WELCOME TO IWPRS ICTY TRIBUNAL UPDATE No. 626, November 28, 2009 KARADZIC GATHERING ANGERS SURVIVORS Supporters of former Bosnian Serb president send message that he is not forgotten. By Velma Saric in Banja Luka
COURTSIDE PETKOVIC TRIAL HEARS OF GROWING ETHNIC DIVISIONS IN KONJIC Defence claims developments there in 1993 key to understanding conflict between HVO and Bosnian army. N By Velma Saric in Sarajevo COURT TOLD MARKAC HIGHLY MORAL PERSON Defence witness says special police commander took care of civilians he came across during Operation Storm. By Julia Hawes in The Hague SESELJ CASE SET TO RESUME Additional witnesses to be called to testify when case reopens in January. 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By Velma Saric in Banja Luka A rally in Banja Luka this week to honour former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, currently on trial for war crimes at the Hague tribunal, has been condemned by relatives of victims. Some 200 Karadzic supporters gathered in the Republika Srspka, RS, capital on November 22 to celebrate the feast day of Karadzic's patron saint. Celebrating such feast days is an old Serb tradition known as krsna slava. Staged by the Serb nationalist movement The Choice Is Ours, organisers claimed that their aim was to "show Karadzic that he has not been forgotten and that he enjoys our full support". Karadzic, the first president of Republika Srpska and supreme commander of the RS armed forces, has been charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the massacre of almost 8,000 Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995. The indictment alleges that Karadzic was responsible for crimes of persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer which "contributed to achieving the objective of the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Bosnian Serb-claimed territory". Prosecutors also accuse him of orchestrating the 44-month campaign of sniping and shelling of the city of Sarajevo, which resulted in nearly 12,000 civilian deaths. After years as a fugitive, Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade on July 21, 2008. His trial started in October 2009 and should resume in March next year. The president of The Choice Is Ours, Dane Cankovic, said at the gathering in Krajina sqaure that the "Serb people must never forget their heroes and martyrs such as Radovan Karadzic who stood up in the defence of his people. Cankovic went on to say that "with his wisdom and truth, Karadzic will show the whole world what actually happened in the recent war, thus removing the black shadow cast onto the Serb people". War crimes survivors were angered by the Banja Luka event, which they saw as a provocation. Bakira Hasecic, the chairwoman of the Women War Victims Association in Sarajevo, which includes women raped and sexually harassed during the 1992-1995 war, condemned the activities of The Choice Is Ours. "Fifteen years on, we the victims are supposed to understand that nothing has changed in RS," she said. Zumra Mehic, a housewife from Srebrenica who lost her husband and four sons in the Srebrenica massacre, told IWPR, "What else could I think, except that it is a deliberate provocation, a humiliation and mocking of the very same victims that have lost their loved ones? "Many members of my family are not alive anymore. Those who organised the event should be ashamed of Karadzic, rather than celebrate him." Mehic now lives alone in Kladanj in temporary accommodation, having never returned to her pre-war residence. She has buried three of her sons and her husband; the remains of the fourth were found and identified, and his burial is planned for July 11, 2010, at the Potocari Memorial Complex, on the fifteenth anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. Sarajevo pensioner Emina Omerovic, who lost her 23-year-old only son to Serb sniper fire from Trebevic mountain near Sarajevo, told IWPR that she was extremely disturbed by the gathering in Banja Luka. I think that those who organised and those who attended the event should be ashamed, she said, adding that all such associations and events should be banned by law. But the chairman of the Banja Luka-based Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in RS, Branko Todorovic, told IWPR that while the gathering in Banja Luka was disturbing, it was not a cause for serious concern. "It would have been even more alarming if the number [of people who attended] 20,000, or if an official institution of Republika Srpska or Bosnia and Hercegovina had supported such an event," he said. "That would require serious attention." Events held by fringe groups and individual protestors, he said, were just intended to attract media attention. Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo. COURTSIDE PETKOVIC TRIAL HEARS OF GROWING ETHNIC DIVISIONS IN KONJIC Defence claims developments there in 1993 key to understanding conflict between HVO and Bosnian army. By Velma Saric in Sarajevo A former Croatian Defence Council, HVO, soldier this week told the Hague tribunal trial of wartime Bosnian Croat official Milivoj Petkovic this week of how ethnic divisions widened in the municipality of Konjic during 1992. Petkovic is on trial along with five other high-ranking Bosnian Croat officials: Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic. The six are accused of responsibility for the expulsion, rape, torture and murder of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and other non-Croats between late 1991 and early 1994, as part of an alleged plan to ethnically cleanse parts of Bosnia in order to later join them to a so-called Greater Croatia. Petkovic, former military commander of the HVO, in the breakaway Croatian republic of Herceg-Bosna, faces charges of command responsibility for war crimes committed during 1992 and 1993 in south-western and central Bosnia. The indictment concentrates on crimes against humanity committed in the municipalities of Prozor, Gornji Vakuf, Jablanica, Mostar, Ljubuski, Stolac, Capljina and Vares. Although the municipality of Konjic has not been included in the indictment against the six former Bosnian Croat leaders, the defence claims that what happened in the area between March and April of 1993 is of key importance to understanding the conflict between the HVO, and the Army of Bosnia and Hercegovina, ABiH. The defence witness, a former member of the Konjic-based HVO Herceg Stjepan brigade, gave testimony under measures of identity and face protection. Petkovic's defence tried to point out the importance of the town of Konjic and its position alongside the Sarajevo - Mostar highway, which connects Bosnia to the Adriatic coast. The city of Konjic was particularly important in the defence plans of the former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) since a military installation belonging to the JNA was located near the city. It was at Konjic that an ammunition factory - as well as a high security bunker, known as ARK, for top officials - were located, said the witness. The bunker was built so that it could house the supreme leadership of the former JNA, should the need ever arise. In 1992, it was connected to the liaison centre and the Igman ammunition factory. The witness claimed that ARK was set up in such a way that 150 individuals could live inside it and not come out for over a year. It was a multi-story building dug into a hill, just like the ammunition factory on the site. The witness then described how the building was rescued, despite its destruction having been ordered by the then commander of the seventh army district of the JNA, Milutin Kokanjac. Asked by defence lawyer Vesna Alaburic why the JNA would want the building torn down, the witness answered, I think it was their intent to destroy all buildings of great importance to them. The JNA order said that in case ARK could not be kept, it should be destroyed. The whole building was connected to an ammunitions warehouse and an explosive device located on the other side of the hill. The witness pointed out that the JNA was not able to implement these plans because there was a civilian, Rajko, working as a ballistics assistant at the plant, who was a Croat. As the army was leaving, he cut the connecting bomb wires with his own teeth. The witness said that this building had been of strategic importance as it was planned that it should host the general staff of the supreme command of the ABiH from Sarajevo, which was under siege. The building was of strategic interest to the ABiH general staff, as throughout 1992 members of the military leadership, led by Vehbija Karic, would come and visit the building. He was the one who tried to organise the transfer of the supreme command from Sarajevo to the ARK facility, said the witness, also noting that then president Alija Izetbegovic visited the facility on several occasions. The witness specified that he was referring to a period in April and May of 1992, It was a time when war was brooding in Bosnia. The parties of the conflict at the time were the JNA with Serb volunteers and the territorial defence of the Muslim and Croat peoples. The conflict between Croats and Muslims in Konjic began on May 5, 1992, after a joint military action by Croats and Muslims in which we had together liberated the village of Bradina on Ivan Sedlo mountain. This action helped us open up a road toward Sarajevo. It was from then on that general staff members of the ABiH started coming to Konjic, and the situation of Croat-Muslim relations started changing. The defence also pointed out that there was a decision by the wartime presidency of Bosnia to have refugees coming back from Croatia into Bosnia recruited into the ABiH in those municipalities which were under ABiH control. The witness claimed that this mobilisation was carried out in secret, with no knowledge on part of the Croats, demonstrating that the ABiH obviously had some secret intentions. ABiH recruits in Konjic at that time included, according to the witness, 16 year-olds who joined local extremists in refusing to cooperate with the Croats. As an example, the witness mentioned an ABiH unit named "Muderiz" and led by local imam Nezim Halilovic. According to the witness, it was the task of these "extremists" to cause conflict in Konjic. The witness said that Konjic Croats were scared because the Muslims who were evicted from their homes elsewhere were much more extreme than indigenous Muslims. According to the witness, There were major differences between the domestic Muslims and those that came from elsewhere. With the first we held our defence together, whereas the latter moved into Serb property and formed their own units. The presiding judge, Jean-Claude Antonetti, intervened by asking that, as the witness said that "there were extremists in the ABiH", did he think that there were extremists in HVO lines? I cannot say if there were any or not, but where I was active, there were none, answered the witness. The trial continues next week. Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo. COURT TOLD MARKAC HIGHLY MORAL PERSON Defence witness says special police commander took care of civilians he came across during Operation Storm. By Julia Hawes in The Hague A witness who worked closely with the former commander of the Croatian special police, Mladen Markac, praised the defendants wartime conduct this week, saying he spoke of the importance of honouring international conventions and treaties. Defence witness Davorin Pavlovic, a communications expert with the Croatian special police, was with Mladen Markac, former commander of the Croatian special police, before, during and after Operation Storm, a Croatian military offensive in August 1995. Pavlovic told the Hague tribunal about the special police's relations with non-Croat civilians in the occupied territories during Operation Storm, calling Markac a "highly moral person" whose men provided civilians with food and water during their operations. Markac is accused, along with generals Ante Gotovina and Ivan Cermak, of participating in a joint criminal enterprise that resulted in crimes committed against Serb civilians during and after Operation Storm, aimed at retaking the Serb-held Krajina region in August 1995. As commander of the special police, Markac oversaw the operation and functions of special police units that participated in Operation Storm. According to the indictment, Markac also controlled the operations of members of the Croatian army, HV, artillery units attached to his force during the months leading up to and following the military offensive. The indictment charges Markac with permitting, denying and minimising ongoing criminal activity - including plundering, destruction, inhumane treatment and murder - by his subordinates during Operation Storm against the Krajina Serbs. Pavlovic worked in communications and technology for the Croatian ministry of interior for over 20 years before retiring in 2000. In 1990, Pavlovic was assigned as assistant commander of special police for communications. He earned the nickname of "Antenna" due to the two to three radios that were constantly in his possession. Tomislav Kuzmanovic, one of Markac's defence lawyers, asked Pavlovic what type of communications he organised for the special police before Operation Storm. Pavlovic told the judges that he was responsible for coordinating communication between the commander of an operation and his subordinate soldiers. Soldiers depended on their ability to report back on their positions, medical conditions, and need for reinforcements, Pavlovic said. Kuzmanovic asked Pavlovic about the objectives and role of the special police during Operation Storm, particularly concerning the treatment of enemy soldiers and Serbian civilians encountered during the operation. "If we encountered civilians, those civilians had to be sent to the basic police force... to ensure their documents, food and water," Pavlovic told the judges. "If we encountered enemy soldiers, we were told to disarm them, leave sufficient numbers to keep an eye on them, and call sufficient police." The task of the special police was to "fight against terrorism", by expeditiously advancing forward and establishing combat contact with the enemy, Pavlovic said. "After us, you would have regular police force come in," Pavlovic told the judges. "[To] prevent crimes, uncover perpetrators - those were not the tasks of special [police]." The special police were not assigned to a specific territory, unlike civilian police, he added. "What was the purpose of the mop-up and search operations after August 21?" Kuzmanovic asked. Pavlovic told judges that the special police were assigned with searching the terrain in certain areas following Operation Storm, as well as deploying special forces to uncover enemy soldiers, mine fields, and hidden weapons. The special units engaged in mop-up operations until September 12, he said. Kuzmanovic asked Pavlovic about Markac's behaviour towards other members of the special police, as well as civilians in the occupied territories. Pavlovic, who said he had known Markac since the beginning of war, said that the commander was a "highly moral person". "[Markac] is a very socially sensitive person who took equal care of the special units and other members of the ministry of the interior as well as the civilians we came across in occupied territory," Pavlovic told the judges. He said that he had seen Markac supply civilians with food, cigarettes and water on multiple occasions. The witness also recollected instances where he had come into conflict with Markac over disagreements on how to best use equipment and weaponry belonging to the special police. In one situation, Pavlovic said that Markac sent units of "greater force than necessary" to pull out wounded or dead members of the special police. Markac sent a helicopter into enemy territory to pull out a wounded soldier, despite Pavlovic's protests. Enemy combatants shot at the helicopter, Pavlovic said, but the soldier was rescued. However, the unit was then forced to travel by horseback or foot due to the loss of the helicopter. "He did everything he could to provide assistance to such members as soon as possible," Pavlovic said, adding that Markac adhered to all Croatian laws and moral codes. Kuzmanovic asked whether Markac had ever issued instructions on how to treat enemy combatants. Pavlovic said that Markac briefed his soldiers on the areas where they operated, describing combat operations and tasks in detail. "There were never political speeches given," Pavlovic said, adding that Markac spoke of the importance of honouring international conventions and treaties. When taking enemy prisoners, Pavlovic said, Markac instructed his units to disarm and search such persons before calling on the regular police. It was also a soldier's duty to care for civilians by giving them water and calling on regular police, who would in turn call for civilian protection, Pavlovic said. The trial continues next week. Julia Hawes is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. SESELJ CASEL SET TO RESUME Additional witnesses to be called to testify when case reopens in January. By Julia Hawes in The Hague Judges this week ordered the resumption of the trial of Vojislav Seselj, former president of the Serbian Radical Party, who is representing himself on war crimes charges at the Hague tribunal. Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti called for the Office of the Prosecution, OTP to arrange its remaining witness testimony on January 12, 2010, when the trial is due to continue. The judges also announced that they would call seven additional witnesses to testify, in addition to any final statements by witnesses called by the OTP. According to the judge, six of the remaining OTP witnesses wish to testify on behalf of the accused, as opposed to the prosecution. In turn, the chamber decided it was in the interest of justice for the witnesses to be examined by the court. Judge Antonetti also confirmed on November 24 that the trial chamber had dismissed the motion by the OTP requesting Seselj seek additional legal representation. The judges also dismissed the request for any additional trial hours for the prosecution. Seselj is accused of responsibility for crimes committed against Croat, Muslim and other non-Serb populations in regions throughout Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia between 1991 and 1993. According to the indictment, Seselj was part of a joint criminal enterprise that planned, ordered, committed or aided in the planning of persecutions of non-Serb civilian populations in order to create a Serb-dominated state. Seselj made inflammatory speeches in the media, the indictment says, and encouraged the creation of a homogenous Greater Serbia by violence, thereby participating in war propaganda and the incitement of hatred towards non-Serb people. Seselj was indicted on February 14, 2003. The trial began on November 27, 2006, but without Seselj who had started a hunger strike on November 10 and refused to appear in court. The trial recommenced on November 7, 2007. On February 11, 2009, the trial chamber adjourned the proceedings after prosecutors alleged that the accused had intimidated a number of prosecution witnesses. The trial chamber delivered its decision on November 24 by handing down a single, consolidated decision regarding all the pending motions. Weve filed the decision this way because wed like the trial to commence in the best way possible, Judge Antonetti told the court. The judges decision asked the prosecution to withdraw its remaining three witnesses, and to confirm the withdrawal with the court within eight days of the hearing, in order to speed up proceedings. The judges announced that the OTP and Seselj would be prohibited from contacting witnesses called by the trial chamber unless expressly instructed to do so. If you wish to contact witnesses, you must [tell] the chamber of the matter and file a motion with reasons for contact, Judge Antonetti told the court. He also added that while the trial chamber was subpoenaing witnesses, there would be no separate investigations for the remaining testimonies. Judge Antonetti also ordered Seselj to communicate to the court copies of any future publications in his name that were related to his case. In July 2009, Seselj was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for revealing the names and protected details of witnesses in a book he wrote. Seseljs appeal against the judgement is still pending. If you publish a new book, disclose the book, Judge Antonetti told the accused on November 24, stressing that the court registry would need to check the publication for any confidential information related to protected witnesses. Seselj said that such a decision was unprecedented in the history of mankind and was a form of censorship over his books. Judge Frederick Harhoff denied that the court was guilty of censorship by requesting copies of his manuscripts. You were convicted of publishing in a book things that should not have been published, Judge Harhoff said. We need to check to see if information exists that cannot be published. Julia Hawes is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** ICTY TRIBUNAL UPDATE, the publication arm of IWPR's International Justice Project, produced since 1996, details the events and issues at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, at The Hague. These weekly reports, produced by IWPR's human rights and media training project, seek to contribute to regional and international understanding of the war crimes prosecution process. The opinions expressed in ICTY Tribunal Update are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. 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