Medak survivors: People were burned alive

The trial of Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac continued in Zagreb today with protected witness testimonies. The former Croatian army generals are on trial accused of war crimes committed against ethnic Serbs in the Medak Pocket area of Croatia, in September 1993. Medak survivors: People were burned alive The pair, originally indicted by the Hague Tribunal, are now undergoing trial in Zagreb, after the UN war crimes court allowed the Croatian judiciary to take the case over. Both witnesses today testified under protective measures to hide their identities. Both are survivors of the massacres that took place in the vicinity of Gospic. Protected witness 18 was called to identify the bodies after the Croatian army took over the area, killing some civilians, and forcing others to flee. He arrived to the village of Medak to identify several of his neighbors from another village, Citluk, mostly elderly, whose bodies were burned. Another of his neighbors, who later died, told him that the Croatian soldiers found two women hidden in a basement, to slit one's throat, and shoot the other. The Serbs in Citluk were unarmed and were not resisting the troops in any way, the witness told the court. Protected witness 22, a woman from the area, said that she saw some elderly residents burned alive by Croatian soldiers, who also pillaged the villages, taking livestock and furniture from households. She described a scene for the court when her neighbor Boja Vujinovic, over 70 years of age, was taken out of her house by the soldiers, who then set her on fire while she was still alive, watching and jumping around her as the woman screamed in agony. The witness saw the crimes committed, she told the court, after she managed to crawl out of her house, after a bomb thrown inside exploded. Although she sustained injuries, she managed to hide. But the Croatian soldiers took her invalid son with them. The witness described the shouts from the troops, who were saying that "everything needs to be destroyed, not even a dog must be left alive." After walking through the woods for the next ten days, the witness stumbled into Serb-controlled territory, where she was told her son was murdered, with only his charred bones recovered. Witness 22 said that her previous statements to Belgrade and Hague investigators did not contain claims that civilians and foreign mercenaries also took part in the Medak Pocket atrocities. Ademi and Norac are charged with command responsibility in the murder of 28 civilians and torture and murder of five prisoners, as well as the destruction of over 300 houses in the villages around Gospic, knows as the Medak Pocket. Of the 400 people who inhabited the area before the war, only ten remain today.

Medak survivors: People were burned alive

The pair, originally indicted by the Hague Tribunal, are now undergoing trial in Zagreb, after the UN war crimes court allowed the Croatian judiciary to take the case over.

Both witnesses today testified under protective measures to hide their identities. Both are survivors of the massacres that took place in the vicinity of Gospić.

Protected witness 18 was called to identify the bodies after the Croatian army took over the area, killing some civilians, and forcing others to flee.

He arrived to the village of Medak to identify several of his neighbors from another village, Čitluk, mostly elderly, whose bodies were burned.

Another of his neighbors, who later died, told him that the Croatian soldiers found two women hidden in a basement, to slit one's throat, and shoot the other.

The Serbs in Čitluk were unarmed and were not resisting the troops in any way, the witness told the court.

Protected witness 22, a woman from the area, said that she saw some elderly residents burned alive by Croatian soldiers, who also pillaged the villages, taking livestock and furniture from households.

She described a scene for the court when her neighbor Boja Vujinović, over 70 years of age, was taken out of her house by the soldiers, who then set her on fire while she was still alive, watching and jumping around her as the woman screamed in agony.

The witness saw the crimes committed, she told the court, after she managed to crawl out of her house, after a bomb thrown inside exploded. Although she sustained injuries, she managed to hide. But the Croatian soldiers took her invalid son with them.

The witness described the shouts from the troops, who were saying that "everything needs to be destroyed, not even a dog must be left alive."

After walking through the woods for the next ten days, the witness stumbled into Serb-controlled territory, where she was told her son was murdered, with only his charred bones recovered.

Witness 22 said that her previous statements to Belgrade and Hague investigators did not contain claims that civilians and foreign mercenaries also took part in the Medak Pocket atrocities.

Ademi and Norac are charged with command responsibility in the murder of 28 civilians and torture and murder of five prisoners, as well as the destruction of over 300 houses in the villages around Gospić, knows as the Medak Pocket.

Of the 400 people who inhabited the area before the war, only ten remain today.