CRIMES PASSED OVER IN SILENCE

Caco Dossier Opened

AIM Sarajevo, 18 November, 1997

After having been killed like the greatest criminal in 1993, two years later he is buried (for the second time) as a great hero. The truth or truths about his deeds, since he himself cannot talk, have been opened by Sarajevo media. Mildly speaking, the result reminds of a perforated ulcer. People are reading, appalled and doubtful. Quite a few say that they had known it all, but that a great deal of courage was needed to say so. The political opposition welcomes this move of the media, but the ruling structures which are marked as responsible and involved in all the developments, specifically the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) are silent. Not a word was uttered by it about the crimes committed by Musan Topalovic - Caco from the post of the commander of the 10th mountain brigade inside the encirclement of Sarajevo.

The mentioned articles in the media carry stories about slaughtering, killing and crimes inside the Sarajevo encirclement. So far we have known everything or almost everything about those who had committed crimes in the name of Serbdom and against the Bosniacs and the Croats. We have also learnt much about crimes in the name of Croatdom, against the Bosniacs and the Serbs. As if there had been no crimes in the Bosniac ranks, judging by what was known in public or could be revealed. Until just a few days ago, when the Tribunal in the Hague spoke up, and then the media in B&H followed, or witnesses through them. But, it had happened always in other cities and on other locations, and the "city-hero" or the city-victim, as some like to call it, was skirted. Only some of the oppositionist politicians persisted in their demand to clarify the case of Kazani (kettles), the illegal Sarajevo cemetery. Those who were exhuming corpses from this cleft of the Sarajevo mountain Trebevic say that they cannot claim with certainty how many victims there actually were, because "the heads are missing", they say. After signing of the Dayton accords or just before the very act of signing, teams engaged by the one who was informed about it all but passed it over in silence, ransacked the ground, exhumed as many of the bodies as they could. Nowadays the cleft looks as an untouched work of nature.

The "participants" in "stuffing" Kazani said at the trial that the very top of the state leadership was informed about the crimes (mostly murders committed with knives) of the commander of the 10th motorized brigade Musan Topalocic Caco. Ordinary people in the city share this opinion. "He could not have done it without somebody's knowledge, especially of his superiors, because 'Sarajevo is not that big'". One of the Sarajevo media which opened this topic says that back in 1992, nowadays retired general of the Army of B&H, Jovan Divjak, wrote a letter of warning to President of Presidency of B&H Alija Izetbegovic, about events in this part of the city. The same letter with the same facts was sent to the same address by commanders of certain minor military formations whose lines of responsibility bordered those of Caco, explaining that they could not watch what was going on any more. The political leadership was silent about Caco's manner of "mobilization". The then commander of the first corps of the Army of B&H Nedzad Ajnadzic says that on several occasions he was warned against illegal actions in this zone of responsibility. Members of Caco's brigade, those who had to participate in the misdeeds were silent because their silence, according to testimonies, was the price of life of members of their families. Only once in an interview, in a comment of Caco's behavior, Izetbegovic declared that "Caco was a good combatant and a good believer". And Caco took people to dig trenches (digging to victory - one of the often repeated slogans in Sarajevo during the war) many of whom have never returned (they liked doing it and remained there to the end of their lives...). Some of them, according to statements of witnesses, died in Kazani because some Caco's favourites liked their apartments, or because they lived alone or were simply old but in a large apartment. Some had names (indeed, not Bosniac) which Musan did not like, and some of them had no money to buy their freedom. Such people were taken away, according to testimonies of Caco's "associates", to locations near Kazani. That is where participants of Caco's brigade "enrolled" in its ranks by plunging knives into such persons or by kicking them to death, and then cut their heads off and threw them in the crevice of Kazani.

According to certain documents, about 300 Sarajevo non-Bosniacs were killed in Kazani. According to the authorities of Republica Srpska, five times that many, but only Sarajevo Serbs, of course. Sarajevo media say that one and the other party possess the same documentation. The authorities of RS got it thanks to an employee of the court who, having left Sarajevo, paid for his life with these documents.

After Caco had been killed, some people were tried in Sarajevo, mostly just perpetrators or observers of the crimes. There were more than twenty of them. A large number ended up in jail but just for a short while, and a certain number of them was sent for medical treatment as mentally ill. Some of the involved court employees say that in fact they were healthy lads who assessed that it was better for them to be in a lunatic asylum than in jail. Newspapers write that some of the lawyers engaged in defence of the indicted gave up the job when they had heard the testimonies. They also write that one of the investigative judges, having gained insight into the documentation, testimonies and other documents, changed the indictment, so that instead of war crime against civilian population, it charged the indicted for murder.

Psychiatrists also passed their judgement about Topalovic, but the Topalovic case is not the only one at Sarajevo battlefield. There are the crimes of Juka, Zuka, Kruska, Puska, Cele... Men who put themselves at the head of the defence of the city before the state leadership and the former territorial defence were ready to defend it. And then, as a result of incompetence of the current authorities to establish the line of command appropriate for war circumstances, they got out of hand, and on the other side of the law, where they had mostly been before the beginning of the war and the defence. That is how it happened that Izetbegovic promoted the controversial Juka into a general, and proclaimed Caco a good believer!!! Then Frankenstein got out of control of his master and became the true master of human lives. That is why he had to be eliminated (killed) because he was not dangerous only for his surroundings, but also for his creator - Caco has once threatened that even Izetbegovic's son would end up in his trenches.

These cases after signing of the Dayton accords and establishment of peace have not been mentioned at all. Some were put away nobody knows where, some hid, and some withdrew into deep anonymity. Nowadays, many citizens of Sarajevo wonder what is the reason why newspapers have not written about it before. But, had any of the newspapers even mentioned Kazani in their articles except as part of someone else's question, there would have neither been newspapers, nor editors, nor printing works... Destruction of such a media would have then been interpreted by some "terrorist act destroying B&H and peace".

In these newspaper articles which have shaken everybody but the ruling party which is even named, it is also stated that soon after Caco's disappearance "his" brigade was dissolved. One of the personnel officers of this brigade has become a high official of the ruling party, in fact the director of the party headquarters. In this party everybody is silent nowadays, even the personnel officer himself. A fortnight after the first article in the press which was in fact a stenogram of Caco's soldiers' trial, there have been no official denial, comment or review. Even those whose names were mentioned in the documents are silent.

An eye-witness of the act of killing of Musan Topalovic which lasted for some time, says that the room in which Caco was killed and the walls of which were covered with blood, a couple of hours after the body had been taken away, was painted white and as if nothing had happened. Maybe history can be written like this, but cemeteries and human memories cannot be painted white. Therefore, even when the main suspect is removed, the crimes remain and somebody will have to answer for them. Probably those who have been called to account and those who by talking about someone else's crimes actually tried to push their own under the carpet. After all the Caco dossier has just been opened, and the continuation will probably follow. According to certain knowledge, the next thing will be uncovering of Sarajevo Dariva, a place of execution of the still unknown number of Caco's victims.

Rubina CENGIC

(AIM, Sarajevo)