Former Prisoner Testifies About Prison Camp in Serbia

The doors to Serbia's wartime prison camps were opened a bit wider when witness B-1770 testified in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic this week. B-1770 is a Bosniak who sought refuge with his family in the UN safe havens of Srebrenica and Zepa in 1993. When Bosnian Serb forces attacked and entered the safe havens in July 1995, the witness escaped with some other men by swimming across the Drina River into Serbia. On his arrival, he was arrested by the Yugoslav Army (VJ) and placed in two detention facilities in Serbia, the latter one for six months. He testified to being beaten, maltreated and given insufficient food and water in the camp. In the three months before the International Committee for the Red Cross(ICRC) arrived he lost 30 to 35 kilos of weight.

B-1770 told the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) that he wanted to testify because he was indignant when he heard Milosevic say on television that the Serbs had rescued 800 to 900 Bosnian Muslims, sheltered them and kept them safe. In his cross examination, Milosevic insisted that could not have been the witness's motive for testifying because at the time he contacted the OTP (March 2003), the trial had not entered its Bosnian phase. A little later, Judge Kwon interrupted to point out that Milosevic had made the allegations in court during his opening statement last February, a month before B-1770 contacted the OTP.

Milosevic also asserted that the prison camp was under the constant supervision of the ICRC, therefore, the witness's allegations of starvation and beatings could not be true. B-1770 pointed out that the ICRC wasn't given access to the camp for three months after the 900 Bosnian Muslim men were placed there. Moreover, he said, they did not constantly supervise it, but only visited the camp twice per month.

The Accused insisted his assertions could be established since much video footage had been taken of the camp, and that it had been observed by human rights groups and diplomats. According to them, he said, there was not a shred of evidence of mistreatment. B-1770 replied, 'Your television made a program. A man had to read a thank you letter to you -- it was pitiful -- that you were so noble.' 'It was a real camp,' he added. 'A torture camp.'

Milosevic asked the witness why he chose to seek refuge in Serbia if he was so afraid of the Serbs in Bosnia. Wasn't he trying to escape mobilization into the Bosnian Army, he asked. B-1770 said he came across people from Srebrenica, who 'told me about the terrible things they survived.' He went to Serbia because there was no other escape route available.

Milosevic then attacked the witness for leaving Bosnia after the war (September 2000) and seeking asylum abroad. He suggested the reason B-1770 sought asylum was that he was wanted by the Bosnian Government Army for desertion. The witness responded that he left because he 'cannot think of returning to [what is now Republika Srpska] where I had lived before the war. I don't dare. The rules now in Bosnia-Herzegovina say people who lived in [what is now Republika Srpska] before, have to return. I have no choice.'