Dragan Opacic, serbo-bosniaco, e' rinchiuso da piu' di sei anni
nelle carceri di Zenica (Federazione croato-musulmana) per crimini
che non ha commesso.
---
URL for this article:
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/witnessl-i.htm
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
=========The Case of Dragan Opacic:
Global Imprisonment of 'Witness L'
[June 21, 2000]
by Igor Gajic, 'Reporter,' Banja Luka, Srpska
=========
For six and a half years, inside the walls of the Correctional Facility
in
Zenica, Dragan Opacic has been asking himself each day what he has done
before God to deserve such a fate. Nevertheless, today he has at least
one
guarantee. He will live. Even in the case that he serves the entire
sentence determined by the court in Sarajevo when he was imprisoned on
the
Treskavica Mt. as a private of the Republic of Srpska Army (VRS).
According to the decision of the court, he was sentenced to ten years in
prison for alleged war crimes carried out in the Trnopolje collection
center during 1992. At that time Opacic was 16 years old but this did
not
present an obstacle to the Higher Court in Sarajevo which sentenced him
for
23 counts of murder by gunfire, two counts of murder by cutting of the
throat and 10 rapes. The court was likewise not bothered by the fact
that
not a single witness saw Opacic in the Trnopolje camp, nor that he was
not
he at the camp during the period mentioned in the indictment. He was
sentenced on the basis of a confession which he signed while in the
hands
of AID, the intelligence service of the Bosnia-Hercegovina (BH)
Federation.
Ideal witness: "I had no means of survival. The only thing I could do
was
to sign the confession. Then they stopped beating me. They beat me with
anything and everything. A rubber hose, split wood logs, they put salt
into
my wounds," Opacic is loath to remember. During his trial he did not
see a
single witness. The judge accused him and the judge sentenced him.
Today he
asks himself: "Which of those Muslims was in that war camp and saw me
there? Let him step forward and say that I was at the war camp. They
should
feel free to step forward." This evidence was not provided by the Hague
tribunal, OHR, IPTF nor the Office for Human Rights. Opacic has
appealed to
all of these institutions.
While he related his story to Reporter in the meeting room of the
Correctional Facility in Zenica, Opacic at first appeared calm. Only
after
a certain time did it become apparent that this calm was nothing else
but
resignation or acceptance of his fate there.
Nevertheless, he has not given up on the battle to prove the truth, even
though he himself believes in it less and less.
When he was imprisoned and sentenced, no one knew anything about him.
Neither the Red Cross, nor UNPROFOR, nor his parents nor the VRS, which
after his capture sought him as a deserter. He was carefully hidden and
the
reason become apparent immediately after the sentencing. At that time
the
Bosniak government desperately needed a Serb as a witness in the Hague
in
the case against Dusko Tadic. Dragan Opacic with his confession became
the
ideal witness. Ideal for the Hague investigators as well: they finally
found a Serb willing to say that he was under Tadic's direct command.
He became Witness L.
The only man at that time who was interested in Opacic and his fate was
Branislava Isailovic, an attorney from Paris, has a somewhat cynical
explanation of the manner in which Opacic became Witness L.
"I think that Opacic had many advantages from the perspective of the
Bosniaks. He was young, not too smart and he could be easily
influenced. He
was an ideal witness, created to be manipulated. He comes from a poor,
uneducated family, the chance of his parents initiating a search for
their
son were minimal. While Opacic was a prisoner, his family did not know
of
his whereabouts. What is more, Opacic was less than 18 years old during
the
period when he allegedly committed the crimes for which the Bosniaks
tried
to make him responsible. They used the fact that Opacic was a minor to
hold
his trial behind closed doors; by doing so, they created even greater
pressure on him to testify against Tadic," said Isailovic, who initiated
several motions for the revision of the case against her defendant. For
now
all her requests are at a standstill.
Preparations: Opacic, who testified against Dusko Tadic, had never seen
him
in his life. He was prepared to testify by AID. While he talks about
this
he shakes his head: "I was prepared for a long time. I lived through all
sorts of things. They worked on breaking me both physically and
psychologically. I viewed all the tapes, all the photos but I was
afraid to
step out and say that all of it was a lie prearranged by the Federation
and
the tribunal investigators. They knew it, too, but they wanted to
believe
the government here."
His story at times is accompanied by bitter twitching of a relatively
indifferent expression on his face.
Nevertheless, lying saved his life. Only in the Hague did the Red Cross
find out about him. He became famous as Witness L.
"I told them things but they are trying to justify themselves even today
and so they did not want to try me for false testimony because they knew
that they themselves were involved in it. I have always told them: I am
not
guilty; I was not there; I didn't do anything."
The solution was simple. They prepared him even "better". They took him
in
secret to the scene of the alleged crimes. Cheap movie plots became
Opacic's reality: "It was no use telling them that I had never been
there
and that I didn't know anything about the places they were showing us."
After that, he decided to nod his head at everything that they showed
him.
"I procrastinated as much as I could in order to delay as much as
possible
so that I would have some kind of guarantee for staying alive. I had no
idea whether my family was alive or not."
Washing hands: The deception with the witness, whom the prosecution had
already termed a key witness, was first noticed by professor Mischa
Vladimirof, then one of Tadic's defenders.
During the trial, on October 26, 1996, Opacic admitted to Tadic's
defender
that he was not the author of his confession. The hearing was held in
the
presence of the chief investigator of the tribunal, Reed, the day after
the
identity of "Witness L" was revealed.
"I know Trnopolje from 1993 when I was a refugee there. There were no
Muslims there at all. There were just a lot of refugees there and I
used to
tell them that they wouldn't accomplish anything and that in the end the
lie would be revealed. But they only believed what they were told by the
government in Sarajevo." Opacic remembers when he first saw Dusko
Tadic's
photograph: "When they brought the picture of Tadic, I had no idea that
this was Tadic. I saw him for the first time in person at the Hague, and
before the Hague I saw him on videos which were shown to me by the
Bosniak
police."
This was the sign for the beginning of the washing of hands of the
biggest
deception in the history of the Hague tribunal.
Judge Gabriella Kirk McDonald was the first. She immediately returned
Opacic into the uncertainty of Bosniak hands with the words: "We believe
that Bosnia will act in the appropriate manner."
A legal expert from the Netherlands who is following the work of the
tribunal, Heikelina Verrijn Stuart laughed at this. "The president of
the
tribunal based her decision on sympathies toward Bosnia at a time when
the
world still believed in the picture of 'the good guys and the bad guys'.
Which is probably understandable and motivated by humanism but from a
legal
aspect completely unjustified."
Opacic's request for asylum in the Netherlands was not even considered
and
on June 12, 1997 Opacic left the Schiphol airport despite the
opposition of
several legal experts and Dutch attorneys.
"The Netherlands could not have acted otherwise," was the position of
the
Dutch court and the state of Holland but in the opinion of Jeuran
Sluiter,
a researcher at the University of Utrecht, the European convention on
human
rights should have been taken into consideration.
Since then, Opacic has been in Bosnia. The only person who has remained
by
his side is Branislava Isailovic, who searched for him in vain for
almost a
year because Dragan Opacic was hidden once again. She found him at his
present location, in the Zenica prison, and since then has resumed her
battle on his behalf.
Turning heads: She appealed to Izetbegovic and Silajdzic but the most
powerful men in the Federation continued the trend of turning away their
heads. They did not want compromise the independence of their
judiciary.
Dragan Opacic turned to the institutions of RS: "I wrote a letter to
Dodik,
a letter to the RS government. Nothing yet," he says with resignation.
In the office of the RS government they know nothing about such a
letter;
they also do not know from what point any sort of action could be
initiated. The ministry of "smoothing over troubled waters" or the
ministry
of justice, as it is called in RS, has kept the promise of its minister
to
undertake something with regard to Opacic to the same extent that they
have
abolished criminal activity in RS.
The assistant to the minister of justice, Strahinja Djurkovic,
remembered
the case but could not tell us anything concrete about it.
"We have been in contact and spoken with the ministry in the BH
Federation
and this case has received some mention. We know that he has been
sentenced
to 10 years but we do not know the circumstances under which he was
arrested," the assistant to the minister demonstrated his enviable
interest
in the case. But he has problems in coordinating his schedule. "At that
time we did not have the time to visit him. When we find time..."
Djurkovic also mentioned something about a parole committee; even Opacic
does not believe in this. He is aware that as a prisoner from another
entity and someone accused of war crimes he has no chance for a weekend
visit, let alone a parole. The motion to retry his case was decidedly
rejected by the ministry of justice because "this must be done
according to
a universal plan and consistently throughout BH". The ministry of
defense
has never even heard of him, even though he was captured and sentenced
as a
member of the VRS.
After all this, Opacic's belief that one day when after his release from
prison he will have no place in either the Republic of Srpska or
Bosnia-Hercegovina is not surprising.
No one wants Witness L anymore.
The most accurate and tragic comment came from Opacic's mother, Zorka:
"We
are poor so I guess that is how it has to be."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
----
Village petition
The family of Dragan Opacic lives in the village of Hrnici near Kozarac,
230 kilometers from Zenica, where Dragan is imprisoned. The Opacic
family
lives in the last house, or more accurately, a hut, in the village.
Their
property consists of one cow. The hut itself is dark and damp. "We have
not
seen him for years," his mother, Zorka, grieves. She last saw her son
when
she saw him off to the Army. His father Janko and brother Pero saw him
in
the Hague where Dragan was afraid to admit he knew them. This was the
first
crack in the testimony of Witness L.
His mother, who cries every time Dragan's name is mentioned, swears
that he
was never in the Trnopolje camp. The local residents of the village even
managed to gather a few hundred signatures on a statement asserting
Opacic's innocence and his nonparticipation in anything that may have
occurred in Trnopolje.
They have not visited him in prison yet because they do not have the
money
to do so.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
----
Rights before and after Dayton
In addition to the attorney Isailovic, the only other active interest in
Opacic's case has been expressed by the Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights
of RS. The president of this organization, Branko Todorovic, believes
that
this was a clear instance of a staged trial which was useful to AID for
propaganda regarding "the bad guys". Todorovic also attempted to
approach
the Office for Human Rights but he received the same response as
Isailovic:
that the office has no jurisdiction in matters preceding the Dayton
agreement.
When asked why nothing could be done for Opacic and what is the purpose
of
the existence of the Office for Human Rights, Reporter received a
written
response which allotted this human tragedy two cold paragraphs. "The
office
has considered the report of Mr. Opacic and adopted its decision
regarding
this matter on January 12, 2000. The office has unanimously decided that
the report was unacceptable on the basis of the fact that one part of
his
report was inconsistent ratione temporis with article VIII(2)(c), while
one
part was completely unfounded with respect to article VIII(2)(c) annex
6 of
the Dayton peace agreement," it is stated in the response of Theresa
Nelson, the executive officer of the office.
Even more interesting was the reaction of the BH Federation judiciary.
Mustafa Bisic, the prosecutor of the cantonal court in Sarajevo, swooped
down on the Helsinki Committee, accusing them of requesting a retrial
for
political reasons, and saying that Opacic had a fair and honest trial.
How
fair and honest it really was, Opacic himself felt on his own skin.
Literally.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
----
Moment of truth
Reporter has received a transcript of the moment when professor
Vladimirof
discovered that Witness L was "planted" by the former and current
Bosniak
authorities.
Vladimirof: Have you ever read any kind of statement yourself or has
someone read any kind of statement to you?
Opacic: No.
Vladimirof: Did you read your own statement?
Opacic: I just got the statement to sign.
Vladimirof: So you signed the statement without reading it first?
Opacic: Yes.
Vladimirof: Why?
Opacic: They beat me. I was hurt and they threatened me. They constantly
beat me and told me the most horrible things.
Vladimirof: Did you tell the judge that you were forced to sign the
statement?
Opacic: No one asked me anything, not even my own attorney.
Vladimirof: You were in court, with a judge, police and someone who
recorded everything. Surely you could have told the judge that you were
forced to sign the statement?
Opacic: How could I? They said that they would kill me.
Vladimirof: I understand. Why didn't you tell Bob Reed what had
happened?
Opacic: They told me that I needed to testify in the Tadic case. After
that
I would go back and then my prison sentence would be reduced or I would
be
freed. That is why they told me in the [Bosniak] Internal Security
Service
and in the court.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Translated by Snezana Lazovic [23 June 2000]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
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che non ha commesso.
---
URL for this article:
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/witnessl-i.htm
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
=========The Case of Dragan Opacic:
Global Imprisonment of 'Witness L'
[June 21, 2000]
by Igor Gajic, 'Reporter,' Banja Luka, Srpska
=========
For six and a half years, inside the walls of the Correctional Facility
in
Zenica, Dragan Opacic has been asking himself each day what he has done
before God to deserve such a fate. Nevertheless, today he has at least
one
guarantee. He will live. Even in the case that he serves the entire
sentence determined by the court in Sarajevo when he was imprisoned on
the
Treskavica Mt. as a private of the Republic of Srpska Army (VRS).
According to the decision of the court, he was sentenced to ten years in
prison for alleged war crimes carried out in the Trnopolje collection
center during 1992. At that time Opacic was 16 years old but this did
not
present an obstacle to the Higher Court in Sarajevo which sentenced him
for
23 counts of murder by gunfire, two counts of murder by cutting of the
throat and 10 rapes. The court was likewise not bothered by the fact
that
not a single witness saw Opacic in the Trnopolje camp, nor that he was
not
he at the camp during the period mentioned in the indictment. He was
sentenced on the basis of a confession which he signed while in the
hands
of AID, the intelligence service of the Bosnia-Hercegovina (BH)
Federation.
Ideal witness: "I had no means of survival. The only thing I could do
was
to sign the confession. Then they stopped beating me. They beat me with
anything and everything. A rubber hose, split wood logs, they put salt
into
my wounds," Opacic is loath to remember. During his trial he did not
see a
single witness. The judge accused him and the judge sentenced him.
Today he
asks himself: "Which of those Muslims was in that war camp and saw me
there? Let him step forward and say that I was at the war camp. They
should
feel free to step forward." This evidence was not provided by the Hague
tribunal, OHR, IPTF nor the Office for Human Rights. Opacic has
appealed to
all of these institutions.
While he related his story to Reporter in the meeting room of the
Correctional Facility in Zenica, Opacic at first appeared calm. Only
after
a certain time did it become apparent that this calm was nothing else
but
resignation or acceptance of his fate there.
Nevertheless, he has not given up on the battle to prove the truth, even
though he himself believes in it less and less.
When he was imprisoned and sentenced, no one knew anything about him.
Neither the Red Cross, nor UNPROFOR, nor his parents nor the VRS, which
after his capture sought him as a deserter. He was carefully hidden and
the
reason become apparent immediately after the sentencing. At that time
the
Bosniak government desperately needed a Serb as a witness in the Hague
in
the case against Dusko Tadic. Dragan Opacic with his confession became
the
ideal witness. Ideal for the Hague investigators as well: they finally
found a Serb willing to say that he was under Tadic's direct command.
He became Witness L.
The only man at that time who was interested in Opacic and his fate was
Branislava Isailovic, an attorney from Paris, has a somewhat cynical
explanation of the manner in which Opacic became Witness L.
"I think that Opacic had many advantages from the perspective of the
Bosniaks. He was young, not too smart and he could be easily
influenced. He
was an ideal witness, created to be manipulated. He comes from a poor,
uneducated family, the chance of his parents initiating a search for
their
son were minimal. While Opacic was a prisoner, his family did not know
of
his whereabouts. What is more, Opacic was less than 18 years old during
the
period when he allegedly committed the crimes for which the Bosniaks
tried
to make him responsible. They used the fact that Opacic was a minor to
hold
his trial behind closed doors; by doing so, they created even greater
pressure on him to testify against Tadic," said Isailovic, who initiated
several motions for the revision of the case against her defendant. For
now
all her requests are at a standstill.
Preparations: Opacic, who testified against Dusko Tadic, had never seen
him
in his life. He was prepared to testify by AID. While he talks about
this
he shakes his head: "I was prepared for a long time. I lived through all
sorts of things. They worked on breaking me both physically and
psychologically. I viewed all the tapes, all the photos but I was
afraid to
step out and say that all of it was a lie prearranged by the Federation
and
the tribunal investigators. They knew it, too, but they wanted to
believe
the government here."
His story at times is accompanied by bitter twitching of a relatively
indifferent expression on his face.
Nevertheless, lying saved his life. Only in the Hague did the Red Cross
find out about him. He became famous as Witness L.
"I told them things but they are trying to justify themselves even today
and so they did not want to try me for false testimony because they knew
that they themselves were involved in it. I have always told them: I am
not
guilty; I was not there; I didn't do anything."
The solution was simple. They prepared him even "better". They took him
in
secret to the scene of the alleged crimes. Cheap movie plots became
Opacic's reality: "It was no use telling them that I had never been
there
and that I didn't know anything about the places they were showing us."
After that, he decided to nod his head at everything that they showed
him.
"I procrastinated as much as I could in order to delay as much as
possible
so that I would have some kind of guarantee for staying alive. I had no
idea whether my family was alive or not."
Washing hands: The deception with the witness, whom the prosecution had
already termed a key witness, was first noticed by professor Mischa
Vladimirof, then one of Tadic's defenders.
During the trial, on October 26, 1996, Opacic admitted to Tadic's
defender
that he was not the author of his confession. The hearing was held in
the
presence of the chief investigator of the tribunal, Reed, the day after
the
identity of "Witness L" was revealed.
"I know Trnopolje from 1993 when I was a refugee there. There were no
Muslims there at all. There were just a lot of refugees there and I
used to
tell them that they wouldn't accomplish anything and that in the end the
lie would be revealed. But they only believed what they were told by the
government in Sarajevo." Opacic remembers when he first saw Dusko
Tadic's
photograph: "When they brought the picture of Tadic, I had no idea that
this was Tadic. I saw him for the first time in person at the Hague, and
before the Hague I saw him on videos which were shown to me by the
Bosniak
police."
This was the sign for the beginning of the washing of hands of the
biggest
deception in the history of the Hague tribunal.
Judge Gabriella Kirk McDonald was the first. She immediately returned
Opacic into the uncertainty of Bosniak hands with the words: "We believe
that Bosnia will act in the appropriate manner."
A legal expert from the Netherlands who is following the work of the
tribunal, Heikelina Verrijn Stuart laughed at this. "The president of
the
tribunal based her decision on sympathies toward Bosnia at a time when
the
world still believed in the picture of 'the good guys and the bad guys'.
Which is probably understandable and motivated by humanism but from a
legal
aspect completely unjustified."
Opacic's request for asylum in the Netherlands was not even considered
and
on June 12, 1997 Opacic left the Schiphol airport despite the
opposition of
several legal experts and Dutch attorneys.
"The Netherlands could not have acted otherwise," was the position of
the
Dutch court and the state of Holland but in the opinion of Jeuran
Sluiter,
a researcher at the University of Utrecht, the European convention on
human
rights should have been taken into consideration.
Since then, Opacic has been in Bosnia. The only person who has remained
by
his side is Branislava Isailovic, who searched for him in vain for
almost a
year because Dragan Opacic was hidden once again. She found him at his
present location, in the Zenica prison, and since then has resumed her
battle on his behalf.
Turning heads: She appealed to Izetbegovic and Silajdzic but the most
powerful men in the Federation continued the trend of turning away their
heads. They did not want compromise the independence of their
judiciary.
Dragan Opacic turned to the institutions of RS: "I wrote a letter to
Dodik,
a letter to the RS government. Nothing yet," he says with resignation.
In the office of the RS government they know nothing about such a
letter;
they also do not know from what point any sort of action could be
initiated. The ministry of "smoothing over troubled waters" or the
ministry
of justice, as it is called in RS, has kept the promise of its minister
to
undertake something with regard to Opacic to the same extent that they
have
abolished criminal activity in RS.
The assistant to the minister of justice, Strahinja Djurkovic,
remembered
the case but could not tell us anything concrete about it.
"We have been in contact and spoken with the ministry in the BH
Federation
and this case has received some mention. We know that he has been
sentenced
to 10 years but we do not know the circumstances under which he was
arrested," the assistant to the minister demonstrated his enviable
interest
in the case. But he has problems in coordinating his schedule. "At that
time we did not have the time to visit him. When we find time..."
Djurkovic also mentioned something about a parole committee; even Opacic
does not believe in this. He is aware that as a prisoner from another
entity and someone accused of war crimes he has no chance for a weekend
visit, let alone a parole. The motion to retry his case was decidedly
rejected by the ministry of justice because "this must be done
according to
a universal plan and consistently throughout BH". The ministry of
defense
has never even heard of him, even though he was captured and sentenced
as a
member of the VRS.
After all this, Opacic's belief that one day when after his release from
prison he will have no place in either the Republic of Srpska or
Bosnia-Hercegovina is not surprising.
No one wants Witness L anymore.
The most accurate and tragic comment came from Opacic's mother, Zorka:
"We
are poor so I guess that is how it has to be."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
----
Village petition
The family of Dragan Opacic lives in the village of Hrnici near Kozarac,
230 kilometers from Zenica, where Dragan is imprisoned. The Opacic
family
lives in the last house, or more accurately, a hut, in the village.
Their
property consists of one cow. The hut itself is dark and damp. "We have
not
seen him for years," his mother, Zorka, grieves. She last saw her son
when
she saw him off to the Army. His father Janko and brother Pero saw him
in
the Hague where Dragan was afraid to admit he knew them. This was the
first
crack in the testimony of Witness L.
His mother, who cries every time Dragan's name is mentioned, swears
that he
was never in the Trnopolje camp. The local residents of the village even
managed to gather a few hundred signatures on a statement asserting
Opacic's innocence and his nonparticipation in anything that may have
occurred in Trnopolje.
They have not visited him in prison yet because they do not have the
money
to do so.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
----
Rights before and after Dayton
In addition to the attorney Isailovic, the only other active interest in
Opacic's case has been expressed by the Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights
of RS. The president of this organization, Branko Todorovic, believes
that
this was a clear instance of a staged trial which was useful to AID for
propaganda regarding "the bad guys". Todorovic also attempted to
approach
the Office for Human Rights but he received the same response as
Isailovic:
that the office has no jurisdiction in matters preceding the Dayton
agreement.
When asked why nothing could be done for Opacic and what is the purpose
of
the existence of the Office for Human Rights, Reporter received a
written
response which allotted this human tragedy two cold paragraphs. "The
office
has considered the report of Mr. Opacic and adopted its decision
regarding
this matter on January 12, 2000. The office has unanimously decided that
the report was unacceptable on the basis of the fact that one part of
his
report was inconsistent ratione temporis with article VIII(2)(c), while
one
part was completely unfounded with respect to article VIII(2)(c) annex
6 of
the Dayton peace agreement," it is stated in the response of Theresa
Nelson, the executive officer of the office.
Even more interesting was the reaction of the BH Federation judiciary.
Mustafa Bisic, the prosecutor of the cantonal court in Sarajevo, swooped
down on the Helsinki Committee, accusing them of requesting a retrial
for
political reasons, and saying that Opacic had a fair and honest trial.
How
fair and honest it really was, Opacic himself felt on his own skin.
Literally.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
----
Moment of truth
Reporter has received a transcript of the moment when professor
Vladimirof
discovered that Witness L was "planted" by the former and current
Bosniak
authorities.
Vladimirof: Have you ever read any kind of statement yourself or has
someone read any kind of statement to you?
Opacic: No.
Vladimirof: Did you read your own statement?
Opacic: I just got the statement to sign.
Vladimirof: So you signed the statement without reading it first?
Opacic: Yes.
Vladimirof: Why?
Opacic: They beat me. I was hurt and they threatened me. They constantly
beat me and told me the most horrible things.
Vladimirof: Did you tell the judge that you were forced to sign the
statement?
Opacic: No one asked me anything, not even my own attorney.
Vladimirof: You were in court, with a judge, police and someone who
recorded everything. Surely you could have told the judge that you were
forced to sign the statement?
Opacic: How could I? They said that they would kill me.
Vladimirof: I understand. Why didn't you tell Bob Reed what had
happened?
Opacic: They told me that I needed to testify in the Tadic case. After
that
I would go back and then my prison sentence would be reduced or I would
be
freed. That is why they told me in the [Bosniak] Internal Security
Service
and in the court.
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Translated by Snezana Lazovic [23 June 2000]
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