I Confessed Murders at AID's Request
by Esad Hecimovic
Dani, Sarajevo, Federation Bosnia-Hercegovina, B-H, October 8 1999
On May 16 1995, the Higher Court in Sarajevo sentenced Dragan Opacic on ten years in prison, the harshest possible sentence for an older minor, pronouncing him guilty for 23 murders by shooting, two murders by slaughter and 10 rapes. The then Supreme Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina confirmed this sentence for genocide and war crimes against civilian population on July 2 1995. The Tribunal in the Hague expressed interest for Opacic and he thereby became a protected witness in the case against Tadic. However, on May 8 1997 "Witness L" got back his name and surname in the courtroom of the International Tribunal in the Hague and is now back in the prison in Zenica"I do not know what I've done to deserve this, nor why this is happening to me. I am still prisoner of war," Dragan Opacic, also known as "Witness L" in the Hague trial against Dusan Tadic, says in the room for visits of the prison in Zenica. Soon he will go through two important anniversaries: on October 30 it will be five years since the day when he was wounded and captured by the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina in the fighting on the Treskavica Mountain, and his 24th birthday falls on November 24. Out of 24 years, he has already spent five in prisons in Sarajevo, the Hague, and Zenica. According to the sentence issued by the Cantonal and Supreme Courts in Sarajevo, Opacic should spend another five years in jail.
On May 16 1995 the then Higher Court in Sarajevo sentenced Opacic on ten years in prison, the harshest possible sentence for an older minor, pronouncing him guilty in 23 murders by shooting, two murders by slaughter and 10 rapes. The then Supreme Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina confirmed this sentence for genocide and war crimes against civilian population on July 2 1995. Judges of the Supreme Court rejected the appeal of lawyer Jaksa Mitrovic regarding the basing of the sentence exclusively on the confession of the accused. Really, after reading the verdicts of the Higher and Supreme Courts the impression is that all evidence and witnesses listed in the verdict deal with the circumstances in the camp Trnopolje, rather than with the murders for which Opacic was sentenced. Not a single name of his alleged 25 murder and 10 rape victims was given. Also, none of the witnesses who appeared in the Court was in the camp during the time in which, according to the claims from the verdict, Opacic committed genocide and war crimes against civilians.
Arbour Writes to Izetbegovic
Based on his confession, investigators of the Hague Tribunal accepted Opacic as a protected witness for the prosecution in the case against Dusan Tadic. In the summer of 1995, he was transferred from the prison in Sarajevo to the Hague Tribunal prison in Scheveningen. Opacic faced judges in the "Tadic case" a year later, on August 13, 14, and 15 1996. Tadic's defense, at the time led by Dutch lawyer Micha Vladimirof, expressed doubt regarding the statements and data provided by at the time still protected witness for the prosecution. At the Hague Tribunal they organized a meeting between Dragan Opacic and his brother Pera and father Jovan Opacic, for whom "Witness L" on several occasions had claimed that he was dead. Dragan Opacic's parents knew nothing about his fate between October 1994 and October 1996. They believed that he had disappeared in the fighting. They were surprised when on October 25 1996, in the Hague, in the presence of lawyer Vladimirof and chief investigator William Reed (from Australia), they faced Dragan Opacic. Reed, who had brought Opacic from Bosnia, described the meeting in an official document of the Hague Tribunal:"I said to 'Witness L' that I wanted him to meet two persons he did not know. He looked carefully at both persons and stated that he did not recognize either of them. However, based on his reaction, I was convinced that he knew both of them. I asked Janko Opacic whether he recognized 'Witness L'. He replied that that was his son. Then, I asked Pero Opacic whether he recognized 'Witness L' and he replied that that was his brother. 'Witness L' offered an apology and said that he had to tell me something. Then, he said that he had been prepared by the Bosnians. He added that, after we became a prisoner of war, he had been interrogated by military investigators who had beaten him. He emphasized that the investigators had told him that he had been a guard in the camp and that he had known Dusko Tadic. Then, I asked 'Witness L' whether he really knew Tadic. He said that he had seen him for the first time when a videotape had been played for him in Sarajevo."
Thus, Dragan Opacic became useless for the Hague Tribunal prosecutors in the case against Dusko Tadic. Instead of an asylum in the Netherlands, he was threatened by a trial for false testimony. Branka Isailovic, a lawyer from Paris, became his attorney. In the letter sent to Alja Izetbegovic on December 2 1996, Louise Arbour stated that "a brief but intensive investigation of the Prosecutor's Office did not uncover anything that would support Opacic's claims that he was forced by your authorities to give false testimony at the trial to Tadic, or that they prepared him to give false testimony. On the contrary, the information available to the prosecutors suggest that Opacic's claims against your authorities are false." However, the prosecutor did not bring a suit against Opacic because of false testimony and the court decided that this protected witness be returned to the prison in Sarajevo. In June 1998, after the return to Sarajevo, Opacic was transferred to the prison in Zenica.
Protected Witness
In a conversation with Dani, Dragan Opacic explains what happened after he was captured on the Treskavica mountain on October 39 1994."I was wounded. I have no complaints regarding the behavior of the Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina soldiers towards me. I was at first in a military camp and was later transferred to Hrasnica. I was then and still remain a prisoner of war," explains Opacic. According to him, although he made several requests, he was never allowed to meet with representatives of the International Red Cross, nor was he placed on their list of prisoners of war. His family believed that he had gone missing. He met representatives of the International Red Cross for the first time in the Hague in 1996. "The Army kept me in jail, until I was turned over to the civilian Police, the Ministry of Internal Affairs Police and AID [Bosniak-Muslim intelligence service]. The civilian Police began to interrogate me in February 1995. I was taken to a trial on May 16 1995 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for minors. I've already served five years. I do not know why, nor for whom, nor because of what. A month later, some policemen came and told me that I would go to the Hague as a witness and that they had all sorts of evidence about me and Dusan Tadic in the Trnopolje camp. I was forced to sign a statement. I simply couldn't bear any more what they did to me. Although I had been wounded, they tortured me a lot. They would handcuff me to some iron bars. I've spent whole nights standing in water up to my waist, naked, in the Sarajevo prison. They kept me in some cellar where the Police beat me with some sort of rubber implements. They did all sorts of stuff to me. I was wounded and they put salt into my wound. They even beat me with a large piece of wood. I was a child at the time. They only stopped to beat me after they told me that I was to be picked up by the Hague Tribunal."
When the Hague Tribunal investigator Reed arrived, all participants of the investigation (judge, policemen, a lawyer) and the trial gathered at a meeting. "Reed accepted their story at face value. He also brought those same pictures and tapes, which I had already been shown by the Police. At first I refused to go to the Hague, but they told me they were going to hide me from the public, give me a different name, that no one was going to hurt me. I realized that there was no life for me in Sarajevo. The judge who sentenced me in Sarajevo promised that he would annul the sentence if I agreed to testify in the Hague. He said that in that case, my sentence could be annulled and that no one would know about me. Others also promised that they would try to have me freed if I cooperated," explains Opacic circumstances in which he accepted to testify for prosecution in the trial against Tadic. He was secretly transferred to the Hague via Mostar, Split and Zagreb during the summer of 1995.
"For a year, they prepared me in the Hague Tribunal prison for the testimony in the trial. They showed me everything on videotapes and gave me materials to read overnight in order to get ready for the trial. They also took me to see prosecutor Grant Niemann, who also played videotapes for me. They secretly took me to Kozarac in the Republic of Srpska so that I could show them locations of mass crimes and mass graves. I had to agree to read day and night in order to know what that was all about. They dragged me around Kozarac and pointed out places and houses, asked me to confirm a location and I confirmed whatever they asked from me. I had no choice to say anything else, since they took my statements, given under duress in Sarajevo, as the truth.
"Actually, I was without protection of any sort. They totally isolated me, separated me from the public and no one knew my identity nor the truth about me. I had no other choice but to, for example, memorize everything I heard on a videotape. Thus, I prepared for the trial for a whole year," Dragan Opacic describes his experiences as a witness in the Hague.
After the end of his three days of testimony, Opacic was returned to the prison. He asked whether at that point he could apply for political asylum in the Netherlands but "they simply turned their heads away and said that I would be returned to Bosnia".
Return to Sarajevo
"I feared such return. When they brought my father and brother, I said I did not know them. I knew that in Sarajevo they demanded that I do not reveal who I have in my family, to say that my father had died and that I had only a mother and a sister. When the investigator realized that I was lying, I told him: 'You can send me back to Bosnia. Look here, these are my father and my brother, and you can send me back to Bosnia. But everything you do here, everything they did and hid and promised would be revealed. He left and they left me alone during the winter. I spent two years in the Hague. I demanded through my attorney to be allowed to face the Tribunal and state that Reed and Niemann coached me as a witness, and showed me videotapes and photographs, but they refused," says Opacic.On October 25, prosecutor Grant Niemann informed judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald that after several-weeks-long investigation the Prosecutor's Office did not any more support Dragan Opacic as a "truthful witness". On May 9, the Hague Tribunal informed judges that it did not "find the case of 'Witness L' suitable for prosecution because of false testimony". On May 27 1997, the Court Council ordered that Opacic be returned to a prison under jurisdiction of the authorities of Bosnia-Hercegovina, from where he had initially come and where he was serving a 10 year prison sentence. Opacic appealed that decision on May 30. The Council for Appeals assessed his appeal as incomplete since it did not state on which article of the procedural rules form the Tribunal's Statute it was based. They decided to consider it on the basis of article 72 of the Rules of the Tribunal. After a consideration, they decided that Opacic had no right of appeal since article 72 states that only the prosecutor and the accused have the right of appeal. "A witness in custody, in this case Dragan Opacic, since he has not been indicted, nor is the accused or the prosecutor in the case, is not a party in this trial. Therefore, he cannot appeal on the basis of Article 72," was the reply judges gave to his appeal. Two Dutch lawyers, Surkron and Roehrs tried to initiate a consideration of that decision of the Tribunal and win the right of asylum in the Netherlands for Opacic. The Dutch authorities replied that neither states nor their judicial authorities have the right to reconsider decisions of the International Tribunal. Dragan Opacic was visited by the policemen of IPTF after his transfer to Sarajevo. "They told me that they had been informed that I had been arrested at the Sarajevo airport. I told them that that was correct but that I had been before that for two years in the Hague. Since '97, all those international policemen, OSCE, OHR and all others, all of them have been coming and saying: 'We shall see, we'll do something, we'll help'. And no one gives a damn."
Tadic is Not Angry
"They did not screw me up, they screwed themselves up. However, I am convinced that someone was paid for that. Tadic was transferred to the Hague at the same time I was taken there. I went on walks in the prison yard with Dusko Tadic and we talked about what I should do. I told him directly that I could not testify against him. However, he said, you just testify, and whatever happens will happen. I exchanged messages with him in the prison. All of that went secretly, both with respect with the Tribunal and them. Tadic told me that it would be better for him if I testified since he knew that the whole thing about Trnopolje was a lie. And he is not angry with me, he is not angry at all. He knew that that was a lie and that it would be canceled during the trial," explains Opacic. "I saw Tadic for the first time on a videotape in Sarajevo. I later met him in the prison in the Hague. I told him that they were forcing me to give a false testimony and that they were showing me videotapes and photos in the Hague and that I had been hidden from the public and the Red Cross. If I did not testify well, they would send me back to Bosnia. He only said 'you just testify'," adds Dragan Opacic.
Translated on 12/15/1999
