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Kondic et al: Genocide Waiting to Happen

Kondic i ostali

11 March 2010  Prosecution witness Mehmed Begic says "the Serb Army and police had excellent cooperation" in Kljuc in 1992, adding that everything was "turned against non-Serbs from that area".

"There was a systematically prepared aggression and attack. Genocide was waiting to happen for a long time. They were just waiting for one signal before they could start this in Kljuc. One incident, the murder of a policeman, served the purpose. This was the beginning, on May 27, 1992," Begic said.

The State Prosecution charges Vinko Kondic, Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic with participation in organizing a group of people and abetting them to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Kondic, former Chief of the Public Safety Station in Kljuc, is charged with participation in a joint criminal enterprise, in collaboration with other members of the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, and military and civil authorities in Kljuc municipality, with the aim of removing non-Serbs from the area.

Mehmed Begic said he worked in a Post Office Working Group in Kljuc until May 27, 1992. He said a person named Dragan Bajic "threatened him with a rifle and told him not to come to work any more". The witness said that six armed Serb soldiers came to his apartment that night, beat him and took him to the Public Safety Station in Kljuc.    

"I was taken to an office on the first floor, where I was questioned by Sreto Anicic, who said some vague things. He said I used to train members of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, in using radio communications. He threatened me by saying he would cut off my ears," Begic said, adding that two "Serb soldiers" took him, following the examination, to an office on the ground floor of the Public Safety Station building, where they "constantly hit" him.  

"They told me to hold my hands above my head. They kept hitting me until my arm went down, as I could no longer control it. A soldier then raised my hand and continued hitting me until my arm turned black," the witness said.

The indictment alleges that, on May 27, 1992 "Serb soldiers and policemen" undertook the unlawful capture of non-Serb civilians, who were then exposed to physical and mental abuse in the Public Safety Station premises in Kljuc.

Begic said he was taken to the basement of the Public Safety Station after having been beaten. He spent the following night in a cell, together with seven "Muslim civilians, who had been beaten".

"They took us out in the afternoon. They loaded us onto a truck. There were 22 of us. I said this group was like a selected national team, because somebody decided who would be in the first group of people. (...) After we had got on the truck, a group of soldiers came and started hitting us. Somebody hit me on my head with a stick. I started counting the hits. I remember, after having counted 20 hits, I thought I would not survive the next one," the witness recalled.

Begic said he was taken to Mali logor, near Banja Luka, where he was beaten again. He was then taken to "an old prison in Gradiska". In June 1992 he was transferred to "Manjaca concentration camp", where he stayed until December 1992.

The indictment alleges that, "a day or two after May 27" 22 civilians were transported from the Public Safety Station in Kljuc to Stara Gradiska detention camp, where they were beaten up and transferred, 15 days later, to Manjaca detention camp.

The next hearing is due to take place on March 15 this year.