa protested the election of Deronjic, Ljubisav Simic and Josipovic to public office. The group labelled them "war criminals, because as members of the Serb Emergency Provisional Government they were responsible for the expulsion of 22,000 non-Serbs from Bratunac." Both the OSCE and the Office of the High Representative (OHR) ignored this plea.
(d) Miladin Simic
Another influential figure in Bratunac is Miladin Simic. Local sources allege that he participated in ethnic cleansing in Mihaljevici, Suha and other villages outside Bratunac in 1992, and that as a member of the Bratunac Infantry Leadership in 1995, he participated in the massacre of Srebrenica deportees at Pilice.
Although the OHR removed Simic from his position as President of the Municipal Assembly in November 1999, he remains one of the most influential figures in Bratunac. Following his removal, Simic was elected to the Yugoslavian board of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS). He reportedly continues to co-operate closely with Deronjic, Josipovic and other members of the Bratunac government. Simic demonstrated his continued influence recently by attending the inaugural session of the new Municipal Council in Bratunac. Other parties filed a complaint with the OSCE because Simic was making "threatening comments and inappropriate gestures." He also "attempted to control the meeting with head and hand movements, a fact he later admitted to international representatives."
Simic allegedly heads an illegal paramilitary organisation in Bratunac, and has strong links with "anti-terrorist" groups in the region and in Serbia. Members of this group allegedly participated in ethnic cleansing in Bratunac in 1992 and are reportedly active in Zvornik, Bijeljina and other parts of eastern Bosnia. When minority returns began in northern Bratunac earlier this year, Simic reportedly showed up at the return area with approximately 25 men, wearing winter camouflage uniforms. They later explained to the UN International Police Task Force (IPTF) that they had been hunting.
Today Simic allegedly controls a paramilitary group and exerts significant influence in Bratunac and the region.
(e) Novak Stjepanovic
As the commander of a local SDS paramilitary formation in Srebrenica in 1992, Novak Stjepanovic, nicknamed "Krke", was allegedly one the organisers and participants in ethnic cleansing in the region of Sase, Srebrenica and the settlements of Sikiric, Biljaca, Zaluzje and Voljavica in Bratunac.
In May 1992, he reportedly participated directly in the enslavement and detention of tens of civilians in the administrative building of the zinc and iron mine in Sase, Srebrenica. Stjepanovic and other paramilitaries allegedly horribly mistreated these civilians, raping the young women and girls, and murdering some of the civilians. Stjepanovic allegedly participated directly in the rapes. Then he reportedly ordered that a group of 42 civilians be exchanged and they were shipped off in two trucks. The group disappeared near Voljavica, Bratunac, most likely murdered.
On 20 May 1992, Stjepanovic, along with other paramilitaries, allegedly participated in the execution of a group of civilians in Stari Majdan, Bratunac. He was also implicated in the murder of civilians in Zaluzje, Bratunac. Stjepanovic received a four-year jail sentence in 1995 for the murder of a Serb, which he served in Foca.
Novak Stjepanovic is the current President of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) in Srebrenica.
He continues to speak out publicly against the return of Bosniaks.
(f) Others
A number of other public figures in Bratunac are reported to have participated in ethnic cleansing during the war. Zlatko Celanovic reportedly handled security in Bratunac during the war, and oversaw the interrogation of captured Bosniaks. Following the war he is reported to have played a major role in the illegal reallocation of Bosniak property in Bratunac.
Zlatko Celanovic served as Secretary of the Bratunac Municipal Assembly until the April 2000 municipal elections, representing the Serb Radical Party.
He reportedly maintains close contacts with former Mayor Miladin Simic, who was removed from his position by the OHR.
Najdan Mladjenovic, a driver in the "Vihor" company, allegedly commanded a local Serb paramilitary unit in April 1992 which carried out attacks on the villages of Hrance and Glogova, in which dozens of civilians were killed and others were deported to the "Vuk Karadzic" concentration camp, described above.
Today Najdan Mladjenovic serves as the director of the public company "Kartonaza" in Bratunac.
In addition to current Bratunac authorities, some individuals believed to have participated in war crimes in Bratunac now serve public functions in neighbouring municipalities. For instance, the Commander of the Bratunac police in 1992 during the massacres and atrocities in the first wave of ethnic cleansing was Luka Bogdanovic.
Today Luka Bogdanovic is a police officer in Zvornik.
A number of other influential citizens in Bratunac and Srebrenica reportedly participated in the torture and execution of Bosniaks and continue to prevent minority returns and Dayton implementation in eastern Republika Srpska. Many of these radicals have strong links with Serbia, in terms of money and weapons flows, and paramilitary activities. Politically radical groups in Bratunac and Srebrenica with strong links to paramilitary groups continue to destabilise these municipalities, as well as the nearby municipalities such as Bijeljina, Rogatica and Zvornik.
C. Brcko
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN BRCKO
Serb forces began their attack on Brcko in May 1992, destroying both bridges leading over the Sava River and into Croatia with artillery, and killing at least 50 civilians. Preparations for the take-over and ethnic cleansing of the town of Brcko and surrounding villages had begun in late 1991, and in April 1992 SDS authorities gave an ultimatum over the radio. "SDS Assemblyman Ristanic declared that Bosnia's Serbs wanted to be part of Yugoslavia. He announced that Brcko's Serbs wanted the city broken into three parts, one each for Muslims, Serbs, and Croats. ...He insisted that division must take place by 3 May or there would be war."
Following the destruction of the bridges, Serb forces began heavy bombardment of Brcko neighbourhoods where Bosniaks and Croats were living. The JNA, locally mobilised forces and Serbian paramilitaries then executed a campaign of terror, in which the property of non-Serbs was systematically plundered and destroyed, many non-Serb civilians were summarily executed, and thousands of non-Serbs were rounded up and imprisoned in concentration camps. At the "stara dzamija," "Partizan," "Laser," and "Luka" camps, as well as at the police station and other locations, a large number of prisoners were brutally tortured and executed. Activities at the most notorious of these camps, the Luka camp, formed the basis of a Hague indictment against two individuals, Goran Jelisic and Ranko Cesic. According to the indictment, "During the time the Luka camp operated, [May to July 1992] the Serb authorities killed hundreds of Muslim and Croat detainees."
During this time, a Serb Crisis Staff administered the municipality, as in other parts of Bosnia. The UN Commission of Experts named the members of this commission:
Reportedly, during the first few days of May, the local Serbs established what was called the 'War Presidency', a committee of local leaders representing important sources of authority in the region. These allegedly included: the chief of uniformed police, Veselin Veselic; the commander of the military garrison, Colonel Pavle Milinkovic; the commander of the Luka camp, Dzokic; the commander of the fire brigade, Kristo Puric; the head of health, Milenko Vojinovic, aka Dr. Beli and reportedly in the Bosnian Serb Assembly in Pale; the head of the judiciary, Todor Gavric; the information director, Bosko Lomovic; the head of defence, Milutinovic; and the police commander, Drago Vesiljevic. Djordje Ristanic was reported to be the head of the executive body.
Among the Serb paramilitary units active in the ethnic cleansing of Bijeljina, reports mention the prominence of Ljubisa Savic "Mauser" and his "Panthers," as well as Mirko Blagojevic. Both of these groups were also active in the ethnic cleansing of Bijeljina, discussed above.
2. TODAY
In March 2000, then-Brcko Administrator Robert Farrand appointed an interim council for the Brcko district that included individuals implicated in the ethnic cleansing and atrocities committed in 1992 and 1993. To this day, there has been little sustainable return of refugees to the city centre, and Brcko remains a focal point for Serb nationalist activism, as seen in the organised violent four-day anti-District and anti-Dayton demonstrations held in the city during October 2000. During these riots, demonstrators injured two police officers, attacked a television crew from Tuzla and destroyed private property. The protesters demolished a hairdressing salon, a local café, a Baptist church, and the residences of international community officials. The primary targets were properties owned by Bosniaks.
Although the demonstrators were primarily local Serb high school students, they appear to have been well organised and manipulated by radical Serb politicians. Local media reported that SDS politicians pressured the director of the local high school to destabilise the situation in Brcko. Students were also bussed in from Bijlejina.
(a) Djordje Ristanic
The head of the Brcko Crisis Staff and President of the municipality in 1992 and 1993 was Djordje Ristanic. A UN report claims that various sources mention him as allegedly one of the principal decision-makers in the municipality at the time of the atrocities described above.
Today Djordje Ristanic is a member of the District Interim Council.
He was appointed by former Brcko Administrator Robert Farrand in March 2000.
He is alleged to have participated in organising the October 2000 anti-Dayton riots in Brcko.
D. Cajnice
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN CAJNICE/RUDO
In 1991 and 1992, members of the local SDS began arming local Serbs and formed a paramilitary unit called the "Plavi Orlovi." Following the division of the local police along ethnic lines, Serb forces established military checkpoints at the entrances of the town, and the President of the municipality and of the local SDS, Dusko Kornjaca, ordered all Bosniaks to hand over their weapons. In April 1992, SDS leaders formed the "Stakorina" camp in Mostina, where Bosniaks were tortured and killed. Allegedly, at least 76 civilians in the camp were murdered and their bodies buried in the village of Jovanovici. Sources in the local intelligence community allege that the "Plavi Orlovi," led by Milan Kornjaca, committed these executions.
Following the establishment of the camp, local, Serbian and Montenegrin paramilitaries attacked the surrounding villages, summarily executing a number of civilians and deporting others to the camp in Mostina. In the spring and summer of 1992, about 4,000 Bosniaks were expelled from the Cajnice municipality. In addition, all mosques and buildings of the Islamic community in Cajnice were destroyed.
2. TODAY
(a) Dusko Kornjaca
Dusko Kornjaca, a medical doctor, served as the Defence Minister for the Serb Autonomous Region of Herzegovina, head of the Cajnice Crisis Staff during the war, and President of the Serb municipality of Cjanice. He is alleged to bear responsibility for violations of international humanitarian law committed in Cajnice, Trebinje and other parts of the region. Sources allege Dusko Kornjaca to have been the most powerful figure in the area during the ethnic cleansing of Cajnice and Rudo. As head of the Crisis Staff and President of the Municipality he played an organising role in the deportation of non-Serbs from Cajnice, the establishment of the Mostina camp where civilians were murdered, and the formation of paramilitary groups. According to local media, Kornjaca returned to Bosnia fresh from the war in Croatia and played an active role in the ethnic cleansing of Cajnice and Rudo, as well as being active in Zvornik. In 1991, 45 per cent of Cajnice's 8,919 residents were Muslim. According to a local journal, Kornjaca was quoted in the Serbian media in 1992 as saying, "Now, in Cajnice, there are no Muslims, it is possible for them to leave here and go back to the place where they left their ancestors in 1912."
Dusko Kornjaca currently serves as the Mayor of Cajnice.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
(b) Others
Milorad Zivkovic was allegedly the Chief of Police in Cajnice during the war and throughout the ethnic cleansing of the town.
Milorad Zivkovic continues to serve as Chief of the Cajnice police.
UNMiBH confirmed that he received provisional authorisation from the UN to carry out police functions.
Dusan Pejovic reportedly served as a member of the Crisis Staff in Cajnice during the war. Along with Kornjaca and others, he agreed to the formation of the camp in Mostina and reportedly visited the camp in April 1992.
Pejovic is on the candidates' list representing the SDS in the People's Assembly of Republika Srpska in the upcoming November 2000 elections.
E. Doboj
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN DOBOJ
Doboj's prewar population consisted of 41,164 Bosniaks, 39,820 Serbs, 13,264 Croats and 5,765 Yugoslavs, plus 2,536 "others."
In the spring of 1992 the JNA, Bosnian Serb paramilitaries and paramilitaries from Serbia and Croatia occupied Doboj. These paramilitaries included Arkan's "Tigers", Seselj's "White Eagles," and Martic's Militia, as well as the Serbian "Red Berets":
They shelled and set fire to two mosques and the Catholic Church. Croats and Bosniaks were ordered to remain indoors as their homes were searched and looted. Male residents were often arrested, and still others were beaten. Women were taken away on three buses to a high school, where they were held for 28 days and raped repeatedly. One report specifically mentions the Red Berets as allegedly responsible for at least some of the rapes at the high school.
Having served as a railway hub in the former Yugoslavia, Doboj now served as a point to which detainees from other areas were shipped before being expelled to Croat or Bosniak held territory or deported to other detention centres. These people were subject to inhumane conditions in the trains and harassment, abuse, robbery and execution by Serb soldiers along the journey. "In some instances, the soldiers required that a ransom be paid by a specific car of detainees to ensure that the children contained within would not be killed."
A spate of violence directed against Bosniak returnees to Janje and their property this summer met with little reaction from local authorities, demonstrating that powerful forces in Bijeljina still oppose implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords. It seems likely that politically radical forces from within Bijeljina contributed to the violence, as well as individuals from neighbouring municipalities. In addition to the individuals mentioned below, individuals allegedly implicated in ethnic cleansing in other parts of Bosnia now influence local politics in Bijeljina. For example, Vlado Vrkes, the Deputy Head of the Sanski Most wartime Crisis Staff, is today a rich and influential resident of Bijeljina. Some of the individuals allegedly involved in the ethnic cleansing of Bijeljina are described below.
(a) Mirko Blagojevic
One of the paramilitary leaders allegedly involved in the attack and ethnic cleansing of Bijeljina was Mirko Blagojevic, who led a group called "Mirkovi cetnici." His group also allegedly participated in the attack on Brcko. He is very active and powerful in the Serbian Radical Party (SRS). The Provisional Election Commission forbade the SRS from participating in the April 2000 elections because the party neither replaced Blagojevic as Vice-President of the party nor two other party officials, including party President Nikola Poplasen. In response, Blagojevic threatened to block elections. He was quoted as saying, "We will react by organising incidents, including very serious ones, to prevent holding the elections."
During the proceedings of the Dusko Tadic case in The Hague, a witness described Mirko Blagojevic, President of the SRS in Bijeljina and paramilitary leader, as someone who entered the Luka camp in Brcko frequently to abuse prisoners. The witness described one incident in which Blagojevic allegedly entered a cell and traced a cross into the forehead of a prisoner with a knife.
Today Mirko Blagojevic is one of the highest-ranking members of the Serbian Radical Party.
(b) Vojkan Djurkovic
A Major in Arkan's paramilitary group, the "Tigers," Djurkovic served as the head of the Commission for the Exchange of the Civilian Population in Bijeljina during the war. The Commission arranged for the supposedly "voluntary" transport of non-Serbs from Bijeljina to Bosnian-held territory. For this service, the commission charged huge fees, and usually the civilians were forced to hand over all their money, valuables and documents, and to sign away their property. Reportedly, Djurkovic co-operated closely with Mauser's Panthers and other groups in the forcible expulsion of the civilian population.
According to documents handed over to the ICTY by the Bosnian government, Djurkovic allegedly organised the detention of civilians in the Agricultural School in Bijeljina, from which they could only be released after handing over all their money and valuables. He also organised the separation of approximately 1,100 military age men who were detained in concentration camps and forced to dig trenches on the front lines. These documents also accuse Djurkovic of raping one of the civilians whom the Exchange Commission was "assisting" on the night of 17-18 September 1994.
According to several sources, Djurkovic and his cohorts allegedly forcibly expelled a massive group of civilians from the Bijeljina region in July 1994, rounding up groups of civilians and taking them to the front lines on trucks to be sent over to the other side. Djurkovic was named as a main organiser of the expulsion of an estimated 6,000 non-Serbs from Bijeljina between 17 July and 12 October 1994.
Vojkan Djurkovic lives in Bijeljina where he runs a detective agency.
(c) Jovan Acimovic
Jovan Acimovic, as a member of the special police of the RS, allegedly played a major role in the final wave of violent evictions of Bosniaks from Bijeljina just before the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Reports indicate that he continued to be involved in evictions following Dayton.
Jovan Acimovic is apparently a member of the Ugljevik municipality police.
UNMiBH confirmed that he is currently undergoing screening for UN provisional authorisation.
B. Bratunac and Srebrenica
1. WAR CRIMES IN BRATUNAC IN 1992
Bordering Serbia along the Drina River, the town of Bratunac fell under Serb control at the start of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. Local Serbs formed a Municipal Crisis Staff in charge of making administrative and military decisions necessary to create an ethnically pure municipality. During the 1992 take-over, local forces, the JNA's Novi Sad Corps and Serbian paramilitaries ethnically cleansed the area of more than 20,000 non-Serbs, committing rape, torture and murder against civilians, as well as establishing concentration camps where numerous atrocities were committed.
The ethnic cleansing of Bratunac and the conditions in the camps, particularly the local stadium and the notorious "Vuk Karadzic" Primary School camp, are described in Annex 8 of the UN Commission of Experts 1994 report:
By early May, Serb forces had robbed, burned, destroyed, and ethnically cleansed the villages of Hrancic, Glogova, Bijecevo, Krasnopolj, Miholjevici and a large part of Bratunac itself. ...Serbian extremists arrested Muslims en masse. Many were taken to the stadium or sport grounds and stripped of their possessions. The men were separated from the women and children and then transferred to other detention facilities.
One report cited by the UN suggested that 6,000 to 7,000 men were detained in the local stadium, where they were forced to donate blood. Many of those who survived the stadium were then transferred to the "Vuk Karadzic" Elementary School, where a number of other atrocities were committed.
The UN Special Reporter detailed these alleged atrocities. As many as 600 men were crammed into the school hall and those who could not fit inside were shot with automatic weapons in front of the hall. As in many other municipalities, authorities singled out influential members of the community according to a list for particularly harsh beatings. The authorities reportedly detained and beat the prisoners for three days, before transferring them to the self-declared Bosnian Serb capital of Pale. As many as 50 prisoners died on just the first night from the beatings, while "nine others suffocated in the crush as the 500 to 600 struggled to escape the beatings." "An Imam was allegedly beaten and stabbed to death after refusing to take the Christian faith and raise three fingers in the Serb manner."
A number of witness statements detailed the brutal torture and murder of hundreds of Bosniak prisoners by Serb paramilitary units and local authorities in April and May of 1992. This included beatings with wooden and iron poles, cutting off of noses, ears and genitals, cutting of crosses into the skin, burning victims alive in garbage containers. In the latter instance, "[t]he open containers were then placed under the windows of the containment area causing the smoke to fill the room. The dead were later transported by trucks and disposed of in the river Drina." Others prisoners died of starvation. Still others report that they were forced to jump up and down on the corpses of tortured and executed prisoners.
2. WAR CRIMES FOLLOWING THE FALL OF SREBRENICA, JULY 1995
Srebrenica adjoins the Bratunac municipality on the south, near the Serbian border. Following the fall of the UN "safe haven" of Srebrenica in July 1995, Serb forces systematically executed over 8,000 unarmed Bosniak men. Some of these men were separated from the women and children in the enclave and bussed to massacre sites, while others were apprehended in the following days trying to escape to Bosniak territory. Massacre sites were located in the Srebrenica, Bratunac and Zvornik municipalities. Strong evidence exists implicating the Bratunac and Zvornik authorities and local military police in these massacres.
Local Serb authorities from Bratunac have also been implicated in the massacre of thousands of unarmed Bosniak men, as many were slain at massacre points in that municipality. Other massacres occurred in the Zvornik municipality, located along the Drina River to the north of Srebrenica, after the fall of Srebrenica. One particularly damning piece of evidence is the statements of Dutch soldiers who were being held hostage in Bratunac. They witnessed a number of buses of terrified male prisoners pass by and heard frequent gunshots, especially from the direction of the soccer field, one of the massacre sites. They also observed Serb military police leaving Bratunac early in the morning and returning at night exhausted. "Some of the Serbs chatted to the Dutch. Johan Bos, a 31-year-old sergeant, was quoted in the Independent on Sunday on 23 July 1995: "They bragged about how they had murdered people and raped women..."
3. TODAY
Despite significant evidence of mass torture and murder committed by Serb authorities in Bratunac in 1992, detailed in the first part of this section, the ICTY has not issued a single public indictment related to these events. Nor has SFOR arrested a single individual under sealed indictment for involvement in the 1992 Bratunac atrocities. While The Hague has issued indictments against Karadzic, Mladic and RS Army General Radoslav Krstic for the Srebrenica massacre, only Krstic has been brought before the Tribunal. Moreover, no public indictments have been issued for the involvement of local authorities from Bratunac, Srebrenica and Zvornik in the massacres of men from Srebrenica, which took place in these municipalities, with help from the local police and paramilitary units, in July 1995.
As a result, individuals involved in planning and carrying out the 1992 and 1995 massacres remain in these municipalities, making further Dayton implementation virtually impossible. Five years after the Srebrenica tragedy and more than eight years after the massacres in Bratunac, almost no Bosniaks have returned to Srebrenica or Bratunac. In 1999, the Bosniak Secretary of the Srebrenica Municipal Assembly was reportedly attacked and stabbed in the bathroom of the municipal building. Recent violence and vandalism directed against minority returnees and their families in eastern RS included the burning of at least seven newly reconstructed Bosniak homes in Srebrenica in June and July 2000. In May of this year, a group of protesters in Bratunac stoned a convoy of buses bringing women who survived the Srebrenica massacre to a commemoration of the victims. Members of the international community received information from reliable sources that certain local public officials helped to organise this action.
Serb politicians and citizens alike continue to insist that no Bosniaks were massacred. Many of the same politicians and authorities in power in Bratunac in 1992 and 1995 remain active in local and regional politics, contributing to this ideology of collective denial. These politicians were also in power in September 1995, when US satellite imagery revealed attempts to destroy evidence of mass graves in Glogova and Pilica. In 1996 local officials denied that the Srebrenica massacre ever occurred, and continue to do so today.
(a) Miroslav Deronjic
One of the officials who denied that massacres took place was Miroslav Deronjic, who served as President of the Bratunac SDS and head of the Bratunac Crisis Staff in 1992, during the murderous ethnic cleansing of Bratunac. Numerous sources implicated Deronjic as one of the principal organisers of the atrocities committed in Bratunac during the war.
Deronjic allegedly played a crucial role in inviting and organising the arrival of Serbian paramilitaries, such as the "Beli Orlovi," and Arkan's and Seselj's groups to Bratunac in 1992. He reportedly contributed financially to the hiring of Arkan's paramilitaries to kill respected Bosniaks. A witness allegedly saw Deronjic accompany a group of Bosniak civilians into the Vuk Karadzic school where they were robbed and massacred.
The indicted war criminal General Radislav Krstic confirmed that Deronjic was named as the Commissar of the President of Republika Srpska for Srebrenica in 1995. The appointment was made on 11 July, the day Srebrenica fell. Deronjic, along with Mladic and Krstic, was present at the negotiations with Dutch UN peacekeepers and representatives of the Bosniak refugees in the Hotel Fontana on that day. An OHR document claims that at the time of the massacre Deronjic, minutes before a meeting with refugee representatives, urged Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic not to bother meeting with the Bosniaks because, "We are going to kill them all anyway."
On 17 July, Deronjic brought a document which he had already signed to the Dutch UN Commander Major Franken and Bosniak representative Nesib Mandzic, who were being held hostage in the UN compound in Potocari. The two were effectively forced to sign a declaration that the evacuation of civilians from Srebrenica had proceeded correctly and in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Later they would learn the full truth, that Serb forces had massacred thousands of unarmed Bosniak men.
Deronjic reportedly played a key role in organising wartime ethnic cleansing throughout eastern Bosnia and continues to wield his power to obstruct Bosniak return and Dayton implementation. He reportedly maintains close links with Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic and co-ordinates logistics and security for the former in eastern Bosnia.
Today Miroslav Deronjic is a member of the Bratunac municipal assembly.
His election was certified by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(b) Ljubisav Simic
Another official who served in a decision-making position on the Crisis Staff, and later denied that the Srebrenica massacre took place, is Ljubisav Simic. Simic allegedly served as President of the municipal assembly from 1992-1995, was a close associate of Deronjic and one of the main organisers of ethnic cleansing in Bratunac, and was involved in the massacre in the gym of the 'Vuk Karadzic' elementary school.
Today Ljubisav Simic is a member of the Bratunac municipal assembly.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
(c) Miodrag Josipovic
Yet another prominent Bratunac official whose alleged wartime profile matches the criteria for indictment by the ICTY is Miodrag Josipovic, the current mayor. According to a document provided by an international organisation, Josipovic was the chief of the guards in the "Vuk Karadzic" elementary school in 1992 and was seen together with Radovan Karadzic during a massacre at the school. This document reports that witnesses identified Josipovic as someone deeply involved in atrocities committed against Bosniaks throughout the war. Local sources indicate that Josipovic assumed the position of Commander of the Bratunac police in 1993, a position he held until Dayton. As head of the Bratunac police, following the fall of Srebrenica, he allegedly participated in organising massacres of Bosniak men. He also allegedly organised the deportation of prisoners from Srebrenica to Zvornik. Josipovic has also been allegedly closely connected to attempts to cover-up mass graves and evidence of concentration camps at the end of the war. More recently, Josipovic is reported to have been one of those who organised the stoning of a convoy of Srebrenica widows on 11 May 2000.
Miodrag Josipovic is the Mayor of Bratunac municipality.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
In May 2000, following the establishment of the Bratunac municipal assembly, a Bosniak refugee citizens group from Srebrenica and Zepa protested the election of Deronjic, Ljubisav Simic and Josipovic to public office. The group labelled them "war criminals, because as members of the Serb Emergency Provisional Government they were responsible for the expulsion of 22,000 non-Serbs from Bratunac." Both the OSCE and the Office of the High Representative (OHR) ignored this plea.
(d) Miladin Simic
Another influential figure in Bratunac is Miladin Simic. Local sources allege that he participated in ethnic cleansing in Mihaljevici, Suha and other villages outside Bratunac in 1992, and that as a member of the Bratunac Infantry Leadership in 1995, he participated in the massacre of Srebrenica deportees at Pilice.
Although the OHR removed Simic from his position as President of the Municipal Assembly in November 1999, he remains one of the most influential figures in Bratunac. Following his removal, Simic was elected to the Yugoslavian board of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS). He reportedly continues to co-operate closely with Deronjic, Josipovic and other members of the Bratunac government. Simic demonstrated his continued influence recently by attending the inaugural session of the new Municipal Council in Bratunac. Other parties filed a complaint with the OSCE because Simic was making "threatening comments and inappropriate gestures." He also "attempted to control the meeting with head and hand movements, a fact he later admitted to international representatives."
Simic allegedly heads an illegal paramilitary organisation in Bratunac, and has strong links with "anti-terrorist" groups in the region and in Serbia. Members of this group allegedly participated in ethnic cleansing in Bratunac in 1992 and are reportedly active in Zvornik, Bijeljina and other parts of eastern Bosnia. When minority returns began in northern Bratunac earlier this year, Simic reportedly showed up at the return area with approximately 25 men, wearing winter camouflage uniforms. They later explained to the UN International Police Task Force (IPTF) that they had been hunting.
Today Simic allegedly controls a paramilitary group and exerts significant influence in Bratunac and the region.
(e) Novak Stjepanovic
As the commander of a local SDS paramilitary formation in Srebrenica in 1992, Novak Stjepanovic, nicknamed "Krke", was allegedly one the organisers and participants in ethnic cleansing in the region of Sase, Srebrenica and the settlements of Sikiric, Biljaca, Zaluzje and Voljavica in Bratunac.
In May 1992, he reportedly participated directly in the enslavement and detention of tens of civilians in the administrative building of the zinc and iron mine in Sase, Srebrenica. Stjepanovic and other paramilitaries allegedly horribly mistreated these civilians, raping the young women and girls, and murdering some of the civilians. Stjepanovic allegedly participated directly in the rapes. Then he reportedly ordered that a group of 42 civilians be exchanged and they were shipped off in two trucks. The group disappeared near Voljavica, Bratunac, most likely murdered.
On 20 May 1992, Stjepanovic, along with other paramilitaries, allegedly participated in the execution of a group of civilians in Stari Majdan, Bratunac. He was also implicated in the murder of civilians in Zaluzje, Bratunac. Stjepanovic received a four-year jail sentence in 1995 for the murder of a Serb, which he served in Foca.
Novak Stjepanovic is the current President of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) in Srebrenica.
He continues to speak out publicly against the return of Bosniaks.
(f) Others
A number of other public figures in Bratunac are reported to have participated in ethnic cleansing during the war. Zlatko Celanovic reportedly handled security in Bratunac during the war, and oversaw the interrogation of captured Bosniaks. Following the war he is reported to have played a major role in the illegal reallocation of Bosniak property in Bratunac.
Zlatko Celanovic served as Secretary of the Bratunac Municipal Assembly until the April 2000 municipal elections, representing the Serb Radical Party.
He reportedly maintains close contacts with former Mayor Miladin Simic, who was removed from his position by the OHR.
Najdan Mladjenovic, a driver in the "Vihor" company, allegedly commanded a local Serb paramilitary unit in April 1992 which carried out attacks on the villages of Hrance and Glogova, in which dozens of civilians were killed and others were deported to the "Vuk Karadzic" concentration camp, described above.
Today Najdan Mladjenovic serves as the director of the public company "Kartonaza" in Bratunac.
In addition to current Bratunac authorities, some individuals believed to have participated in war crimes in Bratunac now serve public functions in neighbouring municipalities. For instance, the Commander of the Bratunac police in 1992 during the massacres and atrocities in the first wave of ethnic cleansing was Luka Bogdanovic.
Today Luka Bogdanovic is a police officer in Zvornik.
A number of other influential citizens in Bratunac and Srebrenica reportedly participated in the torture and execution of Bosniaks and continue to prevent minority returns and Dayton implementation in eastern Republika Srpska. Many of these radicals have strong links with Serbia, in terms of money and weapons flows, and paramilitary activities. Politically radical groups in Bratunac and Srebrenica with strong links to paramilitary groups continue to destabilise these municipalities, as well as the nearby municipalities such as Bijeljina, Rogatica and Zvornik.
C. Brcko
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN BRCKO
Serb forces began their attack on Brcko in May 1992, destroying both bridges leading over the Sava River and into Croatia with artillery, and killing at least 50 civilians. Preparations for the take-over and ethnic cleansing of the town of Brcko and surrounding villages had begun in late 1991, and in April 1992 SDS authorities gave an ultimatum over the radio. "SDS Assemblyman Ristanic declared that Bosnia's Serbs wanted to be part of Yugoslavia. He announced that Brcko's Serbs wanted the city broken into three parts, one each for Muslims, Serbs, and Croats. ...He insisted that division must take place by 3 May or there would be war."
Following the destruction of the bridges, Serb forces began heavy bombardment of Brcko neighbourhoods where Bosniaks and Croats were living. The JNA, locally mobilised forces and Serbian paramilitaries then executed a campaign of terror, in which the property of non-Serbs was systematically plundered and destroyed, many non-Serb civilians were summarily executed, and thousands of non-Serbs were rounded up and imprisoned in concentration camps. At the "stara dzamija," "Partizan," "Laser," and "Luka" camps, as well as at the police station and other locations, a large number of prisoners were brutally tortured and executed. Activities at the most notorious of these camps, the Luka camp, formed the basis of a Hague indictment against two individuals, Goran Jelisic and Ranko Cesic. According to the indictment, "During the time the Luka camp operated, [May to July 1992] the Serb authorities killed hundreds of Muslim and Croat detainees."
During this time, a Serb Crisis Staff administered the municipality, as in other parts of Bosnia. The UN Commission of Experts named the members of this commission:
Reportedly, during the first few days of May, the local Serbs established what was called the 'War Presidency', a committee of local leaders representing important sources of authority in the region. These allegedly included: the chief of uniformed police, Veselin Veselic; the commander of the military garrison, Colonel Pavle Milinkovic; the commander of the Luka camp, Dzokic; the commander of the fire brigade, Kristo Puric; the head of health, Milenko Vojinovic, aka Dr. Beli and reportedly in the Bosnian Serb Assembly in Pale; the head of the judiciary, Todor Gavric; the information director, Bosko Lomovic; the head of defence, Milutinovic; and the police commander, Drago Vesiljevic. Djordje Ristanic was reported to be the head of the executive body.
Among the Serb paramilitary units active in the ethnic cleansing of Bijeljina, reports mention the prominence of Ljubisa Savic "Mauser" and his "Panthers," as well as Mirko Blagojevic. Both of these groups were also active in the ethnic cleansing of Bijeljina, discussed above.
2. TODAY
In March 2000, then-Brcko Administrator Robert Farrand appointed an interim council for the Brcko district that included individuals implicated in the ethnic cleansing and atrocities committed in 1992 and 1993. To this day, there has been little sustainable return of refugees to the city centre, and Brcko remains a focal point for Serb nationalist activism, as seen in the organised violent four-day anti-District and anti-Dayton demonstrations held in the city during October 2000. During these riots, demonstrators injured two police officers, attacked a television crew from Tuzla and destroyed private property. The protesters demolished a hairdressing salon, a local café, a Baptist church, and the residences of international community officials. The primary targets were properties owned by Bosniaks.
Although the demonstrators were primarily local Serb high school students, they appear to have been well organised and manipulated by radical Serb politicians. Local media reported that SDS politicians pressured the director of the local high school to destabilise the situation in Brcko. Students were also bussed in from Bijlejina.
(a) Djordje Ristanic
The head of the Brcko Crisis Staff and President of the municipality in 1992 and 1993 was Djordje Ristanic. A UN report claims that various sources mention him as allegedly one of the principal decision-makers in the municipality at the time of the atrocities described above.
Today Djordje Ristanic is a member of the District Interim Council.
He was appointed by former Brcko Administrator Robert Farrand in March 2000.
He is alleged to have participated in organising the October 2000 anti-Dayton riots in Brcko.
D. Cajnice
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN CAJNICE/RUDO
In 1991 and 1992, members of the local SDS began arming local Serbs and formed a paramilitary unit called the "Plavi Orlovi." Following the division of the local police along ethnic lines, Serb forces established military checkpoints at the entrances of the town, and the President of the municipality and of the local SDS, Dusko Kornjaca, ordered all Bosniaks to hand over their weapons. In April 1992, SDS leaders formed the "Stakorina" camp in Mostina, where Bosniaks were tortured and killed. Allegedly, at least 76 civilians in the camp were murdered and their bodies buried in the village of Jovanovici. Sources in the local intelligence community allege that the "Plavi Orlovi," led by Milan Kornjaca, committed these executions.
Following the establishment of the camp, local, Serbian and Montenegrin paramilitaries attacked the surrounding villages, summarily executing a number of civilians and deporting others to the camp in Mostina. In the spring and summer of 1992, about 4,000 Bosniaks were expelled from the Cajnice municipality. In addition, all mosques and buildings of the Islamic community in Cajnice were destroyed.
2. TODAY
(a) Dusko Kornjaca
Dusko Kornjaca, a medical doctor, served as the Defence Minister for the Serb Autonomous Region of Herzegovina, head of the Cajnice Crisis Staff during the war, and President of the Serb municipality of Cjanice. He is alleged to bear responsibility for violations of international humanitarian law committed in Cajnice, Trebinje and other parts of the region. Sources allege Dusko Kornjaca to have been the most powerful figure in the area during the ethnic cleansing of Cajnice and Rudo. As head of the Crisis Staff and President of the Municipality he played an organising role in the deportation of non-Serbs from Cajnice, the establishment of the Mostina camp where civilians were murdered, and the formation of paramilitary groups. According to local media, Kornjaca returned to Bosnia fresh from the war in Croatia and played an active role in the ethnic cleansing of Cajnice and Rudo, as well as being active in Zvornik. In 1991, 45 per cent of Cajnice's 8,919 residents were Muslim. According to a local journal, Kornjaca was quoted in the Serbian media in 1992 as saying, "Now, in Cajnice, there are no Muslims, it is possible for them to leave here and go back to the place where they left their ancestors in 1912."
Dusko Kornjaca currently serves as the Mayor of Cajnice.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
(b) Others
Milorad Zivkovic was allegedly the Chief of Police in Cajnice during the war and throughout the ethnic cleansing of the town.
Milorad Zivkovic continues to serve as Chief of the Cajnice police.
UNMiBH confirmed that he received provisional authorisation from the UN to carry out police functions.
Dusan Pejovic reportedly served as a member of the Crisis Staff in Cajnice during the war. Along with Kornjaca and others, he agreed to the formation of the camp in Mostina and reportedly visited the camp in April 1992.
Pejovic is on the candidates' list representing the SDS in the People's Assembly of Republika Srpska in the upcoming November 2000 elections.
E. Doboj
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN DOBOJ
Doboj's prewar population consisted of 41,164 Bosniaks, 39,820 Serbs, 13,264 Croats and 5,765 Yugoslavs, plus 2,536 "others."
In the spring of 1992 the JNA, Bosnian Serb paramilitaries and paramilitaries from Serbia and Croatia occupied Doboj. These paramilitaries included Arkan's "Tigers", Seselj's "White Eagles," and Martic's Militia, as well as the Serbian "Red Berets":
They shelled and set fire to two mosques and the Catholic Church. Croats and Bosniaks were ordered to remain indoors as their homes were searched and looted. Male residents were often arrested, and still others were beaten. Women were taken away on three buses to a high school, where they were held for 28 days and raped repeatedly. One report specifically mentions the Red Berets as allegedly responsible for at least some of the rapes at the high school.
Having served as a railway hub in the former Yugoslavia, Doboj now served as a point to which detainees from other areas were shipped before being expelled to Croat or Bosniak held territory or deported to other detention centres. These people were subject to inhumane conditions in the trains and harassment, abuse, robbery and execution by Serb soldiers along the journey. "In some instances, the soldiers required that a ransom be paid by a specific car of detainees to ensure that the children contained within would not be killed."
A UN report confirmed the existence of several camps in the Doboj area, a number of them the scenes of frequent atrocities, including systematic rape. The Doboj School gymnasium, whose existence was confirmed by the New York Times and Helsinki Watch, held between 600 and 2,000 women and girls. "When the women arrived at the school, they were 'classified' according to their education, financial status and appearance. The ugly and poor women disappeared." Local Serb militia, JNA, police forces from Knin and members of the Beli Orlovi reportedly visited the camp.
The UN report describes in harrowing detail how the women were subject to constant humiliation, torture, starvation and rape by paramilitaries.
The Red Cross refugee camp, whose existence was confirmed by the US government, served as a refugee camp for Serb refugees, but also as a detention centre for Bosniaks and Croats. Serb soldiers wearing an "SMP" insignia entered the camp at night and took non-Serb women to apartments where they were repeatedly raped.
The report details the conditions of a number of other camps in Doboj, including rape camps. Other detention centres included the police station, where prisoners of political interest to the Serbs were held, and frequently tortured; the Usoro military facility, which was the scene of routine rapes, and the Vila Disco Bar, which housed 200 to 414 Bosniaks. About 23 of these prisoners died when the Serbs used them as "living shields" in combat.
2. CURRENT SITUATION IN DOBOJ
Despite the atrocities reported in Doboj, particularly against civilian men and women in the camps, The Hague tribunal has not issued a single public indictment related to the ethnic cleansing operation in Doboj and camps established there, and there have not been any arrests on sealed indictments. Although a number of Bosniaks and Croats have begun returning to the Doboj-Teslic area, this return has been accompanied by a number of attacks on returnees. In the first half of 2000, IPTF received reports of 27 such incidents in the wider Doboj area (municipalities of Doboj, Teslic, Derventa, Modrica and Bosanski Samac). This begs the question of whether the paramilitary groups described in a 1996 Human Rights Watch report continue to obstruct return and Dayton implementation.
(a) Milan Ninkovic
This Human Rights Watch report identified Milan Ninkovic as allegedly "one of the five principal organisers of ethnic cleansing in the Doboj area." Ninkovic served as President of the SDS for Doboj and President of the municipal council of Doboj during the war. In 1996, he retained these positions and also served as the Republika Srpska Minister of Defence. The report claims, "In early 1993, Ninkovic announced on Radio Doboj that all Bosniaks should be killed and that the city should remain a Serb city." He served on the Doboj municipal assembly until removed by OSCE in May 2000.
Milan Ninkovic remains one of the most influential people in Doboj.
OSCE banned Ninkovic from running for election in Doboj based on his previous obstructionism and removal by the Election Appeals Sub-Committee. He has also been prohibited from attending municipal council meetings.
He is President of the local SDS.
He is the director of the publicly owned firm "Technogas."
He is alleged to be one of the leaders of an underground paramilitary organisation.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him indictable for war crimes.
(b) Andrija Bjelosevic
The Acting Commander of the Centre for Security Services in Doboj or regional Chief of Police from 1991 to 1993, was Andrija Bjelosevic. "During this period of time, the 'Red Berets' paramilitary unit reported to him on their activities in the region. Troops who took orders from Bjelosevic reported that he instructed them to 'kill Muslims, wherever you find them.'" A Human Rights Watch report noted that Bjelosevic's position in the State Security Services and his connections with paramilitary groups demonstrate that the relationship between the state and paramilitaries in Republika Srpska was co-ordinated. By virtue of his position, he allegedly had control over police engaged in the torture, arrest, deportation and detention of non-Serbs in various camps and in the building of the Doboj police. Members of the police in Bjelosevic's region of responsibility also allegedly participated in the attacks on the municipalities of Bosanski Brod, Derventa, Bosanski Samac, Odzak, Modrica and Teslic and in activities in Tesenj, Maglaj, Gacanica and Lukavac.
Andrija Bjelosevic reportedly works as an advisor to the Republika Srpska Minister of the Interior for questions of police and security.
UNMiBH confirmed that name was on a list of employees submitted by the Ministry.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(c) Vlado Djurdjevic
Vlado Djurdjevic replaced Bjelosevic as the Doboj regional Chief of Police in 1993, having served as Secretary of the Crisis Staff since 1992. He remained Chief of Police until 1998. The Human Rights Watch report claims that Djurdjevic "was intimately involved with the organisation of the 'ethnic cleansing' campaign in Doboj."
Vlado Djurdjevic is now the director of a private firm, "Doboj Invest," and is considered influential in the local community.
(d) Drago Ljubicic
In 1990, SDS member Drago Ljubicic became President of the Doboj municipal assembly. In this role he was directly involved in the formation of military units in 1991, well prior to the outbreak of the war in 1992. He ran the Doboj municipal government throughout the war, and is considered to have held command responsibility. In May and June 1992, Ljubicic allegedly took an active part in the occupation and ethnic cleansing of the surrounding villages of Grapska Gornja, Sevarlije, Potocani, Pridjel Gornji, Civcija Bukovacka, and Bukovica Mala. He is reported to have retained command authority over concentration camps in the Doboj area, including the military hangars at the Bosanka company, the military hangars at the Bare settlement, the former JNA camp at Sevarlija, the camp at the central prison in Doboj (Spreca), and a camp at the "PP" disoteque in the Vila settlement. Many of the inmates of these camps were allegedly murdered, starved to death, beaten, tortured and used as human shields on the front line. He is also alleged to have played a role in the second round of ethnic cleansing of the Doboj region in September 1995. In 1997 he left the SDS and joined Biljana Plavsic's SNS.
Today Drago Ljubicic is the Director of Customs in Doboj.
The UN report describes in harrowing detail how the women were subject to constant humiliation, torture, starvation and rape by paramilitaries.
The Red Cross refugee camp, whose existence was confirmed by the US government, served as a refugee camp for Serb refugees, but also as a detention centre for Bosniaks and Croats. Serb soldiers wearing an "SMP" insignia entered the camp at night and took non-Serb women to apartments where they were repeatedly raped.
The report details the conditions of a number of other camps in Doboj, including rape camps. Other detention centres included the police station, where prisoners of political interest to the Serbs were held, and frequently tortured; the Usoro military facility, which was the scene of routine rapes, and the Vila Disco Bar, which housed 200 to 414 Bosniaks. About 23 of these prisoners died when the Serbs used them as "living shields" in combat.
2. CURRENT SITUATION IN DOBOJ
Despite the atrocities reported in Doboj, particularly against civilian men and women in the camps, The Hague tribunal has not issued a single public indictment related to the ethnic cleansing operation in Doboj and camps established there, and there have not been any arrests on sealed indictments. Although a number of Bosniaks and Croats have begun returning to the Doboj-Teslic area, this return has been accompanied by a number of attacks on returnees. In the first half of 2000, IPTF received reports of 27 such incidents in the wider Doboj area (municipalities of Doboj, Teslic, Derventa, Modrica and Bosanski Samac). This begs the question of whether the paramilitary groups described in a 1996 Human Rights Watch report continue to obstruct return and Dayton implementation.
(a) Milan Ninkovic
This Human Rights Watch report identified Milan Ninkovic as allegedly "one of the five principal organisers of ethnic cleansing in the Doboj area." Ninkovic served as President of the SDS for Doboj and President of the municipal council of Doboj during the war. In 1996, he retained these positions and also served as the Republika Srpska Minister of Defence. The report claims, "In early 1993, Ninkovic announced on Radio Doboj that all Bosniaks should be killed and that the city should remain a Serb city." He served on the Doboj municipal assembly until removed by OSCE in May 2000.
Milan Ninkovic remains one of the most influential people in Doboj.
OSCE banned Ninkovic from running for election in Doboj based on his previous obstructionism and removal by the Election Appeals Sub-Committee. He has also been prohibited from attending municipal council meetings.
He is President of the local SDS.
He is the director of the publicly owned firm "Technogas."
He is alleged to be one of the leaders of an underground paramilitary organisation.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him indictable for war crimes.
(b) Andrija Bjelosevic
The Acting Commander of the Centre for Security Services in Doboj or regional Chief of Police from 1991 to 1993, was Andrija Bjelosevic. "During this period of time, the 'Red Berets' paramilitary unit reported to him on their activities in the region. Troops who took orders from Bjelosevic reported that he instructed them to 'kill Muslims, wherever you find them.'" A Human Rights Watch report noted that Bjelosevic's position in the State Security Services and his connections with paramilitary groups demonstrate that the relationship between the state and paramilitaries in Republika Srpska was co-ordinated. By virtue of his position, he allegedly had control over police engaged in the torture, arrest, deportation and detention of non-Serbs in various camps and in the building of the Doboj police. Members of the police in Bjelosevic's region of responsibility also allegedly participated in the attacks on the municipalities of Bosanski Brod, Derventa, Bosanski Samac, Odzak, Modrica and Teslic and in activities in Tesenj, Maglaj, Gacanica and Lukavac.
Andrija Bjelosevic reportedly works as an advisor to the Republika Srpska Minister of the Interior for questions of police and security.
UNMiBH confirmed that name was on a list of employees submitted by the Ministry.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(c) Vlado Djurdjevic
Vlado Djurdjevic replaced Bjelosevic as the Doboj regional Chief of Police in 1993, having served as Secretary of the Crisis Staff since 1992. He remained Chief of Police until 1998. The Human Rights Watch report claims that Djurdjevic "was intimately involved with the organisation of the 'ethnic cleansing' campaign in Doboj."
Vlado Djurdjevic is now the director of a private firm, "Doboj Invest," and is considered influential in the local community.
(d) Drago Ljubicic
In 1990, SDS member Drago Ljubicic became President of the Doboj municipal assembly. In this role he was directly involved in the formation of military units in 1991, well prior to the outbreak of the war in 1992. He ran the Doboj municipal government throughout the war, and is considered to have held command responsibility. In May and June 1992, Ljubicic allegedly took an active part in the occupation and ethnic cleansing of the surrounding villages of Grapska Gornja, Sevarlije, Potocani, Pridjel Gornji, Civcija Bukovacka, and Bukovica Mala. He is reported to have retained command authority over concentration camps in the Doboj area, including the military hangars at the Bosanka company, the military hangars at the Bare settlement, the former JNA camp at Sevarlija, the camp at the central prison in Doboj (Spreca), and a camp at the "PP" disoteque in the Vila settlement. Many of the inmates of these camps were allegedly murdered, starved to death, beaten, tortured and used as human shields on the front line. He is also alleged to have played a role in the second round of ethnic cleansing of the Doboj region in September 1995. In 1997 he left the SDS and joined Biljana Plavsic's SNS.
Today Drago Ljubicic is the Director of Customs in Doboj.
F. Foca
1. WAR CRIMES IN FOCA
In April 1992, local Serb military, police and civilian authorities took over the town of Foca, and together with JNA units and paramilitary forces, established a local Serb administration through the municipal Crisis Staff. As Serb forces consolidated their power over the rest of the municipality, they ethnically cleansed these areas, establishing a number of concentration camps. One of The Hague indictments related to Foca summarised:
The Serb forces separated men and women and unlawfully confined thousands of Muslims and Croats in various short-term and long-term detention facilities or kept them essentially under house arrest. During the arrests many civilians were killed, beaten, or subjected to sexual assault.
Under the authority of the Crisis Staff, military and paramilitary units carried out the "disappearance," torture, rape, imprisonment, execution, and expulsion of the majority of non-Serb civilians. A prison in Foca, the KPD Dom, was transformed into a detention facility primarily for men, while a number of houses, motels and apartments served as detention facilities for women, children and the elderly. Long-term detention centres for women, children and the elderly included the local high school, the Buk Bijela camp and the Partizan Sports Hall. Serb paramilitaries systematically raped women who were held in these and other camps. The systematic rape of women in these facilities, including the Partizan Sports Hall and the primary school of the neighbouring municipality of Kalinovik, formed the subject of the Hague indictment against Dragoljub Kunarac and Radomir Kovac.
2. TODAY
Although the process of registration and provisional authorisation of police in Foca by the UNMIBH has begun, Jacques Klein has criticised the Foca police for offering less co-operation than their Federation counterparts in the process of creating a professional force. This is reflected in the fact that individuals whose alleged war time involvement in ethnic cleansing has been described in Human Rights Watch reports, and even ICTY indictments, reportedly still serve on the Foca police force. The alleged wartime activities of these and other influential members of the community in Foca are discussed below.
In addition, although The Hague tribunal has issued numerous public indictments against persons directly involved in the atrocities committed in Foca, no public indictments have been made against the three most powerful members of the wartime Foca Serb Crisis Staff. These men are widely believed to have planned, organised and ordered the crimes committed in Foca. All three of these figures were reportedly close to Radovan Karadzic, held high positions in the RS government during the war and continue to influence local and entity politics. These three are also discussed in this section.
(a) Zoran Vladicic
The head of the criminal division of the Foca police, Zoran Vladicic worked as an interrogator in the KPD Foca camp. In an interview with Human Rights Watch, a camp survivor alleged that Vladicic severely beat prisoners in the camp. In December 1997, Vladicic, allegedly beat two detainees in the Foca police station, one of whom subsequently died of the beating. The UN's IPTF investigated and reported on the incident.
Today Zoran Vladicic is the head of the criminal department in the Foca police.
UNMiBH has granted Zoran Vladicic provisional authorisation to carry out police duties.
(b) Miodrag Koprivica
According survivors of the notorious KP Dom camp in Foca, Miodrag Koprivica served as an interrogator in the camp. Witnesses described how Koprivica would call out the names of prisoners from a list, who were then led out of their cells and subsequently disappeared. One survivor described the severe beating which Koprivica allegedly gave to a Bosniak inmate and how this inmate also later "disappeared." Quoting from a witness statement:
I was taken to KP Dom on April 17. Every night at 8:00 they would come to the rooms to take people for interrogations. There were 730 people in KP Dom during the time I was there...Miodrag Koprivica came with two other guards and police officers to people's rooms every night at 8:00 and called people's names from a list. They would take some people to the former meeting room and beat them, and around 12 midnight we heard shooting and these people usually never returned...Of the eighteen men in my room, only eight were left at the end. On average more that half of each room was killed or "disappeared."
In December 1997, Koprivica reportedly assisted Zoran Vladicic in beating two detainees in the Foca police station, one of whom subsequently died of the beating. The UN's IPTF investigated and reported on the incident.
Today Miodrag Koprivica serves in the Foca police.
UNMIBH has granted him provisional authorisation to carry out police duties.
(c) Brane Cosovic
Brane Cosovic, the commander of the Foca military police during the take-over of Foca, allegedly organised a paramilitary unit in which Hague-indicted Janko Janjic and Zoran Vukovic served. Janjic killed himself and injured four German soldiers with a hand grenade in October 2000 when SFOR attempted to arrest him. A 1998 Human Rights Watch report described Cosovic's involvement in the ethnic cleansing of Foca. He has been named as a "key link between paramilitary forces and the Crisis Committee." His soldiers allegedly participated in rapes at the Partizan Sports Hall and High School and in taking prisoners away from the KP Dom, who subsequently disappeared. The ICTY indictment against individuals for rapes committed in the Foca camps refers to the fact that military police committed rapes, calling themselves "Cosa's Guards," after Cosovic. A 1998 Human Rights Watch report confirmed that Cosovic was still serving as a uniformed police officer at that time.
UNMiBH confirmed that Brane Cosovic has received their provisional authorisation to carry out police functions.
Although Cosovic apparently works for the Foca police, he also reportedly spends time in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).
(d) Boro Ivanovic
Another member of the Foca police department alleged to have participated in ethnic cleansing is Boro Ivanovic. Witnesses allege that Ivanovic was a member of the Crisis Staff in Foca, and that he commanded a unit that was allegedly responsible for ethnically cleansing the villages of Vikoc, Papratno, Josanica, Slatino, Dragocava, Brusna, Suljici, and Godijeno. He was also alleged to have been in charge of security at the KP Dom concentration camp.
Today Boro Ivanovic is commander of the Foca traffic police.
UNMiBH confirmed that Boro Ivanovic received provisional authorisation to perform police functions.
(e) Vojislav Bodiroga
A number of other individuals allegedly connected with ethnic cleansing in Foca, while less powerful than Maksimovic, Ostojic and Cancar, whose roles are explained below, serve public functions in Foca and continue to make Foca a place hostile to minority return. During the war Vojislav Bodiroga was a member of the Foca Crisis Staff. After the war he served as director of the local branch of the publicly owned electric distribution company.
Vojislav Bodiroga is currently a member of the municipal assembly of Foca.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
(f) Simo Mojevic
According to a Human Rights Watch report, Simo Mojevic was a member of the Serb Crisis Committee for the Ustikolina region of Foca and commander of a Serb military battalion that ethnically cleansed that region. An article published in the Bosnian periodical DANI alleged that he ordered killings in the villages of Odzak, Vina, Pilipovici, Mrdelici and other villages between Ustikolina and Jabuka and that he "ordered the murder of [one] Salko Andelija." Mojevic, along with Petar Mihajlovic (see below) and Radoje Zoric reportedly commanded the attack on the villages of Paunci and Filipovici, and Mojevic's unit allegedly ethnically cleansed the areas of Ustikolina, Njuhe, Mrdjelici and Osanica, along the left bank of the Drina River. In the summer of 1992, Mojevic is said to have participated in the transfer of Bosniaks from the KP Dom Camp in Foca to work detail on the front line. A group of twenty prisoners that Mojevic allegedly escorted back towards the camp after a day of digging trenches on the Stolasac hill were executed by paramilitaries before reaching the camp.
Witnesses alleged that Mojevic and Mihajlovic were the main organisers of ethnic cleansing in Ustokolina. Mojevic allegedly personally slit the throat of at least one civilian and he also allegedly personally set fire to a house, burning a 75 year-old woman inside to death.
Simo Mojevic is the director of an elementary school, "Sveti Sava" in the Gornje Polje settlement in Foca.
Bosniak returnees would send their children to this school.
(g) Petar Mihajlovic
The wartime president of the SDS for Ustikolina, Petar Mihajlovic, was mentioned along with Simo Mojevic (see above) in a Human Rights Watch report, as one of the individuals who allegedly "supervised" the ethnic cleansing of the Ustikolina region of Foca. Local sources support his alleged involvement in the ethnic cleansing of the villages in the Ustikolina region of Foca.
Petar Mihajlovic is currently the president of a Serb refugee return association in Foca.
(h) Velibor Ostojic
According to highly placed witnesses and international representatives in Foca, Velibor Ostojic was a founding member of the SDS, and one of the three leading members of the Serb Crisis Staff in Foca during the war, as well as Karadzic's Minister of Information, a post to which Karadzic personally appointed him. During and after the war, Ostojic was reportedly one of Karadzic's closest political associates in the SDS. Witnesses identified Ostojic as one of the three principal organisers of ethnic cleansing in Foca. Ostojic reportedly organised the equipping and training of SDS members in Foca and co-ordinated the arrival of paramilitaries from Serbia. Witnesses stated that Ostojic, Cancar and Maksimovic (see below) knew of the existence of camps in their area of responsibility and that Ostojic had visited the Livade facility. As Minister of Information, Ostojic gave numerous false statements to the international press in an attempt to cover up the extent of Serb war crimes.
From 1997 to 1998 Ostojic served as the head of a Bosnian Parliament Commission for Human Rights.
Reportedly a close associate of Karadzic, Velibor Ostojic continues to exert significant political influence in Republika Srpska and Foca.
He is the Director of the Agency for the Construction of Serb Sarajevo.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(i) Petar Cancar
Petar Cancar was the wartime Mayor of Foca, a position he retained until 1997. Along with Ostojic (above) and Maksimovic (below), Cancar served as a decision-making member of the Foca Crisis Staff during the war. In 1997, he was appointed as a judge to the Constitutional Court of Republika Srpska. In 1998 RS Premier Milorad Dodik appointed him as Minister of Justice, an appointment which the international community did not oppose.
Cancar reportedly remains on the RS payrolls as a judge, but carries out other activities in Foca and Serbia.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(j) Vojislav Maksimovic
Vojislav Maksimovic was the third decision-making member of the Foca Crisis Staff during the war. After the war he served as Mayor of Serb Sarajevo, Member of the Republika Srpska Parliament, and Rector of the University of Serb Sarajevo.
Vojislav Maksimovic is currently a professor of Serb language and literature at the University of Serb Sarajevo.
He lives in Foca but spends considerable time in Pale and Belgrade.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
G. Gacko and Trebinje
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN GACKO
On 17 and 18 June 1992, Serb forces attacked a number of villages in the Fazlagic Kula community in the Gacko municipality. In the course of the attack, Serb forces killed tens of civilians. Serb authorities established a camp, "Podrum Hotela," where 150 Bosniak civilians were held in June and subjected to interrogation and torture. Ten prisoners were murdered in the camp. On 28 June 1992 and 1 July 1992, Serb forces attacked the villages of Ravno and Previla, killing ten civilians. On 4 July 1992, members of the Gacko police and the "Beli Orlovi" paramilitary formation "ethnically cleansed" Gacko itself, killing tens of civilians. Their remains were uncovered in two mass graves at Stanicki Most and Harem in Gacko. On 19 July that year, Serb forces attacked the Bjelesnica Mountain, to which non-Serbs from Gacko had fled earlier that month, executing and arresting a number of civilians. Those who were arrested and led to the Gacko police station later "disappeared." On 13 August, members of the Gacko police executed nine civilians in the Kotlina area of Gacko. Their remains were uncovered in the autumn of 1999.
The Serb Crisis Staff in Gacko consisted of Mitar Lazetic, president of the municipal council; Konstadin Jegdic, president of the local SDS; Zdravko Zirojevic, president of the main board of the municipal council; Vojin Popovic, head of the Gacko police; and Goran Lucic, commander of the territorial defence. The police, headed by Vojin Popovic, allegedly committed the majority of crimes described above.
2. TODAY
None of the former members of the Gacko Crisis Staff or police department has been publicly indicted. Reliable information has been received about eleven more members of the police, besides Popovic, who allegedly participated in the massacres described above.
(a) Milijan Miric
One of the individuals alleged to have participated in the arrest, deportation and execution of civilians was reserve police officer Milijan Miric. On 26 June 1992 alone he allegedly was responsible for the death of six pensioners, all above the age of 60.
Milijan Miric serves in the Gacko police department.
He is undergoing screening for UNMIBH provisional authorisation.
(b) Bozidar Vucurovic
In addition to the municipal crisis staff members, members of the regional Crisis Staff of the Herzegovina "Autonomous Region" were part of the chain of command with alleged responsibility for war crimes committed in Gacko, Cajnice, Trebinje and other parts of Herzegovina. The president of the Herzegovina regional Crisis Staff was Bozidar Vucurovic from Trebinje, who also served on the Crisis Staff as the president of the Trebinje municipal council. Serb forces expelled most of that town's non-Serbs in 1992 and 1993, during which time at least 40 civilians were murdered.
Bozidar Vucurovic is a successful businessman and one of the most influential figures in the Herzegovina region of RS.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
H. Han Pijesak
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN HAN PIJESAK
Before the war, approximately 40 per cent of Han Pijesak's 6,346 residents were Bosniak. Today the municipality has almost no Bosniak residents. In seven villages of Han Pijesak, 94 persons were murdered during the war. A UN report cited the existence of a detention facility in Han Pijesak "where men were killed and women and young children raped. It has been previously reported that many people are also buried there."
2. TODAY
(a) Bogdan Todorovic
Bogdan Todorovic, one of the founders of the Han Pijesak SDS, allegedly led the Serb Crisis Staff and Municipal War Presidency at the time the municipality was ethnically cleansed.
Bogdan Todorovic is the director of Radio Han Pijesak.
(b) Goran Kanostravac
Goran Kanostravac was the Commander of the Han Pijesak Police during the war.
Goran Kanostravac reportedly serves in the Bijeljina police.
UNMiBH confirmed that Goran Kanostravac was on a list of employees submitted by the RS Ministry of the Interior, although he had not been registered for UNMiBH screening.
(c) Dusan Gasevic
Dusan Gasevic served as a member of the Han Pijesak Crisis Staff during the war.
Today, Dusan Gasevic is the Speaker of the Han Pijesak municipal council.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
(d) Others
Ratko Mladic, the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander and a publicly indicted war criminal, has a weekend house in Han Pijesak that he reportedly visits from time to time.
I. Kljuc
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN KLJUC
Before the ethnic cleansing in Kljuc, there were 17,714 Bosniaks and 3,360 Croats in the municipality. After the cleansing only 500 Muslims and 300 Croats remained. 525 Bosniaks and Croats were killed all told during the ethnic cleansing.
On 1 June 1992, 81 non-Serbs between the ages of 18 and 65 were called to assemble at the Serb checkpoint located at the building of the primary school in Velagici, in the municipality of Kljuc. They were briefly detained in the school and then executed by firearm. They were later buried in a mass grave in Laniste, Kljuc. The bodies of 80 non-Serbs were exhumed at the site on 5 October 1996. On the same day, in the village of Prhovo, members of the Bosnian Serb army killed 52 civilians by firearm, including women and children. The bodies were exhumed on 8 May 1997 and 24 September 1999 from two mass graves around Prhovo.
On 10 July 1992, in Biljani, members of the Bosnian Serb army and the Kljuc police murdered 220 non-Serb civilians from the village. In another mass grave found in Laniste, 188 of these bodies were recovered and in two mass graves in Crvena Zemlja, the remaining 32 were found. On 30 July 1992, in Donja Sanica, five Bosniaks were shot in a house, which was then set on fire. Their bodies were exhumed on 8 November 1996. In August 1992, in Zablece, seven Bosniaks were executed by firearm. Their bodies were exhumed on 19 April 2000. On 10 October 1992, in Kamicak, five Bosniaks were murdered. Their bodies were exhumed on 21 November 1996.
2. TODAY
(a) Marko Adamovic
Marko Adamovic was a member of the Kljuc municipal Crisis Staff and Deputy Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army's Kljuc Battalion of the 17th Light Infantry Brigade. Adamovic, along with two other individuals, allegedly ordered the massacre of 81 civilians in Velagici on 1 June 1992. Adamovic's unit also allegedly carried out the massacre of 52 civilians in Prhovo the same day. The unit allegedly continued to actively ethnically cleanse the region and commit crimes against the remaining non-Serb civilian population throughout 1992, 1993, and 1994. His unit was allegedly responsible for the destruction of sixteen mosques and one Catholic Church.
Today Marko Adamovic reportedly serves as a Major in the RS Army in Skender Vakuf/Knezevo
(b) Marko Samardzija
Marko Samardzija, an officer in the RS Army, commanded the Third Company of the Sanica Battalion of the 17th Light Infantry Brigade (LPBR), which was allegedly one of the main perpetrators of the massacres in the Kljuc region, in particular in the villages of Domazti, Botonici, Jabukovac, Donji Biljani and Brkici. On 10 July 1992, Samarszija's unit allegedly entered these villages and rounded up all the men, who were then taken to the elementary school in Donji Biljani. A list was recovered containing the names of 201 Bosniak men confined to this school. In addition to these 201 individuals, others were killed prior to reaching the school. Some of them were taken out and shot nearby, while yet others were placed on buses and driven to Kljuc. Along the way the buses stopped and some people were taken out and shot. The rest were taken to the high school in Kljuc, where they were all killed. The bodies of the murdered Bosniaks were found in the mass graves of Laniste I and two at Crvena Zemlja. Samardzija reportedly supervised the gathering and transport of corpses from Biljani to the mass graves.
Today Marko Samardzija lives in Prijedor.
His present activities are unknown.
(c) Milan Tomic
The local police commander from Donje Sanice, Milan Tomic, reportedly commanded units which-along with Samardzija-participated in the ethnic cleansing of Kljuc. This included the murder of more than 200 civilians.
Today Milan Tomic lives in Novi Sad, FRY.
He has filed a request for the return of his apartment in Kljuc.
J. Prijedor
1. GENOCIDE IN PRIJEDOR
The municipality of Prijedor, west of Banja Luka, in northern Bosnia, was of strategic importance to the Serbs as part of a corridor between Krajina Serbs in Croatia and Serbia proper. In April 1992, Serb forces took control of Prijedor, following the military occupation of the city and surrounding villages with a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing. It began with the shelling of areas populated by Croats and Bosniaks, forcing the residents to flee. The majority of these residents were taken to camps, and many were summarily executed. Serb forces continued to apprehend civilians in Prijedor town, nearby Kozorac and other parts of the municipality in the following weeks.
Serb authorities deported Croats and Bosniaks to a number of detention centres, including the notorious Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje concentration camps, where over 6,000 non-Serbs were reportedly held between May and August of 1992. The camps were the scenes of some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II. "Two of the concentration camps, Omarska and Karaterm, were places where killings, torture and brutal interrogations were carried out. The third, Trnopolje, had another purpose; it functioned as a staging area for massive deportations of mostly women, children and elderly men, and killing and rapes also occurred there."
The conditions in Omarska and Karaterm were described in a number of Hague indictments. Omarska was reportedly used to detain many of Prijedor's Croat and Bosniak intellectual, professional and political leaders. About 40 women were held in a special section of the camp where interrogations also took place. The indictment describes the "brutal" conditions in Omarska, which included inhumane overcrowding; lack of facilities for personal hygiene; inadequate water and food, bringing many prisoners close to starvation; regular and severe beatings; torture; rape; humiliation; and executions. The conditions in the Karaterm camp did not differ much from those at Omarska. The Trnopolje camp was established especially for women, children and the elderly. In addition to the murder and torture of detainees, women in Trnopolje were systematically raped. The indictment against Simo Drljaca and Milan Kovacevic noted that hundreds of detainees in these camps did not survive. The indictment cited a single night in July 1992, when 150 men from the "Brdo" area of Prijedor municipality were executed in the Keraterm camp.
The persecution of non-Serbs reportedly continued even after the closing of these camps in 1992. In August 1992, thousands of non-Serbs were released from detention in camps in northwest Bosnia, including Keraterm and Omarska, and deported to Bosniak territory near Travnik. Hundreds never made it to Bosnian-controlled territory. On 21 August, two buses of prisoners from the Trnopolje camp stopped at the Korcanske Stijene cliffs on Vlasic Mountain near Skender Vakuf, on the road to Travnik. At this point, 150 to 200 men were led out of the buses, summarily executed and dumped into a deep ravine. Apparently seven men survived the massacre, five of them to be recaptured by Serbian forces and taken to the hospital in Banja Luka where they were mistreated.
During the successful campaigns of the Armija BiH in September and October of 1995, Serb authorities throughout northwest Bosnia, including Prijedor, conducted a new wave of ethnic cleansing, with the help of Zeljko Raznatovic "Arkan" and his paramilitary group, the "Tigers."
As discussed in the first part of this report, the municipal Crisis Staff of Prijedor played a key role in both the "ethnic cleansing" of the area and the administration of concentration camps. Allegedly, the Prijedor Serb police, led by indicted war criminal Simo Drljaca, "played a major role in violations of international humanitarian and human rights law during and after the war."
2. TODAY
In the first half of 2000, Prijedor had more reported incidents against "minorities" (nineteen Bosniaks and one Croat) than any other municipality in Bosnia. Although The Hague has issued indictments against more than twenty individuals implicated in atrocities committed in Prijedor, including in the Keraterm and Omarska camps, Prijedor is still home to a number of persons implicated in violations of international humanitarian law committed against Bosniaks and Croats.
At the time of this writing, a number of publicly indicted persons from Prijedor remain at large, including the commander of the Omarska camp, Zeljko Meakic. In addition, The Hague has released a number of former camp guards and interrogators, citing the limited resources of the Tribunal and the fact that these individuals should be tried through the state justice system. Unfortunately, the influence of politics and corruption on the Bosnian justice system is so great that the chance of a local court even trying the suspects in the next several years is remote. Local and international sources have indicated that most Prijedorians mistakenly assume that The Hague acquitted these men.
In addition to these publicly indicted, a number of persons who may be under secret indictment are reportedly hiding out in the Prijedor area, occasionally coming into town. These include the commander of the Trnopolje camp, Slobodan Kuruzovic, and Dragan Mrdja "Dado," whom survivors have alleged to be the chief executor of the massacre of about 200 non-Serb men on the Korcanske Stijene cliffs. Both of these men appeared on a list of supposedly secretly indicted persons, publicised by the RS Ministry of Defence. This suggests that even if they have not been indicted, the RS Ministry of Defence considers them to be potentially indictable.
The Prijedor police force also employs individuals allegedly linked to ethnic cleansing, including a number of persons linked to violations of international humanitarian law in other municipalities, such as Sanski Most. These individuals are discussed specifically in the section on Sanski Most.
(a) Ranko Mijic
The head of the criminal investigation unit of the Prijedor police during the war, Ranko Mijic reportedly was in charge of interrogating Bosniaks and Croats in the concentration camps in the Prijedor region, including Keraterm and Omarska. Mijic worked in the police until recently.
Today Ranko Mijic has retired, and runs a private business.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(b) Zivko Jovic
A Human Rights Watch report connected Zivko Jovic, a former military policeman, to atrocities committed in the Keraterm and Trnopolje camps. Local sources assert that Jovic served as an inspector/interrogator of prisoners at the camps in the Prijedor region.
Today Zivko Jovic continues to work as an inspector in the Prijedor police.
UNMiBH confirmed that his name was on a list of employees in Prijedor provided by the RS Ministry of the Interior.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him indictable for war crimes.
(c) Dusan Jankovic
During the war, Dusan Jankovic served as commander of the police in Prijedor. He allegedly had command responsibility over the Keraterm, Trnopolje and Omarska camps, as well as the jail in the Prijedor police station, where a number of atrocities were committed. He was second in command to the indicted Simo Drljaca of the Prijedor police, who was shot by SFOR while resisting arrest in 1997.
Today Dusan Jankovic allegedly serves as an advisor to the RS Ministry of Interior.
UNMiBH confirmed Dusan Jankovic was on a list of employees submitted by the Ministry of the Interior.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(d) Simo Miskovic
Simo Miskovic was the head of the Prijedor SDS and a member of the Serb Crisis Staff during the war. Given these positions, he could be considered, under the Statute of the ICTY to have had command responsibility for the ethnic cleansing in the Prijedor region.
Simo Miskovic lives in Prijedor as a pensioner.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
K. Rogatica
1. WAR CRIMES IN ROGATICA
During the spring and summer of 1992, Serb forces ethnically cleansed the Rogatica municipality of approximately 14,000 Bosniak residents. According to the UN Commission of Experts Report, "Under the leadership of the commander of the local Serbian paramilitary forces, Serbs apparently began detaining Bosniak civilians in late May 1992. It is unclear how long this process continued, but there are reports that Serbs still were detaining Muslim civilians in late July and early August 1992." The report cites twelve alleged detention facilities, primarily for Bosniak civilians, where as many as 4,513 persons may have been detained. Witnesses testified that, during the ethnic cleansing operation and in detention, prisoners were beaten, raped and executed.
In the Rasadnik Sladara camp formed in mid-June 1992 and operated until 1994, hundreds of non-Serb civilians from Rogatica were detained, and many were physically abused. At least twenty people were murdered in the camp. The director of the camp from 1992 until the end of 1993 was reportedly Vinko Bojic.
2. TODAY
Despite numerous reports of violations of international humanitarian law in Rogatica, during the war, the ICTY has yet to issue any public indictments, and SFOR has yet to apprehend any individuals on the basis of sealed indictments, in connection with the crimes documented there. As in many other parts of Bosnia, local authorities in Rogatica obstruct the return of so-called minorities. As of July 2000, claims for return of private and socially owned property by pre-war residents in Rogatica resulted in return of property in only 1.28 per cent of cases.
(a) Rajko Kusic
Allegedly the most prominent figure in the ethnic cleansing of Rogatica is Rajko Kusic. He allegedly gained his experience in ethnic cleansing while fighting with a Serb paramilitary unit in Vukovar, Croatia, in 1991. He is named in a special UN report as the local military commander of the Borika Battalion, First Brigade, Drina Corps. The report also details testimony of atrocities allegedly committed under Kusic's command"
Serbian paramilitary forces under the command of Rajko Kusic killed 49 prisoners during a fake prisoner exchange. Serb forces under the command of an identified member of the group forced prisoners from Visegrad onto a bus, under the pretence of a prisoner exchange in Han Pijesak. However, once the prisoners were on the bus, several Serb soldiers tied them up, and then beat and taunted them. Eventually, the bus arrived at a curve along a muddy road. The Serb forces ordered the prisoners off the bus, walked them up the road, then killed 49 of the prisoners and piled them in a pit.
A Hague witness, who had served on the Rogatica police department up until the spring of 1992, testified to Kusic's role in the arming of local Serbs, as a military commander and as one of the decision-making members on the Rogatica Crisis Staff.
Kusic has been named as the main Serb military commander in the Rogatica region. Among other atrocities his forces are alleged to have slit the throats of 50 Bosniaks during an attack on the village of Gracanica on 22 May 1992.
According to local sources, Kusic's forces allegedly murdered fifteen civilians in the areas of Pasic Kula and Bjelogorci, on 3 June 1992, deporting the rest of the residents to camps in Rogatica. On 19 June Kusic's forces, along with those commanded by Mladen Vasiljevic, allegedly murdered at least 97 Bosniak civilians in the areas of Pticijak and Gracanica, deporting the remainder to camps in Rogatica. On 10 and 11 July Kusic's forces allegedly set fire to houses in the Kukavica, Kujundzica, and Mesica areas of Rogatica, killing 31 Bosniak civilians and herding others to camps in Rogatica. Kusic's unit allegedly conducted similar operations on 2 August, in the villages of Kramer Selo, Kozadre and Borovsko, murdering 37 Bosniak civilians. On 15 August Kusic's unit allegedly attacked the village of Rakitnica, where eighteen civilians were murdered. A reliable source in the international community alleges there to be evidence suggesting that Kusic, as commander of the battalion, was also involved in a massacre of over 100 Bosniak civilians in Rogatica, after which the bodies were then ground up in a local sawmill. All told, Kusic's forces are alleged to have killed over 349 civilians in the course of their ethnic cleansing operations. Kusic also allegedly issued written orders to his units specifying procedures for the disposition of plunder seized from civilians. The Tuzla Canton prosecutor's office listed Kusic as one of the commanders involved in the military offensive on Srebrenica, in violation of international law and UN Security Council provisions declaring the area a safe haven.
Until recently, Rajko Kusic commanded the RS Army garrison in Rogatica.
He is now retired.
He reportedly maintains close ties with Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
He is considered more powerful politically than the Mayor of Rogatica.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(b) Mile Sokolovic
During the war Sokolovic served as a leading member of the Rogatica Crisis Staff and a member of the SDS. As such he allegedly served in a decision-making position during the time that atrocities were committed in the municipality. He allegedly visited the Sladar concentration camp to oversee it's functioning.
Today Mile Sokolovic serves as a member of the Rogatica municipal council and a member of the Socialist Party of Republika Srpska (SPRS).
His election was certified by the OSCE.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(c) Mladen Vasiljevic
Vasiljevic served as head of the Rogatica police and commanded military forces in Rogatica during the war. He organised the re-appropriation of weapons and vehicles to the Serb police, under orders from the Serb Autonomous Region of Romanija. Witnesses described the involvement of local police under his command in the interrogation of prisoners in local detainment centres, in leading women away from the centres at night and in expelling women and children and deporting men to camps, including Susica and Batkovic. Vasiljevic's unit allegedly participated with Kusic's in the 19 June 1992 attack on Pticijak and Gracanica in which at least 97 Bosniak civilians were killed. Vasiljevic was allegedly involved in the murder and mistreatment of prisoners in the Sladara camp in Rogatica.
Mladen Vasiljevic reportedly works as a police officer in Pale. UNMiBH could not confirm this.
He ran for office as an SDS candidate for the Rogatica municipal assembly in April 2000, but failed to receive a mandate.
His candidacy was approved by OSCE.
L. Sanski Most
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN SANSKI MOST
(a) Ethnic Cleansing, 1992
The municipality of Sanski Most borders Banja Luka to the west and Prijedor to the north. In the spring of 1992, forces of the Sixth Krajina (Sanska) Brigade and local Sanski Most SDS effected the military and civil take-over of Sanski Most and the surrounding villages. Serbian forces then bombarded the homes of local Bosniaks and Croats and embarked on a campaign of ethnic cleansing involving the robbery, brutal deportation, detention, mistreatment and murder of the civilian population.
A UN report named the organisers of this ethnic cleansing campaign:
This campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' was carried out by the Sixth Sanski Most Brigade or Krajiska Brigade, the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), and local Serbs. Organisers that are specifically named include: the head of the SDS who was later installed as the president of Sanski Most County; the man in charge of all camps and detention centres established in the region; commander of the Sixth Sanski Most Brigade which was responsible for executing the plans developed by the other two men; commander of the paramilitary organization called Srpske Oruzane Snage (SOS) which was made up of local Serbs; and the local leader of the Serbian Radical Party loyal to Vojislav Seselj. Fifteen other men were named.
In addition to ethnic cleansing in the town of Sanski Most, the Sixth Krajina Brigade undertook operations in May 1992 in surrounding settlements, including Muhici, Vrhpolje, Hrustov, Trnovi, Begici, Donji Kamicki, Kenjari, Fajtovci, Skucan Vakuf, Gorice, Okrec, Modra, Budim, Stari Majdan, Husimovci and Ostra Luka. The Fifth Kozara Brigade and the Sixth Krajina Brigade were also involved in the attack on the Croat villages of Stara Rijeka, Brisevo, Raljas and Carakovo in the Sanski Most Municipality. During the course of these attacks, at least 73 Croats, and perhaps as many as 136, may have been killed, all of them civilians.
The expulsion and deportation of the civilian population of Sanski Most by Serb forces proved particularly brutal. For example, in August a convoy of women, children and elderly suffered continued harassment and robbery along their journey, only to walk the last twenty miles to Federation territory. Passing through a minefield, a number of these civilians died.
During these ethnic cleansing operations, Serb forces arrested non-Serb males, detaining them in a number of facilities. Eleven such detention centres were mentioned in the UN report cited above. Many of the prisoners were then transferred to the Manjaca camp in Banja Luka.
One of the detention facilities within Sanski Most was the police station, where a number of local non-Serb police were reportedly liquidated.
"Upon the attack of Sanski Most by Serbian forces, men were arrested and taken to the basement of police headquarters. There, they were interrogated and beaten for days. Thirty-three non-Serbian police officers were brought to police headquarters. Seventeen of them were killed during interrogations, eight were sent on to Manjaca, and four managed to escape."
Many men died of suffocation and lack of food during transport to other camps, while others were executed on the journey. For example, a group of men being transported from Sanski Most were ordered out of the truck near the bridge leading out of town. The prisoners were ordered to undress and were shot while scrambling under the bridge.
(b) Ethnic Cleansing in Northwest Bosnia, including Sanski Most, 1995
A 1996 Human Rights Watch report called attention to a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Serb authorities and forces in northwest Bosnia in 1995. In retaliation for successful campaigns of Croatian and Bosnian forces in the area, Arkan's paramilitaries, along with local civil and military authorities subjected the remaining non-Serb residents in Banja Luka, Prijedor and Sanski Most to torture, rape, murder and deportation. According to the report, "Paramilitaries from Serbia proper were also involved, as non-Serbs were detained, robbed of their possessions, beaten, raped and expelled from the region. An estimated 2,000 people were separated from their families; many are still missing." During this period of ethnic cleansing, about 22,055 non-Serbs were expelled from the region, primarily from Banja Luka.
Some of the worst atrocities, including a number of massacres, occurred in towns and villages in and around Sanski Most. Bosnian Army troops and international journalists entering the town on 11 October 1995 found gruesome evidence of recent atrocities.
The proof of these atrocities could be observed plainly at the Betonirka concrete block factory, which has twice served as a detention centre where Muslims and Croats were held in unspeakable conditions and which now serves as a temporary morgue.
Within less than two weeks, 67 bodies had been recovered around the town, most shot in the head or clubbed to death. During this time, as many as 700 men were reported missing from Sanski Most.
During September 1995, thousands of men were separated and detained in the Betonirka cement factory and the ceramics factory and a coal mine. Many of these were later deported to the Manjaca camp in Banja Luka. Many others were executed or disappeared. As a Croat resident who survived the wave of terror explained, "When the Serbs realized Sanski Most was going to fall, they went crazy. No Muslim or Croat was going to get out alive."
An article in The Toronto Star described the events in one small village, Okrec, near Sanski Most, on 21 September 1995, when armed Bosnian Serbs brutally murdered seven civilians while trying to extort money. The article was based on exhumations in the town, carried out according to information provided by witnesses of the massacres. The victims had been horribly murdered: some had their skulls crushed in, some had been shot in the knees, and others had broken ribs. A sharp instrument had punctured the head and lungs of one victim. Witnesses named Tihomir Rajic, Milutin Rajic, Milorad Mrsic and about nine other villagers from the neighbouring village of Podvidaca as the alleged perpetrators.
(c) Mass Graves in the Sanski Most region
The extent of atrocities committed in Sanski Most came to light with the uncovering of mass graves in the region in October 1995, a process still continuing today. In January 1996, Bosnian investigators reported that they had already identified six mass graves near Sanski Most containing about 240 bodies of the victims of Serb ethnic cleansing in 1992. European monitors also visited the sites. In early January 1996, Bosnian officials reported the seventh mass grave to be discovered in Sanski Most since Bosnian forces occupied the town in October 1995. This grave, located near the village of Krhojevci, contained at least 27 residents from Sanski Most, believed to have been murdered during a prisoner transfer to Manjaca. Another grave contained the bodies of fourteen Bosniak men from the same family found near Sanski Most in 1996. In April 1996, a Bosnian judge who was matching witness statements with physical evidence reported that eleven sites had been identified.
One of the earliest sites uncovered in Sasina, near Sanski Most, contained the remains of 65 Croats and Bosniaks who had been working as forced labourers for the RS army and were executed on the night of 22-23 September 1995, just before Serb forces retreated from the area. In 1998, the international press reported the uncovering of a mass grave with about 144 bodies at the Hrastova Glavica cave near Sanski Most. The victims were believed to be Bosniak and Croat prisoners from the Omarska camp. A specialist Bosnian team, along with a forensics expert from Physicians for Human Rights, excavated the remains in the cave that year.
2. TODAY
When the Bosnian Fifth Corps recaptured Sanski Most in 1995, the Serb authorities and much of the population fled. In their haste to evacuate Sanski Most, the Serb administration left detailed documentation, demonstrating the methods of ethnic cleansing and pointing to the officials who might be most responsible. A number of persons allegedly implicated in war crimes in Sanski Most remain active in other parts of RS and Serbia proper.
(a) Nedeljko Rasulo
The President of the Sanski Most Serb Crisis Staff and of the Serb Municipality of Sanski Most from 1992-1995, Nedeljko Rasulo, was in a position of superior authority in the municipality during the period described. He allegedly signed a number of documents organising the deportation of non-Serbs, the usurpation of property and other aspects of ethnic cleansing operations. Without naming Rasulo directly, a UN report lists as one of the organisers of ethnic cleansing in Sanski Most a man who was "the head of the SDS and later installed as the president of the Sanski Most County."
Nedeljko Rasulo reportedly plays an influential role in Brcko.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(b) Vlado Vrkes
Rasulo's deputy, with whom he consulted on all major decisions in the municipality, was Crisis Staff member Vlado Vrkes. Vrkes also reportedly served as Secretary of the central SDS in Pale during the war. As such, he is considered to have held command responsibility.
Today Vlado Vrkes is a wealthy and politically influential figure in Bijeljina.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(c) Mirko Vrucinic
Mirko Vrucinic served as head of the Sanski Most police from 1992 until the Bosnian Army occupied Sanski Most in 1995. The Sanski Most police were allegedly deeply implicated in war crimes committed in the municipality, including the camp which was located in the basement of the police station, where prisoners were tortured and from which reportedly more than 100 prisoners were "disappeared." Vrucinic admitted that forces under his command summarily executed numerous individuals without trial. In his capacity as head of the police, Vrucinic also had responsibility over other camps, including "Betonirka," where a number of prisoners were abused and murdered. Vrucinic allegedly approved the transfer of prisoners from camps in Sanski Most to the Manjaca concentration camp, during which numerous prisoners disappeared. These disappearances included a group of six on 6 June 1992, six more on 12 June 1992 and 24 on 8 July 1992. His police were served as guards at the Manjaca concentration camp.
Today Mirko Vrucinic currently serves as the assistant to the head of the Prijedor police.
UNMiBH confirmed that he is undergoing screening for provisional authorisation.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(d) Drago Vujanic
Drago Vujanic served as the criminal inspector of the Sanski Most police from 1992-1995 and the commander of the camps in Sanski Most, including the Betonirka concentration camp.
Today Drago Vujanic reportedly works in the criminal division of the Banja Luka police.
UNMiBH confirmed that he is undergoing screening for provisional authorisation.
(e) Mikan Davidovic
Mikan Davidovic, the wartime secretary of the Sanski Most SDS, allegedly played a significant role in expelling the civilian population of Sanski Most, As a member of the Commission for Resettlement of Persons (a euphemism for an ethnic cleansing commission). He also allegedly played a significant role in organising the attack by Arkan's forces in 1995, in which more than 500 non-Serb civilians on work detail for the Serb army were killed.
Mikan Davidovic is currently a member of the municipal assembly of Serb Sanski Most.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
(f) Branko Basara
During the war, Branko Basara served as commander of the Sixth Krajina Brigade. In addition to police and civilian authorities, units of the Sixth Krajina Brigade, along with Arkan's paramilitaries, allegedly carried out a significant amount of ethnic cleansing in the Sanski Most and Kljuc areas. The Sixth Krajina Brigade allegedly carried out ethnic cleansing in the villages of Vrhpolje, Hrustovo and Kljevce, in which about 54 civilians were brutally murdered. The Brigade also allegedly murdered a group of 25 Bosniaks from Begic under a bridge on the Sana River in Sanski Most. The UN reported that the commander of the Sixth Sanski Most Brigade (another name for the Sixth Krajina Brigade) was one of the organisers of ethnic cleansing.
Branko Basara is reported to be hiding in the Prijedor region.
He reportedly maintains contact with his war time associates.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(g) Pero Colic
The commander of the Fifth Kozara Brigade from Prijedor was Pero Colic. A Hague witness described him delivering a speech urging Serbs to join his brigade and to "avenge all the crimes committed against them," and attacking those Serbs who joined the other side as "traitors." His and Basara's brigades allegedly carried out the massacre of 73 civilians in Stara Rijeka and other villages on 24-25 July 1992. A Human Rights Watch report also linked Colic to a number of wartime atrocities. Biljana Plavsic named Colic as Mladic's replacement as commander of the RS Army in 1997.
Today Pero Colic owns a construction company in Pale.
(h) Others
Besides Mirko Vrucinic, other officers allegedly implicated in ethnic cleansing in Sanski Most now work in the Prijedor police department. As a criminal inspector in the Sanski Most police department, Branko Sobot allegedly interrogated and mistreated prisoners in the Sanski Most police station and the Manjaca concentration camp. One witness described how Sobot allegedly administered daily beatings to prisoners in the police station. In Manjaca he is alleged to have participated in the beating of at least one prisoner who died as a result.
UNMiBH confirmed that Branko Sobot is currently undergoing screening for UN provisional authorisation.
A police officer in Sanski Most, Gojko Macura, allegedly involved in the mistreatment and murder of non-Serbs from prepared lists. He allegedly drove around Sanski Most with several other police officers in a black Mercedes with a red door, beating and torturing people. He is also allegedly responsible for beating inmates at the "Betonirka" concentration camp.
Today Gojko Macura reportedly serves in the police, either in Prijedor or Srpski Sanski Most. UNMiBH was unable to confirm this.
Mico Prastalo was the commander of the III battalion of the Sixth Krajina Brigade, which allegedly carried out numerous atrocities in the course of military actions and ethnic cleansing in Sanski Most and Kljuc. This included the murder of Zijad Alibegovic and thirteen members of his family. His activities go back as far as 1990, when he helped form the local SDS Crisis Staff. As such, he is alleged to have had command responsibility.
Today Mico Prastalo reportedly works for the Prijedor police. UNMiBH was unable to confirm this.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
Danilusko Kajtez, a local resident who served as a volunteer in the Serbian paramilitary forces, allegedly killed over 100 persons, including two documented cases of killing twenty persons at once. As a member of the 6th Krajina Brigade he allegedly killed groups of 6 prisoners during transport from Sanski Most to the Manjaca concentration camp. In 1992, the Banja Luka Military Court of the Serb authorities indicted Kajtez and one other soldier for the massacre of 9 Croat civilians from Krljevita, Sanski Most in the Graoriste forest in Kruharima. Kajtez was detained by the Serb authorities briefly, but was released after reportedly sending a letter to Vrkes and Vujanic threatening to go public with evidence on their role in carrying out ethnic cleansing.
Today Danilusko Kajtez is reportedly based in Nis, FRY.
He reportedly participated in a paramilitary unit during the 1999 ethnic cleansing of Kosovo.
M. Sokolac
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN SOKOLAC
From April 1992 until the end of that year, Serb authorities "ethnically cleansed" this municipality of over 4,000 Bosniak residents, using similar methods as in other municipalities, including the execution of civilians. A mass grave was recently uncovered at a former garbage dump about eight kilometres east of Sokolac, in which 44 bodies had been covered with garbage, soil and pieces of a destroyed mosque. The President of the Commission for Missing Persons in Sarajevo reported that according to witness reports, about 37 of the bodies were, probably, Bosniaks from the village of Novoseoci, taken away from their families on 22 September 1992, while seven more were Bosniaks from Rogatica. It was also reported that a local Serb led the investigators to the gravesite.
Serb military and police forces, under the guidance of the Crisis Staff, established camps in the basement of the Sokolac police station, in two local schools and in the settlement of Brezjak. Local sources claim that at least 135 Bosniak civilians in Sokolac were murdered or "disappeared" by Serb forces during the war.
Forces from Sokolac are also alleged to have participated in the murder of 50 Bosniak civilians in Visegrad, along with forces from Rogatica. The bodies of these civilians were then thrown into the Paklenik canyon.
2. TODAY
(a) Milan Tupajic
Milan Tupajic served as the President of the municipal assembly of Sokolac from 1991 to 1995, president of the Sokolac Serb Crisis Staff, and Vice-President of the Serb Autonomous Region Romanija-Birac. This region included the municipalities of Pale, Sokolac, Han Pijesak and Vlasenica.
Tupajic was allegedly one of the main organisers of the ethnic cleansing of Sokolac. He reportedly participated directly in ordering the illegal deportation of the non-Serb population of the villages of Novoseoci, Knezina, Zulje, and Vrbanje. As the highest civil authority in the municipality, he allegedly had command responsibility for the deaths of 45 Bosniak civilians killed in Novoseoci, 50 Bosniaks killed in Knezima and other atrocities committed in the course of ethnic cleansing. He also allegedly bears responsibility for the formation of concentration camps in Sokolac in which civilians were illegally detained and mistreated.
Milan Tupajic is currently a representative to the Republika Srpska National Assembly.
OSCE certified his election.
(b) Milovan Bjelica
Milovan Bjelica was a member of the Sokolac Crisis Staff and President of the Sokolac SDS during the war.
Milovan Bjelica currently serves on the main board of the SDS.
His private business operations reportedly contribute financially to the hiding and accommodation of Radovan Karadzic.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
N. Teslic
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN TESLIC
Before the war, about half of Teslic's 60,000 residents were Serbs, the rest identifying themselves as Muslims, Croats, Yugoslavs or "other" ethnic groups. In April 1992, Bosnian Serb authorities called on non-Serb residents to accept the new Serb authorities and hand over all weapons. During the first days of the occupation, Serb forces liquidated prominent Bosniaks and Croats, while local Serb police beat non-Serbs in the police station, extorting large sums of money from any families having relatives in Western Europe.
The Serb authorities reportedly detained at least 600 residents in local camps. "The inmates in these facilities were said to have been under the despotic control of members of the Serbian militia, the Armada Forces of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the 'Red Beret' formations-all of whom had reportedly come from Banja Luka to assist in 'cleaning the terrain.'"
Women from the village of Kalosevic testified that they had been held in a camp in the woods west of Teslic where women were repeatedly raped and some executed. In a camp located in the basement of the "Stara Opstina" government building, men reported that "Red Berets" operated using a pre-compiled a list. A camp in the "Proleter" stadium was allegedly the site of a mass murder on 22 July 1992, when 25 drunken soldiers murdered about 50 prisoners by stabbing and beating them to death.
In August 1999, investigators uncovered a mass grave in Teslic with 28 corpses, the victims evidently subjected to torture and shot at close range. According to local media sources, The Hague is investigating whether the victims were Croats and Bosniaks from Teslic and the nearby settlements of Rankovic and Stenjak, liquidated by the notorious paramilitary formation, "Mice," in June 1992. This group of about twenty heavily armed members reportedly arrived in Teslic from Doboj in June to "bring order" to Teslic. The recently uncovered mass grave supposedly contains the remains of non-Serbs who had been detained in the Teslic and Pribinic jails. Other mass graves containing victims of "Mice" are suspected to exist in Teslic.
Local police apprehended the members of "Mice" during the war, when the group got out of control of the Serb authorities, reportedly terrorising even Serb civilians. However, due to the influence of high authorities in the RS government, who may themselves have been involved in the formation of the organisation, the members were soon released from jail and never brought to trial.
2. CURRENT SITUATION IN TESLIC
In 1996 Human Rights Watch prepared a report, based on extensive in-country research, about the structure of paramilitary groups operating in the Doboj and Teslic regions. This report demonstrated how the same individuals who organised and executed the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs from 1992 to 1995 continued to operate. In 1996, the Teslic authorities continued to intimidate, harass and expel non-Serbs by the hundreds, months after the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords.
Although the situation in Teslic has improved since 1996, many of the individuals highlighted in the Human Rights Watch report continue to influence the politics of Republika Srpska. In 1999, the Republika Srpska independent newspaper Nezavisne Novine began to publish articles about war crimes apparently committed by one of these groups in Doboj and Teslic. Soon after, the editor of that newspaper lost both of his legs in a car bomb attack.
(a) Savo Knezevic
The Human Rights Watch report named Savo Knezevic, the wartime President of the Teslic SDS, a member of the RS national assembly in Pale and an Orthodox priest, as one of the alleged principal organisers of ethnic cleansing in Teslic. Knezevic is also reported to be the "right-hand man" of Milan Ninkovic (see below) in an underground paramilitary organisation operating in Teslic and Doboj. The report relates some of the violent acts Knezevic is alleged to have personally committed, including the mass murder of political opponents, and names him as the most politically extreme person mentioned in the report.
Knezevic now serves as an orthodox priest in Teslic.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(b) Nikola Peresic
Nikola Peresic served as the president of the Teslic Crisis Staff and President of the municipality during the war and was also named as one of the "principal organisers of 'ethnic cleansing' during the war," by Human Rights Watch. He has also been connected to the formation of the "Mice" paramilitary group discussed above. In a recent interview for Nesavisne Novine, the former Serb public prosecutor in Teslic made a statement that was interesting both as a comment about Peresic and about war crimes in general. "When I told the president of the municipality, Nikola Perisic, that he would answer for crimes, he smiled, naively believing that no one would answer for them if more people were brought into the crimes. The entire political ideology and war strategy rested on this stupid assumption."
Nikola Peresic has formally left politics and is involved in commerce, although still influential in Teslic.
(c) Milan Stankovic
An army officer in the JNA, Milan Stankovic became the most powerful military figure in the Doboj/Teslic region during 1991. On 3 June 1992, he allegedly carried out an artillery and infantry attack on Doboj, aimed primarily at driving the non-Serb civilian population from the town. Following the successful seizure of Doboj, his units surrounded the villages of Grapska Gornja, Sevarlije, Potocani, Pridjel Gornji, Civcija Bukovacka, and Bukovica Mala, and submitted them to sustained artillery barrages, aimed at driving out the civilian inhabitants. In the course of these attacks, numerous civilians were killed. He was reportedly also one of the organisers of the "Mice" paramilitary group. Following the imprisonment of the group by Serb authorities in 1992, he allegedly threatened the inspector of state security in Banja Luka, that "Teslic would be reduced to dust," if the members of "Mice" were not set free immediately.
Today Stankovic reportedly works for the security forces in Serbia, although a recent article in the RS media suggests he may still be in Doboj.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
He is considered highly influential both in Doboj and Teslic.
(d) Mirko Slavulja
Stankovic's security officer, Mirko Slavuljica, allegedly obstructed the investigation against members of "Mice." His son was reportedly a member of that group.
Mirko Slavuljica was the Chief of Police in Doboj as of 1999.
UNMiBH confirmed that Mirko Slavuljica in Doboj was on a list of employees submitted by the RS Ministry of the Interior.
O. Visegrad
1. REPORTED WAR CRIMES IN VISEGRAD
Located on the Drina River of eastern Bosnia, next to the border with Serbia, Visegrad was one of the first towns to come under attack by Serb forces. The Uzica Corps of the JNA attacked and occupied the town in April 1992, although the vicious ethnic cleansing of Visegrad, perpetrated by local police and Serbian and local paramilitary groups, began in May. As a result of this ethnic cleansing, about 3,000 members of the town's pre-war population were reported killed or missing, and virtually no non-Serbs live in Visegrad today.
The worst atrocities in Visegrad occurred after the withdrawal of the JNA Uzica Corps, which left the administration of the town to the local Serb authorities of the "Serb Municipality of Visegrad." The campaign of terror and ethnic cleansing that followed, carried out by "paramilitary troops, local police and local Serbs," is described in the Hague indictment against Mitar Vasiljevic:
Serb armed forces attacked and destroyed a number of Bosnian Muslim villages. Hundreds of civilians in the town of Visegrad were killed in random shootings. Every day, men, women and children were killed on a famous bridge on the Drina and their bodies dumped in the river. Many of the Bosnian Muslim men and women were arrested and detained at various locations in the town... Serb soldiers raped many women and beat and terrorised non-Serb civilians.
The indictment goes on to describe atrocities committed at a camp set up in the JNA Uzamnica barracks and the Vilina Vlas Hotel, "where prisoners were beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted."
2. TODAY
In the course of investigations into Visegrad for this report, a picture emerged of a number of wartime paramilitary leaders and members, SDS officials and police officers, alleged to have committed atrocities, still living in Visegrad. Besides the persons mentioned below, information was received about eleven other persons, including owners of small businesses, a local teacher, carpenter, locksmith, taxi driver and other "average" citizens who allegedly participated as paramilitaries in the torture and execution of Bosniaks during the war. Other potentially indictable individuals, such as Dusko Andric, live in Visegrad as pensioners. Andric was allegedly the wartime director of the Vilina Vlas Hotel, which served as a rape camp. The presence of these individuals, as well as those discussed below, presents an enormous psychological barrier to minority returns.
(a) Milan Lukic
According to numerous witness accounts, including those of victims and Serb soldiers, paramilitary leader Milan Lukic allegedly organised and personally carried out the murder of hundreds of Bosniaks in Visegrad. Various reports indicate that Lukic's paramilitary group consisted of about fifteen members, including his cousins Sredoje and Milos Lukic, and Mitar Vasiljevic, the latter already in The Hague. The British Guardian newspaper named Lukic as responsible for the killing and mutilation of hundreds of Bosniaks in Visegrad, whose bodies were thrown over the old Ottoman bridge into the Drina River.
Witnesses testified to cases of Lukic allegedly personally executing people in their homes, dragging a man behind his car until he died, and herding large groups of people into houses and setting the buildings on fire. In one such case, all but one of the 71 Bosniaks trapped in a house were burned alive. Lukic and his paramilitaries allegedly regularly shot civilians on the old Ottoman bridge in the town, allowing their corpses to fall into the Drina River. A man who lived down river from the bridge reported that he and his neighbours had buried over 180 bodies retrieved from the river, many horribly mutilated. Lukic and his paramilitaries also allegedly regularly visited the Vilina Vlas camp to rape non-Serb women and girls imprisoned there. Lukic is alleged to have taunted his victims by saying "write freely to America and to the entire world that I am the greatest criminal and no one can do anything to me." In 1995, Lukic was allegedly seen with the Serb army following the fall of Srebrenica, and was allegedly involved in the disappearance of about 65 Bosniaks who had escaped from Visegrad to the Srebrenica enclave.
Although Lukic is currently in hiding, local sources indicate that he still visits Visegrad and that he has a significant influence on local politics. Among Lukic's relatives are a Serbian General and Serbian secret police chief, and Lukic most likely continues to command some military force. The barrier that Lukic's continued freedom poses to Bosniak return and Dayton implementation in Visegrad should not be underestimated.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(b) Sredoje Lukic
Sredoje Lukic allegedly served in Milan Lukic's paramilitary formation, along with indicted war criminal Mitar Vasiljevic, and has been implicated in the brutal murder of hundreds of Bosniaks. He allegedly engaged in atrocities in a concentration camp at a school, where he and his group forced prisoners of both sexes to beat each other. He allegedly forced prisoners to disrobe, and women and girls to dance naked. His group allegedly beat prisoners with boards, clubs, and other instruments, and used electric shock torture. He allegedly participated in the gang rape of a fifteen year old girl, and decapitated Ibro Sabanovic, after which he threw the head into a room full of female prisoners.
Sredoje Lukic lives near Visegrad and owns a restaurant.
He reportedly received a credit from an international humanitarian organisation for agricultural development and a small carpentry business.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(c) Risto Peresic
Risto Peresic was Chief of Police and a member of the Crisis Staff at the time these atrocities were committed. A local source alleges that Peresic organised a convoy of Bosniak civilians out of Visegrad and that eighteen of these civilians were massacred before the convoy reached its destination. He also allegedly played a role in establishing the Vilina Vlas camp, described above, where detainees were tortured, raped and executed. The UN Experts' Commission mentions Peresic as an alleged participant in the ethnic cleansing of Visegrad.
Risto Peresic now serves as the director of the publicly owned "Zito" company in Visegrad.
(d) Momir Savic
Another local paramilitary leader, Momir Savic was also allegedly involved in massacres of Bosniaks on the old bridge in Visegrad. According to the UN Experts Commission Report, his group reportedly "set fire to the villages of Repusevici, Jarci, Brezje, Sip, Bodeznik, Bluz and Moremeslje. They reportedly stole humanitarian aid, but their actions worsened after the Uzice Corps left Visegrad on 18 June 1992. They then harassed and arrested Muslims, defaced a mosque, and destroyed the property of Muslims."
Savic allegedly participated in organising the attack on the civilian population of the Visegrad municipality. Even before the outbreak of war, he assisted in obtaining and distributing weapons from Serbia to forces in the Drinsko settlement of Visegrad.
As the commander of a paramilitary formation from the village of Drinsko, and later as a member of the "Beli Orlovi" paramilitary group, he and his troops allegedly committed several war crimes against the civilian population in the municipalities of Visegrad and Rudo in 1992. From April to July of 1992, he and his unit were allegedly involved in the ethnic cleansing of Krusevica, Meremislje, Sip, Blaz, Brezje, Repusevici, Drinsko, Bikavac, Suha Gora, Donja Strmica and other settlements in the Visegrad and Rudo municipalities. This ethnic cleansing involved the deportation, torture and murder of civilians and the systematic destruction of Bosniak property.
Other alleged crimes committed by Savic and his paramilitaries included the mistreatment of civilians being held in the Hotel Visegrad in May 1992. Savic reportedly escorted a convoy of Bosniak civilians to Skoplje in 1992. 19 of these civilians never reached their destination, brutally murdered on the journey, near the village of Bosanska Jagodina. His group apprehended 33 Bosniaks on the Limski Most near Visegrad and deported them to the Hasan Veletovac school in Visegrad. At this concentration camp, members of his formation tortured civilians and raped female prisoners.
Savic himself reportedly served as a guard in the concentration camp at the Uzamnica JNA barracks in Visegrad where a number of atrocities were committed against civilians.
Momir Savic still lives in Visegrad, where he reportedly owns a construction company.
P. Vlasenica
1. WAR CRIMES IN VLASENICA AND IN THE SUSICA CONCENTRATION CAMP
According to the 1991 census, 55.3 per cent of the 33,817 pre-war residents of Vlasenica municipality, located just south of Zvornik, were Muslim, 42.5 per cent Serb and 2.2 per cent other. Following the ethnic cleansing operations in the spring and summer of 1992, fewer than 3,000 non-Serb residents remained in the municipality.
In May 1992, Vlasenica territorial TO units, paramilitary units from Serbia and the JNA attacked the villages of Drum and Zaklopaca in the Vlasenica municipality. The civilian populations of these villages were murdered or deported to Kladanj in nearby Bosniak territory. In Zaklopaca paramilitaries executed at least 83 Bosniaks, including children and elderly on 16 May 1992. Serb authorities took control of the equipment and troops of the JNA Novi Sad Corps, establishing a Serb administration in the town.
During the month of May, Serb forces burned houses and looted property, particularly the property of Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) members. In addition to Drum and Zaklopaca, Serb forces reportedly arrested, beat and killed Bosniaks in the villages of Alihodzici, Beros, Damdici, Durakovici, Dzemat, Esmici, Gradina, Kuljancici, Piskavice, Pustase and Sahmanovici.
According to accounts compiled in the UN Commission of Experts Report, during the month of June the new Serb authorities began a systematic expulsion, detention and execution campaign, starting with the town's most influential Bosniaks and SDA members. This systematic ethnic cleansing lasted until mid-September. On 15 June 1992, approximately 50 Bosniaks whom the Serbs considered politically important were placed on a bus and driven to the village of Zalakavlje, approximately two kilometres away, where they were shot. Only one person survived the massacre. Other Bosniaks were reportedly brought to camps where they were tortured and killed.
The UN report claims that the local SDS President, along with six other local Serb authorities, directed the June campaign of ethnic cleansing. To facilitate the ethnic cleansing, the Serbs established eight concentration camps. They were a former chicken farm in Sesari; the high school and the hospital at Vlasenica; the primary schools at Cerska, and Vlasenica; and the Milici, Susica and Vlasenica camps. Bosniak civilians from Vlasenica and the surrounding region were brought to these facilities, where large numbers of civilians were tortured, raped and murdered.
The activities at the Susica camp and the horrible atrocities committed there are the subject of a war crimes case in The Hague against Dragan Nikolic, the camp commander. According to former guards at the camp, executions of groups of prisoners were common. For example, at a ravine about five kilometres up the road towards Han Pijesak at least 1,000 prisoners were reportedly executed during the time in which the camp was operational.
2. TODAY
(a) Rajko Dukic
Rajko Dukic established himself as a major power broker in RS at the beginning of the war. Along with Radovan Karadzic, Dukic was one of the founding members of the SDS and served as the first President of the SDS Executive Committee for all of Bosnia, and as such participated in planning the ethnic cleansing with Karadzic. Telephone wiretaps from 29 February 1992 and 24 February 1992 of conversations between Radovan Karadzic and Rajko Dukic indicate that Dukic played a major role in planning the placement of barricades in Sarajevo. At the start of the war, he allegedly helped orchestrate the massive illegal transfer of funds from Bosnian banks into accounts to support the Bosnian Serb Army. During the war Dukic served as President of the SDS Crisis Staff for all of Bosnia and as the co-ordinator for the Serb autonomous region of Birac, which included Vlasenica. As such, he allegedly bears command responsibility for ethnic cleansing operations conducted in Vlasenica and other areas under his control. Witnesses from the Vlasenica region allege that Dukic was responsible for the April 1992 massacre at Zaklopaca.
A Hague witness in the trial against Dragan Nikolic identified Rajko Dukic as one of the two principal organisers of the take-over of Vlasenica. He alleged that Nikolic, the Commander of the Susica camp, and Dukic were close political associates before and during the war. In testimony relating to the case against Karadzic and Mladic, witnesses indicated that Dukic was aware of camps operating in his area of responsibility.
In 1997 Dukic became a member of Biljana Plavsic's Serbian National Union (SNS) party and he serves on the Boards of Directors of several RS public companies. Since 1997 he has served as the director of the "Boksit" bauxite mine in Milici. He reportedly provided financial support to the SLOGA coalition totalling several million dollars. International community officials in the region acknowledge Dukic as the most politically and economically powerful person in the Vlasenica/Milici area. He reportedly runs his own "industrial police," a quasi-paramilitary force that has been involved in intimidating local citizens.
Today Rajko Dukic is the Director of "Boksit" Bauxite mine, a public company, and the largest employer in Vlasenica/Milici.
He sits on the Board of Directors of several RS public companies and reportedly runs a quasi-paramilitary formation called the "industrial police."
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
(b) Goran Viskovic, "Vjetar"
Goran Viskovic, a member of a Vlasenica special police unit, was allegedly active in the ethnic cleansing of the Vlasenica region and in the deportation of Bosniaks to the Susica and Batkovic concentration camps. In particular, witnesses have tied Viskovic to the ethnic cleansing-abuse of civilians, deportation of civilians to concentration camps, and burning of their houses--in the villages of Dzemat, Piskuvice, Gradina, Mrsice, Sadici, Nedeljista and other places in the Vlasenica municipality. He was allegedly the commander of a unit that murdered civilians while destroying the village of Gradina and slit the throat of at least one unarmed civilian in Bucino Brdo. Local sources allege that Viskovic participated in the torture, rape and execution of prisoners at the Susica camp and is notoriously well known to survivors of Vlasenica's death camps.
According to a Hague witness in the trial against Dragan Nikolic, Viskovic participated in the vicious and repeated beatings of detainees in the police building, above the courthouse and at other locations in Vlasenica, as well as in the deportation of prisoners to Susica. The witness described a beating he claimed he received from Viskovic during his half-month's detention above the courthouse, in which Viskovic fractured his skull.
Today Goran Viskovic is a security guard at the Vlasenica Municipal Court. This means that non-Serb returnees may encounter a man who has been identified as committing atrocities against non-Serbs, now as an armed official of the court, as they enter to seek protection of their rights.
(c) Milenko Stanic
During the 1992 atrocities described above Milenko Stanic served as Mayor of the Serb municipality of Vlasenica, as well as a member of the SDS presidency, and local Crisis Staff. He is alleged to have been part of the chain of command that planned, ordered, and carried out the ethnic cleansing in Vlasenica, and reportedly held a position of significant authority in the local area. Following the war, Stanic served as Managing Director of RS Telecom.
Today Milenko Stanic resides in Vlasenica, where he maintains a low profile.
(d) Rade Bjelanovic
Rade Bjelanovic, the former director of the "Boksit" mine, served as Chief of the Serb Police in the self-proclaimed Serb municipality of "Milici," located on the territory of the actual Vlasenica municipality. As such, he is alleged to have had responsibility over the forces which massacred 80 Bosniak civilians in Zaklopaca. He is alleged to have participated, along with Rajko Dukic, in organising and ordering the destruction and ethnic cleansing of the villages of Hera, Vrsinja, Zilici, Gerovi, Pomol, Nurici, Besici, Zutici, Stedrici, Djile and Zaklopac in the Milici area of Vlasenica.
Bjelanovic lives in Milici, Vlasenica.
Q. Zvornik
1. WAR CRIMES IN ZVORNIK
In April and May of 1992, the JNA, Serbian paramilitary groups, and local defence units-reportedly recruited and equipped by the local SDS-took over the eastern Bosnian city of Zvornik and its surrounding areas. From the very first day of occupation and on through the subsequent weeks until the ethnic cleansing was completed, "there were random executions, rapes, and massacres." The paramilitary units of SRS leader Vojislav Seselj and Zejlko Raznatovic ("Arkan") were reportedly responsible for the cruellest and most horrible of the atrocities committed. Still, it appears that a number of local individuals and units-such as the locally formed Territorial Defence (TO)-could have played a "special role" in the ethnic cleansing, particularly when it came to looting and turning over wealthy and prominent Bosniaks to the Arkanovci, Arkan's "Tiger" militia.
In its report to the Security Council, the UN Commission of Experts described the role of the local Serb Crisis Staff in the ethnic cleansing of Zvornik, before, during and after the initial attack. It described a civil administration in the hands of the local SDS and militia groups, some of which were integrated into the civil defence. Local police, paramilitaries and SDS members participated in the violence. The report extensively documents the role of local Serb authorities and police in liquidating respected members of the Bosniak community, confiscating Bosniak property and expelling thousands of Bosniaks from Serb held territory in May and June of 1992.
One example of the role local authorities played in ethnic cleansing was a series of radio messages broadcast after the first wave of atrocities, which urged Bosniak residents to return to Zvornik. The messages assured listeners that the situation had normalised and also warned that all property had to be registered with the police by 15 May or it would pass to the "Serbian District of Zvornik." With the return of the Bosniak inhabitants, new paramilitary units were called into Zvornik. The registration of property served a second purpose of registering the male Bosniak population. Only men were eligible to register property, even when owned by their wives. "[T]hese registrations led to arrests and deportations to camps, apparently on the basis of pre-established lists."
During this time a number of camps were set up in the area around Zvornik in which civilians were tortured and murdered. These included camps in the buildings of public industries "Novi Izvor" and "Alhos," a textile school in the area of Karakaj, cultural centres in the areas of Drinjaca, Pilici, and others. Witnesses reported mass executions at all of these camps.
In addition to the systematic terrorisation, execution and expulsion of Bosniaks from Zvornik, Serb forces and authorities systematically looted and burned Bosniak property and destroyed mosques and other religious structures there in 1992.
Following the fall of Srebrenica, thousands of Bosniak men from Srebrenica were executed who had either been captured in Zvornik while fleeing or deported there. Mass execution sites in Zvornik included schools in Pilici, Petkovci, Grbavci and the Cultural Centre in Pilici. The head of the Zvornik police was present in Srebrenica following the take-over of the enclave and at negotiations with the UN and Bosniak representatives, all implying that Zvornik, Bratunac and Srebrenica authorities were involved in the planning of the Srebrenica massacre.
2. TODAY
Despite the documented involvement of Serb authorities in the atrocities committed in Zvornik between 1992 and 1995, the ICTY has not issued a single public indictment related to these events, nor has SFOR arrested a single individual under sealed indictment. As with most of eastern RS, Zvornik remains a hostile place for returning non-Serbs, with UNMiBH reporting ten registered incidents against Bosniaks in the first half of this year. In addition, a number of armed attacks on international officials and on property belonging to international agencies in Zvornik-including a 1999 rocket attack on the living quarters of SFOR's Joint Commission Observers (JCOs) and a 2000 grenade attack on SFOR living quarters-lend credibility to reports of paramilitary activity in the area.
(a) Dragan Spasojevic
The role of the police in atrocities committed in Zvornik was indicated in the previous section. During the 1992 ethnic cleansing of the town, Dragan Spasojevic was a high-ranking member of the SDS and Chief of the Zvornik police station. He also held a commanding position in the Serb Crisis Staff during this period, and some witnesses report that he was the Chief of the Zvornik TO (Territorial Defence). It appears he assisted Arkan in bringing Arkan's "Tigrovi" to Zvornik. "Control over the town after the seizure was initially held by the 'crisis committee,' whose chairman reportedly was Dragan Spasojevic (a member of both the militia and the SDS in Boskovici near Zvornik)." Spasojevic's alleged culpability for the disappearance of 750 unarmed prisoners who were being deported to a camp at the textile school in Karakaj is occasionally mentioned in the local media.
After the war, Spasojevic served as the manager of the customs administration in Zvornik, a primary point of entry from Serbia for black-market fuel and other illegal imports, which were subsequently distributed by companies alleged to be headed by Radovan Karadzic and the secretly indicted, now arrested, Momcilo Krajisnik, the former Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency. Today Spasojevic is considered a highly influential and powerful businessman in the Zvornik area. The Belgrade biweekly Svet cited him as one of the richest individuals in RS. During a crackdown on organised crime by Dodik's government, Spasojevic was arrested but almost immediately released. Spasojevic ran as an independent candidate for the Zvornik Municipal Council in the April 2000 elections. As with many officials throughout Bosnia reportedly linked with ethnic cleansing, Spasojevic may be trying to mask his wartime activities by dissociating himself from the SDS.
Spasojevic is also the owner of a company, 19 Novembar, which has reportedly "begun building a large shopping centre on the private property of Zvornik Bosniaks," in direct defiance of the High Representative's decision on reallocation of illegally expropriated private property.
Today Dragan Spasojevic is a member of the Zvornik Municipal Assembly.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
The Office of the High Representative rents office space in a building owned by Spasojevic.
(b) Branko Grujic
Branko Grujic was the wartime President of the SDS in Zvornik, head of the Crisis Staff and President of the "Serb Municipality of Zvornik" from 1992 to 1995. According to some reports, Grujic was also the leader of the Territorial Defence during the Serb take-over of Zvornik, later to become President of the Serb Municipality of Zvornik. Radio Belgrade has confirmed that Grujic served as head of the municipality from April 1992, when the worst atrocities were committed.
Grujic reportedly organised the establishment of a parallel Serb authority in the municipality prior to the war, as well as the arming of the local Serb population. At the start of the war Grujic is reported to have invited Arkan and other paramilitary leaders to come to Zvornik and "protect" the rights of "threatened" Serbs. He is alleged to have visited the camps in Zvornik regularly during the war. In press interviews, Grujic characterised the ethnic cleansing operations in eastern Bosnia as a "normal population exchange." In 1994 Grujic still served as the mayor of Zvornik and showed a visiting New York Times journalist sites where mosques had been destroyed and new building was in progress.
Today Branko Grujic exercises considerable political influence in Zvornik as a prominent local businessman.
(c) Dragomir Vasic
Dragomir Vasic allegedly participated in organising the 1992 ethnic cleansing of Zvornik, including the transfer of Bosniaks from Bijeli Potok to concentration camps and the disappearance of about 750 Bosniaks, described above. He also is alleged to have participated in organising the torture and rape of Bosniak women in the Djulici mosque and the expulsion and deportation of the non-Serb civilian population of Djulici. After the initial 1992 ethnic cleansing, Vasic served as the Chief of Police in Zvornik, from 1993 until 1998, during which time he allegedly played a significant role in the massacres and ethnic cleansing of Srebrenica. Vasic was present at the "negotiations" with the Dutch UN soldiers following the fall of Srebrenica. A number of the sites where the Srebrenica men were massacred and buried were in the Zvornik municipality.
Since the war, Vasic has been implicated in activities designed to discourage the return of minorities to the Zvornik area. In 1996 members of his police force dynamited the homes of Bosniak returnees in Mahala and Jusici and took part in a tense, day-long armed stand-off with members of the U.S Army's First Armoured Division, which was attempting to protect the Mahala returnees. At the request of OHR, Vasic left his position in the police in 1998. During the 1998 rift between the Banja Luka and Pale factions in RS, Banja Luka Interior Minister Milovan Stankovic suspended Vasic and four other police officials, who he claimed were trying to set up a parallel interior ministry in the eastern RS.
Today Dragomir Vasic is a member of the Zvornik Municipal Assembly.
His election was certified by the OSCE.
The RS Ministry of Defence considers him potentially indictable for war crimes.
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