Friday, February 1, 2008

SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL ZELJKO MEJAKIC TESTIFIED BEFORE BOSNIAN STATE COURT ABOUT RAPES OF BOSNIAN WOMEN IN OMARSKA CONCENTRATION CAMP

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (February 1,2008) – On the final day of his testimony as a Defence witness, Serbian war criminal Zeljko Mejakic spoke of rapes of Bosnian women and destruction of documentation in the Omarska concentration camp,during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

He also spoke of how the genocidal Serbian aggressor's soldiers took valuables from detained Bosnian and Croatian civilians in the course of 1992.

"The first case of attempted rape, known to me, concerned the person who was examined as protected Prosecution witness under the pseudonym of K035," Serbian war criminal Zeljko Mejakic told the Bosnian State Court.

"She reported that a security person took her to a room and tried to force her to have sexual intercourse with him. In addition, protected Prosecution witness K040 told me, in the Omarska concentration camp, that another member of the security tried to force her into having sexual intercourse with him," Mejakic said.

The indictee added that he had informed Serbian war criminal Simo Drljaca about these two cases. Drljaca was killed when members of the international forces attempted to arrest him in 1997.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor charges Serbian war criminals Zeljko Mejakic, Momcilo Gruban, Dusan Fustar and Dusko Knezevic with the rape, torture, murder and beating of forcibly detained Bosnian and Croatian civilians in the Omarska and Keraterm concentration camps in the course of 1992,during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Serbian war criminal Zeljko Mejakic said that he actually helped detained Bosnian civilians during their detention and after they were released from the Omarska concentration camp.

"After being released from the Trnopolje concentration camp, Prosecution witness K035 asked for my help as some soldier had threatened her by telling her that he would rape her.And when I received the lists of people who were going to leave the Omarska concentration camp, I noticed that Kerim Mesanovic was going to be transferred to the Manjaca concentration camp, so I asked Ranko Mijic, chief of an investigation group, to transfer him to Trnopolje and he did it," Mejakic said.

Kerim Mesanovic appeared before the Bosnian State Court as a Prosecution witness in 2007. He said that he left Trnopolje thanks to indictee Mejakic and that he also left Bosnia later on, after Mejakic helped him obtain a false identity card, which he used to enter Serbia.

Serbian war criminal Zeljko Mejakic claims that, in the Omarska concentration camp, some Serbian aggressor's soldiers took valuables and money from detained Bosnian and Croatian civilians, and were involved in the selling of food.

"I have to say that they used to ramp money in various ways. I remember when a soldier brought two boxes of cookies to the detention camp with the intention to sell them to the detainees," Mejakic recalled.

According to Serbian war criminal Zeljko Mejakic, Serbian war criminal Simo Drljaca "frequently visited" the concentration camp. He gave an order for removal of "any written traces indicating that there are any female detainees in the concentration camp".

"Drljaca made a specific order not to mention the female detainees. As per his order, we used to hide them somewhere when we had visits from the outside," said Mejakic, adding that most documents on this concentration camp "disappeared or were destroyed in the course of November 1992 and 1996".

Serbian war criminal Zeljko Mejakic also said that groups of journalists and a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the concentration camp several times in 1992.

He also said that, in November 1996, he went to Serbia, and in 2003 he surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which filed an indictment against him in 1995.

The ICTY's Referral Bench rendered a decision to refer this case to the Bosnian State Court on July 20, 2005, as per the ICTY's Rule 11 bis on referral of cases from The Hague to local courts. The four indictees were transferred to Bosnia in May 2006.

The cross-examination of Serbian war criminal Zeljko Mejakic is due to take place before the Bosnian State court on Monday, February 4, 2008.

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