Video too brutal for The Hague
Vecernje Novosti - June 14, 2005
By Veljko Lalic
A video made by the mujahedeen showing the ritual beheading of a Bosnian Serb
POW. Images such as these were carefully censored and deleted in the US media
but openly sold in Bosnian Cultural Centers.
The Hague Tribunal refused to show "Meho's Camera". Because of the brutality.
The Vecernji Novosti news team viewed a private video recording of members of
the 505th Buzim Brigade of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosniak (Muslim) Army,
including the entire sequence of the bestial murder of Republika Srpska Army
Warrant Officer Rade Rogica. Truly, the material is not for broadcasting.
Yesterday only the reporter and the cameraman from "Novosti" remained in the BK
Television studio to the end. Even Miodrag Popov, war correspondent, who played
all the videos for us, could not watch the recording to the end.
The material begins with a sequence of a mujahedin smoking marijuana. The next
scene shows an entire village in smoke. Luckily, none of the civilians remained.
Muslim soldiers enter every house. "I'll f*ck your (mother's) breast," they say
at the entrance to each home. Ten or so soldiers vie to loot the homes. They
load up their jeeps with all manner of things.
New sequence. No village to be seen. About thirty soldiers are singing some sort
of battle song. It is fairly garbled, with the exception of "...do not be afraid
of the chetniks (Serbs)... and... Serbian blood..."
They even set fire to a haystack they happen to pass. Total destruction. "This
is Hamza's army of liberation," a voice can be heard from the crowd. And so
(they go)... from village to village. Incredible scenes. Apocalypse, both then
and now. And forever...
Suddenly the camera approaches a group of soldiers. They've formed a circle. In
the center - a prisoner.
A blow of the fist. The camera is still at a distance of some twenty meters.
Another blow of the fist. Close up shot. (The prisoner) is Rade Rogic. A member
of the Radnicki Battalion. Born in 1957 in Sanski Most. He got lost. This is his
last appearance on video.
A young mujahedin, or at least someone introduced as such, with a green band
around his forehead, is questioning him. He speaks excellent Serbian.
"Do you know me?" he asks Rogic.
"I don't!" says Rogic.
"Where do you think I'm from?" he continues, practically growling through his
teeth.
About ten young soldiers are standing over Rogic and laughing. They say he is a
mujahedin. Rogic remains calm to the extent that is possible. He tries to reason
with them, to find at least something human in his executioners. He raises his
hand, as if to say, what is happening to you, and to find himself awaking in
some other film.
But blows return him to reality.
"Why am I here?" the obviously "domestic" mujahedin continues his questioning.
He strikes him with his fists, grabs him by the hair, apparently cannot decide
in his fury what to do with him.
"I guess you came to fight, f*ck it!" answers Rogic.
Another blow.
"How old are you?" a new voice interjects.
"I'm thirty-two," the Serbian prisoner replies calmly.
"So what are you doing here?" the "mujahedin" asks him.
The volley of blows continues. Rogic raises his hand. He defends himself
reflexively. "Why?" he says. As soon as the blows stop, he lowers his arm.
"Where have you been?" continues the man with a green band around his forehead.
"In the forest, f*ck it."
"So what are you doing in the forest?" he continues with the questions and
blows.
"Let's go, let's go," shouts someone from the crowd.
Rogic is still speaking: "Well, if anyone had bothered to ask you and me we
probably wouldn't be here..."
Some one hits him repeatedly in the ears.
"Don't say f*ck it, I'll f*ck your mother!" he screams.
"That's a really bad habit you have (swearing)," says another, as he holds him
by the hair and anticipates the moment he will end it all.
He pulls him by the hair toward the ground, striking him several times behind
the ear.
"Cut him there, cut him there!"
The mujahedin intervenes, ordering Rogic to shout "Allahu akhbar" (Allah is
great).
"Don't, don't, don't..." are the last words of Warrant Officer Rade Rogic.
The crushed skull remains between two stones. Although the quality of the video
is poor, one can clearly distinguish three long slashes: one across the neck, a
second across the mouth, and a third across the forehead. Posing for the camera,
the mujahedin grabs him by the hair. He raises the head. To show off his work.
Laughter can be heard.
The next scene is in a yard somewhere.
"Hey, did you kill him, did you f*ck his mother?" a voice can be heard.
A big close up shot of the killer. He's holding a rifle. Blows up his cheeks.
The look of a total idiot. He suddenly rises. He runs and raises both hands
towards the sky...
"Allahu akhbar!" he screams...
He turns towards the soldiers and continues, "Let's go, let's go..."
Text: June 14, 2005 VECERNJE NOVOSTI
Translated June 15, 2005 by sib
Original URL: http://www.serbianna.com/press/011.shtml
View a censored version of the tape:
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=zlocin_50520
Posted for Fair Use only.