Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 7077

          1                                Monday, 16th March 1998

          2            (3.45pm)

          3                (The accused entered court)

          4            JUDGE JORDA:   I first wish to apologise on

          5  behalf of my colleagues and myself for this delay, but

          6  it was due to other official engagements affecting the

          7  Tribunal, which is an international body, and obviously

          8  has certain obligations which require the presence of

          9  the judges.  I wish to welcome the accused -- do you

         10  hear me, General Blaskic.

         11            GENERAL BLASKIC:  Good afternoon, your

         12  Honours, I can hear you very well indeed.

         13            JUDGE JORDA:   If General Blaskic can hear me

         14  there is every chance parties can hear me as well.  We

         15  can proceed to the continuation of our hearing.

         16            MR. HARMON:  Good afternoon, your Honours and

         17  counsel.  We would request, Mr. President, to proceed in

         18  a closed session.

         19            JUDGE JORDA:   Very well.  As I do not know

         20  exactly why you are asking for a closed session,

         21  I assume it is in order to explain to us why you are

         22  asking for a closed session?

         23            MR. HARMON:  That is correct.

         24            JUDGE JORDA:   I say that for the benefit of

         25  the public and the observers.  I do not wish them to


Page 7078

          1  have the impression that immediately the Prosecutor

          2  asks for a closed session that we adopt a closed

          3  session, but I now understand the reasons.  I turn to

          4  my colleagues, I have their approval.  Under those

          5  conditions, we can pass on to a closed session now.  A

          6  private session or a closed session?

          7            MR. HARMON:  A private session is sufficient

          8  for the purposes of my request.

          9            JUDGE JORDA:   Very well, private session,

         10  Mr. Registrar.

         11  (In private session) [Confidentiality lifted by order of  Chamber]

         12            Very well, Mr. Prosecutor, we are in private

         13  session now.  I assume that you have something to

         14  explain to us which requires a private session.  You

         15  have the floor.

         16            MR. HARMON:  Thank you, Mr. President.  Some

         17  time ago, as a result of events which the court is

         18  already familiar with, I was informed by the next

         19  Prosecution witness that he wished to proceed in

         20  testifying in a closed session.  The Prosecutor's

         21  Office fully supports his request for the reasons which

         22  I will explain and for the reasons which, if the court

         23  is desirous, he will explain.

         24            In our communications with the Defence to

         25  notify them of which witness we were going to call


Page 7079

          1  today, I identified the witness to the Defence and

          2  I also informed the Defence that we would be requesting

          3  a closed session.  On Thursday, the 12th, I received a

          4  communication back from Mr. Hayman informing me that

          5  they would oppose that request absent knowing fully the

          6  bases for making that request and I subsequently filed

          7  a copy of Mr. Hayman's letter to me as attachment A by

          8  consent with counsel.

          9            The following day, I met with Mr. Hayman and

         10  we discussed some of the bases for the request for a

         11  closed session, and I was informed that counsel would

         12  discuss the matter amongst themselves upon the return

         13  of Mr. Nobilo from Zagreb and I would be informed of

         14  their decision.  I was informed moments ago that the

         15  Defence is not able to agree to a closed session for

         16  the witness, and, therefore, I am pursuing my

         17  application which I filed on Friday for protective

         18  measures for this witness, specifically for a request

         19  to proceed with the witness's testimony in a closed

         20  session pursuant to Rule 75(B)(ii) and pursuant to

         21  79(A)(ii) and A(iii).  So now, Mr. President, if the

         22  court pleases, I am prepared to expand on the bases for

         23  this request, if the court wishes me to do so.

         24            MR. HARMON:  Following the receipt of the

         25  statement that was taken by the Office of the


Page 7080

          1  Prosecutor and submitted to the Defence in early May,

          2  the complete statement of the witness was distributed

          3  through President Tudjman's office and by President

          4  Tudjman at the presidential palace on or about 6 May

          5  1997.  What followed, after the distribution of the

          6  statement of Mr. Mesic was the public pillorying of

          7  Mr. Mesic in the media.

          8            The media campaign was orchestrated at the

          9  highest levels of the State of Croatia.  Mr. Mesic was

         10  branded an traitor and the media incited the public

         11  against the witness.

         12            Following that incitement, and I have

         13  submitted some examples of that with the court and

         14  previous filings, Mr. Mesic received a constant stream

         15  of threatening phone calls.  Both he and his family

         16  received phone calls which threatened his life,

         17  threatened the lives of his family members.

         18            Following the unfortunate publication in the

         19  press of his statement, Mr. Mesic was required --

         20  obligated -- to defend himself in the media and he made

         21  numerous appearances in the media trying to blunt the

         22  orchestrated attack that was being mounted against

         23  him.  It was certainly quite a natural reaction from

         24  someone who had been attacked in the press, but it was

         25  one that was forced upon him unfortunately, by


Page 7081

          1  President Tudjman and the serious violation of Tribunal

          2  confidentiality.

          3            The fact that he responded to these virulent

          4  attacks is not in any way a waiver or intended to be a

          5  waiver for his request to testify before this Tribunal

          6  and to testify in a session that afforded him

          7  protection; that is, a closed session.

          8            As part of the State campaign that has been

          9  mounted against him, the witness believes now that he

         10  is under constant surveillance and he is being

         11  followed.  Subsequently he received threats from

         12  individuals who were responsible -- personal and direct

         13  threats -- from individuals who were responsible for

         14  the killing of civilians in Pakras Polanje and the

         15  killings of a prominent family in Zagreb.

         16            These threats were made by persons who were

         17  admitted murderers and whose convictions were

         18  overturned by the Croatian Supreme Court for a

         19  violation relating to non-representation by counsel at

         20  the time they made their statements to the authorities.

         21            Subsequently, Mr. President, an oblique threat

         22  was made against the witness in a most recent past,

         23  within the last three weeks, by President Tudjman.

         24  Mr. Mesic believes the testimony he is prepared to

         25  present to your Honours is valuable testimony, and that


Page 7082

          1  the efforts that I have summarised have been

          2  orchestrated by persons in the highest positions of

          3  power in Croatia in order to prevent him from

          4  testifying before you.

          5            He believes, Mr. President, and the Prosecutor

          6  supports him in this belief, that he and his family are

          7  at considerable personal risk if his testimony is made

          8  public -- and if his request to proceed in a closed

          9  session is denied.  Mr. President, and your Honours,

         10  Mr. Mesic is prepared to testify about the matters that

         11  I have summarised briefly, if the court so desires.

         12            That concludes my comments, Mr. President.

         13            JUDGE JORDA:   Very well.  Mr. Hayman,

         14  Mr. Nobilo, you are opposed to a closed session.

         15            Who is Mr. Mesic actually, Mr. Harmon?

         16            MR. HARMON:  Mr. President, Mr. Mesic is a well

         17  known political figure in the former Yugoslavia.  He

         18  was the last President of the presidency in the former

         19  Yugoslavia before Yugoslavia essentially disintegrated

         20  or fell apart.  Mr. Mesic was a founder -- not a founder

         21  but he was instrumental in HDZ political affairs.  He

         22  was a person who was instrumental in the founding of

         23  the HDZ political party in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  He has

         24  occupied the position of Prime Minister in the Republic

         25  of Croatia.  He has a variety of high-level Government


Page 7083

          1  official positions in Croatia.  He is and was an

          2  intimate of Franjo Tudjman and he is currently the head

          3  -- separated from the HDZ and has formed a separate

          4  political party in Opposition to the HDZ in Croatia.

          5            I can give greater detail but I think I have

          6  hit a significant number of highlights of his

          7  distinguished career.

          8            JUDGE JORDA:   Mr. Nobilo, you are opposed on

          9  behalf of General Blaskic to testimony in closed

         10  session.  What are your reasons, please?

         11            MR. NOBILO:   Yes, Mr. President.

         12            JUDGE JORDA:   Have you tried to reach an

         13  agreement -- have you had discussions over this point?

         14            MR. NOBILO:   No, we had a very short

         15  conversation so that we did not touch upon the

         16  substance of the issue.  But I will be brief.  As you

         17  know, the Defence has never, so far, opposed any kind

         18  of protection measures, because we are aware that

         19  people and particularly those in Bosnia-Herzegovina

         20  may, at times, be exposed to certain security risks and

         21  out of the respect for the integrity of each witness,

         22  we never opposed such measures.

         23            But the reason why we are disputing it this

         24  time is our fear that politicians may draw the Tribunal

         25  into some kind of political manipulations so that the


Page 7084

          1  Tribunal may become an instrument in the political

          2  disputes between political parties in Croatia.

          3  Therefore, we are concerned in protecting the integrity

          4  of this Tribunal, namely, everything that Mr. Mesic said

          5  in his statement for the Prosecutor has -- he has

          6  repeated in numerous interviews.  I have collected

          7  maybe 200 of those interviews.  Not a single point that

          8  he made in the statement for the Office of the

          9  Prosecutor exists which has not been repeated on

         10  innumerable occasions.

         11            After the publication of his statement, which

         12  the Prosecutor places in a rather embarrassing context,

         13  because the Prosecutor said that he provided that

         14  statement to the Defence after which it was published,

         15  but it is also worth noting that it was not a

         16  confidential statement -- after the publication of that

         17  statement, Mr. Mesic has made at least twice or three

         18  times as many interviews, which he used in his

         19  political struggle.

         20            Furthermore, before going to The Hague,

         21  Mr. Mesic promised to give an interview to the

         22  journalist about his testimony in The Hague and he said

         23  that, after his return from The Hague, at the end of

         24  this week, he would grant an interview to a well known

         25  Croatian weekly.  Therefore, in my view, this is a kind


Page 7085

          1  of a political ploy.  I think that Croatia, as a legal

          2  State, is stable enough to protect all its citizens'

          3  security and safety, and he is a public figure, a

          4  politician, he is accustomed to debates and discussions

          5  and I assure you he is very skilful in that respect and

          6  he cannot be intimidated through political debate.

          7            As for specific threats made by persons who

          8  committed murders in  Pakras Polanje against whom

          9  proceedings have been dropped, even that is not

         10  correct, because those persons are in Croatian

         11  detention and criminal proceedings are under way

         12  against those persons, so I cannot see how they could

         13  have threatened Mr. Mesic.

         14            Also the allegation that Tudjman threatened

         15  Mr. Mesic has not been explained in any way, so that we

         16  cannot comment on it.

         17            To sum up, I feel that the security of

         18  Mr. Mesic is not in jeopardy, that all the allegations

         19  referred to by the Prosecutor regarding statements made

         20  by Mr. Mesic are such that he has made them repeatedly

         21  to the press and this only makes the work of the

         22  Defence more difficult, because the question is how

         23  could we use the information Mr. Mesic will give to

         24  verify that information, which we have to do -- to

         25  verify the statements through people he has worked with


Page 7086

          1  in the Croatian leadership.  If the hearing is closed,

          2  the question is how we can use that information and

          3  that data.

          4            Furthermore, there is no record of Mr. Mesic

          5  requesting any police protection because of any threats

          6  made to him.  He is a very well known figure and

          7  I cannot imagine that his personal safety could have

          8  been threatened.

          9            JUDGE JORDA:   Mr. Prosecutor, you have

         10  something to add before the judges make their ruling?

         11            MR. HARMON:  I do, Mr. President.  In the

         12  motion that I filed on Friday, on page 4, footnote

         13  number 2, I informed the Chamber that Mr. Mesic intends

         14  to testify publicly in the Dokmanovic case -- this week

         15  -- and obviously the interests in the Dokmanovic case

         16  are different than the interests in the testimony that

         17  the court may receive and will receive in this

         18  particular case.  I have conferred with Mr. Mesic,

         19  I have asked Mr. Mesic if in fact he has made statements

         20  about his willingness to talk to his press after his

         21  arrival in The Hague and he said that he has and it

         22  relates to his public testimony in the Dokmanovic

         23  case.  So, I think that we should put those statements

         24  of Mr. Mesic's willingness to talk to the press in

         25  context with his anticipated public testimony that will


Page 7087

          1  occur later this week in a different case.

          2            Those are my comments, Mr. President.

          3            MR. HAYMAN:   May I add two comments,

          4  Mr. President?

          5            JUDGE JORDA:   It is not customary,

          6  Mr. Hayman, but, go ahead.

          7            MR. HAYMAN:   The first would be it would be

          8  helpful if we could be served with the application that

          9  was filed on Friday.  We have never received it.  It

         10  would help us speak more directly perhaps to the

         11  Prosecutor's assertions, including the assertion made

         12  in footnote 4 which we were not aware of in even the

         13  most general sense, until Mr. Nobilo started to get

         14  phone calls from members of the news media in Zagreb

         15  asking him about Mr. Mesic's upcoming testimony, which

         16  he declined to comment on in any way, shape or

         17  fashion.  The fact that Mr. Mesic has an appointment

         18  with the news media to talk about his testimony in this

         19  other case raises a rather obvious question, and that

         20  is, he is going to be asked, "Did you testify in the

         21  Blaskic case?"  Apparently, he is going to lie to the

         22  Croatian news media and say, "No, I did not; I was here

         23  to testify in a different case", and I query if the

         24  Tribunal should be a party to that type of fraud and

         25  deception.


Page 7088

     1            JUDGE JORDA:   Very well.  I turn first

          2  towards my colleagues -- no questions?  We are going to

          3  withdraw and discuss the point.  The hearing is

          4  adjourned.

          5            (4.05pm)

          6                    (Short adjournment)

          7            (4.23pm)

          8            JUDGE JORDA:   After having deliberated, the

          9  judges have decided unanimously that Mr. Mesic's

         10  testimony will be in closed session.

         11            Mr. Registrar, we can move from a private

         12  session into a closed session

         13  (In closed session) [Confidentiality lifted by order of  Chamber]

         14            MR. HARMON:  May I raise a second point that

         15  was part of our discussions last Friday with

         16  Mr. Hayman?  If I can identify what the problem is and

         17  the solution at the same time, I would like to do that

         18  at this point in time.

         19            JUDGE JORDA:   Mr. Harmon, it is very pleasing

         20  for this Tribunal to the hear one of the parties

         21  raising -- not only raising a problem but also

         22  providing a solution to it.

         23            MR. HARMON:  Mr. President, it came to my

         24  attention when I was talking to the witness that

         25  Mr. Mesic has in the past been represented by


Page 7089

          1  Mr. Nobilo.  He has been his counsel in other issues in

          2  other litigation.  That raised in my mind a potential

          3  conflict of interest with the cross-examination by

          4  Mr. Nobilo of Mr. Mesic, and, in order to avoid any

          5  possible point should there be a conviction and on

          6  appeal of a conflict of interest existing between

          7  Mr. Nobilo cross-examining his former client, I identify

          8  that problem to Mr. Hayman.

          9            Mr. Hayman and I had a conversation briefly

         10  before we came to court and I was informed that

         11  Mr. Blaskic is prepared to waive any potential conflict

         12  of interest, should Mr. Nobilo conduct the

         13  cross-examination.

         14            MR. HAYMAN:   That is correct, Mr. President,

         15  we can put that waiver on the record, if necessary.

         16  I would note, though, that months ago the Defence

         17  advised the Prosecution and the court that Mr. Nobilo --

         18  that Mr. Mesic had been a client of Mr. Nobilo's, so that

         19  is in the record.  That is not something that has been

         20  concealed.  In fact it was affirmatively disclosed.

         21            JUDGE JORDA:   First, thank you for this

         22  clarification.  First, we note, and the Registrar will

         23  ensure that everything is put into the transcript,

         24  stating that the General has given up his right to

         25  invoke this issue later on.  There may be reasons for


Page 7090

          1  appeal, although that is not the main reason.  I would

          2  also like to express my concern whether it might be

          3  more efficient if Mr. Hayman were to conduct the

          4  cross-examination.  Would that not be even better -- a

          5  better guarantee, subject to you being given some time

          6  if it was Mr. Nobilo who prepared it?  What do you

          7  think, Mr. Hayman?

          8            MR. HAYMAN:   We think the waiver is efficient

          9  and in light of the waiver either one of us can conduct

         10  the cross-examination.  In reality there are many

         11  documents in the Croatian language which Mr. Nobilo will

         12  potentially be using so he has prepared the cross so

         13  I expect him to conduct the cross-examination, with

         14  leave of the court.

         15            JUDGE JORDA:   I would like to consult with

         16  my colleagues at the bench.

         17            (Pause).

         18            Also unanimously, the judges have decided

         19  that they would accept the suggestions both by the

         20  Prosecution and the Defence and the accused.

         21  Therefore, Mr. Nobilo will conduct the

         22  cross-examination, since the accused has given -- has

         23  waived his right to any challenge later on, on that

         24  score.  Do you have a third problem, Mr. Harmon, for

         25  which of course you would also have a solution?


Page 7091

          1            MR. HARMON:  My only request in clarification,

          2  Mr. President, is that General Blaskic actually state

          3  affirmatively for the record that he is prepared to

          4  waive the conflict of interest.  Counsel has indicated

          5  he is prepared to do so but we have not heard from

          6  General Blaskic yet on that particular point.

          7            JUDGE JORDA:   I am very pleased to hear

          8  General Blaskic -- sometimes I speak to him directly,

          9  but perhaps I could ask him more specifically in this

         10  case to rise and to say that you give up any right for

         11  appeal, because of this possible conflict of interest

         12  that might exist between Mr. Nobilo's position, who was

         13  the former counsel of Mr. Mesic and the current position

         14  of Mr. Nobilo which allows him to conduct the

         15  cross-examination.  Please state your case clearly and

         16  out loud.

         17            GENERAL BLASKIC:  Your Honours, I feel rather

         18  embarrassed to speak after your ruling on this issue.

         19  I know that Mr. Stjepan Mesic was a client of my

         20  attorney Mr. Nobilo and I waive any potential legal

         21  objections regarding possible conflict of interest in

         22  that connection.

         23            JUDGE JORDA:   Thank you, General Blaskic.

         24  Mr. Harmon, are you completely satisfied and do you have

         25  a fourth question?


Page 7092

          1            MR. HARMON:  No, I have no fourth question and

          2  I am completely satisfied, thank you, Mr. President.

          3            JUDGE JORDA:   Mr. Harmon, you might now ask

          4  the Registrar to have the witness brought in, who will

          5  be called by his name, because this is a closed

          6  session.

          7            MR. HARMON:  Mr. President, would you want me

          8  to summarise before the witness steps into the

          9  courtroom what his testimony will cover?

         10            JUDGE JORDA:   Yes, before he comes into the

         11  courtroom, you should given us the general outline of

         12  the testimony.  Of course, subject to your using that

         13  for something else later on.  We want to be careful

         14  that your summary brings out the things you are going

         15  to emphasise later on.  Go ahead.

         16            MR. HARMON:  As I touched upon briefly, the

         17  next witness, Mr. Mesic, is an important political

         18  figure in the history of the fall of Yugoslavia, the

         19  disintegration of Yugoslavia and he has played an

         20  important role in both Croatian politics and the

         21  politics of the Socialist Federal Republic of

         22  Yugoslavia.  Rather than recount the various highlights

         23  of his distinguished career now, I am going to ask him

         24  to summarise those, so you will be familiar with who he

         25  is when he comes before you.


Page 7093

          1            He is going to testify about the development

          2  of the HDZ political party, both the founding of it in

          3  Croatia and the founding of it in Bosnia, and he will

          4  discuss the relationship between the HDZ party in

          5  Bosnia and the party in Croatia.

          6            Because he was a confidante of Franjo

          7  Tudjman, the current President of the Republic of

          8  Croatia, he has had an opportunity to hear Mr. Tudjman's

          9  views about Bosnia and about Bosnian Muslims.  He will

         10  convey to you what Dr Tudjman's views are in respect of

         11  both those topics.  He will testify about President

         12  Tudjman's dual policy towards Bosnia, one which was a

         13  public policy of recognition of the independence of

         14  Bosnia, and a clandestine policy to divide Bosnia

         15  between Croatia and Serbia.

         16            He will testify in that regard about a

         17  meeting that took place in 1991 between Slobodan

         18  Milosevic and President Tudjman at Kar Zordzivo, after

         19  which President Tudjman's clandestine policy to divide

         20  Bosnia was implemented.  He will also testify about

         21  some of the meetings in Zagreb that occurred between

         22  Franjo Tudjman and Mate Boban, Dario Kordic, Anto

         23  Valenta, Ignac Kostroman, and other luminaries of

         24  Herceg-Bosna.

         25            He will testify about the current laws in


Page 7094

          1  Croatia, laws that existed at the time Bosnia was

          2  independent, but laws which deal with elections and

          3  which tend to undercut the independence of Bosnia.

          4            He will testify about Croatian involvement in

          5  the Croat Muslim war in Bosnia.  He will describe to

          6  your Honours the impact of the Vance-Owen peace plan on

          7  the thinking of political leaders both in Croatia and

          8  in Herceg-Bosna and, lastly, he will testify about

          9  conversations he had in respect of Ahmici.

         10            That, Mr. President, is a summary of his

         11  testimony.  His testimony will be relevant to

         12  paragraphs 5.0 and 5.1 of the general allegations

         13  section of the indictment which allege the existence of

         14  an international armed conflict, and his testimony is

         15  relevant to all grave breaches counts of the

         16  indictment, those counts being 5, 8, 11, 15, 17, and

         17  19.  That concludes my introductory remarks,

         18  Mr. President.

         19            JUDGE JORDA:   After the agreement with one

         20  of my colleagues, but of course we work in three, so

         21  I will speak to my colleague -- I want to consult with

         22  him before I ask you a question on a certain point.

         23            Did you speak with this witness about Rule

         24  90(F), because this is a closed session; he

         25  participated if I understood things correctly at the


Page 7095

          1  highest levels of Mr. Tudjman's policies.  I do not know

          2  if he was involved in any kinds of acts.  Did you speak

          3  about this with him, because we are going to ask him

          4  questions on that subject?

          5            MR. HARMON:  I did not raise this subpart of

          6  Rule 90 with him, because I did not think it applied to

          7  him based on the nature of the testimony he was

          8  prepared to give.

          9            JUDGE JORDA:   Very well.  If you are sure,

         10  okay, I thank you.  We can have Mr. Mesic brought in.

         11                (The witness entered court)

         12            JUDGE JORDA:   Do you hear me, Mr. Mesic?

         13            MR. MESIC:   I do.

         14            JUDGE JORDA:   Would you please remain

         15  standing.  First, tell us your name and -- your family

         16  name and your given names?

         17            MR. MESIC:   Stjepan Mesic.

         18            JUDGE JORDA:   Stjepan Mesic, thank you.  The

         19  usher will give you a declaration, which is your oath.

         20  Please read it.

         21            MR. MESIC:   I solemnly declare that I will

         22  speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the

         23  truth.

         24            JUDGE JORDA:   Thank you.  You may be

         25  seated.  You will answer the Prosecution's questions,


Page 7096

          1  who has called you to testify at the International

          2  Criminal Tribunal in the trial against General Blaskic,

          3  the accused, who is here in this courtroom.  You will

          4  make your statement freely, in sequences and the

          5  Prosecutor will introduce the plan to use and to enter

          6  the cohesiveness of what will be said for the judges.

          7                       STJEPAN MESIC

          8                   Examined by MR. HARMON

          9            MR. HARMON:  Good afternoon, Mr. Mesic.

         10  Mr. Mesic, I am going to ask you a series of questions

         11  and I am going to identify the topic and the subject

         12  area of those questions.  I will then ask you to tell

         13  the judges in a narrative form the answers that you

         14  have in respect of each of those subject areas.

         15  I would like first to begin by asking you to inform the

         16  court, if you would, about your background, about your

         17  distinguished political career, about the various

         18  positions that you have held both in the Socialist

         19  Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in the Republic of

         20  Yugoslavia when it was one of the Republics of the

         21  Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the

         22  positions you have held in the Republic of Yugoslavia

         23  since its independence?

         24       A.   Thank you.  I was born 1934 in Orahovica in

         25  Croatia.  I completed my elementary school in


Page 7097

          1  Orahovica, but this was during the war years, so

          2  I spent part of my schooling in Hungary because we had

          3  to retreat there as refugees because this was the very

          4  end of the war.

          5            I graduated from the middle school -- the

          6  secondary school in Pozega and then law school in

          7  Zagreb.  I practised in Narsica and then in Zagreb.

          8  I was then a judge for a year, and after that I worked

          9  as legal counsel for a company in Zagreb, and then, by

         10  accident almost, I was elected a member of Parliament

         11  in Zagreb.  This was in 1965.  At that time, there was

         12  only the League of Communists and the Socialist

         13  Alliance that could field candidates who would then

         14  become members of Parliament if they were elected.

         15            There was another possibility, that is, that

         16  100 citizens show up in court and petition for a

         17  candidate, and in that manner, this candidate would be

         18  on equal footing with the candidates fielded by the

         19  Communists.  I was the first person during the

         20  Communist system who did this, and nobody did it after

         21  me.  I was the first one -- I brought 100 people

         22  there.  Then I was elected, and I was unique in that

         23  way.

         24            I was a member of the Croatian Spring and,

         25  after 1971, I was unemployed and I also received a


Page 7098

          1  sentence of two years and two months.  I spent that

          2  sentence in Stara Gradiska.  I could not become an

          3  attorney, even though I did pass the bar exam, because

          4  I was not politically and morally qualified, as it was

          5  said in those days.

          6            After a while, I was employed finally by an

          7  architectural studio to do the legal affairs for them.

          8  Its director later retired and then I became a

          9  director.  The committee of the League of Communists

         10  tried to oppose my election.  However, it was a small

         11  company, so there was not much opposition and

         12  I passed.

         13            In 1989, I was again elected as a member of

         14  Parliament to the same position, which I had held in

         15  1965. I got a mandate to form the Croatian Government

         16  and I had to step down as a member of Parliament.

         17  After a while, the Parliament -- the Croatian

         18  Parliament sent me to Belgrade to become a member of

         19  the Presidency and this decision was adopted by the

         20  Croatian Parliament.  I was first the Vice-President

         21  and then President of the Presidency of the Socialist

         22  Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.  There was a lot of

         23  difficulties, because the Serb side was opposed to

         24  my assuming the position of first Vice-President and

         25  then President of the Presidency, even though it was a


Page 7099

          1  constitutional provision.

          2            After the pressure of the European Troika,

          3  I was elected to this position and I was in this

          4  position until the end of 1991, whereupon I returned to

          5  Zagreb and I was a member of the executive board of the

          6  Croatian Democratic Union, and I was in this position

          7  until 1992, and in the elections of 1992 I was

          8  re-elected to the Croatian Parliament and then I became

          9  the President of the Croatian Parliament.

         10            Among the political duties which I held

         11  during the establishment of the Croatian Democratic

         12  Union, I was elected Secretary-General of this party

         13  and I was in this position and I was elected to

         14  President of the Croatian Government.

         15            And now, in a manner of speaking, I am

         16  outside of the party institutions.  I was a member --

         17  there were three Croatian parties -- Croatian

         18  independents -- and a third party fused and I became

         19  their President, after having left the ruling party,

         20  the HDZ.

         21       Q.   Let me ask you some clarifications on some of

         22  the points you raised.  In 1971, you mentioned the

         23  Croatian Spring.  Can you tell the judges, what was the

         24  Croatian Spring?

         25       A.   The Croatian Spring was actually a movement


Page 7100

          1  led by a section of the Communist party, or, rather,

          2  the top leadership of the Croatian League of

          3  Communists, that is the most progressive part, but it

          4  consisted of several parts.  One was the students'

          5  movement, another was a trade union movement and the

          6  third section was a cultural institution known as the

          7  Matica Hrvatska, and all three comprised the Croatian

          8  Spring.

          9       Q.   You mentioned that you had been convicted of

         10  something.  Could you expand on that -- tell the judges

         11  exactly what you were convicted of?

         12       A.   This would sound rather ridiculous nowadays,

         13  the charges made against me.  Nowadays it is certainly

         14  not a criminal offence -- it is not even a

         15  misdemeanour, but in those days it was a serious

         16  charge, namely, with the formation of the Matica

         17  Hrvatska, this cultural association, and its branches

         18  in the municipalities, I visited a number of those

         19  branch offices -- Slatina, Orahovica, Donje Mikoholjic,

         20  Vukovar, and other places, and I said in one of those

         21  places that the Croats had paved their way to the

         22  Adriatic with their swords in their hands, whereas

         23  others had reached that area, either due to our

         24  goodness, and we also said that the important thing is

         25  for the devil to warm on the fire and not to extinguish


Page 7101

          1  it.

          2            The third thing I said was that it was

          3  certain that the Croats had killed the Yugoslav

          4  Ambassador, Rolovic, in Sweden, but that that was not

          5  in the interests of the Croatian people, because we

          6  were advocating democratisation in Croatia and

          7  Yugoslavia and for the adoption of amendments which

          8  would lead to a confederal structure and, therefore,

          9  the murder, the assassination of the Yugoslavia

         10  Ambassador was not in our interests.  When I said that,

         11  even though the Croats had been the murderers, but

         12  I said that the investigation would establish who was

         13  behind the act.

         14            Of course, when this was interpreted in the

         15  judiciary, they found that I had the Serbs in mind, and

         16  that I was implying that the Belgrade police was behind

         17  this, and this was sufficient to get me a sentence of

         18  two years and two months in prison.

         19       Q.   Next, Mr. Mesic, you said in 1990 you became

         20  the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia within

         21  the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.  Can you

         22  tell me who appointed you to that position?

         23       A.   I was appointed by the Croatian Parliament,

         24  and I was proposed by the President of the Republic,

         25  Dr. Franjo Tudjman.


Page 7102

          1       Q.   Now, I would like to turn your attention,

          2  Mr. Mesic, to another topic, and that is the development

          3  of the HDZ party in Croatia.  Could you please tell the

          4  judges about the development of that party in Croatia,

          5  its evolution, both in terms from a movement to a

          6  political party, and its political philosophy as well?

          7       A.   Thank you.  With the elimination of the

          8  Croatian Spring, that is the end of 1971, all

          9  democratic processes in Croatia were halted.  They were

         10  halted throughout Yugoslavia.  Persecution was

         11  considerable, and more than 10,000 of us participants

         12  in this "Spring" ended up in prison.  But an even

         13  larger number were left jobless, or were mistreated in

         14  other ways.  However, that is the way life is, so what

         15  happened was that this pressure eased, so that

         16  somewhere after 1985 or 1986 we started thinking more

         17  about the possibilities of us -- the people of the

         18  Opposition -- organising ourselves.

         19            I must say that we met in various groups and

         20  already in 1988 we started thinking about publishing a

         21  journal -- a newspaper -- which would be outside the

         22  control of the powers that be.

         23            However, with the process of democratisation

         24  in Croatia, and in Serbia Milosevic came to power, who

         25  manifested aspirations towards expanding the borders of


Page 7103

          1  Serbia by abolishing the autonomy of Kosovo and

          2  Vojvodina.  Amongst us, the process of party formation

          3  was accelerated and the first such party was formed in

          4  1989, the Croatian Social Liberal Party, and we, that

          5  is, the circle of people, worked on the formation of

          6  the Croatian Democratic Community -- using the term

          7   "community" so as to avoid the use of the term "a

          8  party", because, at that time, it was not allowed, so

          9  that the potential danger existed of Parties being

         10  abolished and in this way the Croatian Democratic

         11  Community would be exempted from that and I think

         12  I joined the HDZ a month or two after it was founded.

         13  That is, a very large circle of people was involved in

         14  the formation of the party, a founding assembly was

         15  scheduled, several hundred people attended, but the

         16  rumour spread that the police had outlawed the meeting

         17  and Franjo Tudjman, together with 56 of his followers,

         18  went to a football stadium and proclaimed the formation

         19  of the party, the main board was elected and he was

         20  elected President of that board , so I did not

         21  participate in those very first elections, someone else

         22  was elected at the time, Mr. Bobetko, and after that

         23  I was elected to that post when I joined the Croatian

         24  Democratic Community.

         25       Q.   Could you describe the political philosophy


Page 7104

          1  of the HDZ at its inception and any changes in that

          2  philosophy -- any evolution of that philosophy?

          3       A.   Since all of us Opposition people had opted

          4  for democracy and the multi-party system even before

          5  the elections, it was clear that the HDZ, in its

          6  programme, supported such a multi-party system, and

          7  democracy and all democratic processes.

          8            At the time when parties were still being

          9  formed, they collaborated amongst themselves, even

         10  though they were competitors.  However, the majority of

         11  Parties were shaped or modelled on European political

         12  Parties, whereas the HDZ increasingly acquired the

         13  characteristics of a movement -- it did not rid itself

         14  of this to this day and, even today, it is still a

         15  movement.  Precisely because the HDZ assumed a monopoly

         16  over power, introducing centralisation of power and

         17  resources, and precisely because that community did not

         18  take the shape of a party, it became an obstacle to the

         19  development of democracy, so that we had increasingly

         20  the hallmarks of a single party system.

         21            The HDZ had a monopoly over power, the other

         22  Parties could in no way jeopardise the authority of the

         23  HDZ, and most of the decisions, regardless of how

         24  productive they may have been or not, they were always

         25  adopted, even those which actually halted


Page 7105

          1  democratisation in Croatia.

          2            Even when the policy towards Bosnia --

          3  Bosnia's turn came, that is the policy towards

          4  Bosnia-Herzegovina, I departed from the policy of the

          5  HDZ in those days and that is why in 1994, together

          6  with 11 deputies of the Croatian Parliament,

          7  I abandoned the HDZ and we formed a new party.

          8       Q.   Mr. Mesic, did the philosophy or the character

          9  of the HDZ political party change as a result of

         10  Slobodan Milosevic's pleas to nationalism --

         11  nationalistic impulses of Serbs who lived in

         12  Croatia?

         13       A.   I must say that there were various factors

         14  that influenced the structuring of the HDZ and its

         15  policies.  One of the most important factors could be

         16  said to have been the policies of Slobodan Milosevic,

         17  who, with his ultra nationalistic policies in Serbia,

         18  contributed to the radicalisation of policies in

         19  Slovenia, in Croatia and in Macedonia and, therefore,

         20  clearly in Bosnia-Herzegovina; namely, Slobodan

         21  Milosevic, by his radical policies, destroyed or

         22  abolished the autonomy of Kosovo, the autonomy of

         23  Vojvodina; he toppled the leadership of Montenegro;

         24  and, clearly, one could not expect a better fate for

         25  Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia in the future


Page 7106

          1  structuring of the State.

          2            This strengthened all those forces which were

          3  opposing this radical Serb policy, which looked for

          4  like-minded people among the Serbs in Croatia.

          5  Unfortunately, we did not manage to win over the Serbs

          6  in Croatia to a sufficient degree to oppose these

          7  policies of Milosevic's, so that he won considerable

          8  influence among the Serbs in Croatia.

          9            However, that policy also had an impact on

         10  the formation of a rather powerful Croatian radical

         11  structure within the HDZ, as well as in other Parties,

         12  but certainly less so among the Opposition Parties.

         13            JUDGE JORDA:   Mr. Harmon, we might take a

         14  short break now, say 15 minutes, and after that we will

         15  try to work for about an hour, until about quarter

         16  after 6.00.

         17            (5.00pm)

         18                    (A short break)

         19            (5.20pm)

         20                (The accused entered court)

         21            JUDGE JORDA:   We will work until 6 o'clock.

         22  Please continue.

         23            MR. HARMON:  When we took our break, you were

         24  telling the judges about the effect that Milosevic's

         25  appeals to Serb nationalism had on the HDZ political


Page 7107

          1  party in Croatia.  Could you please continue describing

          2  that effect?

          3            THE INTERPRETER:  Could the witness be

          4  advised to put on the microphone, please?

          5       A.   It is well known that Milosevic came to power

          6  in Serbia precisely on this emotional charge.  There

          7  was resistance in Kosovo that took place due to this

          8  Serb policy and he broke this down both in Kosovo

          9  and in Vojvodina and continued on in Montenegro and

         10  there was a danger after these democratic changes that

         11  the same situation would be repeated in Croatia,

         12  especially since Milosevic -- not just Milosevic but

         13  everybody who followed his policies -- remained

         14  constant threats to all the other Republics.

         15            Milosevic himself was not interested in any

         16  kind of Yugoslavia, either federal or confederal.  He

         17  was only interested in Serbia and that was a Serbia

         18  that would have wider borders.  The biggest threat of

         19  such a policy was for Croatia, because there was a

         20  Serb population in Croatia, which was about

         21  10 per cent of the total population.

         22            Part of this population was in all Croatian

         23  cities, so there, there was no great danger of any

         24  radicalism.  However, where there were larger

         25  concentrations of Serbs, Milosevic's influence was also


Page 7108

          1  greater and a party was created -- an exclusively

          2  Serb Democratic party headed by Govan Raskovic,

          3  which radicalised Serbs precisely based on the policies

          4  of Slobodan Milosevic.

          5            At first Serb demands were for cultural

          6  autonomy.  However, as this nationalist charge rose,

          7  the demands also kept rising, so that there was a case

          8  of closing roads in Croatia, which was called "the

          9  Timber Revolution", and as a member of the Croatian

         10  Government, I invited representatives of all Serb

         11  communities to sit down together and to look for a

         12  solution so that this would stop -- that this process

         13  of radicalisation would stop and that we would open up

         14  communication lines, roads, and railroads and that the

         15  production would go on in the normal way.

         16            The representatives of all Serb

         17  communities with a Serb majority accepted this

         18  except for Milan Babic, who, together with Jovan

         19  Raskovic, was in direct contact with Belgrade, that is,

         20  with Slobodan Milosevic and he, being in contact with

         21  Belgrade, received instructions from Belgrade not to go

         22  to such a meeting, and after that, we were turned down

         23  by all these Serb municipalities -- majority

         24  municipalities.  They were told not to negotiate with

         25  the Croatian Government and we were brought in a very


Page 7109

          1  difficult situation, because the Croatian economy

          2  pretty much ground to a halt.

          3            There was a problem with health care system,

          4  with the social system -- the entire State system, due

          5  to this resistance of these radicals, Serb elements,

          6  who were receiving instructions exclusively from

          7  Belgrade and from Slobodan Milosevic.

          8            Since this then became an obstacle for

          9  Croatia, the Croatian nationalists also became

         10  radicalised and all Serbs became guilty in the eyes of

         11  all the Croats and vice versa, so there is a general

         12  guilt going on both ways and it is not clear that

         13  Slobodan Milosevic was the person who planned all this,

         14  so this radicalisation was an obstacle for us to

         15  continue with democratic processes.  All these

         16  processes were halted and this all then led to heating

         17  up of the situation and eventually to the war.

         18       Q.   Did the increasing nationalism impact on the

         19  HDZ party and the leader of the HDZ party?

         20       A.   Yes, of course.  When we established HDZ,

         21  I must say that the leadership, in any event, was more

         22  democratically oriented.  A large number of them were

         23  anti-fascists.  Starting from Franjo Tudjman, Josip

         24  Boljkovac and Manolic -- they were all World War II

         25  veterans, so there was no possibility at the time of


Page 7110

          1  the establishment of the HDZ to do that.  However,

          2  later, the policies became more radical and the

          3  elements grew stronger, who were looking for their

          4  inspiration in the puppet Second World War Croatian

          5  State -- puppet of fascist Italy and Germany.  It was

          6  clear that Croatia today could only be formed on the

          7  traditions of anti-fascism.  It was created in World

          8  War II as a federal unit and this was later confirmed

          9  in the constitution, but we still had a number of

         10  obstacles coming from those who believed that they

         11  could bring back some historical illusions.  They did

         12  not understand that history was one thing and the

         13  present parliament was something completely different

         14  and that in history only things that happened really

         15  are -- are real.  We cannot change that.  We can only

         16  reinterpret things.

         17       Q.   Now, Mr. Mesic, just for the record and so it

         18  is perfectly clear, who was the head of the HDZ

         19  political party in Croatia?

         20       A.   It is well known that Franjo Tudjman was

         21  elected as the first President of the HDZ.  When it was

         22  established HDZ had several candidates for President,

         23  but Franjo Tudjman won and after that, until now, he

         24  has been the President of this party, which is really

         25  not a party -- it is a movement.  It is a movement


Page 7111

          1  which has penetrated all State mechanisms.  It controls

          2  the media, it is a movement that controls all the

          3  economic mechanisms -- everything is centralised.  The

          4  power is centralised in all its segments. So that this

          5  kind of a set-up has really stopped the process of

          6  democratisation.  However, these processes are going on

          7  and things will get better.

          8       Q.   Mr. Mesic, I would like to turn your attention

          9  to another topic and that is the development of the HDZ

         10  political party in Bosnia.  First off, do you know

         11  approximately when the HDZ political party was

         12  established in Bosnia, and did you have a role in

         13  establishing that party?

         14       A.   It is correct -- after the HDZ was

         15  established in Croatia, a decision was adopted to go

         16  into the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina and for this

         17  don Anto Bakovic and Perica Juric were put in charge of

         18  this job.  I think that this job was done fairly

         19  quickly.  The HDZ gained strength in Bosnia very

         20  quickly, precisely because a large number of Muslims

         21  also joined the HDZ there.  The first President of the

         22  HDZ was Perinovic -- he is a physician.  After that,

         23  there were certain personnel changes, but, also, the

         24  changes within the structure of the HDZ itself -- of

         25  the party -- so that people dropped out -- those people


Page 7112

          1  who were not part of the Croatian population dropped

          2  out.

          3       Q.   Mr. Mesic, was the HDZ political party in

          4  Croatia and the party in Bosnia related?  Can you

          5  describe that relationship to the judges?

          6       A.   In the formal sense, I must say, for truth's

          7  sake, formally the HDZ in Croatia was separate from the

          8  HDZ in Bosnia-Herzegovina -- that is formally, but, in

          9  reality, all decisions are made in Zagreb and I think

         10  that there is no doubt about it.  I do not think that

         11  -- there is no question of the HDZ in Bosnia being an

         12  independent party in Bosnia-Herzegovina -- formally

         13  yes, but not in reality.

         14       Q.   Would you take the judges through the

         15  leadership of the HDZ political party in Bosnia,

         16  starting with Dr. Perinovic and identify who he was,

         17  what his ethnic background was, what his political

         18  philosophy was and take us through the succession of

         19  leaders in the HDZ political party in Bosnia, if you

         20  would, please.

         21       A.   Before this first founding convention of the

         22  HDZ in Bosnia, it was not clear who was going to be its

         23  President.  Don Anto Bakovic aspired to that position

         24  -- he is a Croat from Bosnia.  However, the decision

         25  was made in Zagreb that Mr. Perinovic would be elected


Page 7113

          1  to that post.  However, later, it was found out that he

          2  kept certain things from the public, that he had

          3  Serb background, that his ancestor was a priest of

          4  the Orthodox church, and it was not the fact that he

          5  was a Serb, but that he did not reveal this fact -- it

          6  was believed that he could then do that with things

          7  that were of interest for Croatia and so a new person

          8  was sought and Mr. Stjepan Kljujic was found, so he was

          9  elected President of the HDZ in Bosnia.

         10            I have to say that he was a tried and true

         11  advocate of Bosnia-Herzegovina as one State, and this

         12  put him on a collision course with those whose

         13  interests was not the same.  I was given the role of

         14  replacing Mr. Kljujic at the meeting in Siroki Brijeg.

         15  I was present there and I told Mr. Kljujic that I was

         16  there, I was sent to relieve him of duty.  However, in

         17  discussions with the executive board of the HDZ of

         18  Bosnia-Herzegovina, I realised that he had the full

         19  support of these people -- most of these people fully

         20  supported him, because the process of separation or

         21  division between the factions there had not yet taken

         22  place, that is, the faction that would advocate a

         23  separate Herceg-Bosna.

         24            I told him that, "When I go back to Zagreb,

         25  I will tell Mr. Franjo Tudjman that I could not relieve


Page 7114

          1  you of duty and that I had to leave the status quo

          2  there".  However, Stjepan Kljujic said that, if Franjo

          3  Tudjman reached a decision to relieve him of duty, "He

          4  will do it one way or the other, so I am not going to

          5  resist this.  I am going to resign and I am going to

          6  leave Siroki Brijeg and go to Sarajevo".  I had no

          7  option but to seek a replacement for him.

          8            This was Miljenko Brkic, who was a university

          9  professor, a highly educated person who also was an

         10  advocate of a whole Herceg-Bosna.  Today he is in

         11  Sarajevo and he stayed on this duty for several months

         12  and then a change took place, and he is replaced by

         13  Mate Boban.  I had no part in that any longer.

         14       Q.   Mr. Mesic, let me ask you some questions about

         15  the parts of your testimony you have just concluded.

         16  You said that you were given the role to relieve

         17  Stjepan Kljujic as the head of the HDZ party in Bosnia;

         18  who gave you that role?

         19       A.   The same person who took the decision that

         20  Stjepan Kljujic should be elected President of the HDZ

         21  for Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that is the President of

         22  the HDZ for Croatia, Dr. Franjo Tudjman.

         23       Q.   Why did he give you the role to relieve

         24  Stjepan Kljujic as the head of the HDZ party in Bosnia?

         25       A.   There was an objection from


Page 7115

          1  Bosnia-Herzegovina, conveyed to Zagreb, to the effect

          2  that Stjepan Kljujic did not sufficiently protect the

          3  Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina, that he did not protect

          4  sufficiently the Croatian interests, that he did not

          5  advocate them sufficiently vehemently, and that he was

          6  a Croat actually under the control of Alija

          7  Izetbegovic, and for this reason a person should be

          8  sought who would be totally committed to the protection

          9  of Croatian interests.

         10       Q.   And, in fact, Mr. Mesic, Stjepan Kljujic was

         11  married to a Muslim woman; is that correct?

         12       A.   Yes, he still is.

         13       Q.   Good.  Now, eventually, you said that Mate

         14  Boban came to become the President of the HDZ political

         15  party in Bosnia.  Can you tell the judges what his

         16  relationship was to Franjo Tudjman?

         17       A.   Before Boban, the acting President was

         18  Miljenko Brkic, after whom came Mate Boban.  I must say

         19  that I was not too happy with this solution, though

         20  I knew Boban for many years, ever since the 60s --

         21  1967-68.  He developed, or rather his political views

         22  developed from those of a man who was interested in

         23  democracy, to a man who started implementing policies

         24  which were imposed by Zagreb, or, rather, by Franjo

         25  Tudjman, and eventually he was totally committed to it


Page 7116

          1  and he implemented it.

          2            Whenever I spoke to him, he always said, and

          3  claimed, "I have no policies of my own.  I am

          4  implementing what is expected of me from Zagreb -- what

          5  the President of the HDZ asks, is asking me to do".

          6  Unfortunately, that policy had its repercussions, but

          7  of a negative nature.

          8       Q.   Did Mr. Boban tell you as well that he had to

          9  consult with Mr. Tudjman in respect of any important

         10  decision he took regarding Herceg-Bosna?

         11       A.   Yes, he said that, but even if he did not,

         12  the Croatian television broadcast daily images of

         13  people from the HDZ of Bosnia-Herzegovina coming to

         14  Croatia.  This could be seen daily on television, in

         15  the media, in the press.  At first, these were visits

         16  by a delegation of the HDZ of Bosnia-Herzegovina, after

         17  which these visits became visits by delegations of the

         18  Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna and now that is

         19  called a visit by a delegation of the Croatian people

         20  of Bosnia-Herzegovina calling on President Tudjman,

         21  but, in fact, they were always the same people coming

         22  to visit -- only the name has changed.

         23       Q.   Mr. Mesic, could you please describe to the

         24  judges the political philosophy of the HDZ in Croatia

         25  at its inception, and how it evolved, and what it


Page 7117

          1  evolved to?

          2       A.   From the moment we accepted the new

          3  possibilities for the achievement of democracy in

          4  Croatia, until major divisions occurred, when we

          5  embarked upon the democratisation process, we said that

          6  affiliations with different Parties should not be

          7  considered, meaning that we were enemies amongst

          8  ourselves, simply because we belonged to different

          9  Parties, that we simply held different views about

         10  various problems and that is precisely why we belonged

         11  to different Parties, because we had different

         12  solutions to offer to those problems.

         13            And, when the HDZ was formed, this attitude

         14  was adopted.  But, in time, as the movement did not --

         15  was not transformed into a party, it was not structured

         16  as a party, there was a great deal of slowing down of

         17  democratisation which was eventually totally halted,

         18  and even the transformation of socially-owned property

         19  or social ownership was used to implement definite

         20  policies of the HDZ.

         21            Actually, for people who have not lived in

         22  our part of the world, it is difficult to understand

         23  what the term "social property" means and what its

         24  transformation implies.  In fact, it was used for a

         25  robbery of the century such as probably not been seen


Page 7118

          1  anywhere else, namely, in the east and all the

          2  countries of transition, there was State property, only

          3  marginally private property and there was cooperative

          4  property.  In the former Yugoslavia, we also had, in

          5  addition, "Social property", for which there is no

          6  affirmative definition.  There is a negative definition

          7  only.  "Social property" is described as not being

          8  cooperative or private or State property.  The workers,

          9  through their workers' councils, managed a factory and

         10  an economic enterprise and the management board took

         11  care of the technology of the business side, headed by

         12  a manager, who was appointed by a certain mechanism,

         13  but the influence of the League of Communists was such

         14  that any enterprise of any significance -- the

         15  management of that enterprise was decided by the party

         16  committee.

         17            In principle, this social property made it

         18  possible for us to be closer to a market economy,

         19  closer to democratic societies, because, after all,

         20  these were economic entities that were relatively

         21  independent in decision-making, but the actual

         22  management of the enterprise was under the control of

         23  the party, or, rather, the League of Communists.

         24            In order to establish a society similar to

         25  that in the free world, we had to identify the owner.


Page 7119

          1  We had to establish who was in fact the owner, so that

          2  we could be compatible with western societies.  This

          3  meant transforming this social property.  In principle,

          4  we should have followed the trace to the source of the

          5  capital.  In that case, the owners would be the former

          6  owners of the segment which would be worked out

          7  mathematically -- the owners whose property was

          8  nationalised under Communism; then the banks to whom

          9  loans were not returned, again, this could be

         10  calculated; and, finally, the workers who used to work

         11  in those enterprises would receive their shares through

         12  their pension funds, because they contributed to the

         13  capital of those enterprises, and then the present-day

         14  employees turn would come.  That should have been the

         15  principle to be implemented.

         16            However, the HDZ leadership combined this

         17  transformation with privatisation, so that only

         18  fraudulent sales occurred, when individuals without a

         19  dollar in their pocket would purchase entire

         20  enterprises -- people who had no idea how to manage

         21  became managers, and what we had were people who

         22  destroyed the Croatian economy so that, among

         23  enterprises of significance, all that is left are

         24  warehouses with the workers being unemployed.

         25            The HDZ decided to grab capital while in


Page 7120

          1  power, and then, tomorrow, to continue to rule through

          2  ownership of capital.  Of course, a key role was played

          3  in all this by the HDZ policy towards the media, which

          4  are absolutely, in the majority of cases, under the

          5  control of the HDZ, especially the electronic media and

          6  the TV.

          7            In that sense, the HDZ, as a movement, became

          8  an obstacle to the development of democracy, and, in

          9  that sense, it changed its appearance from the

         10  beginning, when it promised to struggle for democracy

         11  together with other courses, to become an element

         12  halting democratisation and imposing a new

         13  totalitarianism itself.

         14       Q.   The HDZ political party in Bosnia, when it

         15  was founded, did it favour a sovereign Bosnian State

         16  and was it a party of inclusion; that is, it welcomed

         17  Serbs and Croats and Muslims?

         18       A.   Yes, that is also evidence of this, because a

         19  large number of Muslims participated, and became

         20  members of the HDZ, so that, at the first elections,

         21  there was a concrete result -- if there were about

         22  17 per cent Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina and they won

         23  24 per cent of the votes, this proves that a proportion

         24  of the Muslims, the Bosniaks had voted for the HDZ.  At

         25  the time, when the HDZ for Bosnia-Herzegovina was


Page 7121

          1  formed, both in Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina,

          2  there was a slogan to the effect that there can be no

          3  Bosnia-Herzegovina without Croatia and no Croatia

          4  without Bosnia-Herzegovina, but of course both were

          5  treated as Bosnian States.

          6       Q.   The last question I have on this subject is,

          7  did the HDZ party in Bosnia change its philosophy and

          8  become a party which had aspirations that favoured

          9  integration into Croatia, and excluded Muslims and

         10  Serbs from participating in the party?

         11       A.   I must say, due to the considerable pressure

         12  from the Milosevic regime, brought to bear on the Serbs

         13  in Croatia and the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, there

         14  were few Serbs in the HDZ.  There were some -- formally

         15  they could become members, but neither did the Croats

         16  accept them as members, nor did they themselves want to

         17  join the HDZ, because they would have been accused by

         18  the Serbs of being traitors, whereas cooperation with

         19  the Bosniaks, the Muslims at first was excellent.  We

         20  even organised the training of policemen from

         21  Bosnia-Herzegovina, and a large number of those

         22  policemen were actually Muslims.

         23            However, as power in the HDZ was taken over

         24  by those who were not genuinely interested in the

         25  survival of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who kept speaking about


Page 7122

          1  Croatian areas and never about Bosnia-Herzegovina, and

          2  who finally imposed a policy -- not a policy of

          3  co-existence but a policy of separate existence by

          4  Serbs, Croats and Muslims, namely, a thesis came to the

          5  fore that Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia could not

          6  live together and that a separation had to occur.

          7            There were many things that contributed to

          8  this, one of them being that, within the circles who

          9  were against the survival of Bosnia-Herzegovina, it was

         10  being said that Bosnia-Herzegovina was, how should

         11  I put it, an entity which is unfeasible in the same way

         12  that the former Yugoslavia was unfeasible and that is

         13  why it collapsed, and so that Bosnia-Herzegovina was

         14  also unfeasible, it was not a logical community, and,

         15  for that reason, the parts had to separate.

         16            However, this thesis is subject to serious

         17  criticism, and one of those criticisms is that Bosnia

         18  did not come into being when Yugoslavia came into

         19  being; it was formed a long time ago by populations,

         20  who had lived in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic

         21  multi-religious environment, and the hatred did not

         22  occur because they suddenly decided to separate and to

         23  go their separate ways and form their own States.  The

         24  hatred was only the product of the war.  It needs to be

         25  overcome.  It does indeed exist but it was encouraged


Page 7123

          1  from the outside in the first place, by Milosevic's

          2  policy of breaking up Bosnia-Herzegovina, because,

          3  I must say, I do not know whether you are familiar with

          4  this, but, according to the 1974 constitution, which

          5  was passed by Tito, after suppressing the Croatian

          6  Spring, but having endorsed the thesis from the

          7  Croatian Spring that Yugoslavia could survive after

          8  Tito but only as a confederal model and, according to

          9  that constitution, the Republics were the sovereign

         10  entities and they were entitled to become independent

         11  if the federation could not survive.

         12            Therefore, the Yugoslavia federation was

         13  called a federation, but by the constitution of 1974 it

         14  had evolved into a confederation and Milosevic was

         15  actually doing tricks.  He was tricking all the peoples

         16  of the former Yugoslavia and then also the

         17  international community and the European and

         18  international organisations by claiming that it was the

         19  right of the nations to independence, which would mean

         20  that the parts of Croatia inhabited by Serbs could be

         21  annexed to greater Serbia and especially so parts of

         22  Bosnia-Herzegovina -- all these could, in the future,

         23  form this future greater Serbia.

         24            Clearly, this was in contradiction with the

         25  constitution and it was not feasible, because the right


Page 7124

          1  to independence, according to the constitution, was

          2  enjoyed by the Republics and this was something that

          3  was eventually confirmed by the Badinter Commission and

          4  it is on those grounds we have independent States,

          5  Croatia within its borders, Macedonia within its

          6  borders and Slovenia within its borders and a wounded

          7  Bosnia within its borders.

          8            MR. HARMON:  Mr. President, I have concluded my

          9  examination.  If we are to conclude at 6, this would be

         10  an appropriate time.

         11            JUDGE JORDA:   We will suspend the hearing

         12  now, and start again tomorrow at 2.30.

         13            (5.58pm)

         14    (The hearing adjourned until Tuesday, 17th March 1998

         15                     at 2.30pm)

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