SARAJEVO, Bosnia (March 14,2008) – During a deeply moving testimony yesterday at the trial of Serbian war criminals Ratko Bundalo, Nedjo Zeljaja and Djordjislav Askraba before the Bosnian State Court, a prosecution witness described how she was tortured by the genocidal Serbian aggressor during her detention and the disappearance of her husband.
Holding a framed photograph of her husband, Dzemila Redjovic, Prosecution witness, recounted ''black Thursday'', the day he was taken away.
''This is my husband and I have brought his photo so judges can see the youth they have killed. He was a wonderful father who gave me two children,'' said the witness as she wept.
The Bosnian State Prosecutor charges Serbian war criminals Ratko Bundalo, Nedjo Zeljaja and Djordjislav Askraba with the murder, rape, torture, forceful disappearance and the destruction of property belonging to Bosnians,during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia in 1992 and 1993,in the area around the Bosnian town of Kalinovik.
''I will always remember that black Thursday because on the morning of June 25, 1992, Rasid received an invitation to report to Municipality building. I went with him. It was sunny in Kalinovik that morning and suddenly clouds had appeared and rain started. In front of the Municipality building, a lot of men gathered and they were brought inside. When I returned home I told my father-in-law what happened and he replied ''my daughter, who knows when we will see Rasid again and he may never be returned'', recalled Redjovic, adding she still has not found the remains of her husband.
Redjovic said the next day, on June 26, 1992, she saw Serbian war criminals Ratko Bundalo and Grujo Lalovic and asked them for information about her husband.
''Lalovic told me that my Rasid has been detained for various reasons and he pointed to Bundalo and said that he will send him to search my house,'' adding that she did not see Bundalo after that.
''I cannot remember exactly when, but my father-in-law came to me and said that all men were taken by trucks towards the gunpowder warehouse. We went every day, even as it rained, in hope they will let us see our husbands, but we were told that Askraba is in charge and we have to ask him,'' she recounted.
The indictment states that Serbian war criminal Djordjislav Askraba was manager of the concentration camp known as the ''Barutni magacin" (Gunpowder warehouse) from July 7 to August 5 1992, and Serbian war criminals Bundalo and Zeljaja, according to the Prosecution were participating in the ''establishing and organising'' of the oncentration camps in the Kalinovik area.
'' I remember I came to see Rasid a second time on July 27, 1992 and they let me talk to him a bit longer that time. He asked about my son and daughter and through his tears told me that they (the detained Bosnian men) will be taken to Foca to be killed. That was the last time I saw my husband and never again. Never again,'' said Redjovic.
The witness testified that in August 1992 she and her father-in-law were detained in the elementary school in Kalinovik and kept there for 26 days. According to her testimony, detained Bosnian civilians were tortured there by the genocidal serbian aggressor on a daily basis by Serbian war criminal Dragoljub Kunarac and other Serbian aggressor's soldiers.
Serbian war criminal Dragoljub Kunarac was sentenced at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague to 28 years of imprisonment.
They ripped my hair and poured hot water on my hands. She has seven puncture wounds on her body and those scars will never heal. Wounds were infected and upon my release doctors had to clean and stitch them. In that school building, was where my children completed their elementary education and we were kept imprisoned and several times soldiers asked us to undress. Once I was standing naked in front of my father-in-law and it was difficult that he saw me',' she said, adding she was exchanged with a group of between 15 to 20 Bosnian women by the end of August.
The witness said that on August 8 1992, Serbian war crimianl Pero Elez took her father-in-law. She identified his remains in 2006 after the exhumation of a mass grave in the Kalinovik area.
Serbian war criminal Pero Elez is considered to be killed during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.
During cross examination, Redjovic said that she saw Serbian war criminal Nedjo Zeljaja just once by the end of August 1992.
The trial of Serbian war criminals Ratko Bundalo, Nedjo Zeljaja and Djordjislav Askrab will continue today,before the Bosnian State Court,when the Prosecution is scheduled to examine more witnesses.
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