Serbia: Karadzic 'skimmed from looted Muslim money'

The Hague, 1 July (AKI) - Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic took a cut of money robbed from Muslims during 1992-1995 Bosnian war, a prosecution witnesstold United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Ending a three-day testimony on Friday, the witness Milorad Davidovic said Karadzic took part of money robbed from Muslims by a Serb paramilitary group headed by renown underground figure Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan in eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina in 1992.

Davidovic, a former Yugoslav federal policeman who served in Bosnia, said that between 80 and 90 per cent of Muslims were expelled from Bijeljina at the time. Thousands of Muslims were rounded up by the commander of Arkan’s forces, Vojkan Djurkovic, their money and belongings taken away, before they were expelled, Davidovic told the court.

He said Djurkovic took up to 150,000 German marks (75,000 euros) from every group of 100 people rounded up, and was sending a part of the money to Karadzic and his aide Momcilo Krajisnik.

Davidovic said Djurkovic told him that Karadzic and Krajisnik were taking a percentage of looted money and that “plastic bags full of money” were sent to Karadzic and Krajisnik through Karadzic’s brother Luka and Krajisnik’s brother Mirko.

Karadzic has been indicted on 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and is defending himself. Krajisnik, former Bosnian Serb parliament president, has been convicted by the tribunal of war crimes and is serving a 20-year jail sentence.

Cross-examining the witness, Karadzic dismissed conversations between Davidovic and Djurkovic as “gossip” and presented documents in which he ordered paramilitary groups to be brought under control and for looting to be stopped.

“I didn’t know that you issued so many orders against paramilitaries, but I don’t understand why you had no people to implement it,” Davidovic said. “It was a public knowledge and I can’t understand you had not heard about it,” Davidovic added.

The prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff presented a document submitted by Serbian authorities in 2007 in which Serbian state security was informed about Karadzic taking money from expelled Muslims.

Karadzic said the report was sent by his opponents, who tried to topple him from the post of Bosnian Serb president in 1994 and as such couldn’t stand as evidence. The court said it would rule at a later date whether the document was acceptable.