In Sarajevo, Muslim Butchery
Court Files Reveal Wartime Murders by Paramilitary Units
By Chris Hedges New York Times Service
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - The Muslim paramilitary
groups that organized the defense of Sarajevo at the
start of the war
in Bosnia in 1992 murdered scores, if not hundreds, of
Serb civilians,
according to 56 pages of internal military court
documents.
The documents, parts of which were published Friday in
the
independent news magazine Dani, are the first official
confirmation of
war crimes in Sarajevo by Muslim forces.
The murders described in the documents often match in
savagery, if
not in numbers, reports of Serb killings of unarmed
Muslims and
Croats.
While the Muslim paramilitary units appear to have killed
1,000 or
2,000 people, the Serbs are held responsible by human
rights
officials for the slaughtering of tens of thousands of
civilians.
The district military court documents, largely
confessions and
testimony by Muslim soldiers who took part in the
killings, were used
in the sentencing of the soldiers three years ago.
None of the condemned received more than six years in
jail, and
most were sentenced to only a few months.
In addition, a large number of convicted soldiers were
released from
jail immediately after being sentenced because the time
they had
spent waiting for trial was longer than their sentence.
The testimony, which was not made public by the court,
was
provided by Muslim officials who are disturbed by the
government's
failure to make the killings public or impose stiff jail
sentences.
''I was in Sarajevo when these killings took place and I
believed at
the time that I knew a lot about what was going on,''
said Senad
Pecanin, the editor of Dani. ''But I was terribly shocked
when I read
these documents and saw what kinds of crimes were being
committed, mostly against Serbs.
''This information will come as quite a blow to people
here.''
A government investigation of the mass grave in Kazani on
Trebevic
Mountain, which was used by the unit to dispose of the
bodies, was
halted last year after only a few remains were removed
from the pit.
The soldiers' testimony states that Muslim police and
political leaders
knew about the war crimes - a charge that Muslim
officials deny.
The soldiers told the court that they dumped many Serb
victims in the
Kazani crevice overlooking the city. The rocky depression
was close
to front lines manned by Muslim soldiers trying to hold
back the
Serbs.
Equipped with heavy artillery, the Serbs had surrounded
Sarajevo
and cut off most supplies while they were dropping more
than 1,000
shells a day on the capital.
More than 20,000 people in the city, including 2,000
children, died
in the siege, which was not lifted until the end of the
war in 1995.
The soldiers involved in the killings, all of whom
belonged to the 10th
Mountain Brigade, were commanded by Musan Topalovic, who
was
apparently killed by Muslim police units on Oct. 26,
1993.
A decision to disband the paramilitary units, often by
force, was part
of the Muslim government's effort to organize the city's
defenses
under a formal army command structure.
Court records say that on Dec. 20, 1994, Zijo Kubat, Esad
Tucakovic, Omer Tendzo, Asif Alibasic and Samir Seferovic
were
found guilty of crimes committed in October 1993.
They were charged with several killings, including an
incident in
which they kidnapped a Serb couple, Vasilij and Ana
Lavriv, from
their home and transported them to the headquarters of
their
paramilitary unit, where they were badly beaten.
The Lavrivs were then driven to Kazani where, with a
woman named
Milena Draskovic, they were beaten with wooden clubs by
the
defendants.
''I hit Vasilij Lavriv on the back and he fell to the
ground,'' Mr. Kubat
said in the court document. ''I then ran my knife across
his throat. I
noticed the blood.''
Mr. Tucakovic who, like Mr. Kubat, was sentenced to six
years in
prison, pulled Mrs. Lavriv a few feet away from the
group.
''I took my knife, it was 40 centimeters long, and
severed her head
from her body,'' Mr. Tucakovic testified.
''I pushed her corpse into the pit and left her head on
the ground.
After that I ran to the trench. I had blood all over my
hands and
clothes. I washed, so I did not see the killing of the
other two
people.''
Another incident occurred after six children were killed
by a Serb
shell in the city late in June 1993. The paramilitary
unit decided to
retaliate by murdering local Serbs. The group seized a
couple,
Radoslav and Marina Komljenac, both invalids, in their
apartment
and took them to Kazani, where Mevludin Selak, who
received a
six-year prison term for murder, cupped his hand over Mr.
Komljenac's mouth, pushed him to the ground and slit his
throat,
according to court testimony.
Refik Solak, who was sentenced to six years as well,
killed Mrs.
Komljenac, also by slitting her throat.
In several instances the soldiers took captive Serbs, of
whom about
20,000 remained in Sarajevo, to the front lines around
the city and
murdered them, according to the court testimony. In most
instances
the Muslims killed the Serbs by slitting their throats
with large hunting
knifes.
The defendants were especially harsh on males whom they
apprehended trying to cross the front lines to join Serb
forces.
In one incident related in the court records, the
soldiers seized two
Serb men, Dusko Jovanovic and Ergin Nikolic, who were
trying to
escape in September 1993.
''Caco began to question the men loudly,'' said Mr.
Tucakovic, in the
court record, referring to Mr. Topalovic.
''At one moment Caco seized a knife and rammed it into
the neck of
Dusko Jovanovic six or seven times. Samir Bejtic took a
sword and
thrust it two or three times through the neck of Ergin
Nikolic and then
jammed the sword repeatedly into his body.''
The group of men, in a frenzy, plunged the sword and the
knife into
Mr. Jovanovic's bloody corpse.
''Caco gave the knife to Armin Hodzic and told him to
stab this
stinking man,'' Mr. Bejtic told the court.
''Armin Hodzic stabbed Dusko Jovanovic twice. Caco then
handed
the knife to Sabahudin Ziga, who also stabbed Jovanovic.
''Caco then ordered me to stab him. I stabbed him once or
twice in
his stomach. He was already dead.''
The two bodies were taken to the Kazani pit by Mr.
Topalovic, the
men testified, where they were dismembered.
''I saw Samir Bejtic split open Dusko Jovanovic's head,''
Mr. Seferovic told the court.
''I saw Caco begin to kick the head around while the body
was
tossed into the pit. Ergin Nikolic's body was also thrown
into the pit.''
