Witness Balks in War Crimes Trial
The Post and Courier, p.12A
4 May 1996.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — War crimes prosecutors have asked an international tribunal to drop a rape charge against a Bosnian Serb accused of murdering more than 16 Bosniaks in northwestern Bosnia, saying the victim feared reprisals.
The move Friday is sure to be accepted by the court.
The trial of Dusan Tadic [aka: Dusko Tadic], a former bar owner accused of committing the murders and rape in and around the Serb-run Omarska concentration camp in 1992, opens Tuesday.
The Muslim woman, identified by the tribunal only as “F,” was allegedly raped by Tadic in the summer of 1992 in an outbuilding at the Omarska camp, according to the indictment.
She had been granted extensive protection by the court and would not have had to testify while Tadic was present, but rather via a special video link.
Defense lawyer Alphons Orie said the prosecution asked that the charges be dropped because the victim “feels unable to testify because she fears the consequences of a testimony for her personal life and that of her relatives.”
