Page 894
1 Monday, 24th March 1997
2 (10.00 am)
3 DR MARIE-JANINE CALIC (continued)
4 Cross-examined by MR BRACKOVIC (continued)
5 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
6 We ended the week with the witness and we are starting
7 the next week with the same witness. I think we should
8 not be allowing her to continue on her own for so long.
9 Will you swear the witness?
10 THE REGISTRAR: May I remind you that you are still under
11 oath?
12 A. Okay.
13 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Okay. Who is on the
14 cross-examination? It is Mr Brackovic. You are on the
15 cross-examination. The witness is all for you.
16 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): Good morning, your
17 Honours. Good morning, Ms Calic, and good morning to
18 everybody else present in the court room today.
19 Ms Calic, the last question I asked of you on
20 Friday was whether in the months of April and May in
21 1992 there were armed conflicts between the TO and the
22 HVO, on the one side, and the JNA and the Serb forces in
23 the area of Konjic?
24 A. Apparently there were.
25 Q. Before these conflicts the JNA mobilised Serb volunteers
Page 895
1 and distributed arms, has it not?
2 A. It has.
3 Q. Ms Calic, the Konjic municipality was part of the second
4 military district, was it not, before the outbreak of
5 these conflicts that I just asked you about?
6 A. Yes, it was.
7 Q. The second military district comprised a large area, did
8 it not?
9 A. Yes, it did.
10 Q. The JNA armed and organised the volunteer units in the
11 territory of the second military district, did it not?
12 A. Yes, it did.
13 Q. The size of these volunteer units was 69,198 men, was it
14 not?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. These units were organised into battalions and
17 detachments and companies, were they not?
18 A. Yes, but there were also big differences from areas to
19 areas, so ... but they were organised.
20 Q. In a military sense organised. The JNA distributed
21 51,900 pieces of weapons, did it not?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And the SDS distributed 17,298 pieces of weapons, did it
24 not?
25 A. I am not sure about that, but it may well be.
Page 896
1 Q. I found this in your report. That is in one of the
2 enclosures, document number 54, which you attached. I
3 have not seen it before. On the basis of this
4 information which you provided, which you confirmed and
5 which we had an opportunity to see in the attachment,
6 the JNA participated in the distribution of the arms
7 with 75 per cent and the SDS with the remaining 25 per
8 cent; is that correct?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Thank you. That is a significant armed force, is it
11 not, Ms Calic, 69,198 men with these amount of weapons;
12 is that correct?
13 A. This is correct, but I should also add that also the
14 other sides were arming their people, and you can see
15 this from the very same report as well as from other
16 reports, and the Ministry of Interior of Bosnia was very
17 concerned about that fact, and also the international
18 community, which then reacted imposing an arms embargo
19 on the entire territory.
20 Q. Thank you. You will agree that the JNA and the TO were
21 the only organised armed forces in the territory of the
22 former Yugoslavia; is that correct?
23 A. There were also numerous paramilitary forces, and they
24 were also organised to a certain extent. We should also
25 bear this in mind. Like the Green Berets, for
Page 897
1 instance. I included a report coming from the United
2 Nations commissions of experts. So these paramilitary
3 forces were also organised to a certain extent. That is
4 what I wanted to say.
5 JUDGE JAN: Just a minute. These Green Berets. They were
6 outside the TO and JNA with the constitution?
7 A. Yes.
8 JUDGE JAN: What was the basis of their recruitment?
9 A. They were volunteers apparently, volunteers, and then
10 under the law they should unify with the other forces,
11 but in the first months they did not, but they continued
12 to act independently.
13 JUDGE JAN: Another question I wanted to ask: when did the
14 JNA start disarming the TO and arming the local Serbs?
15 A. It apparently started in the second half of 1991, so in
16 the Autumn of 1991, when the war in Croatia was already
17 on-going.
18 JUDGE JAN: That is before Bosnia-Herzegovina declared
19 itself an independent state. That is the 14th October?
20 A. Yes, apparently, yes, but I would like to stress again
21 also the other parties were arming their respective
22 communities even at this time. I got also reports on
23 this fact.
24 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): My next question is:
25 these volunteer units, which numbered 69,198 men, were
Page 898
1 paramilitary formations, were they not?
2 A. You speak of the Serbs?
3 Q. Yes, yes, Serbs?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Thank you. In the TO depot in Konjic there was 5,980
6 pieces of weapons belonging to the TO; is that correct?
7 A. There are reports, yes, but maybe there were also more,
8 you know. It's very difficult to assess how many
9 weapons were really around. I have to rely on the
10 reports I got, but maybe these figures are not entirely
11 correct.
12 Q. The former JNA was an armed force of all ethnic groups
13 living in the former Yugoslavia; is that correct? It
14 was composed of the members of all national groups?
15 A. This is correct.
16 Q. This army only armed the Serbian people; is that
17 correct?
18 A. This is correct.
19 Q. And thereby this army took an active role in the
20 creating of the smaller rump Yugoslavia and in creating
21 Serb-dominated Yugoslavia?
22 A. They would argue differently, of course. They would
23 argue that they helped the Serbs to defend themselves.
24 Of course, this led then to the creation of a Serb
25 para-state and to some kind of unification of different
Page 899
1 Serb-settled areas, but the JNA, I have seen no
2 documents saying that we are creating Greater Serbia,
3 not one single document, even not the Kideric.
4 Q. Has it not started, these pleadings, with Garasanin and
5 his work Nacertanije?
6 A. I do not think so, because this was written in 1834, and
7 they are 150 years in between. So many things changed
8 meanwhile. Bosnia did not exist as a state. At that
9 time it was part of the Ottoman Empire. Later on it was
10 part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So maybe we should
11 not over-stress the fact that there might be a certain
12 continuity of ideas.
13 Q. But in the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Science
14 this theory was advocated, was it not, as well as in the
15 public appearances of Voslof's "Cecel" the idea of
16 Greater Serbia was propounded, which would extend to the
17 west of the country up to Virovica-Karlovac-Karlobac
18 line, did it not?
19 A. You see, this Memorandum of the Serb Academy of
20 Sciences, which was written in 1986 and then published
21 in 1987, this document has been written by a Serb
22 intellectual, and they were complaining about alleged
23 Serb discrimination, discrimination of Serbs, but they
24 did not say explicitly: "Let's conquer Bosnia or
25 Slovenia or Croatia." It was an expression of national
Page 900
1 feeling of Serb nationalists, but it was not a
2 master-plan of creating Greater Serbia.
3 Also you mentioned then other persons,
4 nationalists, and I think there were many different
5 options how this Greater Serbia could look like. It was
6 not just one option. There were very different ideas
7 and opinions about that. So I think we should be
8 careful, and as for this Memorandum of the Serbian
9 Academy of Science, it was a kind of expression of what
10 national-oriented intellectuals were thinking at that
11 time in the second half of the 1980s, but it was not a
12 kind of master-plan of JNA attack.
13 Q. Ms Calic, because of this idea of creation of Greater
14 Serbia, the war in Croatia started in 1991, and a lot of
15 fighting took place on the line which I just mentioned,
16 did it not? Those are the facts.
17 A. You see, there are different views on that, and I am not
18 here to take sides or to say this is why the war broke
19 out. I just say there were different views. You claim
20 that the main reason for the war, the main cause, was
21 for the greater Serb plan. The Serbs, on the other
22 hand, would argue: "No, we just wanted to stay within
23 Yugoslavia." So I do not want to say whether one side
24 is correct or wrong. I would just like to explain to
25 this court there were just different views. We should
Page 901
1 also accept this, different views.
2 Q. I agree with you that there were different views. The
3 Serbs have one version of events and the others have
4 another one, but I am speaking about the truth. I am
5 speaking about the facts and the facts were that there
6 was fighting in 1991; is that correct?
7 A. There was fighting in 1991.
8 Q. Thank you. The JNA organised volunteer units in the
9 Konjic municipality, did it not, Ms Calic?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. Ms Calic, did you state that the Konjic municipality was
12 located on the only railroad line and the road leading
13 from Sarajevo to Ploci and then to Central Bosnia as
14 well?
15 A. Maybe it was a matter for translation. It was, of
16 course, not the same road or line which led to Central
17 Bosnia but there was a road leading to Central Bosnia
18 from this main road, Sarajevo coast.
19 Q. Yes. I said from the Ploci port towards Sarajevo. That
20 is the only main highway, which is M17; correct?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. There is only one railroad line that is going from the
23 Ploci port through Mostar, Konjic, Sarajevo; is that
24 correct?
25 A. Yes.
Page 902
1 Q. Thank you. In other words, we can say that these two
2 communication lines are sort of the spine as far as the
3 communication lines are concerned within
4 Bosnia-Herzegovina; correct?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Also we could say that the Konjic municipality is
7 situated in a strategic position linking Sarajevo to
8 Herzegovina and Central Bosnia; correct?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. It was, therefore, of strategic significance, as you put
11 it in your report, and it was of significance to all the
12 warring parties; correct?
13 A. Correct.
14 Q. Konjic was an important military centre in the former
15 Yugoslavia too; correct?
16 A. Yes, it was.
17 Q. Given the military industry located there?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. It had the plant Igman, which was one of the largest
20 ammunition manufacturing plants in Bosnia; correct?
21 A. Correct.
22 Q. This plant had surface of some 20,000 square metres, and
23 it was built underground; correct?
24 A. Correct.
25 Q. In the Konjic municipality there are other military
Page 903
1 facilities of significance; correct?
2 A. Correct.
3 Q. For instance the Celebici barracks, which had a large
4 depot and facilities for large fuel storage; correct?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Then there is the Ljuta barracks, which also had
7 underground facilities of 6,000 square metre area;
8 correct?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And it was storing the TO weaponry; correct?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And there was the barracks in Borci, which is also in
13 the Konjic municipality; correct?
14 A. Correct.
15 Q. Ms Calic, you pointed an interesting thing and that is
16 that the settlements that were predominantly Serb, like
17 Bradina, Brdjani, Donje Selo, Celebici and Bjelovcina,
18 that these villages were situated along this road M17,
19 which is linking Sarajevo and Konjic; correct?
20 A. Correct.
21 Q. The village of Brdani is situated, as can be seen in the
22 map, along the railroad linking Sarajevo and Konjic;
23 correct?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. When you spoke about the JNA arming the Serbian
Page 904
1 population as well as did the SDS, that they formed
2 volunteer units, you must have thought of these
3 villages: Bradina, Brdjani, Donje Selo, Celebici and
4 Bjelovcina?
5 A. Not really. He was thinking of the Serb population as a
6 whole because people were afraid in this municipality
7 and other parts of Bosnia. So they distributed -- these
8 weapons were distributed also in other areas, not only
9 in the strategically interesting ones.
10 Q. But we can agree with the view that these arms were
11 distributed to the Serbian population which lived in
12 Bradina, Brdjani, Donje Selo, Celebici and Bijelovcina;
13 correct?
14 A. There were probably also weapons distributed in these
15 areas to these villages.
16 Q. When a moment ago we confirmed that the Serbian
17 population was organised in military terms in platoons
18 and detachments and companies, this also is relating to
19 the villages that I have just mentioned; correct?
20 A. I do not know that. I do not know.
21 Q. Ms Calic, do you know that the JNA some time in May 1992
22 had an air raid on the Konjic area and four aeroplanes
23 and helicopters of the JNA were shot down at that time?
24 Do you know that?
25 A. Could you please repeat the date?
Page 905
1 Q. May 1992, around May, maybe early May 1992, there was an
2 air raid on the municipality and the city of Konjic on
3 the part of the JNA air force, and on that occasion four
4 aeroplanes and one helicopter of the JNA were shot down;
5 is that correct?
6 MR OSTBERG: Your Honour, I have to object to this
7 question. It has been in detail discussed under the
8 cross-examination done by Ms Residovic, all these
9 attacks, and the witness has in detail stated exactly
10 what she knew or what she could know about these attacks
11 and stated she was not a military expert, not a
12 "historian" for the recent happenings like these
13 attacks.
14 So we cannot have it, I think, your Honour, that
15 these questions are asked once more of another defence
16 attorney. I cannot help pointing out that for the last
17 20 minutes Ms Calic has said barely nothing but
18 "correct". We are going through exactly what she has
19 already stated. I think this repetitious way of
20 cross-examining is not the way it should be done. Thank
21 you, your Honour.
22 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Thank you very much. Mr Brackovic,
23 can you carry on?
24 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): I asked you whether you
25 were aware of the fact not as a witness of the fact, as
Page 906
1 a factual witness, but as a scientist, as a historian,
2 that in 1992 in May there were air strikes in the town
3 and municipality of Konjic carried out by the JNA, and
4 that on that occasion four aeroplanes and one helicopter
5 of the JNA were shot down; that is correct?
6 A. I read in some of the witness statements about air
7 attacks and I read also that these air attacks were
8 meant as a reaction to attacks on JNA facilities. So I
9 am not a fact witness. I cannot say whether or not it
10 was a reaction or whether or not it was aggression or
11 whatever. I read in the witness statements that there
12 were such air attacks or air raids.
13 Q. So it was in the interest of the JNA to preserve the
14 military industry in the municipality of Konjic, to keep
15 all the TO armaments stored in the Ljuta barracks; is
16 that correct?
17 A. They were apparently trying, and I tried to explain this
18 also last week, they were apparently trying to transfer
19 these weapons to other areas, but they were not
20 successful in this.
21 Q. So they had an interest in those weapons when you said
22 they were trying to transfer them?
23 A. I think all sides involved in a war have an interest in
24 controlling weapons.
25 Q. So we can all agree that the JNA had a strategic
Page 907
1 interest in this area; is that correct, Ms Calic, to
2 keep intact the military industry, to keep the weapons?
3 A. The report which you quoted so many times in relation
4 with the distribution of weapons to Serbs indicates on
5 the contrary that they were trying to leave this area,
6 and that they were trying to take all the weapons with
7 them, and they simply did not manage to pull out,
8 because they felt surrounded by Muslim and Croat forces.
9 Q. It means that they did not leave in a disinterested
10 manner without attempting to save the military
11 facilities and the TO weapons; is that correct?
12 A. Well, I do not know. This quoted report indicates that
13 the JNA apparently was trying to transfer these weapons,
14 to pull out personnel. Personnel was not very high in
15 numbers. There were maybe 50, 60, maybe 80 JNA persons
16 in this area. This is not a big number, and the very
17 same report also says very clearly: "We are trying to
18 pull out. We are trying to transfer weapons. We do not
19 manage because there are so many Muslim and Croat armed
20 forces around."
21 Q. Thank you very much. Now I am going to ask some
22 questions with regard to the questions asked by my
23 predecessor, where you did not supply detailed answers.
24 You said that the ethnic map of Bosnia-Herzegovina was
25 made on the basis of the Institute for Statistical Data?
Page 908
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. These were not the data of the Institute for Statistics
3 of Bosnia-Herzegovina; is that correct?
4 A. Those were the statistical data of the Bosnian
5 statistical service in Sarajevo, the 1991 population
6 census.
7 Q. If I remember correctly, you stated on Friday that you
8 wanted the report from the Institute for Statistics of
9 Bosnia-Herzegovina and that that report was not
10 submitted to you; is that correct?
11 A. No, this is not correct. I was asking for the municipal
12 election results and these were not submitted to me. I
13 had to provide them through other channels, through the
14 OSC office in Sarajevo. As for the population census, I
15 managed to find them.
16 Q. The map that you presented here during the
17 examination-in-chief and the cross-examination depicting
18 the ethnic structure of Bosnia-Herzegovina, that is the
19 map that I hold now in my hands; is that correct?
20 A. Yes, this is correct.
21 Q. This map does not correspond to the data existing in the
22 Institute for Statistics of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ms
23 Calic; is that correct?
24 A. It cannot be, because the municipalitites were so mixed,
25 the villages were so mixed, if I had to indicate each
Page 909
1 and every single nation and nationality in each and
2 every single village, we would not understand this map
3 any more. I was trying to explain that this is just a
4 way to reduce a very complex ethnic situation in an
5 understandable way. I would have nothing against if you
6 could present a better map, ethnic map. It might be
7 helpful if you could, and I think we could easily agree
8 on having another map.
9 Q. The colours indicated here on this map refer to areas
10 where one ethnic group was in the majority, where its
11 percentage was above 50; is that correct?
12 A. No. It also refers to relative majority, not only to
13 more than 50 per cent majorities; relative majorities,
14 which might then be 40 per cent in some instances.
15 Q. So this was not made according to the formula that this
16 depicts the absolute majority; is that so?
17 A. No. No. Yes.
18 Q. In the Bijeljina municipality Ms Calic do you know the
19 percentage of Serbs in the overall population?
20 A. I have to check this on the -- in the statistical data.
21 Q. They were not in the absolute majority?
22 A. The Serbs? I just pointed out on this map you can also
23 find relative majorities. I have to check the exact
24 numbers. There were 109 municipalitites. I do not know
25 them all by heart.
Page 910
1 Q. All right. Thank you. Your Honour, on Friday I tried
2 to show to the witness a document but since it was not
3 in a language which is one of the working languages of
4 the Tribunal, I had it translated on Friday. I checked
5 this morning with the Registry, with Mr Beresford, and I
6 was told that the document has not been translated yet.
7 After I get this document and after your perusal of this
8 document, I would like to ask some questions in the
9 cross-examination of this witness, but now before that I
10 have another set of questions, which would then conclude
11 my cross-examination?
12 MR OSTBERG: Your Honour, for your information, I can tell
13 you that we have a translation into English of this
14 document, which the defence lawyer has not so far got a
15 translation of. This has been done in our investigation
16 and there it is, this document. So if you want to have
17 it, so I can support you with it.
18 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): I would be grateful. Do
19 you have the same document?
20 MR OSTBERG: Exactly. Show it to ...
21 A. I have it.
22 MR OSTBERG: You got it also?
23 A. Yes, I got it.
24 JUDGE JAN: Do not forget to exhibit it after your
25 cross-examination is over because you are going to
Page 911
1 question her.
2 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): No, I will not forget.
3 Thank you for reminding me, your Honour.
4 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: This is the English translation of the
5 document you showed to the witness, is it?
6 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): Yes. I believe that the
7 witness has it in front of her now?
8 A. That is correct.
9 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Do you want to use it now?
10 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): I would like to use it
11 now.
12 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: You can do so.
13 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): Decision number 28/92 of
14 22nd March 1992. It is the Decision of the Konjic
15 Municipality Serbian Assembly; is that right?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. This is the decision on the proclamation of parts of the
18 territory being exclusively Serb?
19 A. This is a declaration in Serbian territories where the
20 Serb population represents more than 51 per cent of the
21 population and other areas where Serbs are a minority
22 population, less than 50 per cent.
23 Q. So this is a Decision that was passed pursuant to the
24 Decision on the verification of the proclaimed Serbian
25 autonomous provinces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Article 1,
Page 912
1 paragraph 3; is that so?
2 A. It is not indicated in this document. The document
3 refers to the constitution of the Serbian Republic of
4 Bosnia.
5 Q. They also refer to the willingness of the Serbian
6 population in the Konjic municipality that they
7 expressed?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. This Decision is not in contravention with the Decision
10 on the verification of the proclamation of the Serbian
11 autonomous provinces in Bosnia-Herzegovina?
12 A. You say it is not.
13 Q. It is not legally contradictory to that Decision. I am
14 not now referring the constitution -- whether this
15 Decision is constitutional or not, but this Decision
16 that you have in front of you is not in contradiction
17 with the Decision on the verification of the proclaimed
18 Serbian autonomous regions in Bosnia-Herzegovina; is
19 that so? Let me remind you that paragraph 3 states that
20 parts of other municipalitites in this region may also
21 be a part of the Serbian autonomous region in Bosnia; is
22 that so?
23 A. If you put it that way, yes, but it is difficult to
24 argue in legal terms, because all these Decisions have
25 been declared unconstitutional and unlegal, so it's a bit
Page 913
1 difficult, but it is perfectly in line with what the
2 Serbs were doing in other areas before.
3 Q. I would now like to go back to this map that I hold in
4 my hands. Is this the map that you presented before
5 this Trial Chamber as attachment number 41?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Indicated in red on this map are places in which Serbs
8 are in the majority; is that so?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. As we can see here, the number of those places, of those
11 villages is ten on this map; is that so?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And in the Decision on Serbian territories based on the
14 ethnic and geographical principle, where Serbs are in
15 the majority over 51 per cent, 16 settlements were
16 proclaimed as such; is that correct?
17 A. This is correct.
18 Q. So 6 settlements that were proclaimed as exclusively
19 Serbian in this decision are not locations in which
20 Serbs are in the majority in the population?
21 A. Could you name one?
22 Q. One name -- well, if you have 10 here and 16 there,
23 there is a discrepancy, 6 settlements, and these 6
24 settlements are the places in which Serbs were not in
25 the majority. I will now give you a few names?
Page 914
1 A. I am just not sure whether the map is entirely complete
2 and whether all the very small villages are as indicated
3 just for reasons to make -- for practical reasons. So
4 if you could name one which is a concrete, then it would
5 be easier for me to follow your question.
6 Q. I will give you a name. The village of Bijela. Please
7 have a look at the map. It is indicated on the map?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. It is indicated as a place where there is no ethnic
10 majority?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. A Decision on Serbian territories, the village of Bijela
13 was proclaimed as a location in which Serbs are in the
14 majority; is that so?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. I would further like to ask in paragraph 2 of the
17 decision on Serbian territories, using the principle of
18 property in which Serbs are in the minority, in other
19 words in locations where Serbs -- the Serbian population
20 is less than 50 per cent, 27 villages and settlements
21 were proclaimed as such; is that correct?
22 A. Yes.
23 JUDGE JAN: But we already have a list of the areas which
24 the Republika Srpska was claiming to be part of its
25 territory. The constitution is before us. So I do not
Page 915
1 know really that it is necessary to go into this. We already
2 have the detailed list. I think one of the annexures
3 indicates the areas which the new Republic, so-called
4 Republic, was claiming to be its own territory. I can
5 show it to you, if you want: probably the problem
6 occurred because in the coloured map you used the colour
7 green a little more liberally and the colour purple less
8 -- you use it less, which shows that all of Bosnia is a majority
9 Muslim province. It shows that is the Serbs were really a
10 majority, if you look at the colours of that map?
11 A. You are referring now to the Yugoslav map?
12 JUDGE JAN: No, the map of Bosnia right in the beginning.
13 I think it is annexure 3.
14 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): Ms Calic, the village of
15 Dzepi was marked on your map as a village in which
16 Muslims were in the absolute majority?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. In paragraph 2 of the Decision I quote: the Serbian
19 people proclaimed as their territory the territory in
20 which Serbs were in the minority; is that so?
21 A. I really don't know, because in this document they say
22 they had attached a map with the exact borders of Serb
23 municipalitites. So I understood that they actually
24 claimed parts of these areas where Serbs were in a
25 minority or where they had less than 50 per cent.
Page 916
1 Unfortunately the map, the ethnic map, is not attached
2 to this document, and it would be much easier to argue
3 about this or to interpret this document if we had
4 actually this map. I believe only parts of these 27
5 Serb-inhabited areas were meant to be part of the Serb
6 territory, but I am, of course, not sure, because I have
7 not seen this map.
8 Q. I have not seen such a map. The village of Glavaticevo
9 was a village in which Muslims were in the absolute
10 majority; is that so?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. The village of Glavaticevo is listed under 24 and it was
13 proclaimed as an exclusively Serbian territory?
14 A. No, I think this is not correct, because we have not
15 seen the map. It can also be that only parts of this
16 Glavaticevo were meant to become parts of the Serb
17 territory. We simply do not know, because in the last
18 paragraph of this document they say that there would be
19 an ethnic map in which the delineated areas based on the
20 ownership, geographic principle are drawn into. So we
21 haven't got this map unfortunately.
22 Q. The village of Grusca is also on the map that you
23 presented here, and it was mapped as the village in
24 which the Muslims were in the absolute majority?
25 A. Yes.
Page 917
1 Q. The village of Grusca is listed under 26 and proclaimed
2 as Serbian territory according to the ownership
3 principle, and Serbs were in the minority there. They
4 had less than 50 per cent of the population?
5 A. You see, we have again the same principle -- same
6 problem, because under (2) it is indicated that these
7 areas are areas where the Serbs are a minority
8 population, less than 50 per cent, and there would be a
9 map attached showing which areas exactly from these
10 villages and areas would be considered to be Serb. So
11 as we haven't got this map, I really cannot say whether
12 they were claiming the entire or only part of this
13 village. So I am afraid ...
14 Q. The village of Podorasac is also a village in which
15 Muslims were in the absolute majority according to your
16 map, Ms Calic?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. The village of Podorasac was proclaimed as Serbian
19 territory according to the ownership principle and Serbs
20 were in a minority there, under 50 per cent of the
21 population, and it is listed under number 17?
22 A. But maybe it was only part. I don't know. It appears
23 that it was only part of this, you see.
24 Q. In the decision in paragraph 2 of the decision, it does
25 not say anything about parts of these villages being
Page 918
1 proclaimed; is that correct?
2 A. Well, it says that there would be a map attached to this
3 document showing the exact boundaries of the Serb
4 territories. Unfortunately this map is not attached to
5 this document, so we don't know, and I also believe that
6 -- well, I don't believe anything, but I would like to
7 see the map and then I could answer these questions.
8 Q. Yes, but you did not answer my question. I said that in
9 paragraph 2 it is not said that only parts of these
10 villages would be proclaimed as exclusively Serbian
11 territories; is that so? Please read the text in
12 paragraph 2 carefully.
13 A. There is a hint in paragraph 3. It is in the English
14 translation. It is the delineated areas based on the
15 ownership geographic principle, that is the ownership
16 principle as drawn in the map of the Konjic municipality
17 which is enclosed with this Decision.
18 Unfortunately this ethnic map is not enclosed with
19 this Decision, so I don't know.
20 Q. I am just now referring to paragraph 2 of the decision.
21 It does not say anywhere that these villages are joining
22 the Serbian territory and being proclaimed as such only
23 partially, and you refer to paragraph 3. I am not
24 asking you anything in relation to paragraph 3. I
25 concentrate on paragraph 2 solely?
Page 919
1 A. But I have to read the whole document. I have to
2 understand it as a whole. I cannot just pull out one
3 paragraph and then not read the others. I read the
4 entire document and this is what my impression is. My
5 impression is there should be a map and the map is
6 important to understand this decision. Without the map
7 you cannot fully interpret this, or not maybe correctly
8 interpret this document. Maybe you are right, but maybe
9 you are not. I simply do not know.
10 Q. Thank you very much for your answer. Buturovic Polje is
11 a village in which Croats were in the absolute majority
12 according to your map; correct?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Buturovic Polje was proclaimed as Serbian territory
15 according to the ownership principle and Serbs were in a
16 minority there, less than 51 per cent, and that is
17 listed under number 6; correct?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Would the ethnic map -- could the ethnic map be broader
20 than this territory, just like your map number 3?
21 A. Sorry? I did not understand the question.
22 Q. You said a minute ago that it would be very hard, indeed
23 impossible, to make a precise ethnic map of
24 Bosnia-Herzegovina due to the mixture of the populations
25 who lived in Bosnia-Herzegovina; correct?
Page 920
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. Does this also refer to the municipality of Konjic as
3 regards the ethnic composition that you marked here on
4 your map?
5 A. Absolutely.
6 Q. This means that it was impossible to draw up such a map
7 in the context that you spoke of before so that only
8 parts of the villages referred to in paragraph 2 of the
9 Decision on the proclamation of Serbian territories
10 would be taken into account; correct?
11 A. I think I do not -- did not understand correctly your
12 question.
13 Q. It would mean that it would be impossible to create a
14 map as presented under (3) if this map would only
15 include parts of villages and settlements listed under
16 (2); correct?
17 A. I think there would be a problem anyway because, you
18 see, you have a problem with drawing maps only if you
19 claim that majority having an absolute or a relative
20 majority in a certain area means also that you should
21 exercise power without letting participate the other
22 nations. Once you agree on the fact that power should
23 be shared, there is no problem any more with these
24 simplified maps. That is why I cannot agree with your
25 question. Even if you would be able to be more precise
Page 921
1 in drawing maps, it does not mean that one single
2 nation, one single people, should exclusively exercise
3 power in this area.
4 Q. This decision on the proclamation of Serbian territory
5 based on the force of the Serbian people in
6 Bosnia-Herzegovina; is that correct?
7 A. It is based on the constitution of the Serb Republic.
8 At least, this is what is written on this document.
9 Q. The constitution which was declared invalid by the
10 Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina; correct?
11 A. Correct. Absolute correct.
12 Q. The Muslim people never declared any territories as
13 being exclusively Muslims; correct?
14 A. No, they did not, as far as I know.
15 Q. You never heard about it; you never saw such a Decision
16 in which the Muslim population proclaimed certain parts
17 or portions of the Konjic municipality as exclusively
18 their own?
19 A. No, I did not. However, I saw reports and I saw
20 documents in which Serbs and also Croats were
21 complaining that they were not allowed to participate in
22 an appropriate way in the decision-making bodies. I
23 also saw these documents.
24 Q. You saw documents in which the Croatian people
25 proclaimed certain parts of the territory as exclusively
Page 922
1 Croatian; correct?
2 A. Yes, exclusively. They even conceded that other nations
3 should participate. I am not sure if this was an honest
4 offer, but I saw these documents. I showed them, I
5 think. I showed them and I have included them in this
6 folder.
7 Q. Ms Calic, you said that in the beginning the war, the
8 conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, was on the one side
9 between the armed forces of the territorial defence and
10 the HVO, and on the other side the units of the Bosnian
11 Serbs and the JNA; correct?
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. In 1992 and even now the Serbian population which used
14 to live and which continues to live in
15 Bosnia-Herzegovina are all the citizens of
16 Bosnia-Herzegovina; correct? They have the status of
17 the citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina; correct?
18 A. They were citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina and they were
19 stressing the fact that they were also citizens of the
20 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
21 Q. You said that they were citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
22 Does that not mean that they do continue to be the
23 citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina; correct?
24 A. Well, this is a very difficult legal question, and the
25 international experts spent quite a lot of time in
Page 923
1 finding a solution for this, because before Yugoslavia
2 broke apart people had two citizenships, republican,
3 Bosnian, and then all-Yugoslav citizenship. So you
4 reach a point where Yugoslavia falls apart and one side
5 says: "You keep only your Bosnian citizenship"; and the
6 other part claims: "No, we also want to keep our
7 Yugoslav citizenship."
8 This was a matter of debate. I am not able to say
9 whether one or other solution was correct. It was a
10 matter of debate and a matter of concern for the
11 international observers. If you look now how it is
12 regulated today under the Dayton Agreement, people are
13 allowed to have dual citizenship. So I simply do not
14 know whether or not in 1992 the Serbs of Bosnia were
15 correctly considered to be only citizens of Bosnia, or
16 whether or not they were correctly considered to be also
17 citizens of Yugoslavia. I simply do not know. This is
18 a question for a lawyer.
19 Q. Since you quoted the Dayton Agreement, the Bosnian Serbs
20 cannot travel abroad on the Serb Republic passort; they
21 can travel on the Bosnia-Herzegovina passport; correct?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. The beginning of the war in 1992 the citizenship of
24 Bosnian Serbs as Bosnians was not controversial, and the
25 citizenship of Yugoslavia was not negated; correct? At
Page 924
1 that time Bosnia was an internationally-recognised state
2 as of 6th April 1992 by the European Community, on 7th
3 April by the US and Croatia and shortly thereafter by a
4 large number of states; correct?
5 A. It is correct that the country was recognised in April
6 1992, but it is also true that on the contrary the
7 question of citizenship was a matter of debate and it
8 was contested, and the Serbs continued to claim that
9 they wanted to continue to be citizens of Yugoslavia.
10 So it was a matter of debate at least.
11 Q. The referendum that the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina
12 organised was based on the recommendations of the
13 international community; correct?
14 A. This is absolutely correct.
15 Q. The number of votes which made up the absolute majority,
16 which was the basis for the proclamation of
17 independence, was an expression of the will of the
18 majority of the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina;
19 correct?
20 A. Yes. This gives me the opportunity to show you the
21 exact figures of the referendum. There was a question
22 last week. I got the exact figures, and if you allow
23 me, I just want to show them. Can I have the ...
24 JUDGE JAN: It is not one of the documents included in
25 this?
Page 925
1 A. No, I found it over the weekend, just, because there was
2 this question about the exact figures, and we can see
3 that from 64 per cent of valid voting papers there were
4 99.44 per cent of voters in favour of independence while
5 only 0.29 per cent voted against. Then there were a
6 minor number of spoiled voting papers. The reason why I
7 said we can assume that one-third of the population was,
8 in fact, against independence is that there was a call
9 for a boycott by the SDS, and there was also a so-called
10 plebiscite by the Serbs a few months ago in which, on
11 the other hand, the majority of Serbs expressed the will
12 to remain in Yugoslavia.
13 Of course this plebiscite has never been
14 recognised by the international community, and we do not
15 know the exact terms on which it was held. What we know
16 is that the Serbs then afterwards proclaimed that --
17 declared that more than 1 million Serbs had voted during
18 this plebiscite in favour of remaining in Yugoslavia.
19 So this I cannot confirm. I cannot confirm whether or
20 not this referendum by the Serbs was correctly
21 organised.
22 This is just an indication to show to us that
23 probably many Serbs were against independence. They
24 held their own plebiscite, and they did not want to
25 participate in this one, because at this time they
Page 926
1 contested already the legitimacy of Muslims and Croats
2 deciding over the future of their country. The SDS
3 simply said: "We do not agree on everything you decide
4 on the republican level, so we just boycott", and there
5 was a corporate boycott. So if you ask me if there was
6 a majority vote in terms of numbers, yes. In terms of
7 having -- in terms of how many were against, we can
8 assume maybe one third was against. Maybe less but let
9 us assume one third.
10 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): The international
11 community recognised the results of the referendum in
12 which the majority of the population of
13 Bosnia-Herzegovina voted for a sovereign and independent
14 Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina; correct?
15 A. Correct.
16 Q. Ms Calic, in a number of UN resolutions the
17 participation of the JNA has been characterised -- the
18 JNA as well as the FRY -- has been characterised as
19 foreign powers, and sanctions were imposed on this
20 country which lasted for three or four years; is that
21 correct?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Ms Calic, based on the international law in this
24 situation when we have the Bosnian Serbs and the JNA on
25 the one side, as well as the state of Yugoslavia, the
Page 927
1 participation of the Bosnian Serbs in such war and
2 aggression can be perceived as an armed rebellion;
3 correct?
4 A. Let's say this is at least a matter of debate, and I
5 think it is also a question for a lawyer, because, as I
6 was pointing out many times, the Serbs believed that
7 they were part of Yugoslavia, and they created the
8 parallel institutions. They created their army on the
9 territory of Bosnia. They created their state
10 institutions. So this is a very difficult question to
11 be put to a lawyer -- yes, to a lawyer, I think.
12 Q. Your Honours, I would like to introduce the document
13 that Ms Calic just presented and which she said that she
14 had not used previously, and I would like it marked as
15 evidence. This is the number of people who had taken
16 part in the referendum, and I would like to offer it in
17 evidence. I would also like to ask a question relating
18 to this document.
19 Has this document been submitted to the
20 prosecution before? It has, has it not, Ms Calic?
21 A. The document on the referendum, you mean? Which
22 document?
23 Q. What you showed earlier. You said that you found this
24 subsequently, that you had not included it before?
25 A. The referendum one?
Page 928
1 Q. Yes. In other words, if I understood you correctly, you
2 had shown it before?
3 A. Yes, yes.
4 Q. Very well. Earlier you said that it would be a complex
5 legal issue. My question to you is: should Lugican
6 Serbs in Germany ask for an exclusive Serbian territory
7 and rule and would want to accede to other Serbs in
8 Yugoslavia, the German authorities would treat it as an
9 armed rebellion, would they not?
10 A. But the Serbs in Germany do not have German
11 citizenship. We cannot compare. Sorry. The migrants,
12 the Serb migrants in Germany, they continue to have
13 their respective Yugoslav or Croat or whatever
14 citizenship. Most of them are not German citizens.
15 Q. You may not have understood me, Ms Calic. My question
16 was the Lugican Serbs, which is a national minority
17 living in Germany, they have been living there for tens
18 and hundreds of years there. I was referring to them.
19 They have German citizenship, but ethnically they are of
20 Serbian origin. So if these Serbs wanted to proclaim
21 certain territories where they live as Serbian and
22 secede from Germany and accede to Yugoslavia, German
23 State or authorities would consider that an armed rebellion;
24 Correct?
25 A. Look, the German constitution is very much different
Page 929
1 from the Bosnian and from the former Yugoslavian one,
2 because Germany consists of one state nation, which are
3 the Germans. Then there are a number of minorities,
4 which have certain minority rights, but these persons
5 are not supposed to be constituent nations of Germany,
6 whereas in Bosnia there were three constituent nations
7 and in the constitution as well as many laws there was a
8 principle implemented.
9 This principle said: "Important decisions should
10 be made with the consent of the three constituent
11 nations." So at least if one withdraws, if one is not
12 consulted any more, if one decides not to participate
13 any more, you have a problem as for the implementation
14 of the constitution, as for the implementation of many
15 laws. In Germany the situation is, of course,
16 different.
17 Q. Let me give you have another example. If the Celts in
18 Germany wanted to secede from Germany, people of Celtic
19 origin, the German state would consider this as an armed
20 rebellion; correct?
21 A. Well, I don't know. We never got this problem, so ...
22 Q. I know that you had no such problems, but if you did
23 have them, they would be treated as rebels; correct. Go
24 ahead, please.
25 A. If, for instance, Bavaria, which is one of the republics
Page 930
1 of Germany, would decide to leave the country, then we
2 might get a similar problem to the Yugoslav problem. If
3 we had one minority just trying to secede I don't know,
4 because we never got this problem, and I think we will
5 never get this problem.
6 Q. You are a historian. If the Friesian people in the
7 Netherlands wanted to secede and form their own state,
8 would that not constitute an armed rebellion?
9 MR OSTBERG: Your Honour, I am sorry. I cannot keep silent
10 any longer. These hypothetical questions are not to be
11 asked to an expert on the former dissolution of
12 Yugoslavia.
13 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): I will not ask further
14 questions along these lines, but I left this for the
15 end. Your last name, "Calic", is a bit unusual for a
16 German citizen; correct?
17 A. I don't know, because there are so many names.
18 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Thank you very much, Mr Brackovic. I
19 think we’ve got carried on in this way for quite a long time . We will
20 break now and reassemble at a quarter to 12.
21 (11.25 am)
22 (Short break)
23 (12.45 pm)
24 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Mr Brackovic, frankly I have not been
25 able to estimate the extent of your cross-examination
Page 931
1 because I do not even though where you are going. You
2 know where you are going. Will you be able to try to
3 get it over within the longest or shortest possible
4 time, please. We have had the same thing over and over
5 for so long. So let us get to the end of it.
6 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): I think I will come to
7 the close very soon, your Honours.
8 Before I continue with the cross-examination, the
9 defence would like to offer to the Trial Chamber in
10 evidence the document that Ms Calic showed and explain
11 the situation on the referendum, and the defence would
12 like to use it as evidence, and is offering it to the
13 Trial Chamber in evidence, and also the defence offered
14 the document that has been translated into English as
15 evidence as well, and so I would like to -- I would like
16 the Trial Chamber to rule on this exhibit. I would also
17 like to mention that on Friday the document that was
18 offered was marked as D-3/4. So if you would please
19 rule on this. Thank you.
20 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Very well. Thank you. I think you
21 have distributed the document? Have you distributed it
22 already, because I have not seen any of them?
23 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): Does the Trial Chamber
24 accept this exhibit, the document of Ms Calic and the
25 document that the defence would like to offer in
Page 932
1 evidence?
2 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Well, I might have misunderstood you.
3 I thought you said you had already produced the
4 documents. The document which you translated was your
5 own document, not that of Dr Calic. So it could not
6 have been your own. Although you can tender it through
7 her, it is not a defence document. If you have any
8 other document which you think is relevant, you pass it
9 on. The prosecution will look at it. They have no
10 objections. You can still take her through it. If you
11 follow that pattern in the documents in the proceedings
12 having to be also marked as an exhibit.
13 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): I would like to request
14 if -- with your permission I would like my colleague, Ms
15 McMurrey, to explain this, because she is coming from a
16 Common Law legal system, and she would be able to better
17 explain how we are trying to tender this. So would you
18 allow Ms McMurrey to present this and say a few words?
19 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Of course she can.
20 MS McMURREY: Thank you, your Honour. We would like to
21 offer two documents from Mr Brackovic's
22 cross-examination into evidence. They are both
23 documents that came -- one came from the prosecutor
24 himself. It was the English translation of the document
25 that Mr Brackovic had tried to introduce on Thursday.
Page 933
1 So the prosecution is well aware of it. They have had
2 time to examine it, and we would like to have that
3 document marked as defence exhibit and offer that into
4 evidence. Ms Calic was cross-examined from that
5 document.
6 The second document, of course, is the document
7 that Ms Calic did not introduce into evidence as part of
8 her package, which is the document that shows the
9 figures and the breakdown on the vote in the referendum
10 on March 1st. We would also like to have that marked as
11 defence exhibit. She was cross-examined from it. The
12 prosecutor was well aware of it. He has seen the
13 document before today. We would like to tender that to
14 the court for evidence also.
15 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Now let us be clear about this: was
16 the document part of the whole package?
17 MS McMURREY: No, your Honour.
18 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I mean, the document which you say is
19 the second document.
20 MS McMURREY: Yes.
21 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: It is not one of the documents in this
22 package?
23 MS McMURREY: No,, your Honour, it is not.
24 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: How did it become her own document.
25 MS McMURREY: She brought it after perusing through her
Page 934
1 documents at the weekend to clarify some things. We
2 think it is important evidence for the court to review
3 later. We would like to offer it into evidence as a
4 defence exhibit. So we are offering two documents from
5 this cross-examination. We would like to have both
6 admitted into evidence.
7 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: That is perfectly proper. You can
8 tender them.
9 MS McMURREY: Thank you, your Honours.
10 MR OSTBERG: We have no objection to it, your Honours.
11 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Where are the documents themselves? I
12 have seen only one. The interpretation, I have seen
13 that. I have not seen the second one.
14 MS McMURREY: Your Honour, it was the one that was on the
15 ELMO earlier. It is the document showing the breakdown
16 of the vote during the referendum on March 1st. I think
17 Ms Calic probably has it in her possession. We need the
18 usher to take it from Ms Calic and have it marked by Mr
19 Roeland, please.
20 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Please, let us get it.
21 THE REGISTRAR: These documents will be document D-3/4 for
22 the Declaration and D4/4 for the document on the
23 referendum.
24 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Thank you very much.
25 MS McMURREY: Thank you, your Honours.
Page 935
1 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: You can carry on.
2 MR BRACKOVIC (in interpretation): I would only like to
3 pose several questions which I would like to sum up.
4 There are only three or four of them, and that would
5 complete my cross-examination.
6 Ms Calic, the Konjic municipality is part of
7 Bosnia-Herzegovina which has been proclaimed an
8 independent and sovereign state; correct?
9 A. Absolutely.
10 Q. The state of Bosnia-Herzegovina is a common state of all
11 constituent people living in it; correct?
12 A. Correct.
13 Q. It is composed of two parts. One is the Federation of
14 Bosnia-Herzegovina and the other is Republika Srpska;
15 correct?
16 A. Correct.
17 Q. The Konjic municipality is a multi-ethnic community;
18 correct? It consists of members of all three
19 nationalities, with a majority Muslim population;
20 correct?
21 A. Are you speaking of today?
22 Q. I am talking about the situation of May 1992?
23 A. Yes, correct.
24 Q. Pursuant to the Decision on the Serb territories, 28/92
25 of 22nd March 1992, representatives of the Serbian
Page 936
1 population wanted in an illegal way to separate out a
2 part of the territory of the sovereign
3 Bosnia-Herzegovina as their own territory, and they
4 wanted at that time to accede to the Federal Republic of
5 Yugoslavia at that point?
6 A. They set up their parallel state structures and they
7 apparently wanted to be part of Yugoslavia.
8 Q. They wanted to make it part of Yugoslavia; in other
9 words, they wanted it to be part of Yugoslavia; correct?
10 A. Yes. In their words they wanted to remain in
11 Yugoslavia. This is how they would put it.
12 Q. Thank you, Ms Calic. I would also like to thank the
13 Trial Chamber. My cross-examination is complete with
14 respect to Ms Calic.
15 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Thank you very much.
16 Cross-examination by MR GREAVES
17 MR GREAVES: May it please your Honour, on behalf of
18 Mr Mucic I would like to ask just a few questions of
19 Dr Calic, if I may, please.
20 Dr Calic, I would like you to focus, please, for a
21 moment on the period between spring of 1992 and winter
22 of 1992 in the Konjic area. The war began in the spring
23 effectively?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. The shooting?
Page 937
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. The consequences for the administration of the Konjic
3 area was, as I understand what you have told us, the
4 disintegration of the conventional peacetime civil lines
5 of authority and military chains of command; is that
6 right?
7 A. That is right.
8 Q. It is replaced by what is described as the War
9 Presidency, which is an organisation brought together at
10 very short notice?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Would it be right to describe the period we are talking
13 about as one which was to a large degree rather chaotic
14 in terms of administration?
15 A. Chaotic -- I do not know whether it was chaotic in this
16 sense. I would describe -- maybe let us put it like
17 this: this was a certain power vacuum. There were laws,
18 there were regulations, but there was some uncertainties
19 and some doubts as to whether and as to which extent
20 these laws and regulations were implemented on the
21 ground.
22 Q. And indeed who, in fact, is exercising real power?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. By that it may well be that those who are named as
25 members of the War Presidency did not, in fact, wield de
Page 938
1 facto power?
2 A. Maybe. I do not know. This is up to the witnesses to
3 explain to the court.
4 Q. Absolutely. I will come back to that aspect in a
5 moment, if I may. The situation you described to us is
6 one which essentially exists on paper, and that is how
7 you have been able to reach your conclusions, by
8 examining, as it were, the records?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. So the reality on the ground, and I think you have
11 effectively conceded this, may well be very different
12 from that which is portrayed by the paperwork?
13 A. Of course.
14 Q. Aside from those organisations which are recorded as
15 existing on paper, there may well be other, for example,
16 ad hoc groups that come together for very short periods,
17 which exercise influence and authority?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Which are not documented?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And indeed any decision which on the face of it, on the
22 face of the paperwork, is promulgated by the War
23 Presidency may well have been promoted by some other
24 group of influence within the Konjic area?
25 A. Yes.
Page 939
1 Q. Can you help me about this: the paperwork from the
2 Konjic municipality for that period that you have
3 examined, would you describe it as extensive, in other
4 words, a lot of it?
5 A. There was some of it. I was unfortunately not able to
6 get hold of all these documents. I was trying since
7 December last year. Unfortunately none of these
8 documents have been submitted to me.
9 Q. Yes, but those documents that you have been able to
10 examine, would it be right to, as it were, categorise
11 them as paperwork which records decisions of the
12 municipality?
13 A. They were also decisions by the municipality. There
14 were also other documents.
15 Q. I was going give you some examples. Documents recording
16 the appointments of people to particular jobs?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Some correspondence between the municipality and other
19 parts of the country?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. And internal correspondence?
22 A. Among others.
23 Q. And documents setting out policy?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Is this the reality: that you could assess from looking
Page 940
1 at those documents, that, in fact, the bureaucracies,
2 whatever the chaotic conditions, may have been, as in so
3 many of these sorts of situations -- the bureaucracies
4 carried on generating the paperwork; in other words the
5 civil service side of it carried on working, generating
6 the paperwork, recording decisions, recording
7 appointments and that sort of thing?
8 A. There were some decisions in line with the laws and
9 regulations. There were others which appeared to me
10 that they were made on an ad hoc basis.
11 Q. Yes.
12 A. It appeared also to me that there were different power
13 centres present in this, emerging in this situation. So
14 as for administration, I mean administration is one part
15 of the whole set-up. It is not the entire. There are
16 other power centres, military, maybe non-military as
17 well.
18 Q. Of course, Dr Calic, but the point I was putting to you
19 is this, that whatever and whoever was running the show,
20 the people whose duty it is to record the decisions
21 continued to work and record those decisions and
22 appointments and so on?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Yes. Indeed, from the documents you have examined would
25 you agree that there has been quite a high degree of
Page 941
1 preservation of important documents?
2 A. Well, I don't know. I think there must have been much
3 more documents, much more than I was able to look at, I
4 was able to get hold of.
5 Q. I am perfectly prepared to agree that. You obviously
6 have not seen the lot, but from what you have seen, a
7 reasonable degree of information has been preserved?
8 A. Yes. I don't know.
9 Q. Thank you. Can I just finally ask you this: it is
10 really in relation to your qualifications, if I may just
11 return to that. Could you just identify to the Tribunal
12 the precise name of this think-tank for which you work?
13 A. It is Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik; Research
14 Institute for International Affairs would be the English
15 translation.
16 Q. You took the next question out of my mouth, Dr Calic,
17 and I am grateful to you for doing so. Does it come to
18 this: your job is essentially the analysis of military
19 defence and foreign intelligence for your masters?
20 A. No, not really. We are independent researchers. We are
21 allowed to choose our subjects by our own and we are
22 choosing also our sources by ourselves. So I have, in
23 fact, a broad variety of different sources which I use
24 for my daily work.
25 Q. But do various German ministries come to you and ask for
Page 942
1 your analysis of a particular situation?
2 A. This may happen, but it often happens that I choose by
3 myself and I just try to identify important subjects and
4 important developments and then make them attentive and
5 try to draw the attention to certain developments. So
6 it is more or less that I by myself -- it is my task
7 myself to assess the situation and then identify
8 important issues on the ground.
9 Q. To whom do your reports normally go?
10 A. Our reports go to different addressees. Some are the
11 ministries. It is the Chancellor's Office, but it is
12 also Members of Parliament. It is sometimes other
13 universities, other scholars, other institutes. It is
14 sometimes the media. It really depends on the subject
15 and on the character of the report. Not everything is
16 for everybody, but ...
17 Q. Thank you, Dr Calic. That is all I have to ask you.
18 MS McMURREY: Your Honours, I have one question before
19 cross-examination of the defence is completed. The
20 Prosecution just passed out, while Mr Brackovic was
21 finishing his cross-examination, some documents. I do
22 not know if it is their intention to use them now on
23 re-direct examination, but if it is, I think everybody
24 would like a opportunity to review these before we
25 capitulate at this point.
Page 943
1 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Let us hear the prosecution. What
2 document is that?
3 MR OSTBERG: These documents are produced to satisfy Madam
4 Residovic for her remaining questions. She had reserved
5 the right after the review of the documents we have
6 given to her, to continue her cross-examination. So
7 that is what we have produced these documents for, but
8 at the end of it, we are going to tender them as
9 evidence, together with the bundle we have before us.
10 MS McMURREY: That makes it clear for me. Thank you.
11 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: It is Mrs Residovic's intent to follow
12 up the cross-examination?
13 MR OSTBERG: Yes. If she does not use all of them, I will
14 have them put to Dr Calic.
15 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Then, Ms Residovic, it is up to you.
16 Cross-examination by MRS RESIDOVIC (resumed)
17 MS RESIDOVIC (in interpretation): Thank you, your Honour.
18 I will now use my right, having received the documents
19 from the prosecution, to ask some more questions of Ms
20 Calic.
21 Your Honour, Mr Ostberg, the representative of the
22 Prosecutor, distributed five documents to us. I think
23 that these are the documents that were supposed to be
24 the basis for the drafting of attachment 50 of the
25 expert witness, and I would, therefore, ask you, if
Page 944
1 these documents are not in the possession of the expert
2 witness and the Trial Chamber, that these documents be
3 distributed to you now in the English language, which
4 would facilitate my asking these questions.
5 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: They have not been distributed. I do
6 not know why they have not been.
7 MR OSTBERG: They will immediately be distributed, your
8 Honour.
9 MS RESIDOVIC (in interpretation): The defence has made
10 copies.
11 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I know that the practice here is that
12 all documents intended to be tendered are distributed
13 prior to the date of tender. So if you had that in
14 mind, obviously you should have distributed them as you
15 decided to send them to Ms Residovic.
16 MS RESIDOVIC (in interpretation): Thank you very much.
17 Good day, Ms Calic. I would ask you to put on the
18 ELMO your chart of the defence of Konjic, number 50. My
19 question -- that would make my questions easier to
20 understand for all of us. I can see the chart on the
21 monitor. Please allow me to remind you that on 19th
22 March in the course of this trial, listed on pages 760
23 and 761 of the transcript, I asked you of the sources on
24 which you base your knowledge of Konjic, and you replied
25 to me that unfortunately you only had certain documents
Page 945
1 in your possession presented to you by the prosecutor,
2 and that you missed some other documents pertaining to
3 Konjic. Do you remember that, Ms Calic?
4 A. I remember it slightly different. I remember, and this
5 is also what I want to repeat here, that I saw many,
6 many, many documents, and I handed over -- I just made a
7 choice of a few of them, which were the basis of this
8 diagram, defence planning. I saw many, many others
9 supporting this diagram. So this is just a few
10 documents to show you the kind of documents I used.
11 What I was then saying, moreover, is that
12 unfortunately the respective authorities in Konjic and
13 in Sarajevo were not able to provide me with some
14 official documents from the Konjic municipality. For
15 instance, the local gazette of the War Presidency and so
16 on, I have requested this. I have not got them, and
17 this is what I would have liked to see moreover, but I
18 really think I had quite a lot of documents available to
19 base this diagram on.
20 Q. Since in addition to your report you submitted to us a
21 certain number of regulations in existence before the
22 war, as well as regulations passed during the war
23 pertaining to the defence, as far as I can remember, on
24 Thursday, 20th March I asked you whether these were the
25 only documents, and the response was that you also had
Page 946
1 some other documents in mind, and now I ask you, since
2 you see now that the prosecutor submitted five documents
3 to us, are these the documents that you had in mind when
4 you made this scheme?
5 A. I had these as well as many, many other documents in
6 mind when I drew this diagram. This is just a selection
7 of a few of the documents which all together confirmed
8 this view or support this view.
9 Q. In other words, Ms Calic, despite the fact that we asked
10 you to submit all the documents to us, the prosecutor
11 submitted only a selection of the documents, of your
12 documents?
13 A. I submitted only a selection of these documents, because
14 they are something like maybe several hundreds, and
15 these documents I believe will be introduced during the
16 trial. They will be introduced by other witnesses. I
17 just wanted to present you with a selection of documents
18 which are representative for many other documents which
19 I have seen.
20 Q. Ms Calic, I remember very clearly what my request was.
21 I wanted to have all your documents pertaining to the
22 drawing-up of this chart, which would enable me to
23 evaluate whether this chart was based on certain
24 regulations or documents that would be relevant to the
25 making of this chart. Are you able to provide us with
Page 947
1 all those documents?
2 A. I think that the documents which I selected are maybe
3 enough to explain this diagram. If not, I can, of
4 course, find in addition more documents supporting it.
5 Q. Before I start asking you some questions, I would like
6 to ask you, Ms Calic, if you could just clarify to me
7 what this chart means, the chart that forms the
8 attachment number 50?
9 A. Yes, I will. So first I draw the War Presidency. I
10 knew from former regulations and law that this
11 institution existed. Then I saw a number of documents
12 signed by representatives from the War Presidency. So I
13 concluded there was a War Presidency in Konjic. So I
14 assumed there is a War Presidency.
15 Then I knew there was -- separate from this War
16 Presidency there was a military structure. I knew this
17 also from the official gazettes that there was at least
18 a separate military structure existing. I saw numerous
19 documents coming from the Konjic municipality which were
20 signed either by the HVO, the Croat Army, or by the TO
21 or the Bosnian Army, which represented at this time the
22 Muslim defence forces.
23 I knew also that there was a law and -- there was
24 a regulation in April and then a law in May saying that
25 all defence forces should be unified, but I knew from
Page 948
1 what was going on on the ground that this did not
2 succeed entirely, but they remained two separate
3 structures, a Croat and a TO. So I knew moreover that
4 there was a general policy at this time of acting
5 together, so the Croat and the Muslim defence forces
6 usually acted together, but they did not act as a
7 unified force. They acted by making decisions
8 together.
9 I presented some documents which show that some of
10 the orders or some of the decisions taken were actually
11 signed by both commanders, the commanders of the HVO and
12 the commander of the TO. So I drew up the two different
13 structures and I linked them, because I knew many
14 decisions were taken jointly, and then there was also
15 even a joint staff established. I submitted documents
16 from which we can see that they signed a joint staff
17 TO/HVO.
18 Furthermore, I found a document from May, which is
19 also included in this package, which showed me there was
20 a coordinating instance. This was the co-ordinator here
21 in the middle. Now, I do not know of any law or
22 regulation defining what a co-ordinator exactly is. I
23 assume there is no such law which would define the role
24 of a co-ordinator, but I knew from this very interesting
25 document of the JNA and from everything which I knew
Page 949
1 before about all people's defence that such functions
2 existed, and please allow me to put this document again
3 here on the ELMO.
4 It shows us how all people's defence was perceived
5 at this time. It speaks about shared responsibilities.
6 It speaks about coordination; it speaks about people --
7 that people should be inventive in how they organised
8 their defence, that they should take their own decisions
9 when they organised defence, especially in situations
10 where they cannot get orders from their superiors, and I
11 knew that this was the case in Konjic at this time.
12 Sarajevo was besieged and the Mostar headquarters
13 was not established at this time. So this is how I drew
14 this diagram. I, of course, could not fully understand
15 from the documentation which tasks all these structures
16 and institutions performed at that time. I could not
17 entirely understand who the persons were involved, who
18 actually participated, who was a member. I knew from
19 the documentations that many regulations which existed
20 on paper were simply not implemented. If you allow me,
21 I can show you another document, which supports this
22 view, especially as for the War Presidency.
23 Q. Ms Calic, for the time being I am not interested in that
24 document. It is possible that my further questions
25 pertaining to this chart will make you produce this
Page 950
1 document, so please answer. In your chart you mean that
2 this co-ordinator has some aspects of superiority as to
3 the structures depicted here; is that correct?
4 A. No. This is not correct. I did not say that there was
5 a subordinate position of any of these structures. On
6 the contrary, I assumed that they were more or less
7 acting together and there was no formal chain of
8 subordination. As also indicated in this JNA secret
9 document, because the general idea of how defence should
10 be planned in certain instances was exactly working
11 together and not necessarily giving orders one to the
12 other. So I knew the situation in Konjic municipality
13 in May 1992 more as one where several actors acted
14 together and where they had contacts and made decisions
15 jointly, and where everybody participated as he or she
16 could.
17 Q. In other words, according to your chart, the
18 co-ordinator is not a function that is superior to the
19 organs, to the bodies depicted on your chart?
20 A. I cannot say what exactly the functions of this
21 co-ordinator were. I only know there was a
22 co-ordinator. I do not know which functions he exactly
23 performed.
24 JUDGE JAN: Excuse me for a minute. From the document I
25 have before me of 18th May it seems that a coordinator
Page 951
1 was a link between the War Presidency and the defence
2 forces?
3 A. Yes.
4 JUDGE JAN: Not that it was a link between two different
5 warring groups. He is a co-ordinator between the War
6 Presidency and the defence forces?
7 A. Yes.
8 JUDGE JAN: Not a link between the two warring forces, one
9 HVO and one TO?
10 A. No, but the problem is that the idea was to have one
11 unified force. This was how it should have been, but in
12 practice it does not function like this, but they made
13 their decisions separately. So the HVO, the Croat
14 forces, had their separate headquarters, and the Bosnian
15 Army had its separate headquarters. They took many,
16 many decisions jointly and they did many -- they took
17 many decisions jointly, but some they did not. So there
18 was a certain need also to coordinate between the two
19 rival military institutions.
20 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I hope counsel understands what the
21 witness was saying.
22 MS RESIDOVIC (in interpretation): I do understand. I will
23 now go back to the documents that I asked in
24 clarification of this chart. Your chart is entitled
25 "The Defence of Konjic in May 1992"?
Page 952
1 A. Uh-huh.
2 Q. Is that correct?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. In addition to the regulations in your file, you also
5 submitted to us a document from the Municipal Assembly
6 of the Konjic of 12th April 1992. Can we please see
7 that document? This document is, in fact, a letter to
8 the Republic of Croatia, written by the crisis staff of
9 some municipalitites, signed by Dr Rusmir
10 Hadzihuseinovic; is that correct?
11 A. Correct.
12 Q. It is correct that this letter does not speak of a
13 co-ordinator, neither does it refer to any structures in
14 the Konjic municipality; is that correct?
15 A. It is of April, as you were saying yourself, and the
16 instance of the co-ordinator was introduced in May, as
17 far as I can see from the documents I revised. This
18 document was introduced to show before that there were
19 also efforts to organise defence, that there was a
20 crisis staff. I referred to this the other day. This
21 is to support my view that there was a crisis staff
22 before May.
23 Q. Document number 50 does not refer to "crisis staff". It
24 refers to "co-ordinator", so, please, I would like you
25 to agree with me that the document submitted to us dated
Page 953
1 on that date is not -- cannot be used as a basis for the
2 chart that concerns May 1992 and the role of the
3 co-ordinator?
4 A. The selection of documents which I made was done that
5 way that I can show different institutions and different
6 structures, civilian and military structures, in the
7 Konjic municipality after the outbreak of the war. I
8 mentioned during my explanation several times crisis
9 staffs, and I submitted this document just to show that
10 there was a crisis staff in April 1992. It is not part
11 of this diagram because this reflects the situation in
12 May and not in April.
13 Q. So I repeat: the document that you submitted, regardless
14 of what other issue it refers to, cannot be used as the
15 basis for the chart for May 1992 and for the role of the
16 co-ordinator; is that so?
17 Another document that you also submitted to us is
18 entitled -- is dated 2nd May 1992, and the title is
19 "Special Authorisation Granted by the War Presidency of
20 the Konjic Municipality Pursuant to the Decision of the
21 War Presidency on the Equipping, Obtaining and
22 Distribution of Military Equipment", authorising
23 Mr Zejnil Delalic to conduct various negotiations, enter
24 into agreements, and for other matters pertaining to
25 logistics or in other words, as the title says, for
Page 954
1 equipping, purchase and distribution of military
2 equipment; is that correct?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Can we then agree that this document does not pertain to
5 military structures in the municipality of Konjic and
6 that it does not speak to the role of the co-ordinator
7 as presented on your chart?
8 A. Can I have the document on the screen, please? It shows
9 us that there was a War Presidency and it shows us there
10 were separate military structures and it shows us some
11 decisions were taken jointly.
12 Q. Yes, but this has nothing to do with your chart, because
13 this decision refers to the decision of the War
14 Presidency and the Commander of the TO staff, so it has
15 nothing to do with the structure depicted on your
16 chart. It refers to other issues that happened, events
17 that happened in Konjic but not to the chart. Can we
18 agree on that?
19 A. You see, making an analysis means you gather
20 information, different information you compile, and then
21 you draw your conclusions. You will not find one
22 document which explains you this diagram, but on the
23 contrary what an analyst is supposed to do is to
24 synthesise different kinds of information and different
25 documents, and this is what I was trying to do. So
Page 955
1 these documents should be seen together. They form --
2 they give us the context, and I think this document is
3 very interesting, because it shows us how civilian and
4 military structures were acting together and how they
5 were taking joint decisions. I think it is useful to
6 have it on record and especially if you try to
7 understand the structures in this area at this time.
8 Q. Ms Calic, I think that it is useful to bear many
9 documents in mind, but this is not the document on the
10 basis on which you can produce a chart that you
11 submitted to us under number 50?
12 A. It gives us some elements of this diagram. There are
13 other documents providing other elements. Altogether
14 they allow me to draw up such a diagram. This is how I
15 proceeded.
16 Q. Ms Calic, I requested very precisely for you to produce
17 the basis, the documents, that you used as the basis for
18 determining the role of the co-ordinator and the chart
19 that you made here, and it is obvious, since we all have
20 the documents in front of us, that this document, dated
21 April, and the document dated 2nd May 1992, do not refer
22 to the matter presented in the chart. To what extent
23 they can be used in some other context I will not talk
24 about that now, but I think that as for the role of the
25 co-ordinator and the relations between various bodies,
Page 956
1 that this document of 2nd May does not say anything
2 about it. Do you agree with me?
3 A. The document does not mention the function of
4 co-ordinator. That is why I submitted a third document,
5 which explicitly mentioned the role of a co-ordinator.
6 This earlier document shows us that there was a War
7 Presidency and that there was TO military structure or
8 Bosnian Army military structure, and these two
9 structures in situations were acting together, and that
10 they were discussing certain issues, and that they were
11 also taking joint decisions. I do not claim that they
12 always acted together, but they also may have in certain
13 instances acted together.
14 Q. Ms Calic, we were provided documents on 4th June
15 appointing certain persons by the HVO to serve as a
16 liaison with the prisoners, and of May 22nd 1992 the
17 authority to compensate the goods in the distribution
18 centre of Konjic with respect to sugar; is that correct?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Do you agree that none of these decisions mention the
21 co-ordinator, nor does it address the position of
22 co-ordinator as presented in your chart?
23 A. No, but they speak of a joint staff, and I was trying to
24 explain several times that there was a joint staff at a
25 certain time, and this is a document giving evidence
Page 957
1 that there was a joint staff between Croat and Muslim
2 defence forces.
3 If you put it on the screen, we can then perfectly
4 see headquarters of the joint armed forces and then you
5 see the two structures, the Territorial Defence
6 headquarters and the Croatian Defence Council. This is
7 what I wanted to show you. It is not the only document
8 which gives evidence for this. There are many, many
9 others. This is just an example why I claim that there
10 were two separated military structures, a Croat and a
11 Muslim-dominated, but they were acting together, as we
12 can see from this document. This is why I found it
13 interesting.
14 JUDGE JAN: Which is this document?
15 A. It is document from headquarters of the joint armed
16 forces. It is of 4th -- Konjic, 4th June 1992. The
17 document itself is for what I was trying to explain of
18 minor importance. What they say in this -- for me it
19 was important to show there were common decisions and
20 there was a joint staff, joint armed forces between the
21 Croats and the Muslims, however indicating clearly they
22 were separated institutions, even if they were acting
23 together, and this was part of my diagram here. Two
24 separate structures but linked and acting together.
25 JUDGE JAN: Which is this document? I have not seen it.
Page 958
1 A. You have not seen it? It should be in the ... has it a
2 number? It is "Headquarters of Joint Armed Forces", 4th
3 June 1992?
4 MR OSTBERG: The fifth document in the stack that was
5 brought to your Honours.
6 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: The last document on the English
7 translation?
8 MS RESIDOVIC (in interpretation): Number 18/92, your
9 Honours, which was the document of 4th June.
10 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Yes, 4th June. That is not directed
11 to any particular person, just a general authorisation.
12 MR OSTBERG: Yes, indeed, but -- yes. I ask again Dr Calic
13 to explain that?
14 A. I chose this document to support the view that there
15 were -- though there was one -- though there was a law
16 saying there should be one unified army, in fact there
17 were two different military structures, a
18 Muslim-dominated one and a Croat-dominated one, the HVO
19 and the BH army. You see on this document the
20 signatures of the two commanders, when they are given
21 authorisation. You see here: "Headquarters of the Joint
22 Armed Forces". However, you also see the names of the
23 two headquarters of the two forces, the Croats and the
24 Muslims.
25 I submitted this document simply to support the
Page 959
1 view that there were two military structures, a
2 Croat-dominated and a Muslim one. They were acting
3 together at this time. They have even had a joint
4 staff. This supported what I was trying to show on this
5 side, on the military side, of my diagram, two
6 structures being interlinked, having relations, taking
7 joint decisions as of May 1992 and a part of June, and
8 then it broke apart, but I can explain this later.
9 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Now frankly I do not know what is the
10 anxiety of Ms Residovic. What is your real problem?
11 What are you complaining about in the diagram? That it
12 does not show every function or it does not indicate who
13 does what? These are not issues you can find on a
14 diagram of that nature.
15 MS RESIDOVIC (in interpretation): Your Honour, I asked
16 very precisely to be given the basis -- the documents
17 based on which Ms Calic established the position of
18 co-ordinator as represented in the chart. Neither of
19 these documents speaks of that.
20 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Let that remain a criticism of her
21 documents instead of pushing it too far. That is a
22 criticism, that it is faulty.
23 JUDGE JAN: It was essentially a link between the War
24 Presidency and the defence forces. As to what extent
25 there was cooperation between the HVO and TO is a
Page 960
1 question of fact, and she says sometimes it was and
2 sometimes it was not. She was not sure about it
3 herself.
4 MS RESIDOVIC (in interpretation): Your Honours, allow me
5 to say that this chart as offered as one of the evidence
6 materials and four documents that I have shown to Ms
7 Calic cannot serve as a basis to explain the role of the
8 co-ordinator, and the fifth document is of 11th July
9 1992, and that also does not address this chart at all.
10 Is that correct, Ms Calic?
11 A. You see, the headline of this diagram is not "The Role
12 of the Co-ordinator in Konjic". The headline of this
13 diagram is "Defence Planning in Konjic Municipality". I
14 drew up this diagram to make a bit clearer how the
15 structures were functioning at this time. It is also
16 submitted as a document which explains that there was,
17 in fact, a co-ordinator. It does not explain to us
18 which functions he had but it explains to us that there
19 was such a position of a co-ordinator, and this is why I
20 also included this function in my diagram. So this
21 should explain us defence planning. It should not
22 explain to us exactly what the functions of this
23 coordinating instance were.
24 Q. Ms Calic, you submitted the document 18/92 from 25th May
25 where there are other functions of the provisional
Page 961
1 staff; in other words, is your chart -- so the chart on
2 the defence planning on Konjic municipality in 1992 is
3 incomplete with regard to that based on the documents
4 that you provided?
5 A. To which extent it is incomplete? Can you please ... I
6 did not get the argument.
7 Q. The document you submitted of 25th May talks about other
8 institutions that also participate in decision-making.
9 So based on that, your chart is incomplete?
10 A. But the document of 18th May 1992, which I put now here
11 on the screen, under Article 2 says:
12 "The co-ordinator" so I know there is a
13 co-ordinator, "will be responsible for direct
14 coordination between the defence forces of the Konjic
15 municipality and the War Presidency", and this is, I
16 hope, what I was drawing then in this diagram, a
17 co-ordinator between the civilian and the military
18 structures. This is what I wanted to show. I cannot
19 see the deficiency, but maybe you can explain it to me.
20 Q. I will get to the document that you have just brought to
21 our attention, but, Ms Calic, do you agree that that
22 document does not speak about organising the defence, as
23 you just stated now?
24 A. It is a function of coordination. I was trying to
25 explain that I do not know what exactly the functions of
Page 962
1 this co-ordinator were. So I did not pretend to know
2 what exactly the functions of the co-ordinator were.
3 Instead I put as a headline "Defence Planning".
4 Apparently the function of the co-ordinator somehow did
5 also fit into this system. You see from this JNA
6 document it becomes very clear, very clear that
7 coordination is necessary. So why should I doubt that
8 there was such a coordination function if I see a
9 document, a decision on appointing a person to be a
10 co-ordinator. This is completely in line with what I
11 knew from before and what I also know from other areas.
12 Q. The submitted document of May 18th says that the
13 co-ordinator will directly coordinate between the
14 defence forces and the War Presidency; in other words,
15 its role has been spelt out in Article 2?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Correct?
18 A. It says "coordination" but do I not know what
19 coordination exactly means in this context. This is why
20 I put this line showing, you know -- it is not a fixed
21 position within any military, civilian structure, as far
22 as I have seen. So it is a bit unclear, but what I know
23 is the instance as such existed. I do not know what
24 exactly the functions were.
25 Q. Ms Calic, in your report and submitted documents you
Page 963
1 also provided the decision on the establishment of the
2 armed forces of Bosnia; correct?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. This decision creates either unity or subordination of
5 the HVO units; is that correct?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. The HVO exists in the Konjic municipality?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. In your chart is subordination of the HVO with its
10 headquarters in Grude shown on your chart?
11 A. It is not and also the direct subordination of the
12 Bosnian Army is not shown on the diagram.
13 Q. In other words, you did not present the complete chart
14 of the Konjic defence because you did not show this
15 level of subordination; correct?
16 A. I got the impression from many documents and from many
17 reports and also witness statements which I read that at
18 least some of these institutions took at this time their
19 own decisions, and we cannot assume that all the
20 decisions taken in Konjic were taken because there was
21 an order coming from a high institution. This is
22 especially true for the Bosnian Army, but it may also be
23 true for the HVO.
24 I submitted some documents showing the signature
25 of the local HVO Commander, and the local GO or Bosnian
Page 964
1 Army Commander. This shows us that they were making
2 decisions in certain instances, on certain occasions.
3 Q. So we could conclude that it is an incomplete chart,
4 because it does not show other aspects of relationship
5 between different parts of the Konjic defence?
6 A. It shows, for instance, not how these
7 institutions were linked to other municipalitites,
8 which would be another very interesting aspect of all
9 this. The intention to draw this specific diagram was
10 to concentrate on the situation in Konjic in May 1992,
11 which is quite an early period of this conflict. If I
12 intended to show subordinate relationships, I would have
13 drawn a different diagram. This was not my intention.
14 My intention was to show defence planning I can and to
15 show which institutions were involved.
16 Q. Ms Calic, the defence planning consists of all the
17 elements thereof; correct?
18 A. Correct.
19 Q. In the attachments submitted with your report you also
20 mention the law on the all people's defence of Bosnia
21 and former Yugoslavia and a law on defence of May 14th
22 and enacted on May 20th, and a Decision to which I
23 pointed relating to the HVO. None of the elements from
24 these laws are included in your chart; correct?
25 A. Necessarily, because this law was on paper. It was not
Page 965
1 implemented on the ground. This is exactly what I am
2 trying to explain. There are so many laws, but reality
3 was so different from these laws. You see, in this law
4 -- under this law there should be only one military
5 force, only one army, but there were three armies, and
6 in this municipality there were two armies, the HVO and
7 the Bosnian Army. In other territories there was the
8 Bosnian Serb Army. So this law was simply not
9 implemented.
10 I will give you another interesting example as you
11 come to the question of implementation which concerns
12 the War Presidency. You see, the same law of 20th May
13 explains the institution of War Presidency, Article 40.
14 It was in May. So when, in fact, did the Konjic
15 authorities implement this law? It was not until
16 October. I also submitted this document. You see,
17 there is a certain time-lag, in this case five months,
18 between May and October. So, you see, it took a certain
19 time to implement such laws, and we cannot base all our
20 analysis only on laws and regulations. We have to
21 carefully assess the situation on the ground.
22 Q. Ms Calic, the document provided this morning and
23 referring to the operations manual: is this a new manual
24 or an amendment one? Do you know that?
25 A. Yes, but it says exactly that it is made pursuant to
Page 966
1 Article 40 of the decree with the force of law of the
2 Presidency, which was made in May, and this -- now the
3 decision to create this Assembly -- to create the
4 Presidency of the Assembly was made on 26th October.
5 Q. Ms Calic, on the basis of certain documents and facts
6 have you now claimed that in May the regulations of the
7 Republic were not implemented, and that is the decision
8 of the territorial staff of the Republic of
9 Bosnia-Herzegovina, published in the Official Gazette of
10 1992, which you also provided with partial translation
11 among your documents; and also the regulation with the
12 force of law of the armed forces -- this is Official
13 Gazette number 2 -- and a Decision on the unification of
14 all armed forces in the territories of the Republic of
15 Bosnia-Herzegovina; in other words, is this the basis of
16 the documents or on the basis of your own assessment did
17 you claim that this was a factual work or operation of
18 certain bodies in that territory?
19 A. I tried to explain that there was a certain difference
20 between what was in the laws and how it was implemented
21 on the ground. I think the fact that the HVO existed as
22 a separate structure explains very well the way -- how
23 these laws were implemented. Under the law it should
24 not have existed at this time any longer, and I think it
25 is a clear indication of, you know, how laws were
Page 967
1 implemented or not implemented.
2 Q. Ms Calic, with respect to the HVO can you claim that at
3 any point, including May 1992, the HVO in Konjic was not
4 under direct subordination of its headquarters in Grude?
5 A. Well, I do not know how it functioned in this time,
6 because in principle yes; in principle there was a
7 subordination, but first it was according to the Bosnian
8 law illegal, because this separate structure should not
9 even exist, and, second, I do not know whether these
10 orders did pass from Konjic, and whether there was --
11 the communication functioned. I simply do not
12 November. So this is why I did not include it in my
13 drawing. I simply do not know how it functions on the
14 ground.
15 Q. But you will agree, will you not, that the TO was a
16 legal structure and that it was in accord with the
17 regulations put out by the Republic?
18 A. Well, this I cannot agree on, this because the law says
19 there should be one unified army, and this apparently
20 was not one unified army. This was two armies, a Croat
21 and a Bosnian Army.
22 Q. Ms Calic, you are talking about 1992?
23 A. I am talking about 1992.
24 Q. May 1992?
25 A. Yes.
Page 968
1 Q. And you are talking about a law adopted in May 1992?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Do you know that in the defence law that the deadline is
4 90 days for adopting regulations for the coordination of
5 the armed forces and the TO is going to discharge the
6 functions set therein?
7 A. Yes. I am aware of this. I am also aware of the fact
8 that within 19 days instead of implementing this law,
9 the common structure started to disintegrate completely,
10 and the Croats left all the common structures which they
11 -- in which they participated, so instead of
12 implementing this law within 90 days, everything broke
13 apart. Even the joint staff was then dissolved.
14 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Thank you very much, Ms Residovic. I
15 think the Trial Chamber will rise for lunch.
16 (1.00 pm)
17 (Luncheon adjournment)
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Page 969
1 (2.30pm)
2 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: The witness is still on her oath. Ms
3 Residovic, you can continue your cross-examination.
4 MS RESIDOVIC (in interpretation): Thank you, your Honour.
5 Ms Calic, let me conclude with a couple of questions.
6 On Thursday I very clearly requested that all documents
7 be submitted to me that you used as a basis for drawing
8 up this chart of yours. Prosecutor, Mr Ostberg, gave us
9 a total of six documents; is that correct?
10 A. This is correct.
11 Q. And we have just seen that five out of those six
12 documents do not directly explain the chart that you
13 made; is that correct?
14 A. This is not correct.
15 Q. This chart does not contain all the elements important
16 for understanding the defence plans in Konjic?
17 A. I believe it contains the most important elements of the
18 defence planning in Konjic in May 1992.
19 Q. It does not contain any of the elements of
20 subordination, the chain of command?
21 A. No, it does not. It was not my intention to draw chains
22 of command. If I intended to do so, I would have
23 submitted a different kind of diagram. It was not my
24 intention to show chains of command.
25 Q. So, in other words, the chart does not reflect all the
Page 970
1 regulations and the entire situation, but your
2 intentions or your idea of the plans for defence in
3 Konjic?
4 A. This is also not correct. This document, this diagram
5 shows different actors, the major actors involved in
6 defence planning in May 1992 in Konjic. This is not my
7 personal view. It is based on very many documents. I
8 made a selection of six documents, which are
9 representative of many others. All these documents, I
10 believe, will be introduced during this case by other
11 witnesses.
12 Q. Your report contains also the position of the Ministry
13 of the Interior as one of the defence forces of Konjic,
14 which does not -- is not included in the chart; is that
15 correct?
16 A. It is correct that it is not included in the chart.
17 Q. It is, therefore, correct that your intention was not to
18 depict all the important structures existing at that
19 time in the municipality?
20 A. Yes, it was. As for the police forces, the forces of
21 the Ministry of the Interior, it was difficult to show
22 it in a simplified way, because they were forming part
23 as well -- they were forming part of the War Presidency
24 as well as of the armed forces. It was just a question
25 of not creating too much confusion of where they have to
Page 971
1 be situated, but under the law they were part of the
2 United Armed Forces.
3 Q. On page 12 of your report, paragraph 1, you said that
4 since April 1992 a joint command was formed in Konjic.
5 None of the six documents submitted contains the
6 information which would lead to such a conclusion, is
7 that correct?
8 A. One of the documents speaks about the intention to form
9 unified forces. I saw many witness statements referring
10 to unified structures existing in April 1992, and I
11 believe these witnesses will come here and support their
12 views here.
13 Q. Ms Calic, I asked you whether any of the six documents
14 submitted here pursuant to my request to be provided
15 with the basis for your report speaks that the joint
16 command was formed in April 1992; yes or no?
17 A. Among these documents you will not find a decision to
18 form a joint command, because I have not seen such a
19 document, but I have seen many documents indicating to
20 this fact, and I have also seen many witness statements,
21 and I believe these witnesses will come here and support
22 this view, but I cannot speak for these witnesses, of
23 course.
24 Q. You could have seen the witness statements from the
25 prosecutor, so your conclusion is what you wrote here on
Page 972
1 page 12, and this is not the actual facts that you
2 learned on the basis of the documents?
3 A. I learned it somehow on the basis of the documents. I
4 showed you several documents indicating that there were
5 two structures, a Croat and a Muslim-dominated military
6 structure, and these were acting together, and this
7 fitted also in the overall policy of the Bosnian
8 government to unite -- to unite the forces.
9 Q. I will just repeat this question once again. The
10 documents are the joint actions of HVO and TO were
11 submitted with the dates of 25th May and later, so there
12 are no documents on joint actions conducted in April
13 1992?
14 A. Not among these six, but there are other documents and
15 other witness statements. I made a certain selection.
16 I believed this was a selection which was representative
17 of the kind of documents I used, but there are numerous
18 other documents, and I repeat I believe they will all be
19 introduced here.
20 Q. In other words, Ms Calic, although I asked for all the
21 documents, you gave me just a selection of documents; is
22 that correct?
23 A. That is absolutely correct.
24 Q. So your chart number 50 is not absolutely correct on the
25 basis of the existing documents; it is an incomplete
Page 973
1 illustration and a simplified illustration of a certain
2 structure in Konjic in May 1992, as is your document
3 number 3 on the ethnic structure of Bosnia-Herzegovina?
4 A. Any diagram is, of course, a simplified version of
5 reality, as is any book, any article, any report. I
6 would like to stress again that I have seen so many
7 documents, probably several hundreds. I am not capable
8 of introducing them alone here, but I am sure they will
9 be introduced during this court, and they reflect the
10 six which I have chosen. They reflect perfectly all the
11 other documents which I have seen.
12 You come now back to this map, and I used the
13 lunch break to check again the numbers. The ethnic
14 composition of Bjelina; Bjelina has, of course, nothing
15 to do with our Konjic. I got the photocopy and I
16 confirmed that all the statistical service of Sarajevo
17 confirmed that the municipality of Bjelina had -- the
18 composition of the municipality of Bjelina was nearly 60
19 per cent Serb. So it was clearly a Serb majority area.
20 I do not know how this misunderstanding could come up.
21 I assume maybe you are referring to the town of Bjelina,
22 which is not a Serb, but the municipality of Bjelina is
23 nearly 60 per cent Serb according to the statistical
24 service of Sarajevo, the statistical office of
25 Sarajevo. I have got the figures here. I can show you
Page 974
1 afterwards.
2 Q. Ms Calic, I have concluded my questions about document
3 number 50. As for any issues pertaining to the map,
4 they have to do with the fact that you depicted great
5 areas with mixed population as being majority Serbian
6 populations, including Banja Luka, Prijedor and
7 Bijeljina. I would not now go back to those issues. I
8 think this concludes my cross-examination. Thank you
9 very much, your Honours, and thank you, Ms Calic.
10 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Thank you very much. I think that is
11 all for you. I think this is all for the defence
12 examinations. Have you any re-examination?
13 MR OSTBERG: I do not, your Honour. I just want to, before
14 we release Dr Calic, introduce these exhibits to the
15 Trial Chamber, and that is as exhibit number 6, expert
16 report of Dr Calic; as exhibits -- in the document file
17 exhibits number 7-69. These are the 58 numbered
18 documents in the file given to you. Then I will finally
19 introduce these six documents that Madam Residovic
20 talked about now. They were in reality nine, because
21 six were submitted yesterday and three today. Your
22 Honours have nine documents before you in the documents
23 you have. That concludes the documents I have to bring
24 to the court, Dr Calic.
25 I end by saying thank you very much to Dr Calic
Page 975
1 for her patience and willingness to answer many, many
2 questions. Thank you.
3 A. You are welcome.
4 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I think there is a very small point I
5 wanted to get clarified. There is a question about not
6 having any document on the Joint Armed Forces. You do
7 not remember having any document on the Joint armed
8 forces?
9 A. There is one. There is one.
10 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Because I see here one dated 4th June
11 1992. It is headed "Headquarters of the Joint Armed
12 Forces, Territorial Defence Headquarters and Croatian
13 Defence Council."
14 A. Yes.
15 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Signed "for the Headquarters of the
16 Joint Armed Forces"?
17 A. Yes.
18 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: This is not directed to any particular
19 person, but it is an authorisation by the Joint Armed
20 Forces. So I was surprised that -- I was surprised.
21 JUDGE JAN: You have said in your report that in the joint
22 command the TO Commander was to be the Commander of the
23 Joint Staff and the HVO Commander was to be the Deputy
24 Commander?
25 A. Yes.
Page 976
1 JUDGE JAN: Is there any document supporting it?
2 A. There will be many documents supporting it.
3 JUDGE JAN: Have you placed them on the record?
4 A. Sorry.
5 Q. Have you placed them before us?
6 A. Not here but there are such documents. They will be
7 introduced by other witnesses.
8 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Thank you very much. You have done
9 your best. I do not think you can do more than what you
10 have. It is very gruelling, almost one week of the
11 witness. It is a detailed cross-examination?
12 A. Okay.
13 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Thank you very much.
14 A. You are welcome.
15 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I think the witness is discharged,
16 except if you need her any longer.
17 MR OSTBERG: I do not think so, your Honour. I hope
18 everything has been introduced duly.
19 (The witness withdrew)
20 MR MORAN: Excuse me, your Honour. As to the exhibits
21 the prosecution moved to introduce, as to Ms Calic, we
22 have no objections to exhibit 6, but as to 7 through 79
23 I believe they are --
24 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: This is very strange, very strange.
25 MR MORAN: I am sorry, your Honour. I did not hear --
Page 977
1 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I say it is very, very strange what
2 you are now saying.
3 MR MORAN: We have no objections as to the --
4 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: This is very strange. We have even
5 dismissed the witness.
6 MR MORAN: I am sorry, your Honour. I did not hear the
7 forecast for objection. I apologise.
8 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Which other witness does the
9 Prosecution have?
10 MS McHENRY: Good afternoon, your Honours.
11 The Prosecution calls Mr Branko Gotovac.
12 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Swear the witness, please.
13 MR BRANKO GOTOVAC (sworn)
14 Examined by MS McHENRY
15 MS McHENRY: Good afternoon, sir. Would you please tell
16 the court your full name?
17 A. (in interpretation) Good afternoon. My name is Branko
18 Gotovac.
19 Q. What is your age now, sir?
20 A. I am 65.
21 Q. Are you working at the present time, sir?
22 A. I am retired.
23 Q. When did you retire?
24 A. In 1990.
25 Q. What was your occupation before you retired?
Page 978
1 A. I was a locksmith.
2 Q. Where did you work, what company?
3 A. Igman in Konjic.
4 Q. What part of Igman, the civilian part or the military
5 part?
6 A. Well, let me explain to you. I worked in the inventory
7 maintenance.
8 Q. Okay. How far did you go in school, Mr Gotovac?
9 A. I have secondary education. That was vocational school.
10 Q. In May of 1992 where were you living?
11 A. In the village of Viniste near Homolje.
12 Q. Is that part of Konjic municipality?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Where is that -- where is your village in relation to
15 Konjic town? About how far away?
16 A. Six and a half kilometres away from Konjic.
17 Q. What is your ethnic background, sir?
18 A. I am a Serb.
19 Q. What is the ethnic background of most of the inhabitants
20 of Homolje?
21 A. 17 house holds are Serbian and four are Croatian.
22 Q. Was there a time in 1992 when you were arrested,
23 Mr Gotovac?
24 A. I was arrested on 23rd May 1992 and I was taken to
25 Celebici.
Page 979
1 Q. Can you briefly explain the circumstances of your
2 arrest, including whether or not you were told anything
3 about why you were being arrested?
4 A. Just that that was because I was a Serb.
5 Q. Can you -- can you explain briefly where you were when
6 you were arrested? Was there any sort of military
7 fighting, or can you just explain how it came to be that
8 you were arrested, briefly, please?
9 A. On 22nd May 1992 I was in the garden, which was away
10 from my house. My elder son was in the house, and he
11 was arrested and taken to Celebici on 22nd May 1992.
12 Can I go on?
13 Q. Yes, sir, please do.
14 A. On 23rd May Emir Alic came. To give us shelter he said
15 there would be an action, an operation -- at least that
16 is what he said -- and he said we should take shelter
17 until this whole madness passed. So I spent about half
18 of the day in his house, and in the evening the police
19 came, and my son was with Dervo Bajic and Spasoje
20 Miljevic, but I was taken down there with the car and I
21 did not see anything because it was dark.
22 Q. Now, sir, during the period prior to your arrest were
23 you armed?
24 A. Since I am 65 -- at that time I was 61 -- and I am
25 retired and nobody asked me any questions and I was not
Page 980
1 interested in anything.
2 Q. Did you participate in any defence of your village?
3 A. No.
4 Q. What happened to you after you were arrested,
5 Mr Gotovac?
6 A. I was in room 22 for a while. I saw many things and I
7 heard many things. There was a man Slobodan Babic in
8 room 22. He could not even speak because he was beaten
9 so badly.
10 Q. Mr Gotovac, can I go back for a minute, please? When
11 you were arrested, were you brought to the Celebici
12 barracks?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Would that still have been on May 23rd?
15 A. In the evening between 10 and 11pm on 23rd May, that was
16 when I was taken to Celebici.
17 Q. How long did you remain a prisoner in Celebici?
18 A. For 101 days.
19 Q. You stated that when you were brought to the camp you
20 were first put in building 22. Can you describe what
21 building 22 was and what it was used for when you were
22 first brought there?
23 A. Yes, I can. There were fire pumps and it was storage
24 for fire-fighting equipment.
25 Q. Were there other prisoners kept in building 22?
Page 981
1 A. When I arrived on 23rd May 1992 it was full of people,
2 so that we were all packed like sardines. Can I
3 elaborate?
4 Q. Yes, please. Please do.
5 A. When the slices of bread were being distributed the
6 person who did it said that we were 104, but I did not
7 count that.
8 Q. Can you describe the other conditions in building 22?
9 Where did you sleep? What kind of food you got?
10 A. There was very little food and water as well. The
11 hygienic conditions were nothing, very bad, and so on.
12 Q. Where did you sleep, Mr Gotovac?
13 A. Since it was very tight, we would just lean on one
14 another. That is how it was.
15 Q. How long did you stay in building 22 approximately?
16 A. Approximately I don't recall. Maybe 12-15 days. I
17 can't recall exactly, because I was of poor hearing,
18 poor sight, so I was just trying to survive the crisis.
19 Q. While you were kept in building 22 did you witness any
20 mistreatment?
21 A. Yes. On 21st May Spasoje Miljevic was taken out. He
22 was beaten up. I saw Slobodan Babic. He could not see,
23 he could not speak. That is how it was.
24 Q. With respect to Mr Miljevic, how long had you been in
25 building 22 when he was beaten?
Page 982
1 A. We came together and we left -- we were transferred
2 together to hangar number 6.
3 Q. About how long had you been in building 22 when Mr
4 Miljevic was beaten? Was it right when you first got
5 there or towards the end of the time you were in
6 building 22?
7 A. We arrived on 23rd May 1992 and he was beaten on 24th
8 May 1992. That was the very next day.
9 Q. How did you know that he was beaten?
10 A. He came back and they had taken him out, and he came
11 back and he couldn't walk. Two people had to take him
12 to relieve himself.
13 Q. Did this happen on only one day, that Mr Miljevic was
14 beaten?
15 A. That brief period of time I noticed only once, but
16 several times in number 6.
17 Q. Okay. Staying again at the time when you were still in
18 building 22, did you hear any mistreatment while you
19 were there, even if you did not see it yourself?
20 A. I could not see it, because the door was closed, but we
21 heard on 26th May the first group arrived from Bradina.
22 MS McMURREY: I object. He is testifying from no personal
23 knowledge. She said: "Have you heard..." The question
24 she asked was:
25 "Did you hear any mistreatment while you were
Page 983
1 there, even if you did not see it personally?"
2 He said:
3 "I could not see it because of the door."
4 Unless he has personal knowledge about these
5 beatings she is asking him about, then he would not be
6 able to testify.
7 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: It is what he says he heard. Is
8 hearing not part of one's senses.
9 MS McMURREY: This is part of one's senses. I was thinking
10 he heard it from someone else, but if he personally
11 heard it, that is a different story. Thank you.
12 MS McHENRY: Mr Gotovac, would you please continue with
13 what you heard?
14 A. On 26th May 1992 the first group from Bradina was
15 brought, the group of prisoners, and I heard people
16 crying. I could not see them but I heard them and after
17 that I heard them. They were forced -- they were given
18 to greet "Meherba", "Praise the Lord", and things like
19 that. Then they were singing something. I do not know
20 what.
21 Q. While you were in building 22 did you ever hear any
22 screams or cries from prisoners besides on 26th May?
23 A. I suffered the same trauma on 27th. There was a second
24 group that arrived and they were also crying and things
25 like that.
Page 984
1 Q. Where were you brought when you were moved from building
2 22?
3 A. They took us to hangar number 6.
4 Q. Can you describe what hangar number 6 was like?
5 A. That was a tin structure made like a half cylinder. I
6 cannot recall the length and the width. It was like a
7 large warehouse.
8 Q. Do you know how many people were kept in hangar number 6
9 when you were there?
10 A. I did not understand the question.
11 Q. Do you know how many prisoners were kept in hangar
12 number 6 approximately, how many other people were kept
13 there besides you?
14 A. No. Also by the way the food was distributed about 240
15 people. The person who was distributing bread slices
16 told us that.
17 Q. Approximately where were you in the hangar? Were you
18 close to the door or far away? Can you describe that
19 for us?
20 A. There was at first a row that was circular and then
21 there were two in the middle and I was in the middle not
22 far away from the door.
23 Q. Can you describe the conditions, what the conditions
24 were like in hangar number 6, how you -- what kind of
25 sanitary facilities, what kind of food you had, what
Page 985
1 kind of sleeping blankets and things like that you had?
2 A. Whatever people had to take off, like coats, and
3 sometimes a blanket was torn into four pieces. The
4 conditions were very, very bad. That was concrete down
5 there, so there was almost nothing.
6 Q. What kind of food did you have to eat, sir?
7 A. Sometimes they gave us something cooked, maybe five
8 spoonfuls, and a slice of bread.
9 Q. On what occasions were you allowed outside?
10 A. Only for personal need to go to urinate.
11 Q. Mr Gotovac, while you were in hanger number 6, did you
12 yourself suffer any mistreatment?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Was this on more than one occasion?
15 A. It was several times, and I saw Scepo Gotovac, who was
16 taken out and brought back in and shortly thereafter he
17 died, and he was taken out with Simo Jovanovic several
18 times and beaten. He came back and in 15 minutes he
19 died.
20 We could not see very well in the hangar, but we
21 recognised his crying. I saw Cedo Avranovic between the
22 rows half undressed, half dead, and nobody knew what
23 happened to him. I saw Zeljko Cecez. He was taken out
24 and beaten and brought back in. He asked for water and
25 nobody gave him water. He was crying: "Brothers, help
Page 986
1 me." I don't know when but he shortly thereafter died,
2 maybe within 20 minutes.
3 Q. With respect to Mr Scepo Gotovac, can you please tell us
4 in any more detail what you saw about what happened to
5 him?
6 A. Hazim Delic came and he said that in 1942 that he
7 killed, slaughtered or something two Muslims and he
8 said: "No, I never killed a chicken", and he slapped him
9 on his face. He dropped down and he kicked him. Then
10 he took him out and I heard his cries and screams. Then
11 I heard him mention his mother and Zenga said: "What
12 mother? Did you ever have a mother?"
13 Q. Going back, sir, to your own mistreatment, can you
14 please tell us the first incident that you remember
15 where you yourself were the victim of mistreatment?
16 A. I remember it very well. First, my younger son was
17 taken out and beaten and I crawled over to him at night
18 and said: "Can you still survive?" He said that he
19 would, and the older one was well, but was beaten less
20 than the younger one. Then it was my turn soon
21 thereafter. Landzo took me out, Esad Landzo, called
22 Zenga. He beat me in my rib cage, stomach, teeth. So
23 he knocked out a few of my teeth but it was not just
24 that. There were several mistreatments following that.
25 Q. Okay. With respect to the first mistreatment where your
Page 987
1 teeth were knocked out and you were beaten in your rib
2 cage by Zenga, do you remember anything else about that
3 beating? For instance, where did it occur? Can you
4 please tell us everything you remember about that
5 particular beating?
6 A. All right. That was not far from the hangar and he
7 commanded me to put my hands behind my back, behind my
8 head and he beat me. My stomach, something snapped
9 there and he said: "What are you grabbing your stomach
10 for?" I told him "something snapped there". He said:
11 "I'll operate on you right now."
12 Q. When he said: "I'll operate on you right now", what
13 happened next?
14 A. He beat me some more and then he said: "Let's go. Let's
15 go back and then we'll continue."
16 Q. Is that everything you remember about that first
17 instance where you were beaten by Zenga?
18 A. But there's more.
19 Q. Okay. Please continue.
20 A. My next taking out, we went behind a hangar and he
21 filled my mouth with grass so that I wouldn't cry and
22 then he broke off a hoe and he beat me in the feet and
23 legs and ordered me to get up. I couldn't get up. Then
24 he kicked me some more. Then I couldn't speak any
25 more. Then he was putting a knife into my mouth. He
Page 988
1 pulled the grass out and put a knife in and he said:
2 "Why are you coughing here?" I didn't know what he was
3 going to do with me. -- Can I continue?
4 Q. Yes, sir.
5 A. He said Lepara was there with him. He was his bodyguard
6 or something. I didn't know him. He was a younger
7 man. I heard from our colleagues that he was Lepara and
8 there was Makaron. Then he said to shoot him as if he
9 is trying to escape. Then he said: "No, we'll continue
10 another time. Bring him back."
11 Q. May I ask you, Mr Gotovac, you just mentioned Lepara and
12 I believe Makaron. Were they other guards at Celebici?
13 A. There were others, but I did not know them.
14 Q. But Lepara and Makaron, were they guards?
15 A. I heard that they were. I heard that Makaron was. I
16 knew that Lepara was. I did not know Makaron.
17 Q. Who was it who ordered someone to shoot you and then
18 said: "No, we'll continue another time"?
19 A. Landzo ordered -- Esad Landzo, called Zenga.
20 Q. Were there any other incidents, any other times where
21 you were mistreated, sir?
22 A. Yes, there were. Hazim Delic ordered us all for our
23 hair to be cut. When we went out to have our hair cut,
24 when it was my turn, he sent me back to be -- to be
25 shaved clean and then he started beating me. He beat me
Page 989
1 all the way down to the door. Then he kicked me in the
2 back continue?
3 Q. Yes, sir, please.
4 A. This torture was the most painful and the worst, because
5 then he asked me whether I preferred for both of my sons
6 to be killed or myself, and I said: "Kill me." Then the
7 next time I was taken out he took me out just in front
8 of the door. There was a case there, a crate about 80
9 cms long.
10 Q. Who took you out, Mr Gotovac?
11 A. Esad Landzo, Zenga. He took both my sons, and Spasoje
12 Miljevic out. Some other men came with cameras and they
13 asked me whether Serbs killed Muslims. I said: "I don't
14 know", and I said they didn't. Zenga threatened me with
15 his finger, standing at the door, and then, as I
16 described, the crate, he took out both my sons and
17 Spasoje Miljevic, and then he put a gasmask on my older
18 son's face and also to Spasoje Miljevic. He didn't put
19 anything on my younger son. Then they asked me what I
20 said to the people with the camera. I said that I had a
21 sore throat, that I couldn't speak. Then they let me
22 be. I said I didn't say anything. I can't remember
23 saying anything. Then he asked me questions and hit
24 them. Then he hit me, and then the older son, he
25 couldn't stand the gasmask any more. He started to
Page 990
1 mumble. Then he took off his gasmask and started to
2 beat him about the face.
3 Q. Who started to beat your son about the face?
4 A. Landzo, Esad Landzo, nicknamed Zenga. Then he also took
5 off the gasmask of Spasoje Miljevic. Then he took my
6 younger son's shirt off and started to cut him with a
7 knife. He said: "Please, Zenga, don't do it."
8 Then he chased him back inside and I stayed there
9 on my own and I had to spread my legs and put my hands
10 behind my head, and when I could not do it any longer,
11 when I saw that I couldn't move my hands, and I don't
12 know what happened -- when his tongue went back into his
13 throat and there was a nurse called Brane. Then I don't
14 know who called, whether my older son or somebody. He
15 called for help and this man Brane, he had a shoehorn
16 and took out my tongue.
17 Q. Mr Gotovac, can I go back for one minute, please? I am
18 sorry. When you had to spread your legs and put your
19 hands behind your head, can you please explain in more
20 detail what happened after you spread your legs and put
21 your hands behind your head? Were you standing up or
22 were you lying down?
23 A. I was sitting down and he hit me in the scrotum so that
24 I bled soon after that, and I saw blood coming out of my
25 shoe legs, and Hazim Delic was close by, and when I fell
Page 991
1 unconscious on the concrete and when Brane Gligorevic
2 pulled out my tongue I started to come to.
3 Then Delic said: "Put him into my Fica car", and
4 they didn't dare. So I crawled to the Fica but I
5 couldn't open the door. He went to the other side,
6 opened the door and told me to crawl in. I crawled in
7 and he took me to number 22. Then he called the doctor,
8 who was also there as a prisoner, Dr Relja from
9 Bradina. His last name is Mrkajic. He said: "Will he
10 die?" Relja said: "He will die."
11 Q. But you did not die, did you, Mr Gotovac?
12 A. I did not.
13 Q. Mr Gotovac, do you know, at the time that you and your
14 sons were being beaten, was anyone else present besides you,
15 your sons, Mr Miljevic and Zenga?
16 A. The three of them and I as a fourth. I did not notice
17 anyone else.
18 Q. Did you remain for some period of time after Mr Delic
19 brought you -- when you regained consciousness and
20 Mr Delic brought you to building 22, how long did you
21 stay in 22?
22 A. I don't know when it was when he brought me in. I think
23 it was in early July, and I remained there until 30th
24 August 1992. That is when I was released as a
25 seriously ill person. I was allowed to go home.
Page 992
1 Q. Were you seriously ill because of the injuries you had
2 received while you were at Celebici?
3 A. Yes, that is correct.
4 Q. Were there any other incidents where you were mistreated
5 by Zenga or by anyone else while you were at Celebici?
6 A. Yes, with other people, but I couldn't tell you anything
7 about that, because the door was closed.
8 Q. Was there ever an occasion where something happened to
9 one of your hands and, if so, can you please tell us
10 slowly about that?
11 A. I will tell you about it. He went behind my back and
12 jumped on to the crate and jumped -- I am talking about
13 Landzo Zenga, Esad -- and he kicked me with his knees
14 into my back. I don't know how many times. I was
15 already deformed at that time so that my left shoulder
16 all the way down to my elbow hurts every time the
17 weather changes and even when it doesn't, and I also
18 have a backache and also my ribs ache when the weather
19 is about to change.
20 Q. What happened to your -- did anything happen to your
21 hand on that occasion?
22 A. Well, maybe something did happen to my shoulder joint,
23 because I have pain going all the way down to my arm
24 when he kicked me with his knees. Maybe something
25 happened.
Page 993
1 Q. Was there ever anything put on the palm of your hand,
2 Mr Gotovac?
3 A. The first time when my jaw was damaged and my teeth
4 knocked out -- that was the first time that I was
5 maltreated and beaten -- he put a cigarette on to my
6 right palm and the tendons were burnt. That is what the
7 doctor told me, and now I can't bend two of my fingers.
8 Q. Who put a cigarette on your hand?
9 A. Esad Landzo, nicknamed Zenga.
10 Q. Were you allowed to take your hand away while the
11 cigarette was being placed on it?
12 A. When he burnt me with the cigarette, the cigarette was
13 extinguished. He actually extinguished it by pressing
14 it into my palm.
15 Q. Was anyone else present when Zenga did that, any other
16 guard or anyone else?
17 A. There was a guard, but I don't know who he is.
18 Q. Does your hand show any marks from the cigarette?
19 A. Yes, I can show it to you. It can be seen.
20 Q. Can you put it under that light on the machine next to
21 you, Mr Gotovac? I don't know if the usher can help him
22 with this.
23 MS McMURREY: Your Honour, may the defence attorneys be
24 allowed to go and inspect the wound he is talking
25 about?
Page 994
1 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Yes.
2 A. And I can't bend these two fingers.
3 MS McMURREY: Your Honours, I don't know if it is possible
4 right now, but just for preservation of evidence that
5 they have shown to the court, is it possible to have the
6 Video Department or someone make a print of that so that
7 we can have it for future reference.
8 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Have you seen it.
9 MS McMURREY: Yes, I have seen it.
10 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: That should be sufficient.
11 MS McMURREY: Well, we will cover that in cross-examination
12 then. Thank you.
13 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Yes.
14 (Hand photographed.)
15 MS McHENRY: Thank you, sir.
16 A. You are welcome. I have other things I could say.
17 Q. With respect to what happened to you, is there also a
18 time where you were forced to do something with a hand
19 grenade?
20 A. Yes, the hand grenade. He was holding it in his hand
21 and he said to pull on the pin, and then he ran away.
22 Q. Who is he, Mr Gotovac?
23 A. Esad Landzo, called Zenga.
24 Q. Was there a time when anything happened to your legs,
25 where you were cut in any way?
Page 995
1 A. No, only in my stomach. It's protruding and every year
2 it's more and more. I would like to have it checked by
3 somebody.
4 Q. Now, sir, you have testified that about Zenga. Did you
5 know this person Zenga before you were at the camp?
6 A. No, I did not know him, but the young men who went to
7 school with him knew him. They even said he trained
8 karate or something. However, very soon everybody came
9 to know him.
10 Q. Do you know the names of any of the younger prisoners
11 who knew Landzo?
12 A. Yes, I do remember. Bendjo, Dusko Bendjo.
13 Q. Is it Dusko?
14 A. Bendjo, Bendjo Dusko.
15 Q. Did you see Landzo throughout your time at the camp?
16 A. Yes. Everything -- all the tortures that he did with
17 me, you saw him taking other people out and bringing
18 them back and so on.
19 Q. Did you hear his name on other occasions besides the
20 occasion when Mr Bendjo told you his name? Did you hear
21 his name on other occasions also?
22 A. Frankly speaking, there were some young men who knew
23 him, but I don't recall the names of these young men.
24 Q. Can you describe what Zenga looked like, including
25 whether or not you found anything distinctive or --
Page 996
1 A. I can. He was medium height, only some hair on top of
2 his head. In his face it was pale but more yellowish
3 than whitish complexion. Sometimes he would wear a
4 hat. It was a camouflage hat.
5 Q. Did you hear his voice?
6 A. Yes. I knew his voice well, because he took me out a
7 number of times and I remember him the best when he
8 said: "Do you want me to kill both of your sons or
9 yourself?", and when I told him "myself", and the worst
10 torture, when I went to 22 badly ill, he said that I
11 would die within eight days.
12 Q. Was there anything -- excuse me. You also mentioned --
13 excuse me. Did you see Landzo around the camp up until
14 the time that you left Celebici?
15 JUDGE JAN: He has already answered that. He has already
16 said that.
17 MS McHENRY: Okay.
18 A. I saw him when I was in number 22. I heard him in the
19 compound several days. The door was kept open. He was
20 wearing some white belt. I don't know if he was
21 transferred to the police or what.
22 Q. About when was it that you saw him and he was wearing a
23 white belt? How long before you left the camp?
24 A. That was mid-August, maybe even before.
25 Q. Are you sure that Landzo is the person who did all these
Page 997
1 things to you that you have described today?
2 A. Yes, and I stand by it and I suffered a lot and I still
3 suffer today.
4 Q. Mr Gotovac, you have also mentioned Mr Delic. Did you
5 know Hazim Delic where you were at the camp?
6 A. I did not know him before but in number 22, when we got
7 there, he had crutches, and one of his feet was
8 bandaged. When we were in number 6 there were no
9 crutches, no bandage. It was all normal. He did not
10 have the bandage on his leg any more.
11 Q. How often did you have occasion to see Mr Delic?
12 A. From middle of July until 30th August I saw him several
13 times, especially on 30th August, when he told me -- he
14 came to the door and he said: "Hurry up and get ready."
15 I was afraid. I did not know what was going on. I took
16 one shoe and left the other shoe. Then he said -- I
17 said: "What shall I do?" He said: "You are going home.
18 Get ready right away."
19 Q. Did you come to observe or know anything about
20 Mr Delic's functions in the camp?
21 A. They called him the Commander of the Guard and also the
22 Deputy Commander. I don't -- I am not familiar with
23 what he was, but anyway that is what he was called.
24 Q. Would you ever see Mr Delic inside the hangar, hangar
25 number 6?
Page 998
1 A. Oftentimes.
2 Q. What would he be doing when you saw him inside hangar
3 number 6?
4 A. Always strict discipline. He would pull up your feet,
5 look down. Whoever would look up would get kicked or
6 hit in the back, things like that.
7 Q. Mr Gotovac, besides what you have already told us about,
8 did you observe any other incidents where other persons
9 were mistreated?
10 A. You could not see well because it was mostly done in the
11 evening, at night. There were no lights. You could
12 hear screams. People were beaten up. So I could not
13 say that I saw things. You could not see but you heard
14 things.
15 Q. Besides what you have already told us about, did you
16 have ever see the injuries of some other prisoners?
17 A. Yes, I did. I saw Spasoje Miljevic. I saw some burns
18 on his legs. Dusko Bendjo had burns on his legs.
19 Nedeljko Draganic and Spasoje Miljevic is one of the
20 witnesses, and I saw those burns on them.
21 Q. With respect to Mr Draganic, what burns did you see on
22 Mr Draganic?
23 A. I was going to describe now. Draganic was in number 22
24 several days to have that treated and the rest of them
25 were coming to be bandaged.
Page 999
1 Q. Where were Mr Draganic's injuries?
2 A. His knees up, and Draganic is a witness, who he may be
3 able to testify.
4 Q. Okay. With respect to Mr Miljevic, what injuries did
5 you yourself observe on Mr Miljevic? Where were the
6 injuries, for instance?
7 A. He told me in person that they heated a knife and then
8 they placed a knife on his thighs.
9 Q. Did you --
10 A. He is one of the witnesses here, so he will not say
11 better.
12 Q. Did you yourself, while you were in the camp, see
13 Mr Miljevic's injuries?
14 A. I saw them when he came to be bandaged to number 22.
15 Q. Did you ever see or hear anything about when prisoners
16 were made to act like cars, Mr Gotovac?
17 A. Yes. Vukasin Mrkjajic, sometimes in the evening,
18 sometimes day time he would go around saying: "Beep,
19 beep"; and then somebody would say: "Left blinker;
20 right blinker." Sometimes he would have to sing.
21 Sometimes he cried.
22 Q. Do you have any information about who it was that made
23 him act like a car, go: "Beep, beep" and other things?
24 A. He told me personally that it was Hazim Delic who forced
25 him to do that.
Page 1000
1 Q. Do you have any -- did you ever hear this or did you
2 ever hear Mr Delic's voice while this was going on?
3 A. Well, to be frank, I could hear a voice, but I told you
4 in advance that my hearing is poor, and I can't really
5 tell whose the voice was, but he told me that he was the
6 one.
7 Q. Did you ever see any injuries on Mirko Babic, or did you
8 observe his physical condition?
9 A. He went from Bjelovcina to the town of Konjic on the
10 occasion of his arrest and he was beaten and maltreated,
11 and he was again abused and beaten in Celebici. He
12 complained to us and that two or three of his ribs were
13 injured.
14 MS McMURREY: Your Honour, I object. He is testifying from
15 no personal knowledge. The question was whether he saw
16 the injuries. That would mean he would have personal
17 knowledge of that, but what actually happened to Mirko
18 Babic, unless he saw it, he does not know. So he is
19 testifying with lack of personal knowledge.
20 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I hear him say Mirko Babic told him.
21 Am I correct that he said he told him?
22 MS McHENRY: Yes, your Honour.
23 A. Yes, yes, that is what Babic told me, that he had
24 injuries to three of his ribs.
25 MS McMURREY: Well, your Honour, that would still be lack
Page 1001
1 of his personal knowledge. Somebody else told him that
2 --
3 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Somebody else? The person affected
4 told him. The person who was beaten told him.
5 MS McMURREY: I know there is a ruling on hearsay but that
6 is still no personal knowledge about what happened to
7 Mr Babic, only what somebody else told him.
8 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I do not know whether Babic is someone
9 else to him for telling him what happened to him.
10 MS McMURREY: My objection is just that he did not see it.
11 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: It is not necessary. You have raised
12 an objection. I hear but think it is overruled.
13 MS McMURREY: Thank you.
14 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Babic can tell him things which
15 happened to him; he did not say he saw that thing
16 himself.
17 MS McMURREY: I am certainly not going to argue with the
18 court at all on this issue.
19 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: You can if you really want to.
20 MS McMURREY: No, I do not really want to. Just in my
21 country, and I know this is not my country, that is, of
22 course, called hearsay. I know there are certain areas
23 in this proceedings where hearsay is allowed. My
24 objection is that Mr Gotovac did not see Mirko Babic
25 being beaten, so he has no actual personal knowledge
Page 1002
1 other than what someone else told him.
2 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: You had better go back to the hearsay
3 rule.
4 JUDGE JAN: It is corroborative evidence.
5 MS McMURREY: Okay. Thank you.
6 MS McHENRY: Mr Gotovac, in addition to what Mr Babic told
7 you when he was at the camp, did you ever see his
8 physical condition, for instance his ability to walk.
9 MS McMURREY: Your Honour, I am going to object. The
10 prosecutor is leading the witness.
11 A. He was in no condition at all. He was in a really bad
12 way.
13 MS McMURREY: Excuse me, Mr Gotovac.
14 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Okay.
15 MS McMURREY: She can ask about whether he saw injuries,
16 but then she is telling him what the injuries are in her
17 question.
18 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Rephrase the question.
19 MS McMURREY: So she is leading.
20 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Did he see Babic?
21 MS McHENRY: Mr Gotovac, did you ever see anything unusual
22 about Mr Babic's physical condition when he was at
23 Celebici?
24 A. Well, what was unusual, he was always very close to me,
25 he was in a bad way, broken down. He was very weak, and
Page 1003
1 we could not say anything to each other. We were not
2 allowed to. We had to look straight ahead. We were not
3 allowed to even whisper to each other.
4 Q. Mr Gotovac, going to the time that you were brought by
5 Mr Delic back to building 22 for treatment, can you
6 describe the building at that time -- can you describe
7 what it was used for and what the conditions were like
8 at that time in building 22?
9 A. The conditions were bad and the building itself was used
10 as a fire-fighting equipment storage facility. There
11 was a pump there.
12 Q. When you were there the second time can you describe the
13 food and the other facilities?
14 A. The other conditions were really very bad. There was
15 some food, but at first, the first eight days, I
16 couldn't eat at all, because I bled a lot and the
17 doctors there, the prisoners, they were struggling to
18 stop the haemorrhage and they finally managed to do
19 that. So for eight days I couldn't get up myself. The
20 others had to help me. If I lay on my back, I couldn't
21 even get up. So that I was really in a very, very bad
22 way.
23 Q. Was there ever a time when you were at the camp when you
24 were in a condition such that you could eat but food was
25 not available?
Page 1004
1 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Please can we break here? Perhaps you
2 will construct your sentences a little better when we
3 come back. We will return at 4.15.
4 (3.50 pm)
5 (Short break).
6 (4.15 pm).
7 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Please kindly remind the witness he is
8 still under his oath.
9 THE REGISTRAR: A reminder that you are still under oath,
10 sir.
11 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Counsel, this kind of questions, witness
12 is here for you to guide him instead of leading him. Guide
13 him. He will state what he is here to say.
14 MS McHENRY: Yes, your Honour. I will try to guide without
15 leading. Mr Gotovac, what, if anything, do you know
16 concerning who was in charge of Celebici camp?
17 A. We heard and I saw him there, Pavo Mucic, Zdravko. Pavo
18 is his nickname.
19 Q. Who did you hear that he was in charge from?
20 A. All the ones who knew him said that, and I knew him.
21 Q. Did you yourself ever see Mucic when you were in the
22 camp?
23 A. Yes, I did, especially when I was in number 22, as a
24 patient. He walked in there. He came to number 22.
25 Q. During the time that you were in the infirmary did
Page 1005
1 anyone ever ask how it was that you were injured?
2 A. No, they didn't, only during the visit of the
3 International Red Cross.
4 Q. Can you -- during the visit of the International Red
5 Cross who was it who asked you how you were injured?
6 Persons from the camp or persons from the Red Cross?
7 A. Persons from the Red Cross through an interpreter, who
8 was a short woman from Mostar.
9 Q. Mr Gotovac, you showed us the injury on your hand. Do
10 you have any other visible injuries anywhere on your
11 body?
12 A. I have in the abdominal area and it's protruding quite a
13 bit, and my shoulder also is deformed pretty much.
14 Q. Where did you receive the injuries that caused your
15 abdominal and shoulder problems?
16 A. From hangar number 6.
17 Q. From the beatings that you have already told us about;
18 is that correct?
19 MS McMURREY: Your Honour, I am going to object. She is
20 leading again.
21 MS McHENRY: I would like to say guiding.
22 MS McMURREY: I am objecting to the leading form of the
23 question again, your Honour.
24 MS McHENRY: I will rephrase the questions. I apologise.
25 MS McMURREY: Thank you.
Page 1006
1 MS McHENRY: Mr Gotovac, what happened in front of hangar
2 number 6 such that you have abdominal and shoulder
3 injuries.
4 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: He did not say anything happened in
5 front of number 6.
6 MS McHENRY: I am sorry, I believe he did. I just asked:
7 where did you receive the injuries? His answer was:
8 "From hangar number 6".
9 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I did not hear that.
10 JUDGE JAN: He has already replied to the question and he
11 says he was beaten up. Why do you want it again?
12 MS McHENRY: Because, your Honour, I am going to ask -- I
13 have just obtained the defence counsel's permission, and
14 I am going to ask --
15 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: You are wanting to tell the Trial
16 Chamber how he got this injury.
17 MS McHENRY: Yes, your Honour.
18 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Ask him: "How did you get your
19 injuries?"
20 MS McHENRY: How did you get your injuries, Mr Gotovac?
21 A. The first time I was taken out I got injuries in the
22 abdominal area from kicking and also from -- and also
23 with the fist. He was waving it and just hitting me
24 always in the same time. Then when he hurt me he said
25 -- and I held on to my side and he said: "Why are you
Page 1007
1 holding it?" I said: "Something snapped in there." He
2 said: "Now I am going to operate on you."
3 Q. Who is he, so the record is clear?
4 A. Esad Landzo, called Zenga.
5 Q. Mr Gotovac, would you consent to someone from the video
6 photograph unit of the Tribunal taking photographs of
7 your injuries later on this afternoon so that they can
8 be shown to the court? The defence council has
9 previously agreed to this being done, your Honour.
10 Would that be all right with you, Mr Gotovac?
11 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: He has only mentioned one injury and
12 he has only spoken of just one?
13 A. Yes, I agree.
14 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Did he have any other injuries apart
15 from the one he has just told the Trial Chamber about?
16 A. I think I should have pictures taken of the shoulder and
17 the arm and the abdominal area.
18 MS McHENRY: Your Honour, the hand -- the video unit has
19 come down to say that the video showing the palm of the
20 hand injury did not come out well because of the
21 limitations of the video equipment. So we would be
22 asking that pictures of all these injuries be obtained,
23 and defence council has already agreed to this during
24 the break.
25 Mr Gotovac, were you ever told why you were being
Page 1008
1 imprisoned in Celebici?
2 A. I heard nothing except that it was because I was a Serb.
3 Q. Were you ever interrogated at all while you were at the
4 camp?
5 A. On one occasion there was Miro Stenek. It was very
6 little. He saw that my throat was hurting and asked just a
7 few questions. He said: "Are you an SDS member?" I
8 said: "No." "Do you have any arms?" I said: "No." He
9 said: "Just go away. You're not important."
10 Q. Do you know approximately when it was that Mr Stenek
11 interviewed you?
12 A. Early June 1992.
13 Q. Did you sign a statement at that time?
14 A. Yes, I did, but I didn't have my glasses, so I never
15 read it, so I don't know what it is about.
16 Q. Were you ever interviewed or interrogated at any other
17 time while you were at the camp?
18 A. Zravko Mucic came on 29th August and told me that I was
19 not questioned, and I told him that I was questioned by
20 Miro Stenek, but very briefly. He said: "He did not",
21 and then he called me in and he saw what my situation
22 was, and he said: "Number 8." I didn't know what it
23 was. That was category 8, which means that you didn't
24 do anything.
25 Q. What happened next after you were interviewed?
Page 1009
1 A. He said: "Go lie down", and I went there and in the 30th
2 in the evening I was called out to go home.
3 Q. Were you then released on 30th?
4 A. Yes. Exactly on 30th August around 9. I had no watch
5 but that was the time.
6 Q. Your Honours, with the usher's assistance, I would like
7 to show the witness an exhibit and get it marked.
8 JUDGE JAN: What is this about?
9 MS McHENRY: This is his release diagram, which has already
10 been shown to defence counsel, and I have extra copies
11 for the court. I would ask that the originals of the
12 document and the translation be marked as prosecution
13 exhibit 75 and 76. I am sorry. I have been corrected.
14 75 and 75A for the translation.
15 JUDGE JAN: The original I can understand but why are
16 copies getting exhibited?
17 MS McHENRY: Well, in this particular case the only -- the
18 copies are for your Honours' and the legal officer's
19 convenience. In this case this is a case where we
20 actually have the original document, although I warn the
21 court there are going to be other cases which are
22 different, but in this case we have the original
23 document which is being shown to the witness and then
24 copies are being supplied to your Honours' convenience.
25 Can you please show him 75?
Page 1010
1 Mr Gotovac, you are being shown what has been
2 marked for identification purposes as Prosecution
3 Exhibit 75. Can you look at that document that is next
4 to you on the instrument, Mr Gotovac?
5 A. I can see it.
6 Q. Do you recognise what that is, sir?
7 A. Yes. That is the release document of 30th August 1992
8 from number 22.
9 JUDGE JAN: But it mentions the date 19th September? Oh,
10 that is his date of birth. I beg your pardon.
11 A. Yes, that is my date of birth.
12 MS McHENRY: Mr Gotovac, is this the document you received
13 when you were released from the camp?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. If you know, whose signature is on the document? Who
16 signed it?
17 A. I assume that it is Mucic, but I can't see it that well,
18 because he said: "Village of Celebici?" I said:
19 "Please, sir, I am not from Celebici. I am from
20 Viniste, near Homolje" and then he made the correction.
21 JUDGE JAN: Well --
22 MS McHENRY: I believe he was just explaining that Mr Mucic
23 --
24 JUDGE JAN: If he did not see it, how can he identify the
25 signatures?
Page 1011
1 MS McHENRY: Did anyone write or sign anything on the
2 document while you were there, Mr Gotovac?
3 A. You mean at 22? No. The first time it was written that
4 way.
5 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: At the time you were released did
6 anyone sign anything to release you?
7 A. I don't know how to explain you. I just got a release
8 paper, no other document.
9 MS McHENRY: Who gave you have the release paper?
10 A. Mucic, Zdravko Mucic gave it to me. His nickname is
11 Pavo.
12 Q. Did you have any discussion with Mr Mucic about what
13 should be on the document?
14 A. No, I did not.
15 Q. Was there --
16 A. Except when he said Celebici, but I had a cousin in
17 Celebici, so I told him I was not from Celebici. I was
18 from Viniste. So he put in a correction. That is all
19 he did, nothing else.
20 Q. Thank you. Your Honour, at this time I would move into
21 evidence Prosecution Exhibit 75 and 75A, which is the
22 translation.
23 MS McMURREY: The defence of Esad Landzo has no objections
24 to that exhibit, your Honour.
25 MR MORAN: No objections, your Honour.
Page 1012
1 MR O'SULLIVAN: No objection, your Honour.
2 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: There being no objection to the
3 exhibits, they are admitted.
4 MS McHENRY: Thank you?
5 A. Can I thank the International Criminal Tribunal -- I
6 would like to express my thankfulness for allowing me
7 this opportunity to give my evidence here and I think
8 that it is good that people know what I have gone
9 through and what I have suffered, me and my family.
10 MS McHENRY: Okay.
11 JUDGE JAN: Were his sons also released along with him or
12 did they just stay? Just off the record.
13 MS McHENRY: Sir. I do not know the answer to that
14 question.
15 Sir, when were your sons released from the camp?
16 A. One stayed seven months and the other one eight after
17 me. When I was released from Celebici to the sports
18 hall in Konjic they were moved there and then they were
19 released from there.
20 Q. One second, please. No more questions, your Honour.
21 Thank you.
22 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: That is all you have for the witness?
23 MS McHENRY: Yes, your Honour.
24 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: The witness is now available for
25 cross-examination.
Page 1013
1 MR O'SULLIVAN: Your Honours, cross-examination will
2 proceed in this way: first, counsel for Mr Mucic;
3 second, counsel for Mr Landzo; third, counsel for
4 Mr Delic; and fourth, counsel for Mr Delalic.
5 Cross-examination by MR GREAVES
6 MR GREAVES: May it please your Honour.
7 Mr Gotovac, I want to ask you, please, about the
8 time when you were released from the camp at Celebici.
9 That was at the end of August of 1992. Prior to that
10 you had an interview with Mr Mucic; is that right?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. That was one of only a few occasions when you saw him?
13 A. Yes, one of the few occasions.
14 Q. And it is right, is it not, that you only saw him in the
15 period shortly before your release?
16 A. Yes, not often, but I did see him then.
17 Q. And the only times that you saw him were in the month of
18 August 1992?
19 A. In August 1992, on 29th August 1992.
20 Q. I am sorry, Mr Gotovac. May I clarify, please, that you
21 only saw Mr Mucic in the month of August 1992?
22 A. I saw him before, but not often. On that occasion on
23 29th August 1992 he was in number 22, inside the
24 building.
25 Q. So that when you saw him in number 22, that was in the
Page 1014
1 month of August of that year?
2 A. On 30th August 1992.
3 Q. And the day before your release you were interviewed by
4 Mr Mucic in the presence of a lady secretary; is that
5 right?
6 A. Yes. Her name was Ismeta. I don't know her last name.
7 She was a typist.
8 Q. You say that she was a typist because she typed up what
9 you were saying during the course of the interview; is
10 that right?
11 A. Yes. She used the typewriter.
12 Q. And the length of time that your interview took was
13 about ten minutes; is that right?
14 A. Yes, even shorter than that. It was a really very short
15 interview.
16 Q. Just a formality; is that right?
17 JUDGE JAN: How would he know?
18 A. Well, since he did not recognise the questioning that
19 was conducted by the man whose name is Miro Stenek, he
20 didn't want to agree that I was questioned by him. So
21 he just asked me a couple of questions, and he said to
22 his typist: "8", and then the doctors asked me: "What
23 did you get?" I said: "I don't know. He said something
24 8." Then they said: "Well, it's good news. You are
25 going home", and that is what happened. I was released
Page 1015
1 the next day, on the 30th.
2 Q. Is it right that at about the same time that you were
3 interviewed someone else that you know was also being
4 interviewed, Nedjo Kuljanin?
5 A. Nedjo Kuljanin was also not questioned because he was in
6 the hospital in Jablanica, because he had been injured.
7 He was also assigned category 8. After his turn it was
8 my turn to go in. We were together in number 22.
9 Q. Nedjo was also released at the same time as you; is that
10 right?
11 A. Yes, on 30th August 1992.
12 Q. Were other detainees released on 30th August 1992?
13 A. Several remained after we left in 22. There were 12
14 beds there. It was a small place. They were wooden
15 beds.
16 Q. Apart from you and Nedjo, were other people released at
17 the same time as you, Mr Gotovac?
18 A. Yes. Some people were released before me, Petko
19 Mrkajic, the doctor; then Dr Grubac Petko, and then also
20 a man by the name of Savo Djordjic. I don't recall
21 because I didn't know all of these people. I don't know
22 when they were released exactly.
23 Q. Even though you may not be able to recall the names of
24 those released, can you recall how many people were
25 released at about the same time as you?
Page 1016
1 A. That night Nedjo Kuljanin and myself and the ones that I
2 mentioned just now, they were released before. I mean
3 the two doctors and Savo Djordjic, he was also released
4 before me.
5 Q. Were there others whose names you did not know who were
6 also released?
7 A. Well, because I did not know people's names and because
8 I was very seriously ill, I was in bed all the time, and
9 sometimes I would even pull the covers over my head. I
10 can't recall who was released when. I remember
11 precisely for these people but not for the others.
12 Q. Having been released, did you go back to your home
13 village?
14 A. I spent a night at Nedjo Kuljanin's in Donje Selo and
15 the next day I went slowly back to my village.
16 Q. Did Mr Mucic come to your village at all after you had
17 been released?
18 A. No, he did not come to Vinjiste.
19 Q. Mr Gotovac, do you remember the first visit of the Red
20 Cross to the camp in early August 1992?
21 A. Yes, I remember. We were visited on 12th August 1992.
22 Q. And would you --
23 A. I have a document pertaining to that. I think I handed
24 it over.
25 Q. Is that the first visit that you can recall made by the
Page 1017
1 Red Cross?
2 A. Yes, in the 22 and number 6, when I went from the 22 to
3 the 6.
4 Q. In August 1992 would you accept that the conditions of
5 feeding and provision of medicine improved?
6 A. Yes. There were some medicines, and as for the food,
7 well, we who were sick, maybe we got some more because
8 we were so weak.
9 Q. Mr Gotovac, I would like to ask you now about the time
10 of your detention, when you were arrested and taken to
11 the camp. When you were arrested, did those who were
12 arresting you search you?
13 A. No, they did not search me, because a neighbour of mine,
14 Emir Alic, he told me that someone who come in the
15 morning and the village would be searched, and he told
16 me to go to his place so he can give me shelter. My
17 younger son went to Dervo Bajic and Spasoje Miljevic. I
18 was here. In the evening the police came. They wore
19 camouflage uniforms and white belts. They arrested me
20 and Spasoje and my younger son and they took us to
21 Celebici.
22 Q. When you were arrested, did you have any items of value
23 on you, such as a watch or money?
24 A. I did not have anything.
25 Q. Mr Gotovac, I would like you, please, to look at a short
Page 1018
1 piece of video, one that we have already played to
2 another witness, and tell me if there is anybody that
3 you recognise on that video, please.
4 Your Honours, it is the short piece of video that
5 you have already seen with people on it.
6 (Videotape played).
7 A. I see Mirko Kuljanin. He is from Bradina.
8 Q. Is there anybody else that you recognise amongst those
9 people on the film?
10 A. Please, my sight is not so good. I can see people, but
11 because my sight is so poor, I cannot recognise people.
12 Q. Thank you very much, Mr Gotovac.
13 JUDGE JAN: Just a minute. When was this video obtained or
14 prepared?
15 MR GREAVES: I am sorry, your Honour. I did not hear what
16 you said.
17 JUDGE JAN: When was this video prepared?
18 A. I don't know if this was taken in Celebici.
19 JUDGE JAN: When?
20 MR GREAVES: Your Honour, we believe it is on 20th August.
21 In fact, if you look at the monitor now, you will see
22 the date and indeed the time.
23 JUDGE JAN: And it was taken by whom?
24 MR GREAVES: By Mr Mucic and it was recovered from his home
25 address in Vienna upon his arrest. Does that help your
Page 1019
1 Honour?
2 JUDGE JAN: Thank you.
3 MR GREAVES: My pleasure.
4 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Ms McMurrey, I think it is for you.
5 MS McMURREY: Thank you, your Honour.
6 Cross-examination by MS McMURREY.
7 MS McMURREY: May it please the court. Good day to you,
8 Mr Gotovac.
9 A. Good day to you too.
10 Q. My name is Cynthia McMurrey and I am defence attorney
11 for Esad Landzo. On 22nd February 1996 you visited and
12 talked with the investigators from the prosecution, did
13 you not?
14 A. On 22nd? Sorry. I did not understand you. What month
15 are you referring to.
16 Q. On February 22nd, 1996?
17 A. Yes, in Temisvara.
18 Q. Before you came to testify here in The Hague someone
19 from the Prosecutor's Office notified you that the
20 defence attorneys would like to visit with you too, did
21 they not?
22 A. Yes. We spoke very briefly.
23 Q. And you refused to speak to anybody from the defence
24 side, did you not?
25 A. Well, I was not very happy. I avoid things like that,
Page 1020
1 because my hearing is poor. I did not have my hearing
2 aid the way I have it now.
3 Q. In fact, you refused to give us the same courtesies that
4 you offered the prosecution; is that not true?
5 A. No, I did not refuse. I don't see what it is that I
6 refused.
7 Q. You refused to talk to us, did you not?
8 A. I did not refuse. I could not hear very well, but we
9 did talk for some time very shortly.
10 Q. So if the prosecution told you that you refused to talk
11 to us, would they be misrepresenting the facts?
12 MS McHENRY: Your Honour, may I object and --
13 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Do you not think it is easier not to
14 antagonise this witness. Go on with whatever questions
15 you have.
16 MS McMURREY: Gosh! Your Honour, I do not know with all
17 the questions I have that I can go through my
18 cross-examination without antagonising. I will do my
19 best.
20 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Better try not to. It is safer for
21 you.
22 MS McMURREY: I will try not to.
23 Mr Gotovac, did you refresh your memory before
24 testifying today with any document?
25 A. I don't know what documents you mean. I gave all the
Page 1021
1 documents that I had in my possession.
2 Q. I am specifically asking: did you re-read your prior
3 statement that you made on February 22nd 1996?
4 A. Yes. It took me a while to read it, but I did read
5 through it, because my sight is not very good.
6 Q. So you are telling the court today that your hearing is
7 not very good and your sight is not very good; is that
8 what you are saying?
9 A. Well, it is my age. I am 65 years old, and due to all
10 the torture that I have been through this is not really
11 very strange.
12 Q. Now, Mr Gotovac, when you were preparing for your
13 testimony today you did meet with some people from the
14 prosecutor's office, did you not?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. Can you tell us who was present at that meeting?
17 A. I don't know what meetings you are talking about. We
18 just discussed some things here in the waiting room.
19 Q. Well, when you were discussing the things before you
20 were testifying today in the waiting room, was -- let us
21 say was Ms McHenry present?
22 A. Yes, she was, if we are now talking about the
23 prosecutor.
24 Q. What is Ms McHenry's position?
25 A. Well, I guess she's the judge.
Page 1022
1 Q. Okay. Thank you. Did she meet with you when you were
2 -- when you had this meeting with Ms McHenry, was your
3 investigator there, the one you spoke to when you were
4 in Bosnia?
5 A. The journalist, Branca, who spoke to me in Bosnia, she
6 was not here.
7 Q. Okay. Was it just you and Ms McHenry? Is that what you
8 are telling the court?
9 A. And the interpreter, Zivkovic.
10 Q. Thank you very much. You testified before that -- I
11 believe you were born in Konjic, were you not?
12 A. I was born in the village of Bjelovcina, about 8 kms
13 from Konjic and I lived in Konjic. I had an apartment
14 there in Konjic. I lived there for a long time, and
15 when I retired, I went to live in the country in the
16 village of Vinjiste and I built a summer house there,
17 and I lived there.
18 Q. You lived in Vinjiste or did you live in Homolje?
19 A. It is fifteen minutes walk between the two villages.
20 Q. Which village did you have live in?
21 A. Very close neighbourhood, in Viniste.
22 Q. Thanks. You are a Bosnian Serb national, are you not?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And you never claimed to be anything other then a
25 Bosnian Serb, have you?
Page 1023
1 A. Well, nobody ever forced me. I was never in a position
2 to change anything. I always was what I am.
3 Q. And, in fact, the March 1st 1992 referendum, where the
4 Bosnians voted for their independence, you either voted
5 or you could have voted in that election, could you not?
6 A. I don't really remember that referendum all that well.
7 I don't remember where I was. I didn't vote. Nobody
8 forced me to vote.
9 Q. But you could have voted, if you wanted to, could you
10 not?
11 A. I could have, but nobody really told me about it.
12 Q. Mr Gotovac, are you a member of the SDS?
13 A. I always stated that I was not and nobody forced me to
14 be a member because of my age. Because of my age I was
15 not involved in anything, and, in fact, I never in my
16 entire life was involved in anything. I was not a
17 member.
18 Q. So you are saying you were not politically active
19 whatsoever in 1992; is that your testimony?
20 A. No.
21 Q. Is that no, you were never active politically in 1992?
22 A. Yes, I was not active.
23 Q. Mr Gotovac, you were convicted of an offence before in
24 Bosnia, were you not?
25 A. Never, no.
Page 1024
1 Q. Not even 40 years ago?
2 MS McHENRY: Your Honour, I must object.
3 A. Never.
4 MS McHENRY: A conviction 40 years ago can have no possible
5 relevance to this case and I believe for protection of
6 the witnesses, both under rule 75 and I believe 95, to
7 bring up issues such as convictions that occurred 40
8 years ago would be improper in most national systems
9 that I am familiar with, and I certainly think it should
10 be not permitted before this Tribunal. There is a
11 limit, I believe, to what the witness can fairly be
12 cross-examined about, about what is relevant to their
13 credibility for witnesses, and I object.
14 MS McMURREY: Your Honour, I will withdraw the question.
15 Unless he stated he was convicted of perjury, you are
16 absolutely right. It would be irrelevant.
17 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Tell me: what is the business of the
18 question?
19 MS McMURREY: Because I was informed he did have a prior
20 conviction. None of us --
21 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: In respect of what?
22 MS McMURREY: I did not know what it was.
23 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: You should not have offered it, unless
24 you knew what the conviction was about. You see, this
25 is what counsel should learn to accept. You can go to
Page 1025
1 justify what you are saying after that. You should
2 never have said it. You cannot now go further to
3 justify the type of conviction. He has said no, he has
4 no convictions.
5 MS McMURREY: I accept his answer, but because we were not
6 allowed investigation of the witnesses ahead of time I
7 have no way to go back and pull up any records from that
8 area. What this is is investigation by trial because we
9 had no way to find out the background of these
10 witnesses.
11 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I tell you we are now dealing with the
12 objections to your question.
13 MS McMURREY: And I accept the objection.
14 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Thank you.
15 MS McMURREY: I withdraw the question. As I said, it is
16 not relevant unless it was a perjury conviction and I
17 had no idea. So thank you.
18 Mr Gotovac, you are a neighbour of Mirko Babic,
19 are you not?
20 A. Yes. We were born in Bjelovcina together and I left 25
21 years ago. So we did not meet much. We did not work
22 together. He was a forester. So since we did not meet
23 we did not have an opportunity to find out much about
24 one another.
25 Q. But you have remained friends over the years, have you
Page 1026
1 not? I am sorry. I have did not hear the
2 interpretation?
3 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Actually, what was the answer? I did
4 not hear the interpretation.
5 MS McMURREY: I did not either. I am not getting anything
6 on interpretation. We have lost it.
7 THE INTERPRETER: Can you hear me now?
8 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Yes.
9 THE INTERPRETER: Can you have the witness repeat the
10 question?
11 MS McMURREY: I think the question was: you and Mirko Babic
12 have remained friends, though, have you not?
13 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Yes. That was the question.
14 MS McMURREY: Thank you?
15 A. We never quarrelled.
16 JUDGE JAN: That is a negative answer.
17 MS McMURREY: Mr Gotovac, you have seen Mirko Babic and you
18 have visited with him since you left Bjelovcina 25 years
19 ago, have you not?
20 A. I saw him seldom, because we were on very -- we had
21 different kinds of jobs.
22 Q. Did you see Mirko Babic since you have been in The
23 Hague?
24 A. Yes, I did.
25 Q. While you were visiting with Mirko Babic here in The
Page 1027
1 Hague, you discussed your testimony with him, did you
2 not?
3 A. No, I did not talk to him, but I saw him when he was
4 going back to the airport to get on the plane to go
5 home. I did not have an opportunity to talk to him,
6 because we each had our own rooms.
7 Q. So you are saying that since August of 1992 you have
8 never talked about what happened at Celebici with
9 Mr Babic; is that what you are telling this court today?
10 A. No, I did not see him.
11 Q. The question is that you are telling this court that you
12 have never discussed what happened at Celebici with
13 Mr Babic since August of 1992?
14 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: If he says he has not seen him, how
15 could he have discussed it with him?
16 MS McMURREY: Your Honour, I am just not clear whether he
17 is talking about whether he has seen him right now. My
18 question goes back to August of 1992, and I would like
19 an answer from him whether he has talked to Mirko Babic
20 about what happened in Celebici since August of 1992,
21 not just since he has been in The Hague.
22 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Since when they were incarcerated
23 together, is it?
24 MS McMURREY: Yes, your Honour.
25 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Your question is valid.
Page 1028
1 A. No. I had no opportunity. He was not with me.
2 MS McMURREY: Since August of 1992; is that correct?
3 A. I stand by it.
4 Q. Okay. Thank you very much. Now you --
5 A. You are welcome.
6 Q. You said on May 22nd your sons were arrested and taken
7 away; is that correct?
8 A. The older one, and the younger one was taken with me.
9 Q. What are your son's names?
10 A. Danilo and Zoran Gotovac.
11 Q. I am sorry. I did not get the second name?
12 A. Zoran.
13 Q. Thank you. On the next day --
14 A. You are welcome --
15 Q. -- you said that a neighbour of yours, Mr Emir Alic,
16 invited you to his home to hide out; is that correct?
17 A. Yes, yes, that is correct. He said: "Let this wild
18 thing pass", and I didn't know what he meant by "wild
19 thing". So I did go there.
20 Q. Emir Alic: is he Muslim, Croatian or Serbian?
21 A. Muslim.
22 Q. And he was one of your neighbours; is that correct?
23 A. Yes, yes.
24 Q. You claim that he is living in Libya today. Is that
25 what you are telling this court?
Page 1029
1 A. He left shortly thereafter, shortly after I came from
2 the prison, and he had been there before.
3 Q. But the truth is that he is still in the Konjic area
4 right now, is it not?
5 A. I really don't know. I have not heard from anyone, so I
6 don't know.
7 Q. You said you were picked up in an armoured car. Is that
8 what you claim?
9 A. It was a van without windows.
10 Q. Was it like that vehicle that was shown to you in the
11 video earlier?
12 A. I did not see that.
13 Q. On the video --
14 A. But it was all enclosed. You could not see except up
15 front, where the driver was, but in the back you
16 couldn't see anything.
17 Q. Let me ask you about your friends in your village. Most
18 of the other Serbs in your village had weapons, did they
19 not?
20 A. I really do not know. I was not meddling in these
21 things. I was not paying attention to what was going
22 on. I was working my land and minding my own business.
23 Q. So are you just farming your home now?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Now, Mr Gotovac, you know someone named Dusko Bendjo, do
Page 1030
1 you not?
2 A. Yes, I know him.
3 Q. In fact, you mentioned his name earlier today, did you
4 not?
5 A. Yes, I did.
6 Q. You knew he was the Bosnian Serb responsible for
7 distributing the arms amongst the SDS members, did you
8 not?
9 A. I could not know that. He was in Bjelovcina and I was
10 in Vinjiste, so I could not know, plus I was not
11 interested.
12 Q. You were aware that the military police had come through
13 your village and made an announcement for everybody to
14 turn over their arms, did they not?
15 A. No, I did not know that. The military police found me
16 at Emir's house, and they detained me and took me to
17 Celebici, so I don't know if they came. I don't know
18 about that.
19 Q. But you do know that the people that arrested you had
20 the white belts on, and they were military police. They
21 weren't Muslim forces, were they?
22 A. I don't know. They had white belts but I don't know
23 what forces they belonged to.
24 Q. Now, when you were at Celebici you saw the guards in
25 Celebici, but you also saw members of the HVO, TO and
Page 1031
1 the military police, did you not?
2 A. There were some HVO people, because they had the
3 chequerboard on their sleeves and the other ones wore
4 lilies on their sleeves.
5 Q. But they were all visible at Celebici, were they not?
6 A. I did not see them much. There was no light in the
7 hangar. Whoever came in, you could not recognise them.
8 Those who were younger may have seen better, but I
9 couldn't see much.
10 Q. That brings me to another question: you know, and you
11 have told this court already, I believe, that in May of
12 1992 there was no electricity after dark at Celebici,
13 was there?
14 A. Not in the beginning,. We were 22, and number 6, not at
15 all. When I went to number 22 as a patient, we did not
16 turn on the lights, but if the guards or somebody else
17 would walk in, they would turn it on.
18 Q. So you were always in the dark in 22 and in hangar
19 number 6, is that is correct?
20 A. No. In the hangar always in the dark and when I was in
21 22 as a patient in the second part there was light. In
22 the first part there was no light.
23 Q. And it is your testimony, of course, today earlier, that
24 you were in the infirmary, dispensary, building number
25 22, from early July through August 30th; is that your
Page 1032
1 testimony?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Thank you.
4 A. Number 22.
5 Q. Thank you. You mentioned that when you were brought
6 into number 22 on May 23rd that you met another prisoner
7 named Spasoje Miljevic. I am sorry. I massacre these
8 names.
9 A. Miljevic.
10 Q. You did not testify whether he came with you in the car
11 or not, did you?
12 A. I saw them when they stepped out of the vehicle, because
13 I could not see them inside, and then I said: "You came
14 in the same vehicle?"
15 Q. So he came in the same armoured car at the same time on
16 the same day that you did; is that right?
17 A. Yes, on 23rd May 1992.
18 Q. You also testified earlier that part of the mistreatment
19 that you had seen at Celebici was Slobodan Babic; is
20 that what you testified?
21 A. When he was being arrested -- when he was arrested, he
22 couldn't -- his eyesight was damaged, and he could only
23 moan, and he was taken away, and Petko Grubac claims
24 that he died in 8th March, school.
25 Q. But when you arrived in Celebici, Slobodan Babic, was he
Page 1033
1 in building number 22 with you?
2 A. He was several days, maybe up to five days. I can't
3 recall precisely, because it was so tightly packed. We
4 could only hear him. He was moaning, and I don't know
5 how to call the sounds, but it was very difficult to
6 see, because it was a small room with a lot of people in
7 it.
8 Q. The truth is that Mr Slobodan Babic was beaten before
9 you have ever arrived in Celebici, was he not?
10 A. Yes, before, before, when he was being detained.
11 Q. And you know or could have known from the others that he
12 was beaten at Radava and not in Celebici; is that right?
13 A. That is what Mirko Babic said, because they were brought
14 together to Konjic to the hall in Konjic, where they
15 were separated.
16 Q. So you know for a fact that Slobodan Babic was beaten
17 before he ever arrived in Celebici; is that right?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Havala.
20 A. You are welcome.
21 Q. Now you described building number 22. At the same time
22 that you were in there on May 23rd, you were -- it was
23 not used as an infirmary or a dispensary, was it? It
24 was a holding place, was it not?
25 A. Looking at the pumps and hoses, it looked like a
Page 1034
1 fire-fighting equipment storage room.
2 Q. But basically people were just placed in this building
3 until they had a chance to be interviewed by the
4 authorities to determine what their status was at the
5 camp; is that correct?
6 A. I honestly don't know.
7 Q. But you had an interview while you were in building
8 number 22, did you not?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. And after that interview you were moved to --
11 A. But only briefly.
12 Q. Yes, and they asked you important questions like were
13 you a members of the SDS and did you have arms; is that
14 right?
15 A. I don't recall about the arms. I always said the same.
16 I did not, and so nobody forced me.
17 Q. I am not asking whether anybody forced you. I just was
18 trying to ask what kind of questions were asked of you.
19 On that day that you had your interview you said you
20 signed a statement, did you not?
21 A. I signed something, but I don't know what it was. Two
22 young men showed up when I was questioned and they asked
23 me a few more questions, and then they told me: "You
24 don't recall this?" I said "I don't." They said: "Sign
25 this", and I did but I don't know what. I don't know
Page 1035
1 what it was.
2 Q. You said you did not know what this document was you
3 signed because you did not have your glasses with you;
4 is that correct?
5 A. I did not have glasses and I could not see, so I don't
6 know what the document was.
7 Q. During your entire stay at Celebici you did not get any
8 new glasses either, did you?
9 JUDGE JAN: How could he get them?
10 A. No, I did not.
11 MS McMURREY: You were not given a hearing-aid during the
12 whole time you were at Celebici, were you?
13 A. No.
14 Q. Your Honours, are we quitting today at 5.30 or at 6? It
15 will just determine whether I play a videotape now or
16 whether I save it. Do you have any preference for today
17 or should I just go on with some questions?
18 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: We are closing any time now.
19 MS McMURREY: I will just go with a few questions then.
20 Thank you.
21 You talked about Spasoje Miljevic being beaten
22 while you were in number 22; is that correct?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And when you say that he was beaten, all you know for a
25 fact from your own personal knowledge is that he was
Page 1036
1 taken out by some guards and he was brought back in the
2 same condition that he left in. Is that what your
3 testimony is?
4 A. No, he was not in the same condition.
5 Q. Havala.
6 A. You are welcome.
7 Q. Now in May of 1992 this person, Esad Landzo, or Zenga
8 that you have referred to many times through your
9 testimony today, he was not present or anywhere around
10 building number 22, was he?
11 A. I was seriously ill when I came from number 6. I only
12 heard him once, and I recognised the voice, and I could
13 not see, because the door was closed.
14 JUDGE JAN: He was in building number 22 twice, first when
15 he went there. Then he was moved to building number 6.
16 Then he again after he was injured he again went to
17 building number 22. So you have to specify to what
18 period you are referring.
19 MS McMURREY: You are absolutely right. I am sorry. I
20 forget.
21 The first time you were in building number 22,
22 when you were waiting to be interviewed, before you went
23 to hangar number 6; you have never saw Mr Landzo in May,
24 did you?
25 A. No, I did not. The first few days I did not.
Page 1037
1 Q. Havala.
2 A. You are welcome.
3 Q. In fact, you did not really see Mr Landzo until the
4 middle part of June, after you had been moved to hangar
5 number 6; is that not right?
6 A. That is right, the middle of June. That is when my turn
7 came for this torture.
8 Q. Thank you. You testified that on May 26th, when you
9 were in hangar number 22, a group of prisoners from
10 Bradina were brought in. Is that not what you said?
11 A. Yes. You could hear moans. The Golgotha that we barely
12 survived. It was horrible.
13 Q. You were in building number 22 at the time, right, and
14 those prisoners were not brought there; is that correct?
15 A. That was Number 9, number 6, something like that.
16 Q. So it is your testimony to this court that the prisoners
17 you are talking about from Bradina were taken to tunnel
18 9 or hangar number 6, but they did not come to building
19 22; is that correct?
20 A. I don't know. I don't know the people, so I wouldn't
21 know. It was so packed and it was so dark, but for the
22 most part they were in numbers 9 and 6 and in some
23 tunnel. I don't know where that tunnel was.
24 Q. Now, you testified that earlier that you had told Ms
25 McHenry that you cannot hear so well; is that right?
Page 1038
1 A. Yes, I don't hear that well. It is better now with
2 these earphones, but otherwise it's not so good.
3 Q. It is your testimony that on May 26th you heard these
4 people in tunnel Number 9 or hangar number 6 singing
5 Cetnik songs and using Muslim and Ustasha greetings, did
6 you not?
7 A. Yes, I did hear, and they were singing songs, but I
8 don't know what songs they were, but you could hear them
9 singing, and then somebody is in front of them and says
10 "that" and then they repeat after that. So "ready" and
11 "Praise the Lord", something religious. I could not
12 recognise that very well.
13 Q. Well, that brings to mind another question: you say on
14 May 26th you knew that the prisoners came from Bradina,
15 but the next night another group of prisoners were
16 brought in on May 27th and you did not know where they
17 were from. What's the difference? How did you know the
18 ones from Bradina and you did not know the ones the next
19 night?
20 A. Bradina, that we found out in number 6 because some were
21 moved from number 6 to Number 9 and the other way, so
22 then we heard from them that it was on 26th, 27th May of
23 1992.
24 Q. So your testimony about hearing the people from Bradina
25 on May 26th is a result of your discussions with the
Page 1039
1 other prisoners after you got to hangar number 6; is
2 that not right?
3 A. Yes.
4 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Ms McHenry --
5 MS McMURREY: McMurrey. We are all Irish or Scottish.
6 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: I think this would be a convenient
7 place to stop now, so tomorrow morning you will
8 continue, instead of hurrying over your
9 cross-examination.
10 MS McMURREY: Thank you.
11 Thank you, Mr Gotovac.
12 A. You are welcome: thank you.
13 JUDGE KARIBI WHYTE: Before we rise I think there are a few
14 things we want to dispose of. Remember we have these
15 witnesses protecting, protective measures and we have
16 not indicated resolution of the argument. Now to make
17 matters tidy so that you will be familiar with how to
18 deal with the witnesses, we have considered the
19 arguments on both sides and you remember we had two sets
20 of motions: one, the first one, where you had A, B, C,
21 D, E and F; then the second in which you have M to N.
22 Now the second motion -- we took both of them
23 together -- the second one you still are investigating,
24 as you admitted, that somebody went to -- somebody was
25 trying to investigate about witnesses in this Celebici
Page 1040
1 case. That was the anxiety and the fear about those
2 witnesses M to N.
3 Now the other witnesses, witnesses C-B, C, D, E and
4 F, we categorise them, and the category we have, the
5 first category of witnesses which dealt mainly with the
6 question of those who we certify.
7 There were those which we felt did not really need
8 complete anonymity. They did not really need a closed
9 session, although perhaps they might require
10 some image-distorting or voice-altering devices to enable them to be heard, but
11 with respect to witness C, whose evidence involved
12 sexual assault on him, we felt he should testify in
13 closed session.
14 Now witnesses D, E, F and G, up to M: we regard
15 them to be able to testify in open session where their
16 names and identity will be disclosed and, as I said,
17 with image distoring and voice-altering devices to enable cross-examination
18 relating to the identification which will not be allowed
19 as long as they are cross-examined, but they should not
20 be cross-examined relating to their identity and their
21 names.
22 Now, the witness B was a most anxious one. We
23 have discovered that in all the prosecution's view the
24 of witness B is that he does not want to meet the
25 accused persons, although he knows that they cannot
Page 1041
1 identify him by name merely. So even if he disclosed
2 his name, they would not identify him.
3 Now the prosecution has told us that the witness does not
4 want to see the accused persons and also does not want
5 them to see him. So merely indicating his name in the
6 circumstances will almost amount to anonymity, because
7 they cannot identify him, even if they saw him, except
8 other factors are there.
9 But the reason why this anonymity is being
10 deserved the prosecution said is on a telephone
11 conversation. He learned that this witness is likely to
12 suffer from real traumatisation if he saw them or if
13 they saw him, whichever way.
14 I think in that respect the only evidence of that
15 is the idea of the prosecutor and nothing more.
16 Traumatisation is a medical condition which cannot be
17 offered in that manner. So we did not think it is
18 sufficient evidence to support that claim.
19 Now, the suggestion that the witness should testify
20 from the remote room was refused, because it might make
21 matters more complicated, because the right of the
22 accused persons to cross-examine him under Article
23 21(4)(e) is very clear. Apart from that, the nature of
24 his evidence has not been disclosed, and none of the
25 tests which have been formulated in the Tadic case,
Page 1042
1 which we all know, have not been applied to this
2 witness. So in all the circumstances it is difficult to
3 justify the type of anonymity which has been given to
4 him. So we rejected the prosecution's application.
5 In order not to leave him bare, we still think he
6 will testify in the courtroom to enable the accused
7 persons to see him, but a screen will be built around
8 him to prevent him from seeing the accused persons.
9 That is the trauma that is avoided. That might help
10 him, but the accused persons are entitled to
11 cross-examine him and they are entitled not to lose
12 their rights merely because he claims to be
13 traumatised. So we will soon hand down our decisions
14 but this is in the main line the disposition of the
15 application before us.
16 Now the next thing is we have a few announcements
17 about a short vacation. You know that Easter is
18 approaching, and we are not likely to sit on 28th and
19 31st March, and we will also not be sitting from 4th to
20 about 11th or so of April. We will resume sitting on
21 14th April, but in between we will still be sitting.
22 Just to give you advance information so that you will
23 tidy your timetable and your arrangements.
24 So the Trial Chamber will now rise until
25 tomorrow.
Page 1043
1 (5.35 pm)
2 (Hearing adjourned until 10.00 tomorrow morning)
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