AP News
July 5,2000
The
Hague - A Bosnian Serb, accused of taking four Muslim women from a
sports hall and molesting them during the Bosnian war, denied on Wednesday
he raped them and said he "was shocked'' when first told of the
allegations.
Dragoljub Kunarac, who
reportedly headed a local paramilitary group and is also accused of
handing over women to his troops for sex, testified at an international
war crimes trial on charges of sexual enslavement.
Kunarac is one of
three Bosnian Serb fighters charged with war crimes and crimes against
humanity for the rape, torture and enslavement of women and girls in the
southeast Bosnian town of Foca in the summer of 1992.
The trial is the first
prosecution of wartime sexual enslavement before an international
tribunal. Defense lawyers admit that rapes took place in the Foca area,
but deny their clients were guilty of war crimes.
Prosecutors are trying
to prove the rapes were committed in a systematic manner in an
"ethnic cleansing'' campaign to frighten local Muslims into flight
from territories conquered by Serb forces.
Kunarac told the U.N.
tribunal that he first heard the allegations on Aug. 3, 1992, from a
Bosnian Serb journalist, Gordana Draskovic, who told him four women had
claimed they were forced to have sex with Kunarac and soldiers under his
control.
"I was shocked,''
Kunarac said, staring straight at the three judges from the witness stand.
"I could not understand whether she was pulling my leg or whether she
was actually telling the truth.''
Kunarac testified that
he told the reporter: "I had nothing to do with all of this
whatsoever.''
In the trial now in
its fourth month, 16 Muslim women have testified they were raped and
mutilated day and night by rifle-wielding soldiers.
Four witnesses have
identified Kunarac as one of the men who raped them. The three names
Kunarac said he remembered matched those of the accusers.
The indictment alleges
Kunarac removed the four women from a makeshift detention center at the
Partizan sports hall and raped them several times between July 13 and Aug.
1.
Once Kunarac had sex
with a girl identified as D.B. while another was handed over to 15
soldiers who raped her for three hours straight, the indictment alleged.
After surrendering to
the tribunal in March 1998, Kunarac pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting
a Muslim girl. Judges later changed the plea to innocent, ruling he didn't
understand the charges.
id he was on mine clearing and reconnaissance
missions near Foca from July 13 to Aug. 2 -- the time of the alleged
rapes.
He said the first time
he went to the sports hall was on Aug. 3 to confront his accusers. He said
he took them out of the hall and questioned them for less than half an
hour.
I wanted "to
learn the truth to see who these people were who had mistreated them or
linked me with these events,'' Kunarac said.
