The first prosecution witness at the war crimes trial of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic described to a U.N. court on Tuesday how he saw Bosnian Serb forces bomb villages and slit prisoners' throats.
Karadzic is on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia on 11 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and violating the laws and customs of war stemming from the 1992-95 Bosnian war. He denies them all.
When proceedings resumed after a six-week delay, prosecutors at the tribunal called their first witness who testified about his detention at the Manjaca camp and killings in northwestern Bosnia around his town of Sanski Most.
Initially detained in June 1992 in a concrete garage with between 30 and 90 people, Ahmet Zulic said he was repeatedly beaten, suffering broken ribs and fractured vertebrae, before he was transported in "inhuman" conditions to a detention camp.
Zulic said detainees were transported in a covered truck where exhaust fumes stifled the air and where he resorted to drinking his own urine because there was no water.
"I remember two brothers...it took them 10 minutes to die, which seemed to be an eternity. Others died silently because they did not have enough air," he said.
Prosecutors say Karadzic led a genocidal campaign to make Bosnian Muslims "disappear from the face of the earth" and carve out a mono-ethnic state for Bosnian Serbs during a war that killed an estimated 100,000 people.
In his opening statement to the court on March 1, Karadzic denied involvement in the four-year siege of Sarajevo by Serb forces, where 10,000 died, and the killing of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.
Throats slit
Zulic, who had previously given evidence at the court, confirmed an earlier statement that he saw Bosnian Serb forces attack villages in northern Bosnia with shelling, setting houses on fire with artillery as prisoners were shot, forced to dig their own graves and had their throats cut.
"Mr Zulic's bed-ridden father-in-law was burned to death," prosecutor Ann Sutherland said, highlighting attacks on two other villages where 300 people were killed.
Zulic, who also testified at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, said he was eventually taken to Croatia on buses organized by Serb authorities and the Red Cross.
Karadzic, given the chance to cross-examine Zulic, asked him a wide range of questions, such as whether there was an organized resistance among Bosnian Muslims to Serbs.
Karadzic was sharply criticized by Presiding Judge O-Gon Kwon about the relevance of many questions, at one point being urged to "come to the point". The judge warned Karadzic the court could limit the length of witness cross-examination.
Kwon also ruled that British barrister Richard Harvey, who was appointed Karadzic's legal adviser last year after Karadzic boycotted the trial, would remain as stand-by counsel and would represent Karadzic if that became necessary.
The trial is being heard over three days of hearings each week.
PHOTO CAPTION
Bosnian Muslim people, display a banner with names of victims of Srebrenica, during a peaceful protest walk, in Tuzla, 72 kms north of Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, on April 12, 2010.
Reuters