The Television Clues

The federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe did not disclose the name of the suspect, but Channel One of the ARD television not very concerned about possible legal consequences said the arrested was Dusko Tadic, aged 28. His age was later altered to 42 and then to 38.

According to the prosecutor, Tadic is charged with "involvement in a genocide, murder and inflicting of serious injuries." Tadic was described as a "fanatic supporter of the Greater Serbia cause who joined a Serb political party and militia, trying to give his contribution to the policy of ethnic cleansing.''

There is a justified suspicion that in June 1992, Tadic "tortured Moslem prisoners in the concentration camp Omarska, with the butt of his rifle,'' says the indictment. He forced a prisoner to use the rifle to beat other three prisoners, who succumbed to the injuries a few hours later.

Newspapers later said the suspect was found thanks to a research conducted by a Sudwestfunk TV team in Baden Baden. The arrest, shot but not televised, was made after Tadic, upon leaving his Munich apartment last Saturday, "ran into'' a policeman in plain clothes and was then overwhelmed by 15 anti-terrorist policemen. The ARD television broadcast in its primetime program a number of shots of Tadic leaving his apartment.

The AP news agency in Zagreb found Alija Kulenovic, who identified the suspect as Dule Tadic from Kozarac, near Prijedor. Kulenovic, a psychology professor, said Tadic was an expert in karate, known for his "hotheaded reactions.'' He said Tadic, a good friend of his brother, first fled to Sweden and them to Germany.

The AP said the Austrian government had also submitted material that could extend Tadic's indictment bill. Reports from Vienna, naming Tadic's brother Ljuban as one of the Omarska torturers, are based on the testimonies of 145 survivors of the camp who sought asylum in Austria. All relevant world media carried the story about the "first Serbian war criminal,'' but the matter was brought to a climax by Roy Gutmanthe winner of the 1993 Pulitzer prize, the Bosnia correspondent of the US. daily Newsday and former Reuters correspondent in Belgrade.

Gutman won the Pulitzer for "discovering" what he called the concentration death camp (Bosnian Serb authorities claimed these were "collection centers"). This time he chose a nice timing to launch an attractive story in the moment that the Markale massacre just seemed "unbeatable.''

Gutman quoted a man from a German television documentary, Emin Jakubovic, as saying: "They made me bite off with my teeth the testicles of other two prisoners, and I did it. The two screamed with pain, but they put some grease in their mouths, stitched a piece of wire through their lips. The prisoners continued to scream.'' Jakubovic identified the torturers from pictures shown in the film: "The one wearing commando uniform is Dule Tadic, the other is Miso Radulovic. Tadic owned a cafe in our neighborhood in Kozarac.'' According to Jakubovic, Tadic would appear at the camp periodically and took part in torturing the prisoners with the guard's approval.

Jakubovic, who emigrated to Malaysia, remembers that his tortured and murdered inmates were Emin Karabasic, Jasko Hrnic and Eno Alic.

EXPERIENCE: Omarska survivors claim that Tadic had killed "hundreds of prisoners," says the Newsday correspondent, but goes on to quote a prosecutor's office spokesman as saying that Tadic was "involved in a wild orgy of killing at Omarska in July 1992, in which 150 prisoners died.'' Gutman also quotes Frank Minzel, a lawyer from Hamburg, as saying that according to the evident he had gathered on the Omarska atrocities, "Tadic must have killed several hundred people.''

Reliability of Gutman's story is seriously undermines by his openly biased reporting. At different international meeting in February 1992, he agitated that the "Serbs must be punished'' and some observers share the impression that he was not referring to specific criminals, but to the people as a whole.

It's still not clear whether Tadic, if that is the real name of the arrested man, will stand trial before the international tribunal for was crimes in the former Yugoslavia in the Hague, or before courts in Germany.

Previous experiences have shown that the German World-War-Two atrocities had the strongest impact on the Germans' conscience and made them confront their own past precisely when they themselves interrogated the criminals, not international tribunals. But Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Moslems and other Yugoslav nations their leaders in the first place who stained their hands with blood in this latest civil war, do not seem to be ready for a self-purgatory process before their own courts.