By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ZAGREB, Croatia – A war crimes suspect alleged to have perpetrated genocide during the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian war was arrested April 19 crossing the border in Osijek, Croatia.

According to Bosnia and Herzegovina prosecutors, Franc Kos was part of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad of the Republika Srpska Army during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

Allegedly, Mr. Kos participated in the Srebrenica massacre perpetrated against Bosnian Muslims during the Bosnian War. Some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed in that notorious incident.

Mr. Kos, a Slovenian national, is the fourth member of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad who has been arrested to date. Vlastimir Golijan, Zoran Goronja, and Stanko Savanovic were all taken into Bosnian custody in February 2008 for committing genocide at a Bosnian military base, but are yet to face trial on these charges.

The Tenth Reconnaissance Squad has a particularly nefarious record for impunity.  Dubravko Campara, the Bosnian prosecutor, claimed the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad was “the most notorious” Republika Srpska Army unit, during the recent custody extension hearing for Golijan, Goronja, and Savanovic.

Mr. Campara also hinted that efforts would continue to arrest the rest of the unit, including Mr. Kos, who was implicated by earlier testimony in front of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ITCY).

Drazen Erdemovic, a fellow Squad member, confessed to murders committed at a military base in Branjevo during the Bosnian War, and was sentenced to five years in prison.  Mr. Erdemovic also stated during his trial that Mr. Kos played a role in the Srebrenica massacre.

An international arrest warrant for Mr. Kos’ arrest was filed by Bosnia and Herzegovina soon after.

Bosnian prosecutors will now file an extradition request with Croatia in order to take custody of Mr. Kos for future impending prosecution. Slovenia and Croatia also are possible forums to prosecute Mr. Kos because he is alleged to have committed crimes against their nationals.

For more information, please see:

ASSOCIATED PRESS – Croatia arrests genocide suspect wanted in Bosnia – 20 April 2010

B92 – Srebrenica war crimes suspect arrested – 20 April 2010

BALKAN INSIGHT – Croatia Arrests Genocide Suspect Wanted by Bosnia – 20 April 2010

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Florida based company, Stinger Systems, has acknowledged that it exports an instrument of  torture known as the “Band-It” to Europe.  The “Band-It” system is attached to a prisoner’s arms or legs and can administer a shock of 50,000 volts.  This report by Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) comes roughly a month after Amnesty International  reported on the loopholes that European firms were using in order to side-step EU bans on trade in torture devices.

Since 2006 the European Union (EU) has had rules in place which outlaw trade in a range of instruments that are expressly used for torture. Stinger Systems’ “Band-It” is among those devices outlawed by the EU. The company’s president, Bob Gruder, refused to say which European countries have purchased the device. Gruder told IPS: “We only sell to military and law enforcement authorities . . . Our products are sold worldwide but we prefer not to disclose where.”

Stinger, formerly known as Stun Tech, has distributed their products in several EU nations. A Romanian company called Gate 4 Business has confirmed that they imported some of the “Band-It” devices.  The company’s spokesman, Cristian Anastesue, said that the company took “a few samples,” but added that under Romanian law, it is considered a “lethal weapon.”

Amnesty International reported in March that firms in Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Italy were selling electroshock “sleeves” and “cuffs” capable of delivering 50,000-volt shocks, spiked batons, and fixed wall restraints to countries with checkered human rights records, such as China, Pakistan, and the U.A.E. These firms have gotten around the EU ban on torture devices, which explicitly refers to “stun belts,” by applying different names to products that have a similar effect to a stun belt.

David Nichols, a foreign policy analyst in the Amnesty International office in Brussels, said: “What we have been saying is that there are other devices that have been reclassified or renamed and traded as if they were completely legitimate, even though they have no other use than as torture instruments.”

Sirien, a Belgian company, was named in the report as a Stinger agent in Europe. Sirien ceased advertisement of the S-200 stun gun on its website after the report was published.

In his response to the Amnesty International report, Sirien representative Erwin Lafosse said: “The problem with Amnesty International is that they only see the bad side to everything . . . Yes, these can be used to torture but so can all sorts of ordinary devices like knives, forks and spoons.”

For more information, please see:

IPS – Europe Imports Torture from US – 14 April 2010

Time – Is the European Union Exporting Torture Devices? – 31 March 2010

Amnesty International Report – From Words to Deeds: Making the EU Ban on the Trade in ‘Tools of Torture’ a Reality – 17 March 2010

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

CORDOBA, Spain – Representatives from EU countries met in Spain last week with leaders from the European Roma community for a two-day conference to discuss how those countries could best respond to the discrimination and economic poverty that the nomadic Roma population face.

The nomadic Roma community has existed in Europe since the fourteenth century, notably in central and eastern European countries.  Discrimination and violence towards Roma, the continent’s largest minority group, has long been a commonplace occurrence on the continent.  For example, in a number of central European countries Roma children have been prevented from attending state-funded schools.  Legalized discrimination in housing and hiring practices towards them have also been commonplace.  Additionally, since 2008 there have been 45 attacks on Roma in Hungary.  Many more have been the victims of race-based attacks in Italy, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.

While discrimination towards Roma is often not overt, statements by some European leaders continue to mirror long held racist views towards Roma.  This past February, Romanian Foreign Minister suggested that Roma carried a certain genetic trait that made them more prone to criminal behavior.

The economic recession of recent years has also negatively impacted the Roma culture.  Due to the lack of employment opportunities, especially in Western Europe, many Roma have no longer been able move across the continent.  These difficulties only compound issues of poverty, as the Roma are currently the poorest minority in Europe.

European Justice Commissioner Vivian Reding, who was in attendance at the summit, stated that the rampant discrimination towards Roma in Europe must come to an end.  Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Fundacion Secretariado Giatno human rights group declared that “the situation faced by numerous European gypsy citizens is scandalous.  They are victims of a high degree of discrimination and racism.”

For more information, please see:

AP – Europe’s Roma say woes deepen amid economic crisis – 9 April, 2010

DEUTSCHE WELLE – Europe must do more to improve lives of Roma, EU warns – 8 April, 2010

GUARDIAN – Europe must help the Roma – 8 April, 2010

EXPATICA – Roma to demand EU action against discrimination at summit – 7 April, 2010

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch, Europe

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – On April 13, 2010, ICTY prosecution brought forth its first witness in the trial against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. 

Radovan Karadzic was arrested in July of 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia, after spending years in hiding. He faces charges for crimes committed in Bosnia Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, including eleven counts of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. Karadzic was the alleged mastermind of the bloody forty-four month siege of Sarajevo, and the massacre of roughly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the UN “safe haven” of Srebrenica in 1995.

The first witness called on by the prosecution was Ahmet Zulic, who testified about his six month detention in the Manjaca camp in northern Bosnia in 1992. When the prosecution showed a video from the Manjaca camp Zulic recognized himself among the inmates who were stitting on the floor in one big room.

The notorious Manjaca camp was used by Serb forces to detain roughly 4,000 people, primarily Bosniaks and Croats, in 1992.

Zulic told of his capture in the area of Sanksi Most in June 1992. After a period of detention and torture in garages in Betonirka, Zulic was transferred in the back of a tarpaulin covered truck to the Manjaca camp. Zulic explained that some of the prisoners died on the way to the camp.

“It was hot and we could not breathe . . . I [had] to drink my own urine since I was thirsty.”

While in the Manjaca camp, Zulic was severely beaten. He remains disabled today. His injuries included seven damaged vertebrae, fractured ribs, a broken finger, and smashed-in teeth. Zulic also recounted how he was forced to watch the killing of twenty men who had been forced to dig their own graves.

He said: “I am physically invalid. But I also suffer in a different way . . . I am going through it again, and again and again.” He added: “I have nightmares very often . . . I very frequently dream of people who were killed beside me or were dying beside me. I had one last night.”

Before Zulic was questioned, Judge O-Gon Kwon apologized to Zulic for the fact that he had to come to the Hague three times before finally taking the stand. The trial was officially started in October, 2009 when the prosecution made its initial statements, but was postponed numerous times in the following months due to boycotts and appeals made by Karadzic. Karadzic did not deliver the defense’s opening statement until this past March, and his final appeal was just rejected earlier this month.

The Court also warned Karadzic to keep his questioning relevant several times during the cross-examination, and warned him about the way in which he questioned Zulic.

Karadzic sought to discredit the Zulic by referring to him as “well trained by the prosecution,” referring to the fact that Zulic had been called in by prosecution to testify in the three earlier trials, including the trial of Slobodan Milosevic.

Zulic, a Muslim, testified that Serb captors had carved a cross into his chest while they tortured him. During the cross-examination Karadzic accused Zulic of lying about the torture.  At one point Zulic pulled open his shirt on the witness stand, pointed to his chest, and told the bench:

“Right here I have a cross carved in my skin. You can see the cross carved on my chest.”

The second prosecution witness to take the stand, Sulejman Crncalo, recalled his wife’s death in the Markale Massacre in Sarajevo on August 28, 1995.  Crncalo testified that his wife had left their home that morning to find powdered milk for the children. When she did not return by eleven in the morning as planned, Crncalo left to look for her. He described how he came upon the bloody scene at Markale, where Serb forces under Karadzic’s command had shot missiles into the busy market.

He said: “I arrived and saw blood all over the street, pieces of bodies, clothes, shoes . . . The balustrade on the side was covered in blood, like somebody painted it red.”

Crncalo wept as he described how he later discovered that his wife had been killed in the attack, and how he found her body in the hospital mortuary.

Karadzic, who is serving as his own defense lawyer, started his cross examination of Crncalo by expressing his condolences for Crncalo’s loss, and stating that he, Karadzic, would establish who was to blame for the massacre.

Karadzic claims that the killings at the Markale market were not committed by Bosnian Serb forces. However, in its ruling in the case of Dragomir Milosevic, the ICTY confirmed that the Bosnian Serbs were, in fact, responsible for the attack on the market.

Karadzic has denied all charges, and in his opening statement to the ICTY in March he claimed that the Srebrenica massacre was a “myth” and that other atrocities were “staged” by Muslims themselves. He also described Serb efforts against the Bosnians as “just and holy.”

 The prosecution’s witness list includes ten more people slated to take the stand, including victims of the Bosnian war, former UN military and civilian officials, and two protected witnesses whose names are being kept secret.

 For more information, please see:

AP – Serbs carved cross on my chest: witness tells Karadzic trial – 14 April 2010

Balkan Insight – Witness Describes Markale Massacre at Karadzic Trial – 14 April 2010

Radio Netherlands Worldwide – First witness testifies against Karadzic – 14 April 2010

Balkan Insight – FirstProsecution Witness Testifies Against Karadzic – 13 April 2010

Radio Free Europe – Karadzic Trial Resumes; First Witness Called – 13 April 2010

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

TIRASPOL, Transnistria – An independent journalist from the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria was arrested in Tiraspol on Wednesday and charged with treason and espionage by the Transnistrian government.

The Transnistrian government is alleging that Vardanean has been spying on behalf of the Moldovan government.  In the past, Ernest Vardanean’s writings have often been critical of the federal government of Moldova, as well as the unrecognized government of Transnistria.  A notable target of his criticism is Transnistria President Igor Smirnov.

The arrest of Vardanean has brought swift condemnation from a number of international NGOs.  The joint statement, which was supported by the Center for Independent Journalism, the Moldovan Journalists’ Union and the Center for Journalist Investigations, declared that “the pressures upon some Transnistrian journalists, including by justice, are not unusual things for Transnistria.  We qualify the actions of Transnistrian secrete services as a new act for intimidation of Transnistrian journalists.”  The NGOs also called on the governments of Russia and Ukraine to pressure the Transnistrian authorities to release Vardanean.

Moldova’s President, Mihai Ghimpu, also condemned Vardanean’s arrest.  Ghimpu suggested that it was undertaken on the orders of Igor Smirnov, who has served as President of Transnistria since it gained its current autonomy in 1991.  “Tiraspol wants to remind the world about Smirnov and his self-proclaimed republic.”

Following an insurgency with the Moldovan government in 1990, the breakaway Transnistria region has operated independent of the central government.  It is not currently recognized as an independent nation by the United Nations or any nation other than Russia.  Unlike the rest of Moldova, the population of this region is largely ethnically Russian.

If convicted of all charges, Vardanean faces up to twenty years in prison.

For more information, please see:

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS – Does arrest signal campaign by breakaway region against pro-Moldovan journalists? – 15 April, 2010

MOLDOVA POLITICOM – Transnistrian journalist Ernest Vardanean accused of treason and espionage – 14 April, 2010

BBC – Moldovan authorities, media worried about arrest of Dniester journalist – 13 April, 2010

JURNAL – NGOs defend journalist Vardanean, arrested in Tiraspol – 13 April, 2010

RADIO FREE EUROPE – Moldova Condemns Arrest of Journalist In Transdniester – 13 April, 2010

RADIO FREE EUROPE – Transdniestrian Journalist Charged With Treason – 12 April, 2010