WAR CRIMES

Rubina Cengic of the AIM news pool, reports on the recent uncovering of a war crimes dossier in Sarajevo named 'Kazani' in the November 22, 1997 issue of the Belgrade weekly 'Vreme'.

After he was killed in 1993 as a biggest criminal, Musan Topalovic - Caco, then commander of the BiH Army 10 Mountain Brigade, was buried (for a second time) as a biggest hero.

Now a series of newspaper articles are appearing about him and his role, uncovering stories of butchery, killings and crimes from within the Sarajevo siege. Only the staunch opposition politicians in Sarajevo insisted on shedding full light on 'Kazani' , the illegal Sarajevo graveyard. Those who took the bodies out of this crack in the Sarajevo Mt. Trebevic, say they cannot say for sure how many bodies there are there, since they say, 'heads are missing'.

After the signing of the Dayton agreement, or just a little bit before this act, the teams summoned in by those who knew everything but kept quiet, dug through that terrain, and exhumed bodies which they could reach. Now this area looks just like an untouched part of nature.

The actors of 'filling' 'Kazani' / the kettle/ said at the trial that the highest political leadership knew about the crimes (mainly killings with a knife) of the commander of the Tenth Mountain Brigade, Musan Topalovic - Caco. One of the Sarajevo media who opened up this subject says that as far back as 1992, now pensioned BiH Army General Jovan Divjak wrote warning letters to then President of the BiH Presidency, Alija Izetbegovic about the events taking place in this part of town. The same letters, with same facts and at the same address were sent also by the commanders of some smaller formations whose lines of responsibility touched with Caco's lines, with the explanation that they cannot watch that anymore. Within the political leadership everybody kept quiet about Caco's 'mobilization' methods. Then commander of the First Corps of the BiH Army, Nedzad Ajandzic says that on a couple of occasions he was also warned of illegal acts in this zone of responsibility.

According to some documents, some 300 Sarajevo non - Bosniaks ended up in Kazani. According to the authorities of Republika Srpska - five times that much, but only Sarajevo Serbs. Sarajevo media say that both sides possess the same documentation. The RS authorities got their copies in such a manner that, a court clerk, who left Sarajevo, paid his life with these documents.

After Caco's murder, some people were tried in Sarajevo, mainly the direct perpetrators or spectators of the crimes, there was more than twenty of them. A large part of them spent brief time in prison, and some were taken to treatment as mental patients. Some of the involved court officials say that the guys in question are all healthy, but have come to the conclusion that it is better for them to be in a mental hospital than in jail.

But, the Topalovic case is not the only one on the Sarajevo war front. There are also crimes of Juka, Zuka, Kruska, Puska, Celo... These are all people who stood at the first line of the defence of the city, before even the state leadership and then TO were ready. And then, as the result of the incompetence of current authorities to establish the lines of command and control according to the evolvement of the war, they gout out of control of the law, were they came from before the war and the city defence.

Today, many citizens of Sarajevo are asking - why didn't the papers write earlier about this. But, if any papers would have mentioned Kazani in their articles, except as a part of somebody else's question, there would be no paper, no editorial staff, no editor, no printing house...

The current newspaper articles, which shook everybody except the ruling SDA party which was even named, also say that briefly after Caco's disappearance, 'his' brigade was disbanded. One of the personnel officers of this brigade became a high official of the ruling party, actually the director of the party head office. Today, everybody in the SDA party is silent, including the personnel officer.