Bosnian Serb Guard Killed for Pleasure: Witness
December 3, 1998 - 0:0
THE HAGUE Former Bosnian Serb prison guard Goran Jelisic killed Muslims for pleasure and terrified his fellow Serbs, the first witnesses in his genocide trial told a United Nations court on Tuesday. According to prosecutors, Jelisic, now 30, introduced himself to his victims as the Serb Adolf, fashioning himself on Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. A Muslim, named only as witness A to protect his identity, told judges he was taken to Serb-run Luka detention camp in northern Bosnia in May 1992. There he witnessed how Jelisic used anything he could lay his hands on to beat prisoners.
A human being is incapable of doing such things. A beast, which has no heart, no feelings, only a beast kills out of pleasure, witness A told the court. Jelisic perpetrated his crimes out of hate and pleasure, not in response to orders, witness A said. Last month, Jelisic pleaded guilty to a series of killings, but said he was innocent of the Yugoslavia tribunal's gravest charge genocide.
If convicted he faces up to life imprisonment. A second witness, witness B, testified that even the Serbs feared Jelisic. He was the most powerful man there and all the Serbs feared him. He was the greatest. Everyone was afraid of him, even the soldiers because he was the boss, witness B said. Witness A described Jelisic as being driven by a desire to wipe out the Muslims. The prosecution alleges Jelisic introduced himself to detainees as Serb Adolf and said he had come to kill Muslims. I think (he) was killing out of desire to annihilate to destroy a people both physically and psychologically to humiliate them, witness A said.
Prosecutors charge that Jelisic was instrumental in the systematic killing of countless Muslim detainees in Luka Camp in Brcko, northern Bosnia in 1992. They contend Jelisic, who was snatched by NATO troops in his home town of Bijelijina in January, acted as chief executioner at Luka for about two weeks. He picked his victims at random, witness A said. They simply knew we were Muslims or Croats. The selection of victims was random, they simply wanted to eradicate, to destroy us, he said in a shaking voice.
According to the indictment, the murders marked an attempt to destroy a substantial or significant part of the Bosnian Muslim people as a national, ethnic, or religious group. Jelisic slouched in his chair throughout the hearing, occasionally taking notes. Witness A briefly broke down in tears, telling the court how camp inmates were forced to bury the dead. We had to load our dead compatriots on to the trucks there were no other activities except having to listen to their insults, their tortures, their beatings.
Jelisic is one of 25 indicted in the tribunal's custody. The tribunal, set up in 1993 to prosecute those guilty of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, has issued 19 public indictments against 55 individuals, plus a number of sealed indictments. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia have yet to secure their first genocide conviction. Fellow accused Milan Kovacevic died in Tribunal custody in August two weeks into his trial.
(Reuter)
A human being is incapable of doing such things. A beast, which has no heart, no feelings, only a beast kills out of pleasure, witness A told the court. Jelisic perpetrated his crimes out of hate and pleasure, not in response to orders, witness A said. Last month, Jelisic pleaded guilty to a series of killings, but said he was innocent of the Yugoslavia tribunal's gravest charge genocide.
If convicted he faces up to life imprisonment. A second witness, witness B, testified that even the Serbs feared Jelisic. He was the most powerful man there and all the Serbs feared him. He was the greatest. Everyone was afraid of him, even the soldiers because he was the boss, witness B said. Witness A described Jelisic as being driven by a desire to wipe out the Muslims. The prosecution alleges Jelisic introduced himself to detainees as Serb Adolf and said he had come to kill Muslims. I think (he) was killing out of desire to annihilate to destroy a people both physically and psychologically to humiliate them, witness A said.
Prosecutors charge that Jelisic was instrumental in the systematic killing of countless Muslim detainees in Luka Camp in Brcko, northern Bosnia in 1992. They contend Jelisic, who was snatched by NATO troops in his home town of Bijelijina in January, acted as chief executioner at Luka for about two weeks. He picked his victims at random, witness A said. They simply knew we were Muslims or Croats. The selection of victims was random, they simply wanted to eradicate, to destroy us, he said in a shaking voice.
According to the indictment, the murders marked an attempt to destroy a substantial or significant part of the Bosnian Muslim people as a national, ethnic, or religious group. Jelisic slouched in his chair throughout the hearing, occasionally taking notes. Witness A briefly broke down in tears, telling the court how camp inmates were forced to bury the dead. We had to load our dead compatriots on to the trucks there were no other activities except having to listen to their insults, their tortures, their beatings.
Jelisic is one of 25 indicted in the tribunal's custody. The tribunal, set up in 1993 to prosecute those guilty of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, has issued 19 public indictments against 55 individuals, plus a number of sealed indictments. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia have yet to secure their first genocide conviction. Fellow accused Milan Kovacevic died in Tribunal custody in August two weeks into his trial.
(Reuter)