Mlađo Radić (born 15 May 1952), sometimes known by the nickname Krkan, is a convicted war criminal and former policeman who was found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of persecution, murder and tortureconstituting crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of warcommitted at the Omarska concentration camp in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War.
Radić was born, raised and worked as a policeman in and around the town of Prijedor until late May 1992 when he began working at the Omarska camp which held almost exclusively non-Serb detainees from the surrounding districts who had been rounded up during the ethnic cleansing of central Bosanska Krajina. According to the trial and appeal judgements of the court, he became the leader of one of the guard shifts at the camp, and until the camp closed at the end of August 1992 he persecuted detainees on political, racial or religious grounds, a crime against humanity; murdered detainees, a violation of the laws and customs of war; and tortured detainees, a violation of the laws or customs of war. He was conscious of the discriminatory crimes that were committed against the detainees on a routine basis, ignored the bulk of the offences committed against detainees while he was on duty, raped a female detainee and attempted to rape a second female detainee, and was involved in the sexual intimidation, harassment, and assault of four other female detainees. He also accompanied detainees to offices for interrogation and removed them after they had been interrogated and beaten, and several detainees died from beatings inflicted by members of his shift. He failed to prevent outsiders from entering the camp to beat detainees, and personally committed acts of sexual violence that the court characterised as torture. The camp was closed in late August following international outcry in the wake of a visit and reporting by British journalist Ed Vulliamy.
Radić was indicted by the ICTY in February 1995 and arrested in Bosnia by British troops serving with the Stabilisation Force in April 1998, and transferred to the ICTY. He entered pleas of not guilty to all twelve counts under the indictment, and along with his co-accused Miroslav Kvočka, Milojica Kos, Zoran Žigić and Dragoljub Prcać was tried by the ICTY between 28 February 2000 and 2 November 2001. Radić was found guilty on four counts and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment, with credit granted for time served. His four co-accused were also found guilty, but only Žigić received a longer sentence of imprisonment. His appeal was dismissed and his conviction and sentence were affirmed. Radić was transferred to France to serve his sentence. He submitted a request for review which was also rejected. Radić was granted early release on his second application, effective on 31 December 2012. his whereabouts were unknown.
Early life Mlađo Radić was born on 15 May 1952 in the village of Lamovita near Prijedor in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1972 he began work as a police officer in the Prijedor municipality, assigned to the station in the small town of Ljubija within the municipality. His principal tasks were traffic control, checking for drunk drivers and providing security for schools and banks. By the time the Bosnian War began he was married and had three children. In 1992 he was working at the police station in the village of Omarska within the municipality of Prijedor, and his direct supervisor was Željko Mejakić. Radić's wife, Bosiljka, worked in the canteen at the Ljubija iron ore strip mining operation outside the village of Omarska.
Omarska concentration camp
In September 1991, as Yugoslavia continued to break up, several Bosnian Serb autonomous regions were proclaimed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which then each established what was known as a crisis staff. Each crisis staff consisted of the leaders of the Bosnian Serb-dominated Serb Democratic Party (SDS), the local Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) commander, and Bosnian Serb police officials. Initially the Serb Autonomous Region of Krajina (ARK) did not include the Prijedor municipalitywhich incorporated the town itself and some outlying villages. Within the municipality the local government was run by the Bosnian Muslim-dominated Party of Democratic Action (SDA), which had a small majority. On 30 April 1992, the SDS, assisted by police and military forces, took over the town of Prijedor, and JNA soldiers occupied all the prominent institutions in the town. A local crisis staff was created, reporting to the ARK crisis staff in the city of Banja Luka to the east. Immediately after the Bosnian Serb takeover of the municipality, non-Serbs were targeted for abusive treatment. After the JNA became the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) on 20 May, majority non-Serb villages in the Prijedor area were attacked by the VRS, and the population rounded up, although some fled. This occurred in Prijedor town itself on 30 May. Older men, and women and children were separated from men aged between 15 and 65, who were transported to the police station in Prijedor then bussed to either the Omarska or Keraterm concentration camps. The elderly men, women and children were generally taken to the Trnopolje concentration camp. All three camps were in the wider Prijedor municipality. Later in the summer, non-Serb community leaders who had not been rounded up initially were arrested, taken to the police station and beaten then sent to one of the camps.
The Omarska camp was situated at the Ljubija mine. Preparations for its operation began around 27 May, and it was officially established on 31 May by Simo Drljača, the chief of police in Prijedor and a member of the local crisis staff. Initially, the camp was intended to operate for about 15 days, but remained open until late August 1992. Every detainee was interrogated at least once, usually involving severe mental and physical abuse. According to the Bosnian Serb authorities, a total of 3,334 detainees were held at the camp for some time during its almost three month operation. Former detainees estimated that up to 3,000 people were held at any given time, and former camp workers stated that number exceeded 2,000. The bulk of the detainees were men, although 36 women were also detained in the camp, most of whom were well-known in the Prijedor community before the war. Some boys as young as 15 were held in the early days of the camp's operation. The detainees were almost all Bosnian Muslims or Bosnian Croats, with a few Bosnian Serbs held due to suspicions they had been collaborating with Bosnian Muslims.
While held at the camp, detainees were kept in inhumane conditions and there was a pervasive atmosphere of extreme mental and physical violence. Intimidation, extortion, beatings, and torture were commonplace. Events that provided regular opportunities for abuse of detainees included the arrival of new detainees, interrogations, mealtimes and use of the toilet facilities. Outsiders entered the camp and were allowed to assault the detainees at random as they chose. Murder was common. Deliberate brutality and appalling conditions were integral to daily life in the camp. The majority of the detainees were held in the largest building at the mine, known as the "hangar", which had been built to house the heavy mine trucks and machinery. While the eastern part of the building was an open area, on the western side of the hangar were two floors with over 40 separate rooms. The three other buildings were the administration building which housed detainees on the ground floor, and on the first floor there were a series of rooms used for interrogations, the administration of the camp, and the female detainees' sleeping quarters. A small garage was attached. There were also two smaller buildings, the "white house" and the "red house". Between the hangar and administration building was an L-shaped concrete strip known as the "pista". Detainees received an inadequate quantity of poor quality food that was often rotten or inedible, and most detainees lost of body weight while held at the camp, and were often beaten while moving in or out of the eating area. They were also provided with an inadequate quantity of water. Detainees were often beaten while moving to and from the inadequate toilet facilities and instead soiled themselves. The conditions in the camp and the medical care provided were grossly inadequate. Interrogations were carried out regularly and in an inhumane and cruel manner, and created an atmosphere of violence and terror. Detainees held in the administration building, in the hangar, and on the pista, were repeatedly subjected to mental and physical violence. Detainees were frequently beaten and murdered in and around the red house and white house. Female detainees were subjected to various forms of sexual violence in the camp.
On 7 August 1992, the British journalist Ed Vulliamy reported on the shocking conditions in the Omarska and Trnopolje camps, having visited them in the preceding days at the invitation of the president of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb proto-state, Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić. The international outcry that arose from Vulliamy's reporting and photographs of emaciated detainees caused the Bosnian Serbs to close the Omarska camp soon after, although many of the detainees were just moved to other camps.
Role and activities of Radić at Omarska camp According to findings by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) during Radić's trial and appeal, from around 28 May until the end of August 1992, Radićknown to the detainees as Krkan ("Croaky")worked at the Omarska camp. When he reported for duty at the camp, Mejakić and Radić were the only active duty police officers working at the camp. Mejakić told Radić that his duties were to maintain security and prevent detainees from escaping. After initially being a guard in front of the garage, Mejakić then told him to work in the duty office on the first floor of the administration building, where he manned the radio transmitter and telephone. He would also sometimes stand guard looking through a window overlooking the pista. Radić was then a guard shift leader at the camp, with his shift comprising approximately 30 men who worked for 12 hours at a time. Radić had substantial control over the members of his shift, and used his authority to stop some crimes, while ignoring the bulk of offences committed against detainees while he was on duty. The guards on Radić's shift perpetrated a wide variety of abuses and mistreatment against the detainees, including murder and torture, and Radić never exercised his authority to stop them from committing such crimes, and by failing to do so, gave the guards of his shift a strong message of approval for their behaviour. His non-intervention condoned, encouraged, and contributed to the commission and continuation of crimes against detainees.