Supplemental report on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia - Transcript

US Department of State Dispatch, Nov 2, 1992

In some cases, he saw a doctor who would slit the throats of young, healthy people, cut out their organs and pack them into plastic bags, and load the organs into a refrigerator truck.

In one case, the guards broke a prisoner's head with gun butts to spill the brains. They then called the dogs to eat the brains.

23 June: On June 23, the guards came and started calling out names of people to be released. Lujinovic was not on the list, but after he walked over to a guard with whom he had been acquainted at a former job and pleaded his case, he was released. He also stated that by the time of his release, only 150 of the 1,500 people had survived the camp.

Mid-May: A Muslim refugee, a butcher by trade and probably in his early forties, spent 27 days at Luka camp outside Brcko during which time he saw a soldier drag a man out of his building and return after a short time with blood-soaked knife in one hand and the man's head in the other. The refugee discussed with a US Foreign Service officer in Vienna, Austria, the lack of food--a piece of bread about every three days. He witnessed one woman in her mid-thirties die from starvation.

May: Serbian guards at Omarska camp selected seven or eight Muslim and Croat prisoners at random each night to be executed, according to a 53-year-old Muslim camp survivor identified as Hujca. The only apparent trait the victims shared was their muscular build. (New York Newsday)

20 April: Adil Umerovic, a Muslim, shot a young Serb male on a Gorazde street for no apparent reason, according to a young Serbian woman who witnessed the killing. She said the Serb was an unarmed civilian who was handcuffed. (Department of State)

12 April-28 April: A 33-year-old Bosnian Muslim refugee--a machine technician by profession--from Sarajevo and her two children were interned in Manjaca camp near Banja Luka for 16 days. One day the guards questioned one mother in front of the others. The guards then raped the mother's seven-year-old daughter in front of the other women interned in Manjaca camp. This girl died soon afterward. (Department of State)

April-July: Reporter Roy Gutman obtained testimony from refugees on mass graves:

Men mainly served for the collecting of dead bodies of their neighbors in surrounding villages and fields. A group of them during only one day collected 700 bodies and buried them in a mass grave. The location of the grave is next to the road leading towards the town of Prijedor--at the edge of woodland called Gaj in the vicinity of the Europa Inn.

In the Trnopolje settlement itself, there are mass graves almost next to each house (with) five, ten, or 20 bodies.

During the active existence of the camp (Omarska), lasting three months, every day, 10 to 20 people were killed. Their bodies were transferred and partially or completely buried in the mine locations as follows: Jezero open pit, the old Tomasica mine, the new Ruvac open mine, the lake near the Mededa dam.

Witnesses estimate that about 3,000-5,000 people were buried... (in) a mass grave... around the town of Prijedor, which is located near the village of Koricani on the road leading from the town of Skender Vakuf towards the town of Travnik at the place know by name Koricanska Stijena.