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Savic: Saving a Friend

14 August 2008  First Prosecution witnesses describe the onset of war in Visegrad, recalling Momir Savic and his unit.

Three members of the Guso Family from Visegrad, who appeared as Prosecution witnesses, recalled what happened in April 1992, describing the activities of "Duke Momir Savic" and his volunteer unit. They said members of the unit participated in the deportation and illegal detention of Bosniaks.


"Dragan Savic and Jovan Markovic brought me to the Police Head Office in Visegrad, where I met Captain Dragan, a Lukic man and Momir Savic, who was dressed in camouflage uniform. Captain Dragan and Momir then examined the prisoners. During the course of the examination, they hit me on the head with their fists several times," Ramiz Guso recalled.


The indictment alleges that Savic was a member of a paramilitary group who then became commander of the Third Squad of the Visegrad Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS. Savic is charged with having participated in deportation, capture, examination, beating, murder and rape of Bosniaks from the Visegrad area in the course of 1992.


"Savic was a big man. He had whiskers and he was bitter," said Ramiz Guso, who was detained in the Police Head Office in Visegrad, together, he said, with "23 other Muslims".


"Of all the people who were held there, only four of us have survived. They severely beat the detainees. A friend of mine, a Bosnian Serb, whose name I do not want to mention for the reasons of his safety, rescued me from the prison in late April 1992," Ramiz Guso said.


Nizija Guso, Ramiz' mother, said that, following the attack on Jarci village in April 1992, she "ran away from death", together with her family. She said her son was captured, held for seven days and then released.


"A person named Miloje rescued him. God saved him first and then Miloje. The man is still alive, thank God," Nizija Guso said.


The third Prosecution witness, Bahrudin Guso, said that other people had told him that "Duke Momir Savic", whom he had known from before and whom he recognized in the courtroom, headed a unit composed of "volunteers".


"Momir had black hair. He was average in height and firmly built. Legionar and Seko, who were members of his unit, told me that he was a chieftain," Bahrudin Guso said. Bahrudin left Visegrad, together with his family, on April 24, 1992.


This witness said that his mother, who stayed in Visegrad, told him that Savic gave an ultimatum to families in Drinsko settlement, ordering them to leave their houses because they were located "on Serbian territory".


The indictment alleges that Momir Savic was responsible for deportation of civilians from Drinsko settlement, by "telling them that they would be killed unless they left the settlement and their property, which they eventually did".


The trial is due to continue on Monday, August 18.