Bastah et al: Childhood memories
11 September 2008 Prosecution witnesses recall Predrag Bastah in 1992.
Huso Kicic remembered how on 2 June 1992, when he was sixteen, he saw Predrag Bastah, who came to arrest his father.
''Dad had already
ran away. I told Bastah that I don't know where he is. He become angry and
started to curse me, dragged me by my hair into his car and drove me to the police
station. He pulled me out of the car and ordered me to raise my arms up while he
was beating me with his rifle butt-end, kicking me with his legs and
fists,'' Kicic remebered.
The State Prosecution charges Predrag Bastah, also known as Dragan and Goran Viskovic, for
participating in the murders, mental mistreatement, torture, and forced
disappearances of civilians from the Vlasenica area during 1992.
During the cross examination, indictee Bastah negated Kicic's words claiming that 2 June is his daughter Sladjana's birthday so he was not present at the police
station on that day.
Kicic, who recognised
Bastah in the courtroom, answered that he is certain about the date and what happened to him. He added that he saw the
accused under the window of his house, on 3 June 1992 as well, when he was
''together with other Serb soldiers kicking and later taking away three Muslim men.''
The second Prosecution
witness gave a statement under protection measures and pseudonym 10.
According to her words, Bastah, which she knew before the war, arrested her
husband at the end of May 1992.
''He came at my door
early in the morning and told my husband that he needed to come for interrogation. I was very
weak, so I almost fell down. I knew that everything is coming to an end. I have
never seen my husband after that,''
witness 10 stated.
According to her words,
in disscussion with other Bosniaks from Vlasenica, she found out that Bastah
took other neighbours and that many of them were never found.
The Defence asked the accused to
be examined by a medical expert due to his alleged nightmares and sleeping
problems. The Court Council will make a decision on this at a later date.
The trial continues on 18 September.
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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