This article is also available in: Shqip Macedonian Bos/Hrv/Srp

The bridge over the Drina river in Visegrad. Photo: Wikimedia/Julian Nitszche.

A protected witness codenamed VR-1 told the state court in Sarajevo on Monday that defendant Vuk Ratkovic beat her up and raped her three times using force in Visegrad in June 1992.

VR-1 said that as she was going home, in front of the entrance to the building in which she lived, she saw an unknown long-haired man, who looked “very scruffy”.

She said the man cursed her and inquired about her husband.

“He forced me to unlock my apartment and hit me in the face and stomach. He took my clothes off and committed the act of rape,” the witness said.

“It was very painful and embarrassing. I did not manage to defend myself, as he hit me several times and kicked me,” she added

VR-1 testified that he then forced her to bathe, put her clothes on and make coffee.

“He said his name was Vuk Ratkovic and he had come from Serbia to kill Muslims and Turks,” the witness said.

The witness recalled that Ratkovic also came to see her at her workplace. She said he brought a bag with gold jewellery and gold teeth in it, and asked her to choose something from it, but she refused.

She testified that 20 days after the first assault, Ratkovic raped her again.

“It was the same sexual violence accompanied by mistreatment and beating,” she said.

Ratkovic, a former member of the Visegrad Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, is charged with torturing, abusing, raping and beating a woman on several occasions.

When Ratkovic came to the victim’s home for a third time at the beginning of 1993, she said he mistreated her daughter and niece and then locked them inside a room.

“He committed the same act. I was ashamed for my children,” the witness said.

Describing the defendant, the witness said he had long black hair, a dark complexion and a moustache, and was a “sportsmanlike” man.

She testified in a separate room and identified Ratkovic as the perpetrator.

The trial continues on April 2.