Yellow Wasps - Arrests and Trials

Arrests and Trials

In August 1992 about seventy Yellow Wasp members were arrested and accused of robbing and murdering Serbian and Bosniak civilians. They were detained in Bijeljina, where they were allegedly beaten and forced to sign confessions extracted under torture. They were transferred to Serbia before being released. Subsequently the Vučković brothers were arrested by the Serbian Interior Ministry on 5 November 1993 and indicted on 28 April 1994. Duško was charged with killing sixteen civilians and wounding another twenty in June 1992, cutting off a civilian's ear (the ear lobe was allegedly torn off and eaten) and also raping and robbing a Bosniak woman in the village of Radalj, near Mali Zvornik in Serbia (allowing the case to be tried in Serbia). Vojin was charged with illegal possession of arms and falsely identifying himself as a police officer. The indictment stated that the brothers had volunteered to help the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war erupted.

During the trial Vučković denied involvement in the crimes to which he had confessed, claiming that he had been forced to sign a confession because he feared that the secret police would kill his family. He claimed to have been dismissed from the army after about two months, diagnosed as "a psychopath and an alcoholic," and been treated for alcoholism and drug abuse. Vojin boasted about connections in the Serbian Interior Ministry, was proud of his unit's military achievements in and around Zvornik, and said that his brother, who had obeyed his orders in the field, was an example to other soldiers.

According to a Human Rights Watch and Helsinki Watch researcher, the prosecutor's questions were formulated to elicit answers that supported the defense. The prosecution's witnesses, two members of the Yellow Wasps, revealed nothing about the crimes but praised Vojin and Dušan's soldiery. Implied Serbian government involvement in the crimes was not pursued. The inept prosecution failed to present evidence of wrongdoing, witnesses did not appear, one of the judges behaved supportively towards the Vučković brothers, guards offered the brothers cigarettes, and on the third day of the trial, defense lawyers announced that Vučković had already been tried and found not guilty by a military court in Banja Luka for war crimes allegedly perpetrated in Bijeljina. The court was dismissed, the presiding judge fell ill and the trial was then postponed indefinitely.

In July 1996 the Vučković brothers were tried again and Duško Vučković was sentenced to seven years in prison. After an appeal, two years later the Supreme Court of Serbia sentenced Duško Vučković to ten years in prison for a war crime against civilian population and a rape and Vojin Vučković to four months in prison for illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives.

While on trial Duško Vučković admitted that he had been a member of the Serb Radical Party (SRS). He said that he joined the SRS because no one else would have taken him because of his mental health problems. He had made plans to go to the frontline with SRS colleagues Zoran Dražilović, Ljubiša Petković and Zoran Rankić and received military training under supervision of Rankic and his brother. He had been arrested on 15 April 1992 after an incident in Zvornik but was released a few days later thanks to the efforts of the president of the SRS in Loznica and a lawyer hired by the party.

In November 2005 Branko Grujić and Branko Popović, and four of the "Yellow Wasps", Dragan Slavković, Ivan Korać, Siniša Filipović and Dragutin Dragićević were accused of murdering at least 22 and forcefully deporting 1,822 Bosniak civilians from the Zvornik municipality were charged by the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court with murder, torture and forcible movement of Zvornik Bosniaks in the period between May and June 1992. The so-called "Zvornik Group" were specifically accused of having expelled more than 1,200 Bosniaks from the villages of Kozluk and Skočić on June 26, 1992. Grujić, Popović and the four Yellow Wasps pleaded not guilty. Duško Vučković, who would otherwise have been charged with the same crimes had died suddenly the week before in a detention cell in Belgrade District Prison. The trial was the first war crime trial transferred to the Serbian War Crimes Chamber by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

At the trial in 2008 former Yellow Wasp member Miroslav Nikolić testified that the unit under Vojin Vučković's command had been responsible for the village of Kozluk. After a period away from the unit Nikolić returned to find Kozluk deserted. Grujić and Popović were also accused of knowing about but doing nothing to prevent Yellow Wasp members killing at least 19 Bosniaks from Divič inside the Dom Kultura in Čelopek and at least three others in the Ekonomija and Ciglana districts.