100 Witnesses against the Tenth Mountain Brigade

by Duro Kozar

Dani, Sarajevo, Federation Bosnia-Hercegovina, B-H, February 4 2000

As many as fourteen fighters who were under the command of controversial Musan Topalovic Caco appeared in the defendant dock in Sarajevo and were sentenced all together to 37 years in prison. Most of them received a final verdict on September 26 1996, in the then Higher Court in Sarajevo and on that occasion Zijo Kubat, Esad Tucakovic, Refik Colak and Mevludin Selak were sentenced to six years in prison each; they are still serving their sentences. Because of a failure to report a crime, or a perpetrator of a crime, the following individuals were sentenced to eight months in prison each: Senad Hasic, Sabahudin Ziga, Samir Seferovic, Omer Tendzo, Esad Raonic, Samir Ljubovic, Senad Haracic and Armin Hodzic. They have served their sentences and have been freed long time ago.

What did Serbs Give to Goldstone?

The Hague Tribunal has one report, based on the testimony of the Serbs taken to dig trenches for Caco, that late Musan Topalovic is responsible for the murders of several hundreds of Serbs and Croats from Sarajevo, who lived the municipalities Stari Grad [old town] and Centar Sarajevo [central Sarajevo]. These civilians were killed only because they were not Bosniaks, and were usually robbed in the process. Most of them were taken to the area near the Trebevic Mountain, known as Kazani, after which nothing is known about their fate. Corpses were thrown into a deep ravine or burnt.

The Association of Serb Camp Inmates from Belgrade, handed over to the then chief Tribunal prosecutor Richard Goldstone three files about the suffering of Serbs in Sarajevo, and two witnesses who had passed through torture in Sarajevo prisons and were later exchanged directly testified. The interest of the Hague Tribunal in the "Kazani" case dates from then. As soon as he returned to the Hague, Goldstone instructed the investigators to examine all circumstances in connection with the killing of civilians in the zone of responsibility of the Tenth Mountain Brigade. During the last five years the investigators have collected almost a hundred testimonies, mostly from Serbs, but also people with other ethnic origin. Some details were checked by questioning the witnesses several times.

Unlike the Sarajevo judiciary, the Hague Tribunal is obviously not in two minds about what took place in Kazani during 1992 and 1993. For them, that is obviously a war crime against civilians, which means that the perpetrators violated the Geneva Convention, as well as rules and customs of war. If these charges are proven in the court, the International Tribunal can issue sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

Another charge from the Tribunal case is very significant in this case. Based on the so far collected information and firm evidence, the Tribunal investigators established that Caco's fighters not only abetted and hid the crime but also committed war crimes, with premeditation, in an extremely cruel manner. That means that Caco was not the only murderer, as could be inferred from the trial in Sarajevo, but that the other members of his brigade, whose names are known to the Tribunal, also killed civilians. According to some opinions, that is the key element that makes it likely that the Tribunal will take over the case.

Threats and Videotapes

One of the key witnesses, whose identity is protected by the Tribunal, stated the following: "These Caco's murderers only could not figure out why they were in custody and were going to be tried in front of the District Military Court in Sarajevo!? They repeatedly protested and expressed bitterness because of their arrests and trials. Because of that, without restraint and thinking whether they were incriminating themselves, they openly and cynically talked about their crimes from Trebevic. As if they were retelling a horror movie..."

This witness added that Kubat, Selak, Hasic, Seferovic and others, during the days spent in custody were especially angry with Alija Izetbegovic, with whose administration, according to them, they were in contact at all times. They were convinced that they were unjustly presented as criminals, since until recently they had been treated like a regular Army unit. True, they were outside the chain of command, until the final showdown in November 1993. But that does not justify what they did to civilians.

One of the most horrible stories told by former Caco's fighters in front of Serbs in prison is the one about severed Serb heads. Former fighters of the Tenth Mountain Brigade frequently said that a severed Serb head was a condition for the membership in Caco's unit. Those who presented a severed head, became trusted fighters and Caco had no secrets in front of them. Maybe there is a degree of exaggeration in all that, but all of that is indicative... The defendants in the trials so far did not say anything about that, and some of them pretended to be mad in order to avoid difficult questions by the judges and prosecutors. Two of them, Kubat and Tucakovic, were in the end sent to prison with obligatory psychiatric treatment, while others were not declared to be mentally disturbed.

If they are indicted, Caco's fighters will have to answer charges about the rape of sixteen Serb girls on Trebevic. The victims were allegedly murdered after the rape. The executors talked about the crime themselves, adding that videotapes of the crime made by the members of the Tenth Mountain Brigade exist. That was, apparently done as a reprisal during daily bombardment of Sarajevo. According to those stories, one of the tapes had the title "You are killing us from the hills, and we rape your girls". However, this tape was never sent to Pale.

The theory that there is video footage about torture and killing in Kazani is not new, and something about that could have been heard during the first trial of Caco's fighters, and even later; however, it's never been discovered where those tapes are, if they were not destroyed at the end of the war. According to one version, one of these tapes, the most incriminating one, was taken by Samit Bajtic abroad. Hearing that some of the defendants in the case were accusing him, Bejtic sent a message from the Western Europe in which he threatened that, unless those charges stop, he would make the tape public.

According to some information, Bejtic could be the first member of the Tenth Mountain Brigade to appear before the Tribunal. Perhaps because he is the last defendant charged with war crimes. When the Tribunal requests an extradition, Germans could do it easily.

Taping and boasting about crimes only confirms arrogant and cynical behavior of former Caco's fighters who, even when they appeared in the court as defendants, were convinced that they would not be punished. Obviously they relied on somebody's protection and deliberately turned the first level trial in a farce. The sentence of ten months in prison, and not even for abetting a murder but for a much lesser crime, failure to report a crime or a perpetrator of a crime, indicates that someone in the then authorities made sure that everything be minimized and the punishment, indeed, symbolic.

Digger's Knowledge

The plaintiffs, in this case the relatives of the murdered victims, do not believe that justice was done with the punishment of Caco's fighters in Sarajevo courts. The relatives are convinced that these sentences are too mild and that the Court, in measuring the sentences, took into account all sorts of mitigating circumstances, constructed by the lawyers. Because of that the relatives are insisting on a repeated trial in the Hague, which would be fair and about which no one could complain.

The relatives are favored by the determination of the new prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who, immediately after assuming the duty, announced issuing of new indictments and keeping of the practice of sealed indictments in those cases that warrant such practice. The names of those Bosniaks who are under firm suspicion of committing war crimes, should be made public, since Sarajevo is cooperating with the Tribunal.

The testimony of the people who were taken to dig trenches in the zone of the responsibility of the Tenth Mountain Brigade will shed new light on the case. There, they saw and heard a lot of incriminating evidence against many Caco's warriors. If a trial does take place, the Tribunal is counting on the diggers, but also many other witnesses of war crimes in Kazani. War crimes do not fall under the statute of limitation and those who committed war crimes should be aware of that.