Muslim tells Mladic trial of villagers burned alive

UN judges said the prosecution could respond to this latest request for a delay today, and allowed Elvedin Pasic to testify. Mladic faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He denies wrongdoing.

Mr Pasic testified about his family’s escape and separation as his village in northern Bosnia was being shelled in 1992 by Bosnian Serb troops under Mladic’s command. The Muslim, just 14 at the time, described weeks of wanderings with his mother, being turned away from village after village.

Now 34, Mr Pasic spoke in English, carefully describing how he and his mother eventually circled back to their home village despite a warning from two Serb soldiers patrolling nearby who told them “there is nothing for you to go back to: your home is Turkey, this is Serbia”.

He described his excitement as they entered the village anyway. He raced up a shortcut to his family house – only to find there was indeed little for them to return to.

“The house was burned completely, the fridge, the televisions, the walls – what was left of the walls was stripped,” Mr Pasic said.

Even a stash of clothing they buried when they left had been found and taken. Mr Pasic’s voice choked with tears as he described how he had hoped to find his dog alive, but found it shot where it was chained.

Most of the handful of people who had remained in his village, notably one elderly religious man whom Mr Pasic knew, had been burned alive in their homes, Mr Pasic testified; one was shot instead.

Judges paused for a recess in the mid-afternoon, with Mr Pasic expected to testify next about Serb forces imprisoning and mistreating men, women and children at a makeshift detention camp in a nearby school.

The trial continues.