Prosecutors meet to discuss Storm videos

Prosecutors meet to discuss Storm videos

Beta has learned that they will be talking about what steps the three Prosecutions need to take regarding the footage which shows war crimes being committed against Serbian civilians during the Croatian Operation Storm military action of 1995.

The Prosecutor’s Offices in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have already initiated investigations regarding war crimes committed against Serbian refugees in the region of Dvora na Uni, based on the footage shown on TV B92.

Even though it is interested in the case, the Hague Tribunal cannot use the footage because there will be no new indictments issued by the international court. While Serbia is waiting to see what happens with the investigations, Zagreb and Sarajevo continue to deny the involvement of their military units in the war crimes.

Croatian General Petar Stipetić, who was a commander in the Dvora na Uni region, denied that his troops were responsible for war crimes. He said that the Hague prosecutors already investigated Storm actions in 2001 and that they found no evidence of war crimes committed by Croatian forces.

“While Storm was in action, for this sector I did not receive any reports of a suspicious character which could show that something that was not normal in such a situation was going on.” Petar Stipetić said.

Stipetić said that the footage is authentic, but doctored. He said that Muslim soldiers probably did commit murders and that this occurred before the arrival of the Croatian Black Mamba unit to this region. He did confirm that the Black Mambas did inspect Serbian civilians when they arrived in the region, as was shown in the footage.

“The rough search of the refuges looks like that, but it cannot be done in any other way. The search had to be done in order to see if there were any hidden soldiers on the opposing side, and whether they had weapons. All information which I have states that no crimes were committed, there were no civilians murdered, and there was no abuse.” General Stipetić said.

Bosnia-Herzegovina Presidency member Sulejman Tihić said that General Atif Dudaković and his Fifth Corps protected the country from aggression and that the video cassettes are a product of a Serbian campaign.

“It is no news that Belgrade is trying to equal out the aggressive, massive and systematic crimes with the individual crimes while defending Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. However, they will not succeed in doing so because hundreds of mass graves and many convictions and pieces of evidence from the Hague Tribunal will not allow it.” Tihić said.

Republic of Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik condemned the way in which Tihić and Dudaković have commented the videos.

“To call this an ironic cry, as Dudaković told Dnevni Avaz, on a single, mudered Serbian soldier, speaks enough about his feelings towards crimes which the unit which was under his command had commited.” Dodik said, adding that this statement, which was endorsed by Tihić as well, is another effort to marginalise the fact that war crimes were committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

President of the Croatian Helsinki Council Žarko Puhovski said that this organisation claimed even earlier that civilians were killed in the Dvora na Uni region during Operation Storm.

“In the municipality of Dvor, according to our information, at least 46 civilians were killed, and since it is not our job as a non-governmental organisation to prove this, we just confirmed that they were killed, and found out were they were buried most likely, and that the Fifth Corps unit of the Bosnia-Herzegovina army and the Second Brigade o the Croatian army were active in this region.” Puhovski said.

Indictment against Dudaković prepared

The Republic of Srpska Government had already planned to prepare an indictment against Atif Dudaković back in 2002 for war crimes committed during 1995 in western municipalities of Bosnia-Herzegovina, according to Banja Luka daily Nezavisne Novine.

According to the daily, the information on the preparation of the indictment was confirmed by then chief of the Government’s Bureau for Hague Tribunal Relations, Dejan Miletić. The daily added that the RS Government  initiated an investigation against Dudaković after receiving information that soldiers under his command executed 25 to 30 Serbian civilians in front of a motel in Bosanski Petrovac on September 14 and 15, 1995.

A former member of Dudaković’s fifth Corpus was ready to testify in the case and in front of the Hague Tribunal if necessary.

“We entered Bosanski Petrovac on September 14 or 15. Dudaković and the commanding group which he headed was staying at a motel off the highway going towards Ključa. Waiting for further instructions, at about 8:00 a group of Serbian civilians in between the ages of 40 and 60 was escorted to the front of the motel. They lined them up in front of the motel and started to shout vulgarities at them and threatened them that they would be executed,” the witness said.

“The prisoners prayed for help, and one older man asked to speak with the commander. One of the soldiers told him that the general is in the motel and that he has ordered them to be killed. Shortly after, four soldiers with masks on and carrying automatic rifles cam out and started shooting at the Serbian civilians. After that, they returned to the command area in the motel. I asked the soldier next to me who these men were, and he answered that they were the security team of Atif Dudaković,” the witness said, adding that a dredge arrived shortly to bury the bodies.

It has been confirmed that documentation for two indictments against Dudaković exists and that that material evidence was sent to the Hague Tribunal. Dudaković is accused of committing war crimes in 1995 during the final operations of the Fifth Corps of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Army in the region of the municipalities of Bihać, Sanski Most, Bosanski Petrovac and Prijedor.

According to the Documentation Centre, Dudaković is also accused in a united indictment which was filed against Bosnia-Herzegovina president Alija Izetbegović and Croatian president Franjo Tuđman and Croatian general Ante Gotovina for war crimes committed in 1995 on the territory of the municipalities of Jajnce, Šipovo, Mrkonjić Grad and parts of the municipalities of Banja Luka, Ključ and Drvar, where Bosnian and Croatian forces fought together and 358 people were murdered, 127 of which were civilians.

One victim’s story

One of the Serbian prisoners killed in September 1995 by members of the Muslim special unit Hamzi was Rade Rogić from Sanski Most.

His family currently lives in Banja Luka because they are still unable to return to their former home in which other people are currently living in, according to daily Večernji List.

The daily’s internet site has a video of a Hamzi Commander, a Mujahadeen from Saudi Arabia Taufiq Al Harbia, questioning and striking Rogić, then taking him away and slitting his throat.