BOSNIA: SURVIVORS SPEAK OF THEIR ORDEAL AT OMARSKA DEATH CAMP

(14 Apr 1998) Serbo-Croat/Nat
Survivors of one of the Bosnian War's most infamous death camps have spoken of their ordeal as two Serb war crimes suspects appear before a tribunal in The Hague.
Miroslav Kvocka and Mladen Radic, allegedly commanded guards at the Omarska detention camp near Prijedor in northwestern Bosnia to carry out atrocities - charges they have pleaded not guilty to at the Hague on Tuesday.
Former prisoners accuse them of torture and rape and are demanding the maximum sentence for both men, who they say were worse than animals.
Omarska detention camp -- just near Prijedor in northwestern Bosnia -- was one of the most feared camps of the Bosnian War.
An estimated 10-thousand Bosnian Croats and Muslims passed through the Serb detention centre between 1992 and 1993.
Around two thousand of them are thought to have died.
Many of the survivors now live in Sanski Most, just 15 miles (20 kilometres) south of the dreaded Omarska camp.
Among them is Jasmin Arnautovic, who was arrested by Serb extremists in May 1992.
He spent over five hundred days in Omarska in August 1992.
During that time he says he lost 60 kilos (132 pounds) and claims to have been tortured by Miroslav Kvocka, who he says controlled the guards.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"Three days after I arrived, Kvocka Miroslav came to see me. He took me for questioning, personally, and he was beating me up and torturing me because I am Muslim. Every torture method that they (Kvocka and Radic) had thought of, they did it to us. Torturing and hanging people, using rope to beat people. It was hell and I've survived, but a lot of my friends died. Some two thousand of them died in Omarska camp."
SUPER CAPTION: Jasmin Arnautovic, Omarska survivor
Miroslav Kvocka and fellow Bosnian Serb Mladen Radic, were arraigned on Tuesday at the U-N war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
They pleaded not guilty to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Asked about the possible penalty for the two men, Arnautovic said the maximum sentence of life imprisonment is not enough.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"If I could be in The Hague I would do it quick. Electric chair and burn them like they used to burn people on truck tyres. Animal would not do that."
SUPER CAPTION: Jasmin Arnautovic, Omarska survivor
International Red Cross workers took this photo of him during his last days in the detention camp.
Among the female survivors of Omarska are these two Muslim women, Nusreta Sivac and Menkovic Sadija.
Nusreta is going to testify against Mladen Radic at The Hague tribunal.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
'He (Radic) was terrible. I think all Omarska survivors can tell you something about him - especially women. He blackmailed us and he took part in torturing. He was a specialist in beating and killing people. He was there from the day camp was open till the day it was closed."
SUPER CAPTION: Nusreta Sivac, Omarska survivor
When Sadija Menkovic arrived at Omarska her greatest fears were for her two sons who had been taken to the camp before her.
She claims she was among the many women raped by Mladen Radic.
SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
"Radic blackmailed me with my kids. If I wanted my kids to be okay, I had to go with him. He was calling women by their names. Women had to go with him."
SUPER CAPTION: Sadija Menkovic, Omarska survivor
Nusreta and Sadija are aware the maximum sentence Radic and Kvocka can get is life in jail.
They say that's simply not enough
But speaking in Omarska shortly before his arrest by SFOR troops on April 8, Kvocka claimed to be totally innocent of the changes made against him.

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