Lazarevic et al: Just an ordinary guard
02 July 2008 A Defence witness denies allegations that Sreten Lazarevic was a liaison person in the detention units established in Zvornik in 1992.
Sredo Vukovic, who testified as a joint Defence
witness at the trial of the former reserve policemen with the Public Safety
Station in Zvornik, said indictee Sreten Lazarevic was not his deputy
manager of the Zvornik detention units.
"Neither me nor any other Public Safety Station
officers issued an authorization to appoint Lazarevic as my deputy. He was just
an ordinary guard, like everybody else," Vukovic said, adding that he acted as
"a coordinator between the prisons and the Public Safety Station authorities."
The State Prosecution charges Sreten Lazarevic,
Dragan Stanojevic, Mile Markovic and Slobodan Ostojic with war crimes against
civilians.
The indictment alleges that Stanojevic, Markovic
and Ostojic, who were guards in the detention camps formed in the offence court
and "Novi izvor" factory buildings in Zvornik, participated in the mistreatment of
detained civilians in 1992 and 1993.
Indictee Lazarevic is charged, as deputy manager
of the two detention camps, with having failed to stop the mistreatment of
detainees.
During direct examination conducted by
the Defence teams, Vukovic explained that there were many paramilitary groups in
Zvornik in 1992 and "not even the guards dare confront members of those groups."
The indictment alleges that, on several
occasions, Lazarevic unlocked the door to the prison unit and enabled some
groups of Serbian soldiers to torture and mistreat the detainees.
"The guards did not have any opportunity to
resist the paramilitary formations, especially to members of 'Gogic's Unit' from
Loznica. It even happened that some of them attacked the guards," Vukovic
added.
When asked by the Prosecutor to describe one
attack against the guards, the witness said that some military group members
once attacked Lazarevic. He said that Lazarevic personally told him about it
"after the investigation of the crimes charged upon the Zvornik Four had
commenced."
Speaking about his "coordination work," the
witness said that he "visited the detention camps two or three times per month"
and he spoke to the guards and detainees.
"Nobody ever complained about being mistreated.
Not even the detainees, to whom I spoke at the time and after the war," Vukovic
added, denying that he ever heard of any cases of sexual abuse or carving of
crosses on detained civilians' foreheads.
The
trial is due to continue on July 3, 2008.
Justice Report is a
specialist reporting agency focusing on war crimes trials taking place before
local courts; development of the local legal system; and efforts to come to
terms with the past.
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The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
Komentari:
Sejfo Omerovic
Poslao: 2009-07-15 01:28:56,
vidio sam komentar koi je ostavljen 6 jula 2008 godine "samo istina" se zove, i ovaj sto je ostavio komentar spomenuo je mog oca SEJFU OMEROVIC ( a ja sam njegov sin) i mi nista neznamo za njega vec od 1992 god,pa molio bih ovog covjeka sto je ostavio komentar ako moze da mi se javi na NELEBOSS@CLEARWIRE.NET ili bilo ko ako zna neke informacije o Sejfi Omerovic,bio bih vam mnogo zahvalan,a vjerujem da ovaj covjek sto je ostavio komentar zna mog oca i detalje kako je nestao i kako su ga odveli.