Witness Tells U.N. Tribunal of Shelling, Deaths

Answering questions in a composed monotone, a 36-year-old Muslim woman Wednesday became the first eyewitness to atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina to testify publicly before the United Nations war crimes tribunal here.

Azra Blazavic, a veterinarian who lived in the Bosnian village of Kozarac, described with a chilling matter-of-factness the chaotic events of late May 1992, when Serbian forces shelled, then captured her undefended community at the start of a reign of terror and carnage against the mainly Muslim civilian population.

Tense but never losing her composure, Blazavic only once showed a hint of emotion--smiling briefly in embarrassment after misunderstanding a question put to her by American prosecutor Brenda Hollis.

She was testifying at the trial of 41-year-old Dusan Tadic, a Serb born in Kozarac who faces 31 counts of crimes against humanity and other crimes of war, including torture and murder of civilians.

Although he is a minor player in the Bosnian Serb hierarchy, Tadic’s trial has become important because it is the first conducted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

During nearly two hours of testimony in the modern courtroom, Blazavic sat at a small witness table facing the three-judge panel, her hands folded in her lap most of the time, her eyes fixed either on the desktop in front of her or on the face of the prosecutor questioning her.

In short, clipped sentences, Blazavic described how the Muslims of Kozarac were cut off from the outside world by Serbian roadblocks and severed telephone lines, and how they watched Serbian residents flee before the start of a ferocious bombardment by Serbian artillery.

“The attack started suddenly with terrible shelling,” she told the court. “It was as if thousands of shells were landing at the same time.”

She described how the shelling forced her and a team of doctors to retreat to a motel from the local medical center where they were treating the wounded.

She said she believed that the medical facility was a specific target of the barrage.

“We had a lot of dead people there,” she stated in answer to a question put to her by Hollis regarding casualties. “A 12-year-old child . . . an elderly woman of around 70. I knew almost everyone.”

Only twice--once as she stood for a brief afternoon recess and then again at the end of the day’s session--did Blazavic glance briefly at Tadic, who sat about 15 feet to her left. Neither defendant nor witness showed any emotion during those moments.

At no point Wednesday was Blazavic, who is scheduled to resume testimony today, asked directly to identify the defendant, although she confirmed that Tadic lived about 200 yards from the clinic where she had resided and worked.

Prosecutors appeared to be laying groundwork to link Tadic to the shelling of Kozarac.

One of the 31 counts listed in the indictment accuses him of “firing flares to illuminate the village at night for the [Serbian] artillery and tank guns as the village was being shelled.”

The same count also claims that Tadic “physically assisted in the seizure, collection, segregation and forced transfer to detention centers of the majority of the non-Serb population of the area during those first days.”

Blazavic was the 18th witness to testify for the prosecution in the Tadic trial, now in its sixth week.

On Monday, a witness identified only as “Q” testified in camera, also about the events surrounding the Serbian takeover and persecution of Muslims in the central Bosnian region that includes Kozarac and the larger town of Prijedor.

The first 16 people were not eyewitnesses but testified as either expert or technical witnesses who detailed the region’s history and attempted to paint Tadic’s alleged actions as part of a deliberate policy of “ethnic cleansing.”

With the prosecution planning to call about 70 witnesses and the defense between 25 and 40, the trial is expected to last several months.

Blazavic’s appearance was one in a series of events in recent weeks that have provided a greater sense of movement to the tribunal’s work.

Earlier this week, Croatian police arrested 36-year-old Zlatko Aleksovski, one of six Bosnian Croats indicted for allegedly committing atrocities against Bosnian Muslim civilians in the Lasva Valley region of central Bosnia during 1992 and 1993.

Aleksovski is the first person to be detained by Croatian authorities for trial before the war crimes tribunal. He stands to be the first Croat extradited to The Hague under a new, long-awaited Croatian law permitting such actions.

The only other indicted Bosnian Croat now in custody, Gen. Tihomir Blaskic, surrendered voluntarily to the tribunal in April.

A total of nine of the 57 indicted war criminals--including four Muslims accused of murder, torture and rape at a concentration camp for Serbs in central Bosnia--are now in custody in The Hague or on their way to the tribunal.