Reign of Terror in Teslic Started with Execution of 38 Bosniaks and Croats

Nezavisne Novine, Banja Luka, Srpska, B-H, September 15 1999

Last month a mass grave was exhumed at the spot known as Klupe near Teslic. The remains of 28 people were found in the grave. According to the unofficial sources, evidence of torture and killing by fire arms at point blank range was found on the corpses. The state commission for identification has refused to provide data about the victims until the autopsies and the identification process are completed. The Hague Tribunal files claim that the victims are Bosniaks and Croats, inhabitants of Teslic and settlements Rankovic and Stenjak, who were executed by the Doboj paramilitary formation known as "Mice" in June 1992.

Many inhabitants of Teslic still vividly recall the arrival of "Mice" to their town. They claim that the terror to which they were exposed had not been recorded previously in the wars in this region. A group of about 20 armed people, led by "red berets" and certain Njegos, broke into a Crisis Staff meeting held at the City Hall and announced what was to happen in the following days. After checking the documents of the municipal officials, "Mice" proceeded to beat up a few of them and forced some of them to do push ups. After the City Hall, "Mice" moved to the Police station. On that day it did not matter who was and who was not a Serb: those who met "Mice" were beaten up.

Immediately a curfew from 11 a.m. (!?) until 8 a.m. the following day was introduced and arrests of respected Bosniaks and Croats followed. A cellar in the former building of Social and Political Organizations was converted into a prison, which soon turned out to be too small to accommodate all the prisoners. The "work" with the prisoners boiled down to physical maltreatment, threats and blackmail. A life could be bought with foreign currency, gold, cars... Thus, a well known carpenter from Teslic, Jozo Martinovic, ended up in jail because he offered only DM 10,000 to "buy his head". When his arm was broken in the jail he found another DM 20,000. Rudi Tibitanc had to give up his new car, Volkswagen "Passat", and DEM 7,000. Trader Rajko Jetric, besides cigarettes and coffee from his store, had to contribute his "Seiko" watch.

Those prisoners who on June 8 happened to be in the prisons in Teslic and Pribinic met with a tragic end. That day "Mice" completed the "cleansing" of the Bosniak settlement Rankovic, several kilometers away from Teslic. A reserve policeman died in the action, while one member of "Mice" was wounded. After the action a group of individuals broke into the jail in Teslic and in revenge started beating prisoners with wooden clubs. Rare witnesses claim that one prisoner had to wash puddles of blood in the prison courtyard and that Teslic policemen were running away in order not to watch the "spectacle". That evening, eight prisoners died as the consequence of the beating.

The epilogue of the bloody orgy in the Police station was the "order" to execute 18 surviving prisoners lest they testify about the crime. A forest in Klupe on the mountain Borje, near the road Teslic-Banja Luka was chosen for the execution. That night, ten prisoners from the prison in Pribinic were also shot.

In the Hague they claim that there is evidence about who issued the order for the liquidation of the prisoners, as well as the data about the person who organized the execution. Also there is a list of the people who were in the shooting squad that night in the forest on Klupe.

In the documentation which was gathered about this case during the war in Tesanj [Muslim controlled town near Teslic] it is claimed that the Crisis Staff of the Teslic municipality demanded the sending of "Mice" from Doboj. The municipal Crisis Staff in Teslic had daily meetings and planned the actions. It is claimed that the arrests were made according to the list which had been made by the Police.

Among the arrested and missing respected citizens of Teslic are Rasim Galijasevic, Boro Pastuhovic and Viktor Glancer. Galijasevic was a mayor of Teslic before the war and the director of the local administration before the war, Boro Pastuhovic was a public official before the war, and Glancer, a Jew, was a respected craftsman and instructor.

There are claims that besides the exhumed mass grave on Klupe there is another one in the village of Vlajici where another ten prisoners from the Police prison in Teslic are buried. In the Hague they claim that there is evidence about the time and place of execution of this group of prisoners.

After these executions "Mice" stayed in Teslic for another 20 days. When they ran out of Bosniaks and Croats suitable for "treatment", they switched to Serbs. Rumors about rapes of Serb women whose husbands were on the front and beatings of Serbs and plundering of their property began to spread through the town. Only then, someone made the decision to arrest the members of "Mice".

The arrests were made in a common action of the Banja Luka Police Center and Military Police of the First Krajina Corps and one battalion of the Teslic Brigade. Predrag Radulovic Pile, then the State Security Service inspector in Banja Luka and originally from Teslic, was in charge of the action. Those who recall that day in early July claim that the Police and the Army cut off the town and that a cannon was used in the attack on hotel "Kardijal", where "Mice" had their headquarters. A military policeman from Doboj, a member of the reinforcement for "Mice", died in the action.

The public prosecutor in Teslic issued an indictment against "Mice", submitted a request for an investigation to the court and recommended that the arrested members of "Mice" be kept in custody. Investigative magistrate and the then president of the [District] Court Nenad Kovacevic accepted the request for the conduct of an investigation and the process continued according to the law, until the day when, after a fax received from the president of the Higher Court in Doboj, "Mice" were transferred from the prison in Banja Luka to the prison in Doboj. Even Jovo Ristic, the president of the Higher Court in Banja Luka, normally in charge of the District Prison in Banja Luka, could not explain to investigative magistrate Kovacevic how this transfer took place.

Because of his involvement in the investigation against "Mice" Branko Peric was dismissed from the post of the public prosecutor in Teslic, while president of the Court Nenad Kovacevic was forced to resign. Peric claims that "Mice" are the only court case in which relevant evidence about a war crime was collected and suggested that we take a look at the file in the Teslic Court. President of the Court Zdravko Popovic says that the "Mice" case file was sent to the Ministry of Justice in Pale and still has not been returned. Minister Milan Trbojevic claims that he has no idea where the file is and that the Commission for War Crimes in Belgrade may have it.

The "Mice" case file disappeared after Peric's dismissal from the prosecutor's office and the resignation of president of the Court Nenad Kovacevic. Kovacevic claims that he gave the file to his successor judge Zdravko Popovic, and that the investigation had not been completed since the Government of RS failed to release funds requested by the prosecutor to cover the expenses for exhumation and autopsy.

It is assumed that the "Mice" case file arrived to the Hague via Pale and that it will soon be activated.

Besides all horrors that took place in Teslic during the war, the question of how the original documentation from the case against "Mice" made it into the hands of the Hague investigators is also interesting. Does it not indicate that some investigators from the Hague have managed to infiltrate judicial institutions in the Republic of Srpska?

Indicted members of "Mice"

Arrested 500 Individuals