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Analysis - Savic: ‘I Helped my Bosniak Neighbours’

Momir Savic

09 June 2009  Defence witnesses of Momir Savic – and Savic himself – claim the indictee did not participate in crimes committed in Visegrad in spring 1992 but instead protected his neighbours.

By: Merima Husejnovic

By examining 11 witnesses and the indictee, the Defence of Momir Savic tried to prove that he did not participate in persecution, murder, rape, torture and other inhumane acts, and that he helped Bosniaks as much as he could at the beginning of the war in Bosnia. The evidence presentation lasted for six months. 

The Prosecution is due to present its closing arguments on June 9 while the Defence will do the same on June 25, 2009. By law, the verdict must be pronounced three days later. 

Savic is charged under eight counts of the indictment with having committed crimes against humanity in Visegrad municipality from April to September 1992.

The alleged crimes occurred when he was member of “an unnamed paramilitary formation” that existed while the Uzice Corps of the Yugoslav National Army, JNA, was active, and then as commander of the Third Squad with the Visegrad Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.

Testifying in his Defence, Savic said he did not join the army until July 1992.

He said the Uzice Corps came to Visegrad on April 14, and stayed there until May 19, 1992. During that period he was “appointed acting president of the municipal assembly”.

“I was not with the army,” he said. “I performed civil tasks. My main task included getting food via the Red Cross and distributing it to people,” he said.

“In mid-July 1992 I was appointed commander of the Third Squad. I performed this function until January 27, 1993, when I went to Serbia,” he added.

Savic maintained his unit never left the Drinsko local community, while its task was to protect villages in the area. 

“No Bosniaks were mistreated there. We might find somebody in the woods, feed him and send him on, but it never happened that a person was mistreated,” he said.

However, the indictment alleges that on May 23, 1992, Savic and other soldiers took Bosniak civilians from their houses, examined and beat them, and took them to a nearby forest, where “they deprived them of their lives, using firearms”.

Savic denied this. “People were saying that some people had been killed,” Savic recalled.

“I reported that to the Police Station Commander. They invited Dragan Savic to come there for a talk. On his return he called me a Judas. They wanted to kill me. Those people still call me a Judas, a betrayer,” Savic said, adding that this was “the only incident that happened in Drinsko while I was there”.

The Prosecution considers that in May 1992 the indictee ordered the civilians from Drinsko village to assemble and that once about 200 Bosniaks had gathered at the location, he told them that they would be killed unless they left Drinsko that day.

However, a Defence witness said that in May 1992 Savic had addressed the assembled Bosniaks “in a friendly tone”, offering them help.

“Respected and dear neighbours, I am afraid for your future. If you are afraid, let us move you to a safer place,” said Momir Savic, who has the same name as the indictee, conveying the indictee’s words.

Describing this event during his testimony, the indictee said about 80 people had gathered at that location, and they sat there together, talking. He said he had only told them that “it would be best for them to go away for some time”.

“There were no ultimatums. I would never say something like that to anybody,” he said.

“My intention was to help those people. As they were leaving, we said goodbye to each other. People were crying. I said goodbye to my best neighbours. None of them was injured in any way,” the indictee said.

Defence witness Milenko Jevdjic concurred, recalling this event.

Savic had told his Bosniak neighbours, “in a normal and sweet tone” that “considering the situation in the country”, they should seek shelter in the village of Medjedja where the majority of the population were Bosniaks.

Witness A, who testified from a separate cabin due to protection measures, said the indictee helped her when she was in Drinsko village at the beginning of the war.

“We stayed in a house for as long as Momir could order other people not to touch us,” Witness A said.

“He would come there and visit us often. He would bring us flour and my husband’s pension. We had a nice time with him. He said we would not have to leave for as long as he could protect us.

“One morning Dragan Savic and Zoran Tesovic came, telling us that we had to leave because Momir could no longer protect us,” the witness added.

Amir Topalovic, who lived in Sarajevo during the course of the war, told the court that his father, who died in 1995, told him Savic had taken care of his family during the war. He said he spoke to the indictee over the phone several times in the spring of 1992.

“Momir and I knew each other, so I asked him to take care of my parents,” this witness said.

“He told me not to worry. Later on my father told me that Momir visited them several times to check how they were doing,” the witness added.

Topalovic recalled his father telling him that, prior to leaving Visegrad, he saw “camouflaged members of a paramilitary group setting two Guso family houses on fire”, but Momir Savic told him that he could not control those people.

The Prosecution charges Savic with having beaten up and killed Suad Kurtic, a civilian, after he tried to escape from the village of Donja Strmica, in Rudo municipality, on May 25, 1992. 

However, Savic denied knowing him. “Suad Kurtic? I never heard of him until I have come to the court,” he said.

“I have never heard of those other people from those villages either,” Savic said during his testimony. He confirmed that he had gone to Rudo municipality “to get some travel documents” on May 25, 1992.

Vojislav Topalovic, former President of Rudo municipality, told the court that he met the indictee in the “Rudo” hotel on that day, adding that they had a long talk.

“We stayed there until two or three in the afternoon. We had lunch together. He told me that he had come there to sort out some travel documents for his friend. He did not tell me anything more about it,” Topalovic said.

One of the eight counts in the indictment charges Savic with having participated, together with several other Serbian soldiers, in the examination and beating of Bosniak civilians and with pillaging and setting their houses on fire in Meremislje village, Visegrad municipality, in late April 1992.

The indictee was the only defence witness who spoke about this event. He denied having taken part, maintaining that he risked his life to help Bosniaks at that time.

“Dragan Savic gathered a group of people who had drawn some coloured lines on their faces. Those people went to the village to pillage the houses, I guess,” he said.

“I gathered three soldiers and went there. I heard some noise in the other part of the village. I saw a few people lying on the ground, while Dragan and others were beating them. I managed to convince Dragan to stop beating them. One of the volunteers prepared his gun to shoot me,” the indictee said.

Savic also denied allegations that he had participated in deporting Bosniaks from the village of Dusce on June 13, 1992 and in the separation of a group of civilians who were shot and taken to a barn that was then set on fire.

“Dusce was not in our zone of responsibility. It was an urban area,” the indictee explained.

The Prosecution alleges that between June and September 1992, Savic also raped and mistreated one person several times. The witnesses, including the indictee himself, spoke about this count at a closed session.

Savic was arrested in mid December 2007. A year later, following the completion of the prosecution’s evidence presentation, the court allowed him to defend himself while at liberty, imposing certain prohibiting measures against him.

As per the mentioned decision, the indictee had to hand over his personal identification and travel documents, and he was banned from leaving his place of residence.

Merima Husejnovic is a BIRN – Justice Report journalist. merima@birn.eu.com. Justice Report is an online weekly BIRN publication.