Bosnia Witness Recalls Visegrad Wartime Rape

A witness told the war crimes trial of Bosnian Serb ex-soldier Vitomir Rackovic that the defendant took her to the village of Crnca, where she was raped.

The protected prosecution witness codenamed RV-9 said that in 1992, a man she later found out was the defendant Rackovic took her, along with five other women, from the village of Bikavac near Visegrad to Crnca, where she was raped by another, unknown man.

“I would like [Rackovic] to bring that man here, the man who raped me, the man who destroyed my life… I want him to tell me who that soldier was,” the witness said.

She said that, when all the women had left the houses, Rackovic took them back to Bikavac, where another witness at the trial told her what his name was.

The witness said that after their return to Bikavac, all the women were crying, but she did not discuss what had happened with the others.

She said that she spoke about her experiences for the first time at a victims’ association in 2013, explaining that she had not spoken about it sooner because she was ashamed.

Rackovic, a former serviceman with the Bosnian Serb Army, is charged with having participated in attacks on Bosniak villages, detention, torture, the forced disappearances of people from the Visegrad area and rape in the period from May to the end of August 1992.

Another protected witness codenamed RV-8 testified on Wednesdaysaying that he fled from his home village to Bikavac because of the war in 1992. He said that two or three soldiers came to that village one day.

“RV-9 was taken away on that occasion. We saw her being taken away, but we did not dare do anything… They did not say why they were taking her away. It was not clear to us why they did it,” said the witness, who was a minor at the time.

He mentioned that as well as RV-9, two other women were taken away on that day.

“All of them cried when they came back. They looked traumatised. They did not say anything,” the witness said.

He said that he heard later on that the women were taken away in a car driven by Rackovic.

The trial is due to continue on May 14.