Vecernje Novosti, Belgrade
15.06.2005. 17:42:12
"Meho's Camera" too brutal for The Hague
By Veljko Lalic
14.06.2005, 17:57:41
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..."
(Translated June 15, 2005 by sib)
A must read. Thanks