[12] SERBS HELD IN BOSNIAN MUSLIM CAMPS TESTIFY BEFORE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL
Belgrade, Feb. 29 (Tanjug) - The third group of Serbwitnesses, who were held prisoner in Bosnian Muslimcamps, have testified in the Romanian town of Timisoarabefore four investigators of the Hague-based court forwar crimes in the former Yugoslavia. Extensivedocumentation was also presented to the tribunal'sinvestigators, representatives of the Association ofcamp inmates from 1991 on told a news conference hereThursday.
Association President Slavko Sibalija said testimonieshad been given this time by more than 30 Serbs ofdifferent ages who had been held prisoner for six monthsat least in one of the six Muslim camps near Sarajevoand the town of Konjic, southeast of Sarajevo. He saidthe witnesses had testified about the worst forms oftorture.
Association member in charge of documentation for thewar crimes tribunal Dragica Jovanovic said directaccusations against Muslim civilian and militaryleaderships had been presented in the documents andtestimonies.
She said it had been established that Muslim leaderAlija Izetbegovic and other Muslim officials had knownabout the existence of the camps and had even visitedsome of them. Association members said a heliport usedby Izetbegovic's helicopter was only 30 meters from thecamp at the Tarcin silo, near Konjic. They told thepress that two Serb witnesses had testified before theinvestigators of the war crimes tribunal thatIzetbegovic had visited more than once the camp atCelebici, near Konjic.
They said a preliminary list identifying the sites ofmore than 30 mass graves in Sarajevo in which Serbvictims were buried had been presented to the tribunal'sinvestigators and a request made for proceedings to beinstituted against persons responsible for the illegaltrials of many Serbs in Sarajevo.
Association's lawyer Dragan Vasiljevic said informationhad been received that tribunal's investigators hadheard in the United States the testimonies of 9 Serbs,former camp inmates, and were to hear 60 more.
Some of the witnesses, Serbs held at the Tarcin, Trnovo,Igman, Celebici and Musale camps near Konjic, told thenews conference about the physical and psychologicaltorture and other horrors they had gone through at theMuslim camps.
