Dusko Tadic

Dusko Tadic was born on 1 October 1955 in Kozarac. His father had been a hero in World War II and his mother a detainee in the camp of Jasenovac which had been run by Croats. Dusko Tadic joined the SDS (Serbian Democratic Party) in 1990.

On 30 April 1992, the town of Prijedor was taken by the SDS with the support of military and police forces. This act served as a prelude to the party taking control over the whole district of Prijedor, including the town of Prijedor and the town of Kozarac, about ten kilometres further east.

The attack on Kozarac lasted two days and caused the death of more than 800 civilians – a considerable part of the entire population of about 4'000 people. Once the town had been captured, the Bosnian Serbs executed raids and expelled the entire non-Serbian population by foot. In the course of the ethnic cleansing of Kozarac, numerous civilians were beaten, robbed and killed by the military and paramilitary forces of the Bosnian Serbs. The terrified inhabitants of the town were lead away to the camps of Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje, where their suffering continued.

The establishment of these camps was part of the plan to create Greater Serbia following the expulsion of all non-Serbian residents from the district of Prijedor. The most appalling conditions prevailed in the Omarska camp, the most famous of the three.

As a leading member of the SDS in the predominantly Muslim town of Kozarac and as a member of the paramilitary forces which supported the regular units of the 1st Krajina Corps in their attack, Dusko Tadic was accused of having actively taken part in all the stages of the attack against the town. (The most serious crime alleged to have been committed personally by Dusko Tadic was the killing of two Muslim policemen in Kozarac.)

Dusko Tadic was also accused of having taken part in the ill-treatment committed in the camps, particularly in the Omarska camp.

Before the conflict broke out, approximately 50'000 Muslims and 6'000 Croats lived in the district of Prijedor. After the ethnic cleansing, these numbers were reduced to around 6’000 and 3’000 respectively, those remaining living under extremely difficult conditions.

Following the completion of the ethnic cleansing campaign, the accused was entrusted with political responsibility in the town of Kozarac and was elected President of the local council of the SDS on 15 August 1992.

In June 1993, Tadic was mobilised and sent to the war zone near Gradacac, from where he fled the following day. He spent the next two months in hiding to avoid being drafted into military service.

Tadic travelled to Nuremberg in August 1993. He later continued his journey to Munich, where he lived until 12 February 1994, when he was arrested by the German police. On 24 April 1995, he was transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.