Page 14632
1 Monday, 26 August 2002
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 9.40 a.m.
5 JUDGE LIU: Call the case, please, Madam Registrar.
6 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning, Your Honours. Case number
7 IT-98-34-T, the Prosecutor versus Mladen Naletilic and Vinko Martinovic.
8 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody, and
9 welcome back to this case. I notice Mr. Stringer is here. It has been a
10 long time.
11 Yes, Mr. Stringer?
12 MR. STRINGER: Good morning, Mr. President. Thank you, and it's
13 good to be back. I'll be -- I think the Trial Chamber has received a
14 letter from Mr. Scott. I'll be standing in for him this week but I will
15 be staying with the case until its conclusion.
16 JUDGE LIU: We are so glad to hear that.
17 MR. STRINGER: Thank you.
18 JUDGE LIU: On the 2nd of August this year, this Trial Chamber
19 made a decision for the videolink conference this week. We will hear
20 eight witnesses in five days so there are specific time limits for each
21 witness. Next Monday, we will hear another witness for Martinovic's case
22 through the videolink, and after that, we will hear directly a witness in
23 Naletilic's case on Tuesday, September the 3rd, 2002, in The Hague. In
24 the meantime, I would like to remind both parties that this case should be
25 completed by 27th September, 2002.
Page 14633
1 As for the time schedule, we will have four sittings today. Each
2 will last for one hour to an hour and 30 minutes, between which we will
3 have three breaks.
4 Now -- yes? Yes, Mr. Krsnik?
5 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honours. On
6 behalf of the Defence, thank you for your words of welcome, and I'd also
7 like to say good morning to my learned friends.
8 Your Honours, unfortunately, I'm faced with major problems with
9 witnesses who were to testify by videolink, but could we go into private
10 session so that I could tell you about it?
11 JUDGE LIU: Yes. We will go to the private session, please.
12 [Private session]
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20 [Open session]
21 JUDGE LIU: Yes. We are now in open session. Are there any
22 protective measures for the first witness?
23 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honours. As before,
24 distortion and a pseudonym, that is all, thank you.
25 JUDGE LIU: Any objections?
Page 14638
1 MR. STRINGER: I just wanted to make sure that we are talking
2 about witness number 2 on the list.
3 JUDGE LIU: Yes.
4 MR. STRINGER: We have no objections to the protective measures,
5 Mr. President. Mr. Bos will be involved with that witness.
6 JUDGE LIU: Thank you. I was informed that the facial distortion
7 and the pseudonym, the facial distortion -- I mean the image will not be
8 broadcast outside but we will see the image on our screen. So your
9 request for the protective measures is granted. Could we have the
10 witness, please?
11 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honour.
12 JUDGE LIU: Good morning, Witness.
13 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Good morning.
14 JUDGE LIU: Would you please make the solemn declaration in
15 accordance with the paper the usher is showing to you?
16 Can you hear me?
17 THE REGISTRAR: Hello?
18 JUDGE LIU: Yes.
19 THE REGISTRAR: Can you hear?
20 THE WITNESS: Yes.
21 THE REGISTRAR: I can't.
22 JUDGE LIU: Can you hear me?
23 THE WITNESS: Yes, I can hear.
24 JUDGE LIU: Yes. Can you hear me?
25 THE WITNESS: Yes.
Page 14639
1 JUDGE LIU: Witness, will you please make the solemn declaration
2 in accordance with the paper the usher is showing to you, please?
3 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I solemnly declare that I will speak
4 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
5 WITNESS: WITNESS NU
6 [Witness answered through interpreter]
7 [Witness testified via videolink]
8 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much. You may sit down, please. Yes,
9 Mr. Krsnik.
10 Examined by Mr. Krsnik:
11 Q. Good morning, Witness. Can you hear me and see me?
12 A. Good morning, Mr. Krsnik. I can see you and hear you.
13 Q. Let us start with our work. Kindly -- the Registrar is going to
14 show you a piece of paper with your name. Please don't say your name.
15 Just say yes if this is indeed your name.
16 A. Yes.
17 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, maybe we could go into
18 private session. I don't know whether this can be heard outside. We want
19 to hear some personal data from this witness. Maybe we should go into
20 private session.
21 JUDGE LIU: Yes. We will go to the private session, please.
22 [Private session]
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Page 14640
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21 [Open session]
22 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation]
23 Q. My next question is as follows: If it indeed happened that
24 somebody was taken away from the hospital or from any other medical
25 institution to the Heliodrom, would you have learned about that at the
Page 14648
1 Heliodrom? Did you know exactly how many people there were there, and
2 would you have learned that if something like that had happened?
3 A. Most probably I would have, for a simple reason: Doctors who
4 worked there had the possibility to communicate with me directly, because
5 Croatian doctors could telephone me, could -- and I personally made
6 visits, made rounds of the centre, and I tried to notice any change, any
7 inhumane treatment. It was my task to notice that, in time, try to deal
8 with that, either personally or with the help of Dr. Bagaric.
9 Q. Witness, can you please tell the Honourable Court everything you
10 know about the Heliodrom? We've heard stories here, all sorts of
11 different stories. I would kindly ask you to tell us about the
12 Heliodrom. That's why you are here. At the beginning of my case, I said
13 that the Defence would present all the possible evidence, and I believe
14 that your testimony is one of those testimonies that will clarify to the
15 Honourable Court the situation in the Heliodrom.
16 A. The Heliodrom was, for me personally, a very unpleasant life
17 experience. However, having said that, I have to say that I'm very proud
18 of what I did there, because I believe that as a doctor, despite all the
19 difficulties that I saw there, I did so much, and at the end of the day,
20 no epidemic was registered. Whatever causes of epidemics could be there,
21 I tried to spot them, to prevent them. As I am a professional and expert,
22 I found it much easier to notice the potential foci of epidemics.
23 Further on, I educated other doctors and taught them how to do
24 their job, because I must tell you that the military epidemiology is not
25 taught at any university because in the ex-Yugoslavia there were no
Page 14649
1 military medical schools, and I gathered my experience when I was working
2 in the JNA, and I selflessly shared my knowledge.
3 Can you please ask me specific questions? A lot of time has gone
4 by, and can you ask me some specific questions?
5 Q. First of all, did you control food? Do you know how they were
6 fed? That will be my first question.
7 Second question: Did they have an outpatient surgery? Who were
8 the doctors who were working there all the time in the Heliodrom?
9 A. As far as the food there is concerned, in May 1993 there was still
10 a lack of food. There was still not enough food. For example, my
11 children were refugees and they did not have enough food. But I did, on
12 my part, with the help of Dr. Bagaric and who turned to other people, I
13 did all I could to provide people with food.
14 Secondly, all the people who distributed food and who had to work
15 with food had to be previously tested for germs. What does that mean?
16 That means that somebody may have been contagious and could have
17 contaminated the food. In order to prevent that, we examined all those
18 who got in touch with the food, and that's how we prevented the outbreak
19 of any epidemics.
20 Thirdly, whatever food was given to the people was controlled on a
21 sample. The sample was kept in a fridge. There was a book in which the
22 data were recorded every day on what was -- what food was given to the
23 people. So the data was recorded on breakfast, lunch, and dinner, who was
24 the chef, what was cooked, who controlled the food, and this was signed by
25 the person in charge of that.
Page 14650
1 So as far as the food is concerned, at the beginning the food was
2 bad, and that's for sure. However, as the number of men went down, the
3 food improved, gradually. And I can say for a fact that at one point in
4 time the food that was given to the inmates was the same food that was
5 given to their guards, the Home Guards, who were providing security.
6 Q. Let's stop here just for a second, please. Let's just clarify
7 some things. You said, if I have understood you well, in your own words,
8 you said that, and if I have understood you well, you said that that food
9 was given to everybody in the Heliodrom: to the soldiers, inmates, and to
10 those who provided security. Did I understand you well? Did you really
11 say that?
12 A. Basically, yes. Perhaps not in the early days, but later on,
13 definitely.
14 Q. Be so kind. We are talking about security now. Do you know what
15 kind of security was it, who guarded the Heliodrom? Could everybody enter
16 this Detention Unit?
17 A. No, not everybody was admitted there. I had a special permit, and
18 there was the military police, and they controlled and checked the
19 identity of everybody. And personally, perhaps nothing to do with your
20 question, but I delivered two or three lectures to members of the military
21 police related to the Geneva Conventions. Because as a man, as a
22 physician, as a humanist - excuse me. I'm slightly emotional - I was
23 afraid of revenge, because there were people who were wounded. And I
24 delivered those lectures mostly to those men, and I think that that is,
25 well, a kind of my contribution.
Page 14651
1 Q. Doctor, thank you very much for your explanation, although it has
2 nothing to do with my question. But did you personally observe any
3 harassment at the Heliodrom by those men who guarded it or by somebody
4 else? Did any detainees complain to you?
5 A. Since in the town of Mostar --
6 Q. Mind that you don't reveal your identity. If need be, we shall go
7 back into private session, but just take care. Shall we go into private
8 session?
9 A. Yes.
10 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Please, Your Honours.
11 JUDGE LIU: We'll go to the private session, please.
12 [Private session]
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20 [Open session]
21 JUDGE LIU: Now we are in the open session. You may proceed.
22 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation]
23 Q. So were those military? Were they civilians? What do you know
24 about them? If you do know anything about it, will you please tell the
25 Court?
Page 14658
1 A. Well, I wouldn't know any definite number, and if I said something
2 exact, I don't know, but I think that an approximate number could be, I
3 don't know, 1200, 1300, 1500. It's difficult to say. You know, it's
4 difficult really, difficult to say. As for people whom I met there, I
5 didn't know a number -- a majority of them. Those I did know were
6 Mostarans, that is my townsmen, people that I knew from before. But they
7 were but few. I also know that already sometime in late May, their number
8 drastically decreased and continued to drop. So that I think that in
9 1994, in the beginning of 1994, I think there were much -- very few
10 people, only perhaps a few hundred. And the conditions of course were
11 much better, but these are only approximate figures. I will repeat, 1200,
12 1300, 1500, not more than that, during this most deplorable period and
13 later on, 200, 300, 400, 500. So these figures are not particularly
14 reliable, but that is what I can give you.
15 Q. Well, doctor, this is also helpful. Do you perhaps know what was
16 the situation towards the end of the summer, and when did the number begin
17 to decrease? You said that there were never more than 1500, if I
18 understood you well. Do you know when did this number begin to drop?
19 A. Well, you see, sometime after ten or 15 days, the number
20 drastically dropped. Why, I don't know. Nobody told me about it.
21 Q. Of course.
22 A. Nor did I ask for it.
23 Q. No, no, no. I'm asking only what you personally know.
24 A. I know that a number drastically dropped because I knew
25 indirectly, and I will mention the JNA because there are certain things
Page 14659
1 that you can learn indirectly on the basis of the number of meals. That
2 is how you can get some impression. And I'm telling you, as the summer
3 came to a close, as the delegations came, international, Bosniak and
4 Croat, I suppose, some exchanges took place or something, something at a
5 political level, and then the number was smaller. And to us, or
6 specifically for me, it became much easier to work because it is of course
7 much easier to take care of a smaller number of people than of a larger
8 number of people.
9 Q. Tell us, please, did you also take care or are you aware that
10 there were at the Heliodrom some detained Croats, for different reasons?
11 Were you aware of them and did you look after them, or was it somebody
12 else's responsibility?
13 A. Let me tell you, of course there were Croats there, surely,
14 because I knew some of them. And I tell you again, I'm a doctor, I cannot
15 discriminate for or against him because he's a Croat, give him something
16 better or something worse because he's not a Croat. He got what we had,
17 and what we could administer to him as quickly as possible and as best as
18 possible, because you see, the team that treated -- there was the team
19 headed by Gagic who was for the prevention of diseases, and there was also
20 a team which provided us with medication, so it was, let me say, a system,
21 a system which worked for the sake of normalcy and with a view to
22 improving things. If you -- you can treat patients but if you apply
23 prophylactic measures you also preventively treat them. So all the
24 medical supplies that we had, we distributed them not according whether
25 this one was this or this one was that, but only to the patients who
Page 14660
1 needed them most.
2 Q. And my last two questions, Witness. Can you tell us, if you know,
3 that is, whether you personally talked with those people and what did they
4 tell you, why were they there? So what is it that you know about it?
5 That would be my penultimate question.
6 A. Well, you see, I talked. Among others, there were people who were
7 members of the BH Army. Supposedly this was being taken care by the -- by
8 the military investigative body, but I'm not interested in that because
9 I'm a doctor. I'm interested in men. And sometimes I would ask, "Why is
10 he here?" And they would say, "He's suspected of this or that." And
11 others were isolated as a preventive measure. That is what I was told,
12 because when this unfortunate war started in Mostar and Mostar is a
13 multi-ethnic town, and there were tenants of different ethnic origins or
14 faiths in buildings, and there was perhaps a danger that a neighbour would
15 attack a neighbour. Perhaps this was a kind of an excuse, even though I
16 don't really think that people are all that mean, but perhaps the
17 politicians do think that, and that is why they called it a centre for
18 preventive isolation. But I'm telling you, some ten days ago I was on the
19 left bank, that is in the Bosniak part, with a colleague of mine, and
20 people who were there for, say, Stranjak, we are still friends, because we
21 realised that it was evil that he did not ask for, that I did not ask for,
22 that it was evil but we were people.
23 Q. And my last question, Witness, will be: Where were you on the 9th
24 of May, 1993? Tell us something about your personal experience, if you
25 have any, that is, and in relation to this penultimate question, can you,
Page 14661
1 approximately, of course, tell us how many Mostarans were there in -- at
2 the Heliodrom and how many were those who came from elsewhere? Can you
3 give us any figure?
4 A. It is very difficult, you know. I used to be a sports physician
5 once upon a time, and when I would read reports from matches, I would
6 compare the number of people present at the match with the figure in the
7 newspaper, so I gained some impressions of mine, but again it is very
8 difficult. You understand -- you have to understand, I am a physician.
9 Any -- every time that somebody came there, it was a stress. It is still
10 a stress when I have a patient.
11 Q. Yes, I understand, doctor. If you can tell us, tell us. If you
12 can't, never mind. Just approximately, just to give us some idea?
13 A. Well, perhaps, perhaps, I don't know, if I see ten people, I know
14 two or three of them. Others, I don't. Or I join a group, there are ten
15 of them, I don't know anyone, or I join a group of five, I know them all.
16 But perhaps I knew about 20 or 30 per cent of people, and those were
17 people who are even my friends, who in (redacted)
18 (redacted), don't go to the left bank. Nobody -- none of us will do
19 anything to you but there are some other people there, some outsiders,
20 some refugees, and they might do something." And that is the thing that I
21 also told to my friends on the right bank, because you know a war is an
22 abnormal situation, there are emotions which surface, which you cannot
23 keep under control. So my figure would be 20, 30 per cent, but don't
24 really take it as gospel because I'm really making pure guesses.
25 Q. Very well. Well, tell us, do you know something about the date of
Page 14662
1 the 9th of May, 1993? Where were you, if you were anywhere, what you saw,
2 if you saw anything? What do you know about it?
3 A. Well, you see, in my life, there are several very unpleasant
4 dates, dates that I will never forget, and perhaps that is my
5 post-traumatic syndrome, but you see, I was in my -- in my flat, and I was
6 asleep, and the gun-fire started. I was taken aback. I mean, in every
7 organised army you are supposed to know what is about to happen, but I
8 didn't know anything and there was shooting and shooting and shooting.
9 After a while, my telephone rang. At that moment I had a privilege, I had
10 an army telephone, and they told me that an attack had started and that I
11 had to get to the main medical staff without delay, and it was several
12 kilometres away from my house. I had an official vehicle. I couldn't get
13 the driver because the gun-fire was frightening, and about 100 or 200
14 metres as the crow flies from me, there was a sniper firing. It is where
15 the seat or the headquarters of the ABiH Army unit was, the White Corps or
16 whatever it was called. I couldn't really leave the house all that
17 easily. Across the street from me, there is the civilian police, so I
18 called them. They came. I was downstairs. They stopped right at the
19 front door. I entered the Golf. I lay down, and then a part of the road,
20 that is for about 20 metres, we covered so fast, and I arrived safely to
21 the main medical -- to the main medical headquarters where I stayed
22 several days, never leaving the building. We were getting the food from
23 the hospital. But I'm telling you one of the worst moments in my life was
24 that one.
25 Q. I'm sorry, you said the attack started. Whose attack?
Page 14663
1 A. Well, I was told that it was the BH Army which had launched the
2 attack. "Mind you don't take this street because there is a sniper.
3 You'll be killed." And I looked from under the blinds, and in neither
4 street was there a single person. This situation was sad, the situation
5 was impossible. There was this horrible odour, and I realised that a
6 human head was worth nothing, because it wouldn't survive, because there
7 were snipers on both sides. And I can affirm that there was fire opened
8 from Vranica, and there are still bullet marks in my building, and I was
9 told that at the headquarters.
10 Q. And who fired from Vranica at your building?
11 A. Well, they were not firing at my flat. There was simply fire.
12 Well, that is the building where the command of the -- I believe the 4th
13 Corps from Mostar was.
14 Q. Witness, thank you very much. I have no further questions for
15 you. Thank you very much for coming and thank you for making the effort
16 and finding time to come and help us with your testimony. And now I will
17 hand you over to my learned friend. Thank you very much once again.
18 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] But, Your Honours, as I see, it is
19 now time for the break. It is 11.00.
20 JUDGE LIU: Yes, it is time for a break. I hope during the break
21 the LiveNote on the small computer could be fixed. We'll rise until
22 11.30.
23 --- Recess taken at 11.02 a.m.
24 --- On resuming at 11.36 a.m.
25 JUDGE LIU: Well, since we have few witnesses for the videolink
Page 14664
1 conference, so we won't sit very late today. I think we'll finish today's
2 sitting at 4.00. And after 4.00, the acting Senior Legal Officer will
3 approach both parties for some procedural matters.
4 Well, Mr. Bos, are you ready for your cross-examination?
5 MR. BOS: Yes, Your Honours.
6 JUDGE LIU: Do you have any document to furnish to us?
7 MR. BOS: Yes. I think we've provided the court deputy with a
8 bundle of documents which we are using in cross-examination, and I hope
9 that the witness in Zagreb will also have the documents in Zagreb. They
10 were given to the court deputy in Zagreb, so they should be also in
11 Zagreb.
12 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much. You may proceed.
13 Cross-examined by Mr. Bos:
14 Q. Good morning, Witness NU. Can you hear me?
15 THE INTERPRETER: We don't hear the witness, unfortunately.
16 MR. BOS:
17 Q. Witness, we don't hear you. You may hear us, but we don't hear
18 you, so I think there is a technical problem.
19 Witness, could you -- if you hear me, could you again say
20 something so that we can see if we can hear you now.
21 THE INTERPRETER: The interpreters cannot hear the witness.
22 MR. BOS:
23 Q. Witness, you appear to be hearing us, but we don't hear you, so I
24 think something needs to be done.
25 [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]
Page 14665
1 JUDGE LIU: I was told that we need a few minutes, the
2 technicians, to check it out.
3 MR. BOS: Very well.
4 JUDGE LIU: Can you hear us, Witness?
5 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I can hear you.
6 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Bos. It seems everything is okay. You may
7 proceed.
8 MR. BOS: Thank you, Your Honour.
9 Q. Witness, can you hear me?
10 A. Yes, I can hear you.
11 Q. Very well. We can hear you now as well.
12 Witness, my name is Mr. Roeland Bos, from the Office of the
13 Prosecution, and I will ask you some questions in cross-examination.
14 Witness, I'll start off with my first question. You've testified
15 that you worked at the Mostar hospital during the war in 1993. What I
16 would like to ask you: What is the size of the hospital? If you compare
17 it to the other hospitals in Mostar, would this be the biggest hospital in
18 Mostar?
19 A. In Mostar, on the right bank, there is just one hospital, which at
20 the time was called the War Hospital. The department at which I was on
21 call and occasionally worked was the Department for Contagious Diseases of
22 the War Hospital. So to answer your question, on the right bank there is
23 just one hospital, which may have several buildings, but there was only
24 one hospital, which at the time was called the War Hospital in Mostar.
25 Q. And during the war in 1993, how many patients, on average, would
Page 14666
1 be hospitalised on a daily basis? What was the capacity of the hospital?
2 A. Sir, Your Honours, I was there on call, because I was engaged in
3 the HVO, and since there were not enough specialists for contagious
4 diseases - there were three with me, four altogether - I was on call to
5 provide professional help. At the time, my department consisted of not
6 more than ten beds, and as far as the capacity of the hospital, you should
7 ask the principal of the War Hospital and Mr. Bagaric, who was the chief
8 of the medical corps.
9 Q. But could you give us a rough estimation on the number of beds of
10 the hospital? Are we talking about hundreds of beds, thousands of beds,
11 dozens of beds?
12 A. In my department, I had 10 or 11 beds. That department was
13 relocated to the Department of Internal Diseases, because my former
14 department, the Department for Contagious Diseases, was given to
15 psychiatry. Namely, when the Serbian army, the Army of Republika Srpska,
16 and the JNA, chased psychiatry from Domanovici, these patients sought
17 asylum partly in my department and partly in ATD in Mostar.
18 So the number of beds may have been hundreds of them, but I don't
19 know the exact number. There were no -- certainly not a thousand beds.
20 Not even today does that hospital have a thousand beds, but there were
21 several hundreds.
22 Q. Thank you. Witness, you spoke about the number of detainees at
23 the Heliodrom, and you were asked to give an estimation on the number of
24 detainees, and while you estimated that in May, there were about 1200,
25 maybe at the most 1500 detainees but that number dramatically dropped
Page 14667
1 after ten days. Witness, if I put it to you that in August, 1993, there
2 were about -- there were over 2.000 detainees at the Heliodrom, what would
3 you say to that? Would that be possible?
4 A. I don't think it would be possible because what I saw with my
5 colleagues who took me there does not corroborate this figure.
6 Q. I will ask now the Court deputy who is there with you to show you
7 an exhibit, which is Exhibit number P565.04. And I would like to you read
8 it. And it's a letter from Mr. Stanko Bozic, and let me first ask you, do
9 you know who Mr. Stanko Bozic is?
10 A. Yes. I met Mr. Bozic because I helped him in a certain way, but I
11 see this letter for the first time, and never did Mr. Bozic give anything
12 similar to me, never did he enable me to see this figure, and I cannot
13 corroborate this figure. I know Mr. Bozic, but I see this for the first
14 time in my life. Because you can see who this letter was sent to, to
15 Mr. Stojic, to Mr. Coric, and to the archives, so I don't know how would I
16 be able to know anything about this, not having seen this before.
17 Q. Witness, let me explain to you why I'm showing you this letter.
18 This letter is a letter signed by Mr. Bozic who is the -- who was the
19 warden of the Heliodrom in 1993, correct?
20 A. I assume -- I can see the stamps. I assume this is correct. I
21 assume this is his signature. However, you yourself can see that this was
22 never sent to the Medical Corps, more specifically to Dr. Bagaric, and
23 even if this had been sent to him --
24 Q. I'm not claiming it was sent to the Medical Corps. I'm just using
25 this exhibit to show you at the second paragraph where Mr. Bozic, who is
Page 14668
1 the warden of the Heliodrom, talks about the fact that there were 2100
2 detainees at the Heliodrom. Is it correct that that's what this letter
3 says? And isn't it correct that Mr. Bozic would know this much better
4 than you would?
5 A. Your Honours, Mr. Bozic was the warden, which is confirmed by his
6 signature. I said that the military police provided security, and
7 obviously he should have known -- have had more information. But I must
8 tell you also that I was taken to the detainees by my colleagues, doctors,
9 and what I saw, I gave you just approximate figures. I found everything
10 shocking. Whether this is correct, I do not know, but the figure that I
11 gave you was based on my insight. If that figure is not correct, then
12 Mr. Bozic did not take me to some parts of the detention centre because
13 maybe my assistance was not needed there.
14 Q. But wouldn't you agree with me that Mr. Bozic was in a better
15 position to assess the number of detainees than you were?
16 A. Obviously, if he was the warden, it is only logical that he should
17 have known better than me, but I again tell you that I don't know why he
18 did not inform me about that, because on several occasions he asked for my
19 assistance. So I don't know why I wasn't informed. I see this figure,
20 Your Honours, for the first time, and I hear this information for the
21 first time in my life.
22 Q. Thank you, Witness. Now, Witness, is it correct that in the
23 autumn of 1993, that during that period, you not only visited the
24 Heliodrom but you also visited other detention centres, like Gabela,
25 Ljubuski and Livno, and that you sort of inspected these detention centres
Page 14669
1 and that you actually issued reports on the conditions of these detention
2 centres?
3 A. You probably remember that I, at the beginning of -- said that
4 when I left the JNA, I was a professional who was familiar not only with
5 medical profession but with the military epidemiology and that I was very
6 soon promoted, but I also told you that upon the order of Dr. Bagaric, I
7 was supposed to go to these centres and to act according to the principles
8 of humanity and to teach my colleagues. I also told you that at no school
9 of medicine in the former Yugoslavia these things are not taught, and my
10 superior, Dr. Bagaric, told me, "You are a doctor who knows these things,
11 and you should help. If you need assistance, you can always come to me.
12 This is a shame on all of us and we have to do everything possible to put
13 things right."
14 Q. Witness, if I understand your question [sic] you say that you were
15 ordered by Mr. Bagaric to do this, and one of the things he asked you was
16 to teach at the detention centres issues of international humanitarian
17 law. Now, is it correct that Mr. Bagaric asked you to do this after the
18 Red Cross had visited the Heliodrom on the 10, 11 and 12 of August, 1993
19 and had concluded that there were breaches of the Geneva Conventions in
20 this -- in the Heliodrom, for three different reasons: one, because the
21 detainees were taken out for labour; two, because the quality and the
22 quantity of the food was insufficient; and three, because the isolation
23 cells were in bad condition?
24 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Krsnik?
25 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, can we have some
Page 14670
1 arguments from my learned friend where does his knowledge come from?
2 Where does he draw his knowledge in order to be able to ask this question
3 in his cross? And where is that document provided by the Red Cross, in
4 which it says this?
5 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Bos, lay some background on those
6 allegations.
7 MR. BOS: Your Honours, I will come to that later on with some of
8 the exhibits I will use, but for now I would just like to pose this
9 question to the witness, but this will come back in one of the exhibits
10 which I will use later on. So if you allow me to continue and have this
11 witness respond to this question?
12 [Trial Chamber confers]
13 JUDGE LIU: Well, I think you have to lead this witness step by
14 step. First you have to ask this witness whether he's aware of the visit
15 by the Red Cross on a certain time. Then later on, you could follow up
16 your other questions.
17 MR. BOS: Yes, Your Honour.
18 Q. Witness, were you aware that the Red Cross visited the Heliodrom
19 mid-August, 1993?
20 A. I heard that the -- indirectly, because my duty was to prevent
21 contagious diseases and education of my colleagues. I know that
22 Mr. Loncar, Dr. Loncar, from the International Red Cross was also involved
23 and Dr. Bagaric had contacts with him. I heard that as hearsay from them,
24 but directly I was not involved. Whenever I asked for information, I
25 would receive it, and it was our intention, and Dr. Bagaric always said,
Page 14671
1 "Everything has to be made available to the international organisations,
2 the international laws have to be respected, humanitarian laws have to be
3 respected, and medicine should be our guiding principle, the principles of
4 medicine should be our guiding principles."
5 Q. Now, Witness, if you were aware that the Red Cross visited the
6 Heliodrom in August, 1993, do you also know what their conclusions were
7 after their inspection visit?
8 A. No. I did not have any information. The information I had was --
9 I always wrote reports, a lot of reports, and I knew that the war had
10 started, that it would go on, and that it would eventually finish, that
11 there would be different statements, some more credible, some less
12 credible, some even false statements. That is why I documented
13 everything, in order to be able to remember everything I did, the ways I
14 acted. And Dr. Bagaric always told us to involve all the authorities and
15 that all the situations which proved to be inhumane and which were against
16 human rights should be reported. In addition to that, Dr. Bagaric
17 provided me with information that he considered he should provide me with,
18 some people in charge of the hospital, some of the patients, some of the
19 medicines, and he gave me information pertaining to my area. And I also
20 exchanged information with him, but he very often consulted me on various
21 methods and sought my opinion.
22 Q. But, Witness, the only thing I would like to know now is that all
23 your activities with regard to the detention centres and the reports you
24 drafted on these detention centres, were they all after the Red Cross had
25 visited the Heliodrom in August, 1993?
Page 14672
1 A. Your Honours, the first time I visited Heliodrom was on the 11th
2 and 12th of May, 1993. Doctors who were there, when they saw the
3 detainees, they did not know what to do, so Dr. Bagaric sent me urgently
4 to educate my colleagues. So our work started long before. I'm sure you
5 have my report from 11 and 12 May in which it says we educated these
6 people, but not only them. Until the beginning of the conflict with
7 Muslims, I educated my colleagues, Muslims, Bosniaks, because I thought we
8 would be in this together. So it was not on Bagaric's order or on the
9 orders of the Red Cross that I went there. I just went there because
10 Bagaric told me, "Go there because this is what happened and see what you
11 can do to help."
12 Q. But isn't it correct - and we will come to those reports - that
13 you issued several reports on various camps in the autumn of 1993,
14 especially in November, 1993?
15 A. I assume that it was so. I was the person with the highest
16 authority in the area of prevention and the Geneva Conventions. I don't
17 know how things are in your country but in the former Yugoslavia, these
18 things are not taught at schools. This is the experience I gathered in
19 the army, when I was studying to become a major, and my superior,
20 Dr. Bagaric, thought that I was the best prepared to go there and that he
21 is the person who can put things right if necessary. And wherever I went,
22 I went to alleviate human suffering.
23 Q. Witness, I'm going to ask you -- you've been answering my
24 questions very elaborately, and I'm going to ask -- my questions have been
25 quite simple, and several of them could have been answered by yes or no.
Page 14673
1 But your answers are very elaborate, and I'm going to ask you to be a bit
2 more concise and listen to the question and just answer the question which
3 I ask you.
4 Now, Witness, I'm going to show you another exhibit, which is
5 Exhibit P618.1, and I hope that the court deputy could give you that
6 document.
7 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, I have it.
8 MR. BOS: And my question is: Witness, could you look at this
9 report, and is it correct -- this is a report dated 30 September, 1993, on
10 the conditions in the Heliodrom. And is it correct that you issued and
11 drafted this report?
12 A. The date, yes, the 30th of September. I remember the date. Now,
13 who drew up this report, I'm not sure. I don't really think it was me,
14 simply because if you look at my reports, you will see that there is
15 always to the side "H/C." But I'm sure that this is a correct report.
16 Yes, I recall.
17 Q. On the last page of the report -- in fact, you co-signed it with
18 two other doctors, but is it correct that on the last page of the report,
19 your signature appears as one of the members of this commission who
20 reported on the conditions in September at the Heliodrom?
21 A. Yes, I am one of the co-signatories, and you will also see that
22 Dr. Kolak and Dr. Sandrk are members of the main medical staff. And sure,
23 I was on the team. Because you have to understand that among other
24 things, I had a team for emergency interventions. If there was an -- if
25 an epidemiological incident broke out somewhere, then I would go there
Page 14674
1 with the team. I wasn't on the member of the staff to sit at the
2 headquarters. I was in the field, to go there and alleviate troubles.
3 But I am a co-signatory.
4 Q. Witness, if you have a closer look at the report, and I'll
5 highlight a few of the things that were established in this report. Under
6 number 3 on the first page of the report, it says that the - this concerns
7 the Heliodrom - that the centre's surroundings and the centre itself are
8 messy and neglected. Under number 4, it says that the centre is
9 overcrowded with inmates. Under number 8, it says the hygienic conditions
10 are absolutely unsatisfactory and there is a great likelihood of an
11 outbreak of intestinal and respiratory diseases. And under 7, that there
12 is no segregation in the centre between the wounded, the sick, and the
13 healthy inmates. Is it correct that those were some of the findings in
14 this report, Witness NU?
15 A. Your Honours, if it is written, then it must be correct. But let
16 me tell you: If you came to Mostar now, you would see that it's
17 absolutely dirty, and the television and the press keep writing about
18 this. I am an expert of the WHO, and I frequently appeared on television
19 in Mostar saying that because of the situation such as it is, an epidemic
20 is likely to break out, and at any time, under 3. I'm also glad that you
21 can see, under number 5, what I said about medicines. About number 7, I
22 do not know what is not clear there. There is no segregation. We are not
23 segregating people. We are not separating them under any basis. I
24 suppose you have some friends who are physicians, and you will understand
25 that there is no segregation, because segregation equals discrimination in
Page 14675
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12 Blank pages inserted to ensure pagination corresponds between the French
13 and English transcripts. Pages 14675 to 14678.
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Page 14679
1 our mind.
2 And what else did you say? I believe you mentioned number 8.
3 Well, you see, the number of people must have been larger, but they were
4 leaving, as I already said. And it is a fact that if there is a large
5 number of people in one place, then either respiratory or intestinal
6 diseases are likely to appear. And that is why the literature said that
7 the first thing you must pay attention to is to reduce the number of
8 people as much as possible in order to reduce the risk of disease. At any
9 rate, in any hospital of the world, you have the -- infections will always
10 spread, even in a family, when you have a larger family. It is less
11 likely to spread in a household where there are less people.
12 Q. Witness, in the report you give seven proposed measures. My
13 question is: Were all these measures that you proposed actually followed
14 up after this report?
15 A. First let me explain something. Dr. Bagaric heard my proposal. I
16 don't remember the exact date. And then he wrote that the work at the
17 centre for the preventive insulation, as we called it, was the priority
18 task, and that physicians working in home guard units were responsible for
19 it and the administrators, such as Mr. Bozic, was responsible, and the
20 higher institutions were to ensure this. And I suppose you listened to
21 what I was saying, and if a patient clinic was set up, an infirmary was
22 set up, there were medicines, and there is no doubt that severe wounded
23 were taken to Mostar, if possible, if there were any. And I can even tell
24 you that at night-time and at times I had difficulties with drivers,
25 drivers who had to take people to the War Hospital.
Page 14680
1 Q. Very well. I'll leave this exhibit. I'll ask you now to look
2 at --
3 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Krsnik.
4 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, of course the document
5 speaks for itself, but I'm really bothered by something. Look at what the
6 gentlemen from the Prosecution wrote in the document description for this
7 document. They wrote here -- this list that they gave you, they say that
8 this report was written to avoid embarrassment in view of the expected
9 ICRC inspection. Where does the document say that and where does this
10 transpire from? I think this is absolutely inadmissible and cannot be
11 done. And this is not the first time, except that perhaps I sometimes
12 fail to mention it. But it does not transpire anywhere, either from the
13 English or from the Croatian text. Unfortunately, it is not the first
14 time for the Prosecutor to do something like that.
15 JUDGE LIU: Yes, that is a good point. We would like to hear some
16 explanations from the Prosecutor.
17 MR. BOS: Your Honours, first of all, the description of the
18 exhibit is not the evidence. I mean, the evidence is in. We show the
19 document and -- so as far as the Prosecution is concerned, Your Honours
20 can read the document and assess what the document is about. And if the
21 description is inaccurate, so be it, but the document is in there as
22 well. So it's not that we try to mislead the Judges.
23 JUDGE LIU: Yes. You may proceed, but be careful with your
24 questions.
25 MR. BOS: Thank you, Your Honour.
Page 14681
1 Q. Witness, I'd like you now to look at five exhibits, and four of
2 them are reports on the Heliodrom, on Gabela, Livno, Ljubuski, and one is
3 a chart, an overall chart, on the overall conditions of these four
4 centres. And the exhibits I'd like you to look at are P686.2, which is
5 the chart; and then Exhibit P698.1, which is the report on the Heliodrom;
6 P699.1, which is the report on Gabela; P700.2, which is the report on
7 Livno; and P702.2, which is the report on Ljubuski.
8 Witness, there are a lot of documents which are going to be shown
9 to you now, and I basically ask you to glance through them and confirm to
10 us that you actually drafted these reports or actually -- or indeed signed
11 these reports. Could you please do that and then I'll ask some further
12 questions.
13 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Krsnik.
14 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Excuse me, Your Honours, but the
15 witness should first read those reports to properly confirm the contents
16 and the signature. So could he be given some time to read them so that he
17 can give valid answers to my learned friend? Thank you.
18 JUDGE LIU: Well, I think so, because Mr. Bos said that "I
19 basically asked you to glance through them and confirm to us that you
20 actually drafted those reports," so the witness should have time to read
21 those documents.
22 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I'm sorry, but while
23 the witness is reading, let us try to resolve under dilemma while we are
24 waiting for him. I'm very curious and very -- and I ask Your Honours
25 about the source of this document. It says here that it is the Croatian
Page 14682
1 government, and I affirm publicly in this courtroom that it cannot be the
2 Croatian government.
3 JUDGE LIU: Well, you have a chance to challenge the authenticity
4 of this document by asking some questions about the sources of this
5 document, but first of all we would like to hear whether this witness has
6 signed this document himself or not.
7 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] There are so many documents. I'd
8 need at least a few hours to read them. So I merely look at the
9 signatures. Yes, this is my signature, indicating also the duty I held,
10 and from it you can see that it's mostly the prevention. I just looked at
11 it quickly. Yes, this is my signature, as far as signatures is concerned.
12 Q. [Previous translation continues] ... exhibit you just looked at,
13 the number, please.
14 A. Give me a better copy. 1-164/93, of the 30th of November, 1993,
15 P702.2.
16 Q. Witness, on the top page of each exhibit, on the English version
17 at least, there is -- there appears an exhibit number in the right-hand
18 corner, and that's the number I need to know. And maybe the Court deputy
19 can assist, can assist in giving me the exhibit number.
20 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, I can. The exhibit number that he is looking
21 at this moment is P702.2.
22 MR. BOS: Okay.
23 Q. This exhibit, is it correct, Witness, that this is an exhibit,
24 this is a report on Ljubuski and that you actually signed this report?
25 A. The signature is mine. Now I look at other people who did the
Page 14683
1 round with me, Srecko Tomic, yes, that's a person from Ljubuski, yes, it
2 has to do with Ljubuski. Yes, please. It is my signature and it is
3 Ljubuski.
4 Q. And is it indeed your report on Ljubuski or would you need more
5 time to read it?
6 A. Well, Your Honours, of course I need it. The signature is mine,
7 the number, yes, no question about it, but let me have a look. If you
8 want me to comment on every specific item, perhaps it would be better.
9 Shall I comment on them?
10 Q. No, no, Witness, I don't want you to comment on them. I'm just
11 asking you whether this was the report that you issued on Ljubuski.
12 That's my simple question, and you can just say yes or no.
13 A. Yes, I said so, yes.
14 Q. Thank you.
15 A. I have already told you so.
16 Q. You can leave that report aside and that's the only information I
17 need to know from you on this report. And maybe the Court deputy can give
18 you now the next exhibit. Maybe let's go one by one. If the witness
19 could be shown P700.2, and the same question applies here, Witness. Is
20 that your signature at the end of the last page of the report, and is it
21 indeed your report on the detention centre in Livno?
22 A. Your Honours, yes, this is unquestionably my signature. Now, when
23 I look at people who were together with me, yes, it is definitely Livno.
24 But if I may, just one sentence, this is yet another proof that I, as a
25 person, knew that sooner or later, time would come when everything would
Page 14684
1 fall in its place and that there would be such an institution of high
2 moral qualities and high professional skills such as you who would finally
3 tell us the truth, because unfortunately, there is a thousand and one
4 truths to this day, and I shall be very happy when the real truth is
5 known.
6 Q. Then could you look at the next exhibit, which is P699.1? And
7 again, is it your report on the Gabela camp, and is it your signature at
8 the last page of the report?
9 A. The signature is unquestionably mine. The beginning here is very
10 poorly copied, but it's Gabela, yes, I can see that, and I can see some of
11 the fellow doctors, yes, people who worked there, or this regiment, Knez
12 Domagoj and yes, I know that they worked in Gabela.
13 Q. Thank you. And if you could now look at Exhibit P6 --
14 JUDGE CLARK: Sorry, Mr. Bos, can I ask a question now? Maybe you
15 know the answer or maybe the witness does, but when we are looking at the
16 reports in relation to the conditions in the various detention centres, a
17 distinction seems to be made between a ward and a detainee. Could you
18 clarify that just for my curiosity? At first I thought it was a bad
19 translation of a warden or a warder, but it's clearly somebody who is kept
20 at the Heliodrom. Could you deal with that, please?
21 MR. BOS: Yes, Your Honour. I actually came across the same
22 question in preparing this witness.
23 Q. Witness, in some of the reports, you're referring to the term
24 "ward," and from the context it seems that using the term "ward" is
25 referring to a detainee, but is there a difference between a ward and a
Page 14685
1 prisoner or a ward and a detainee? Could you clarify that?
2 A. Well, you see, the term that I heard from Professor Lang [phoen]
3 for the centre for preventive isolation, a ward or a detainee, was to me,
4 if I look at him from the medical point of view, was a man who was sick or
5 a man who was healthy. I did not care, as a doctor, into which category
6 he was placed by you or somebody else. My question was how to help him
7 not to fall ill, how to help him get well, how to enable him to leave that
8 place as quickly as possible. And to talk about categories to me, as a
9 doctor, that is incompatible.
10 Q. So if I understand your answer correctly, for you there is no
11 distinction between a ward and a detainee?
12 A. No. Allow me. For me there is only a person who happens to be
13 there, who needs treatment, or who needs to be given, or the environment
14 or food or something, so that he doesn't fall ill. I wouldn't call him
15 either this or that. It's a man in need, a man in distress, a man who has
16 been badly traumatised, mentally or otherwise, and I'm there to help him
17 either by prevention or by supplying therapy for him or using
18 psychological treatment.
19 Q. Now, do you still have Exhibit P699.1 in front of you?
20 A. Yes. The lady is looking for it.
21 Q. I think one of the reasons why Her Honour raised this question, if
22 you go under item number 3, which is in your version the third page, the
23 B/C/S version, you talk about the accommodation of wards and detainees.
24 Now, in understanding your answers, would the difference between a ward
25 and a detainee be that a ward is somebody who is either physically or
Page 14686
1 mentally ill and a detainee isn't? Or could you please clarify that to us
2 again?
3 A. Let me tell you, it is the same. In principle, it is the same,
4 that is a ward or a detainee. It's the same. Because I, as a doctor, or
5 any one of us cannot know under such -- under which conditions he's there
6 until he comes to you as a sick or a healthy person. So it's the same.
7 The term is the same.
8 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Krsnik?
9 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, perhaps -- perhaps I
10 might join. In the Croatian original, it says, " sticenika-uhicenika"
11 that is "ward-detainee." There is no the word "and," there is no
12 connective. And my colleague says in English there is no the word "and."
13 It is not "wards and detainees," but "wards-detainees." So grammatically
14 and linguistically, it falls into the same category.
15 JUDGE CLARK: Mr. Krsnik, it may say "wards-detainees" on the
16 introduction to the paragraph, but in the narrative it uses the word "and"
17 rather than "dash." And I was wondering -- perhaps the doctor could hear
18 my question: I was wondering if a distinction was made between somebody
19 who was a ward, who was kept in the Heliodrom allegedly as a preventive
20 measure and somebody who was held in the Heliodrom because he was a member
21 of the Armija. Would he be aware of that? Was that why there was a
22 distinction? In other words, some people were soldiers and some were
23 civilians?
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Your Honour Judge Clark, if you look
25 at the second page, where it says, "Nutrition" or "Diet," you will see,
Page 14687
1 "Wards-detainees are getting everything that is necessary." And as I
2 have said, as Mr. Krsnik has said, it is "ward-detainee," and if you look
3 again at the next page, it again, with a dash, under number 3, under
4 number 4, it is again "wards-detainees," "wards-detainees,"
5 "wards-detainees." On the next page, again, and that makes me very
6 happy, and I take great pride in this, that there are regularly -- that
7 the preventive medical measures are regularly enforced and that the
8 medical supplies are much better than before, and that additional
9 quantities of the necessary medical supplies have been received from the
10 International Red Cross. So it is "ward-detainee" throughout the text.
11 MR. BOS:
12 Q. So Witness, can we understand that you don't know whether there is
13 any difference between "ward" and "detainee"?
14 A. Your Honours, there was no difference from my aspect, and what the
15 military bodies did or meant, you maybe know but I don't.
16 MR. BOS: Judge Clark, I hope this answers your question.
17 JUDGE CLARK: I think the witness has done his best. Thank you.
18 MR. BOS:
19 Q. Witness, could you have a look now at Exhibit P698.1, which is a
20 report on the Heliodrom? And again, can I ask you is this a report that
21 you drafted and is it your signature at the last page of the report?
22 A. This is my signature. I always sign my name in the same manner,
23 so whenever you need my signature, it's very easy to recognise. This is
24 about Heliodrom, nine pages, and I can see the names of Dr. Pero Maric, is
25 a person who was a member of the main medical corps, Dr. Bozic and
Page 14688
1 Dr. Nedjelko Hadzic, who was a Bosniak physician in Heliodrom. So this is
2 about Heliodrom.
3 Q. Very well. And finally, and I will commence with a few more
4 questions on that after you again confirmed the authenticity of Exhibit
5 P686.2. This exhibit is a chart. And my question again is, Witness, did
6 you draw up this chart and is it your signature on the bottom of the
7 chart?
8 A. If you have seen my signature so far, then it is clear to you that
9 this is my document, but this table, I did it for myself. It shouldn't
10 appear anywhere. It must have been stolen from me because this drawing I
11 used when I went to see Dr. Bagaric, to discuss some things with him. I
12 don't think this drawing should not be publicly exposed. Somebody must
13 have taken it from my documentation. I may bore you when I say that I
14 knew that this would happen and I wanted some things to be documented and
15 presented to people.
16 Q. But, Witness, you confirm that you draw up this chart, and can I
17 ask you that the conclusions that you draw in this chart, are these based
18 on the reports which you just -- which were just shown to you?
19 A. Mostly yes.
20 Q. And if a similar chart would have been made in the summer of
21 1993 - because this chart was drawn up in -- on the 24th of November,
22 1993 - would there be a great difference on the assessments on the various
23 conditions?
24 A. Your Honours, this is a table that gives just the aggregate
25 figures. It doesn't show any dates. It is just my overall view of the
Page 14689
1 problem. You know what the cumulation of data is. I write a lot and I
2 accumulate data. So this was not a status presence. It was not the
3 present state. It was just an overview up to then of what should be done,
4 where should this be done and when. And some things may have improved but
5 this is just a general view. It is just a cross-section, a general view
6 of the situation.
7 Q. Witness, if you say that some things may have improved, let's
8 focus on the Heliodrom. You were shown before an exhibit P618, which was
9 an earlier report on the Heliodrom. Now, if you look at this chart, would
10 the proposed measures in your first report on the Heliodrom of the 30th of
11 September, would those measures have been included in your assessment on
12 the Heliodrom in November, at the end of November, 1993? In other words,
13 any of the measures that you proposed in your first report in September,
14 would these measures have already been taken and would the conditions in
15 the Heliodrom in November have been better than in September?
16 A. Your Honours, yes. For example, medical care, health care, in the
17 report that I drafted in September, it says, under 2, under the proposed
18 measures, it says, "Set up the hospital in the centre." This was true at
19 the time. Moreover, under 3, "In the hospital, follow hospital
20 principles, principles of work in the hospital," and this was what was
21 done. Under item 4, when we did set up the hospital, all the serious
22 patients were transported there to the war hospital by the car that
23 belonged to the unit. We had problems there because Heliodrom was on the
24 front line. Many were afraid that the car, while taking the patients to
25 the hospital, may become the target, and that that could result in a
Page 14690
1 number of wounded. As far as the cleaning of the perimeter is concerned,
2 that is under 5, in Heliodrom, disinfection, under disinfection, there
3 were three --
4 Q. I'm going to ask you specific questions on this table, item by
5 item, so maybe you're getting ahead of us. Let me ask you another
6 question first. Besides the four detention centres which you reported on,
7 on this list, it says also -- it mentioned Duvno and Prozor, but there is
8 no assessment on the condition of these two centres. Why is that?
9 A. You see, in the war, there are -- there is a lot of information
10 but also a lot of misinformation. Dr. Bagaric and I learned that in these
11 two towns, there were centres. Dr. Bagaric wrote to the commander of the
12 area asking him to state whether there was a detention centre there. The
13 answer came that there was none. I personally went to the chief of
14 medical staff in Duvno, that is in Tomislavgrad, Dr. Peric. I also went
15 to Prozor and I was told that these centres did not exist. I wrote this
16 and Dr. Bagaric raised this issue. To this very day, I don't have any
17 clearer information and I don't think that there were any centres there.
18 Q. Witness, we heard evidence from several witnesses about two other
19 camps which are not mentioned here, which is the Vojno camp and the
20 Dretelj camp. Have you ever heard of these two detention centres, the
21 Vojno and Dretelj?
22 A. I heard of Dretelj, and as for Vojno, this is the first time I
23 hear this.
24 Q. So let's focus, then, on Dretelj. You've said you've heard about
25 the Dretelj camp. Why isn't Dretelj on this chart?
Page 14691
1 A. This was November 1993, the end of November 1993, and I believe
2 that Dretelj stopped existing long before that.
3 Q. Fair enough. But if you look, then, at Rakitno and Dobrkovici,
4 those two camps are mentioned, and there it says "does not exist any
5 more." Why, then, not Dretelj and a line does not exist any more?
6 A. For a very simple reason. If Dobrkovici, the camp existed for two
7 or three days, not more, and I was called there personally. Dr. Bagaric
8 ordered me to go there and tell my colleagues in Siroki Brijeg what should
9 be done. A few days later this camp stopped existing. What happened to
10 the people, where they were taken, I don't know to this very day.
11 The same is true of Rakitno, which was -- if there was any optimum
12 humanity that could be achieved anywhere, that was in Rakitno. This also
13 lasted for a short time. I'm sure you have reports on Rakitno. And I
14 believe that this could be an example of how things should be done if they
15 need to be done. So Rakitno could be a good example of how things are
16 done. As a military physician, when I was reading about camps and I
17 was -- when I was watching the movie Bridge on the River Kwai, I found it
18 appalling. Rakitno could be the pride of a higher civilisation, such as
19 Sweden and others, not to mention the country as primitive as ours. So
20 Rakitno could be a good example.
21 Q. Witness, I'd now like to go over with you the various conditions
22 mentioned in the top row, and I'll start with the potable water. And I
23 want you to focus only on Heliodrom. Let's leave the other camps aside.
24 You rate the potable water at the Heliodrom as good. Now, let me
25 first ask you: Did this condition improve? Was the potable water the
Page 14692
1 same in the summer of 1993 and in November of 1993, or did the condition
2 actually improve with regard to the water?
3 A. Your Honours, I'm sure you are not familiar with the situation
4 with water in Mostar. The water supply was compromised, and for a long
5 time there was no water in the town of Mostar. Personally, in my
6 building, I had to go to a nearby well to get water, and it took me about
7 an hour to fill a 20-litre bucket. So the situation with water was
8 impossible at the time.
9 Later on, I repeat, as a military person, I knew that in Heliodrom
10 there was a water supply facility which used to be used by the former
11 JNA. I knew that there was an aluminum-producing facility and another
12 well. And owing to that, and having been an authority in military
13 matters, I managed to put these two sources of water in use, and that's
14 how Heliodrom was supplied with water.
15 Another thing. I believe that you know that Heliodrom is supplied
16 with water from town. My personal order was that in one point -- and in
17 Heliodrom, chlorine in water was controlled three times, and this was
18 done. And there is another order issued by Dr. Bagaric which said that
19 the ABC unit was also supposed to control the water, and that also that
20 the medical staff in the unit should also control water. Because you will
21 allow that epidemics very often arise from the water, from the
22 contaminated water, not only in wartime, but also in peacetime. Napoleon
23 lost Egypt due to this, and when the medical --
24 Q. I'm sorry. I'm going to interrupt you. I'm really going to
25 request you to be a bit shorter with your answers. Your answers have been
Page 14693
1 very elaborated and we're getting a little bit in time constraints if you
2 keep giving these long answers.
3 Let me ask you one thing about what you've just said. You said
4 that you managed to put some of the sources of water in use at the
5 Heliodrom. When did you actually manage to do this? And I'm asking for a
6 time period. Was this in the autumn? Do you recall the month when this
7 actually -- when you managed to do this?
8 A. I think it was sometime in June or July. I apologise, Your
9 Honours, but I believe you have to know the situation. Thirty per cent of
10 the water in town was lost because the pipes were broken, and the
11 epidemics could be broken not only in Heliodrom but also in town itself.
12 Allow me to say that I know some things in the area of medicine, and I
13 have to give you some elaborate answer so that you don't ask of some other
14 witnesses the same questions, because I consider myself to be an expert in
15 that area.
16 Q. Witness, do you know how much water a prisoner at the Heliodrom
17 would get per day?
18 A. I can't give you the exact quantity, but you have to know that
19 there were water cuts in town as well, due to the losses, and that the
20 concentration of chlorine in the water was not 0.1 or 0.2, but -- which
21 would be normal; it was 0.4, 0.5. I don't know about the quantities. I
22 myself did not have enough water. I would very often reek of sweat
23 because I did not have enough water to wash myself. And don't
24 misunderstand me. Don't get me wrong. My wife also did not have water to
25 wash herself. So what could we do? It was war. We could not wash
Page 14694
1 ourselves.
2 Q. So am I correct if you say here that you -- if you label water as
3 being good, you're talking more about the quality of water rather than the
4 quantity of water? Is that a fair statement?
5 A. I was talking about both, about both the quantity and the quality
6 of water. But this is a cumulative report. On the 10th of May or on the
7 11th of May, it was not so. It was much worse. But later on things did
8 improve. When you draw a table, you can't come up with an ideal table. I
9 wanted to draw a table that everybody could understand, even those people
10 who never were members of medical units.
11 Q. Very well. Let's move on to the next item, alimentation. Now,
12 again you label it as good. But in your report on the Heliodrom, which is
13 Exhibit P698.1, you're rather critical on this aspect, on the
14 alimentation, and you conclude that there's insufficient quantity and
15 variety of food; isn't that correct? If you want to look at the report
16 again, it's Exhibit 698.1.
17 Witness, if you look at the report and look at the proposed
18 measures under item 2, there are a number of measures which you propose
19 with regard to the food. Isn't it fair that if you report -- it's
20 making -- requesting all these measures, that it's a bit strange that you
21 would label the alimentation as being good at the Heliodrom?
22 A. Let me tell you one thing: I told you that this table was
23 cumulative. But you are just -- you're putting things out of their
24 context. And it surprises me that you didn't see this, that on page 2,
25 third paragraph, all the requirements of the medical and supply services
Page 14695
1 have been attained. All the people were checked for epidemics. The
2 control samples were preserved. The DDD measures were carried out
3 permanently. There was a regular control by the medical and supplies
4 services. And then there is also -- the food eaten by everybody is the
5 same. The wards, inmates who were there and who were in contact with the
6 food were -- had been examined. I think that this is an example of how
7 things should be done. So some of them are today my friends. People who
8 worked there were happy for working there. As for prevention measures,
9 let me tell you that my standards were always higher. I thought that if
10 my report portrays things in a somewhat worse light, then there is more
11 room for improvement. As for the food, I was hungry for a time. My
12 children were hungry. We didn't have the money. So you have to be aware
13 of that.
14 Q. Witness, can I take you to the top of page 6 of your report, and
15 it's in the English on page 4, and it's the last paragraph before it
16 starts with the proposed measures. And I'll read that paragraph out to
17 you:
18 "By a random sampling method, it was established that about 85 per
19 cent of the wards were undernourished, the average loss of body weight
20 being about 15 kilogrammes. It was observed that the wards assigned to
21 physical labour were mostly of normal weight because of increased food."
22 THE REGISTRAR: What page is it on the B/C/S?
23 MR. BOS: Page 6 on the B/C/S version.
24 THE REGISTRAR: Yes.
25 MR. BOS: The top of the page.
Page 14696
1 Q. Now, Witness, if you conclude that the average loss of body weight
2 for 85 per cent of the detainees was about 15 kilogrammes, is it then fair
3 to label alimentation as being good?
4 THE WITNESS: Where is this?
5 THE REGISTRAR: I have given him -- okay. Found it now.
6 MR. BOS: It's Exhibit P698.1, page 6 on the B/C/S version.
7 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, he has it.
8 MR. BOS:
9 Q. Witness, have you read the paragraph? Do you have the paragraph
10 in front of you?
11 A. [Inaudible]
12 Q. Now, my question is -- my question is: How can you label
13 alimentation as being good if the average loss of weight of the detainees
14 was about 15 kilogrammes?
15 A. In that period I weighed 67 kilogrammes, and now I weigh 79.
16 That's number 1. Number 2: You can see on the item 2 that we tried
17 engaging all the international institutions, starting with the
18 International Red Cross and others, to help us with the aliment. You can
19 see here it says that there are two meals a day and that the third meal is
20 being introduced. Nobody weighed these people before. They must have
21 lost weight. It's indisputable, for various reasons. One of them was
22 insufficient food, and the second reason was physical conditions.
23 Detainees or people who are confined to a certain area are often known to
24 lose weight. But let me stress again: I always overstressed some things
25 in order to appeal to military, political, international organisations. I
Page 14697
1 was not interested in this or that or the other. The only concern I had
2 was how to help people. But again I repeat that everybody in Heliodrom
3 ate the same food, across the board, inmates and their guards alike.
4 Q. Witness, could you look at the paragraph above that paragraph
5 which I just read out to you, and it uses the term -- it says the
6 following:
7 "We should stress once again that the above breakdown of medical
8 conditions was put together by doctors who are in preventive isolation."
9 Now, in several of your reports you use the term "preventive
10 isolation." What does that mean?
11 A. I'll tell you -- I'll illustrate you that by my own example. In
12 August 1991 I educated Muslim physicians, Bosniaks, my friends. I
13 educated them and taught them things that I learned in the army. And as I
14 was crossing the old bridge, there was a military point there manned by
15 the BH Army, and a fellow citizen of Mostar told me, "Don't go to the
16 other side. In Mostar, nobody is going to do you any harm, because we
17 know you as an honest person, as a good person. But there are a lot of
18 refugees from Gacko and Nevesinje, and as soon as they see you wearing
19 your uniform they will consider you a potential enemy."
20 So what is the meaning of this word "preventive"? I experienced
21 several such incidents, and after that, when I say "preventive isolation,"
22 that is prevention against retaliation. If somebody is killed, if
23 somebody is -- if somebody's property is stolen, I do not justify it as
24 isolation. This was to help people, because some people did not have
25 highly sophisticated consciousness. Some people did not kill for -- they
Page 14698
1 killed for different reasons, and that is what I meant under the word
2 "preventive isolation," and that's how I was explained that word by
3 Dr. Bagaric.
4 Q. So detainees who were there under preventive isolation, they were
5 actually there for their own good; is that what you're saying?
6 A. These were doctors. A doctor is never an inmate, a detainee. A
7 doctor is a doctor, protected by all international conventions, and no
8 matter which side they belong to, they have to treat people, to put their
9 medical knowledge to a good use. For example, Dr. Stranjak could go home
10 whenever he wanted to go home. Dr. Hadzic, for example, he wanted to be
11 affiliated with the army. Before that he was the doctor, the physician,
12 of the Veles football club. His father was affiliated with the former
13 UDBA. Maybe somebody, an extremist, would have killed him for stupid
14 reasons, and I'm afraid something like that may have happened. Whenever
15 Dr. Hadzic wanted to leave the camp, he could, and he indeed did,
16 eventually, when he wanted to do so.
17 Q. Witness, I have a few more questions on that last paragraph, when
18 it says: "It was observed that the wards assigned to physical labour were
19 mostly of normal weight because of increased food." Did you know that
20 wards were taken out for physical labour?
21 THE REGISTRAR: What page is that on?
22 MR. BOS: It's on the same page, page number 6.
23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I never saw that. I heard that some
24 were taken. Personally, I said to my colleague, "Bozic, try to prevent
25 this. It's a war crime." I asked where these people were. I met some
Page 14699
1 people, and maybe for fear, or for other reasons, they told me they didn't
2 go there. Some kept quiet, and from that I understood that they were
3 taken there. What they did, I don't know, but later on I heard that they
4 had been digging trenches or what have you. At that moment, I didn't have
5 any personal knowledge, but I know that I told Dr. Bagaric that these
6 people, if they existed, if they were taken for labour, that they had to
7 be protected, because they were a product of a misunderstanding, and that
8 was the worst form of maltreatment and harassment. If you have to do
9 something against your better judgement, then that is the worst form of
10 harassment.
11 Q. Witness, the fact that prisoners who were assigned to physical
12 labour were given more food, did it have anything to do with the fact that
13 the HVO wanted these prisoners to be stronger, to be fit to perform
14 labour, and is it in fact true that the prisoners remained in detention --
15 JUDGE LIU: Yes.
16 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honour, the question is
17 speculation. A speculation in the question asks for speculation in the
18 answer.
19 We heard that a minute ago. Just a moment, (redacted).
20 JUDGE LIU: Well, it seems to me that the answer is quite obvious.
21 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, please. I apologise.
22 Can we redact this? Because I may have revealed the identity of the
23 witness. Witness, we have to be careful. I just said one sentence or one
24 word, but we have to be careful, I remind you.
25 JUDGE LIU: Yes. We will redact that word.
Page 14700
1 And Mr. Bos, I think the answer is quite obvious. There is no
2 need to pursue it in that direction. It is time for a break, and we will
3 break now and we will resume at 2.30 this afternoon. I hope you could
4 finish your cross examination as soon as possible, as we resume this
5 afternoon.
6 MR. BOS: Yes, although I am a bit -- I have difficulties, given
7 the long answers of the witness. I fully expected to finish by now.
8 JUDGE LIU: Of course. We will rise until 2.30 this afternoon.
9 --- Luncheon recess taken at 1.03 p.m.
10 --- On resuming at 2.34 p.m.
11 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Bos, please continue.
12 MR. BOS: Thank you, Your Honour.
13 Q. Witness NU, I have a couple more questions to ask you about the
14 two documents which you had in front of you before the break, which is the
15 table, Exhibit P686.2, and your report on the Heliodrom, Exhibit P698.1.
16 So I would ask the registry to provide you with these two exhibits again,
17 if you don't already have them.
18 Witness, going back to the table, could you take the table in
19 front of you again? Do you have that in front of you?
20 A. Yes, I do.
21 Q. Now, Witness, you have five conditions, and I'll mention them:
22 the clothing and the footwear, the heating and the hot water, the personal
23 hygiene, the accommodation and the sanitation, which you labeled as being
24 as does not satisfy. Now, my question is what does it mean when you say
25 that these conditions do not satisfy? Does that mean that they don't
Page 14701
1 satisfy the standards of conditions required by international humanitarian
2 law?
3 JUDGE LIU: Yes Mr. Krsnik?
4 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I think that this
5 witness is not qualified to answer this. It would be -- it should be
6 answered by people who are familiar with international law, international
7 humanitarian law. I believe the witness has repeatedly answered this
8 question, at least in his view, that is he has already answered it to the
9 best of his ability. This question requires the answer by a legal
10 expert.
11 JUDGE LIU: Well, Mr. Krsnik, we understand that this report was
12 filed by the witness himself and in this report he says it is not
13 satisfactory for the conditions. I think the Prosecutor is just asking a
14 question to this witness to explain the meaning of why he says so in this
15 report.
16 MR. BOS: Yes, Your Honours, and if I may add, he testified that
17 he actually lectured on international humanitarian law at the Heliodrom.
18 So I think he must have had some knowledge about the Geneva Conventions.
19 JUDGE LIU: We will see what the witness will tell us.
20 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Your Honours, could you find,
21 please, my report number 01-90/93 of the 20th of July, 1993, in which --
22 from which you can see the signatures of Mr. Bozic, and you can see that
23 at that moment, so I repeat the 20th of July, 1993, when the inspection
24 was carried out in the presence of Mr. Bozic, Dr. Hadzic --
25 THE INTERPRETER: And we could not hear the rest of the sentence.
Page 14702
1 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] At this moment, when to anyone in
2 the Zagreb school or in London, in somewhere, we would find at least six
3 cases of scabies, which means that the personal hygiene was much better,
4 and I have already told you that I deliberately, on purpose, consciously,
5 exaggerated things because I wanted to accord them more weight. Perhaps I
6 might call to account to it, but I hoped that in this way these matters
7 would be given attention and solved. In other words, I wanted to provide
8 the maximum possible conditions. If that figure says 2.100 people, and I
9 won't go into that, we've already talked about it, how can you then
10 discuss six cases of scabies?
11 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I'm sorry. I'm looking
12 for this report. I see the date is the 20th of July, 1993, and I do not
13 know whether it was an oversight, but I have not received this report. I
14 do not have a single report dated the 20th of July, 1993.
15 MR. BOS: Your Honours, neither did I submit any report of that
16 date. I'm also a bit at a loss to which document the witness has actually
17 been referring. So maybe the court deputy could assist and tell us which
18 document the witness is looking at.
19 THE REGISTRAR: I'm checking now.
20 JUDGE LIU: Well, certainly we don't have that report at our hands
21 at this moment. But Mr. Bos, you may ask some questions around this line
22 to make things more clear for us.
23 MR. BOS: On this report of the 10th [sic] of July, Your Honours?
24 Because ... Actually, yes. What I would like to know from the witness:
25 Q. Witness, which report are you referring to when you were
Page 14703
1 mentioning a report dated July 1993? And maybe the court deputy could
2 assist you and give the exhibit number of this report.
3 THE REGISTRAR: I am -- actually, I'm looking at the document. It
4 is from his documentation, and I told him ... [inaudible].
5 THE INTERPRETER: Your Honours, the interpreters can barely
6 understand what the registrar is saying.
7 MR. BOS: Madam Registrar, you would have to repeat what you were
8 saying, because we couldn't hear your answer.
9 THE REGISTRAR: Can you hear me now?
10 THE INTERPRETER: There are interruptions and it is very difficult
11 to follow.
12 THE REGISTRAR: How about now?
13 MR. BOS: This is much better, yes.
14 THE REGISTRAR: Okay. The witness has brought his documentation,
15 and I told him he is not allowed to do this.
16 MR. BOS: So if I understand you correctly, the witness is looking
17 at his own documentation, which is not the documentation which we provided
18 to the witness, not one of the exhibits, but his own documentation?
19 THE REGISTRAR: Exactly.
20 MR. BOS: In that case, Your Honour, I have no idea what document
21 he's looking at, because it's his own document.
22 JUDGE LIU: So you may re-ask your question before.
23 MR. BOS:
24 Q. So Witness, let --
25 THE REGISTRAR: I can tell you, though, that it's a stamped
Page 14704
1 document signed by Stanko Bozic.
2 MR. BOS: The thing is, if we don't have this document here in
3 Court, it's very difficult to discuss this document.
4 Q. Witness, I understand you have personal notes in front of you and
5 you brought your own documents, but we cannot use those documents in these
6 proceedings because we do not have those documents here and they're not
7 admitted as exhibits. So I would like you to take away those documents
8 and focus on the exhibits which we have provided you, the Prosecution
9 exhibits.
10 THE REGISTRAR: I've explained that to the witness.
11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Your Honours, the period of time
12 that has elapsed is very long. I have told you that I knew that this time
13 would come, and I've kept all the documents. You have a selection of
14 documents. I know nothing about them. But allow me. This document is
15 just as valid as any other, because it was signed by Mr. Bozic. On the
16 other hand, this is a document with a stamp, a document which says what
17 was done and what was found, and that is the answer to the question about
18 the personal hygiene. This document shows how strict I was, how much I
19 exaggerated things in order to improve the conditions. Because if you
20 find only six cases of scabies, that is nothing. These are sporadic
21 cases. And at the same time, Your Honours, it says, and you probably
22 know, even know it, even though you do not have an adequate medical
23 knowledge, just as I do not have a legal education, that the scabies is
24 transferred by -- transmitted by contact and poor accommodation, which
25 means that the accommodation was not all that bad or else we would have
Page 14705
1 more scabies cases.
2 I thought that you had all the documents, and I'd like you to have
3 them, because then it would be much better. Because I also want the
4 truth. But at any rate, thank you very much for having me here, and I
5 wish that some day all of us, with our full names, bear our full
6 responsibility. And thank you very much that in my country, in the name
7 of the dead, in the name of the killed, in the name of the wounded, the
8 truth will eventually surface. Thank you.
9 JUDGE LIU: Well, I understand that your answer is that you
10 exaggerated things in order to improve the conditions. Am I right?
11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Absolutely, yes. You are absolutely
12 right. And thank you for understanding me so well.
13 MR. BOS:
14 Q. Witness, if that's your answer, who did you issue this table to?
15 If you say you exaggerated your assessments, for whom did you exaggerate
16 this?
17 MR. BOS: I think we lost connection or something, because the
18 image is fixed.
19 [Technical difficulty]
20 JUDGE LIU: Maybe the telephone line is cut off.
21 [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]
22 JUDGE LIU: Yes, we have the connection back. You may proceed,
23 Mr. Bos.
24 MR. BOS:
25 Q. Witness, can you hear me?
Page 14706
1 THE INTERPRETER: We cannot hear the witness.
2 MR. BOS:
3 Q. Witness, it appears that you can hear us but we cannot hear you.
4 Can you say something again so that we can pick up your voice?
5 A. I can hear you very well. And how you hear me, well, you know
6 that.
7 Q. Witness, we hear you now. Thank you. Let me just ask you one
8 question about the medical care which you've labeled as "very good" in
9 the table, and I'd like to you look at your report again on the Heliodrom,
10 exhibit P698.1 and look at page number 5, English page number 4.
11 You have that in front of you, Witness?
12 A. I do, yes.
13 Q. Now, there is a whole list of detainees grouped into various --
14 well, grouped into various diseases that they suffer. Do you have that in
15 front of you?
16 THE REGISTRAR: What page is that on in B/C/S?
17 MR. BOS: That's the B/C/S page number 5; in English, page number
18 3 and page number 4.
19 Q. Now, fifth on the bottom of that list, you indicate that there
20 were 55 wards recovering from wounds. Do you see that?
21 A. I do.
22 Q. Did you inquire how these people got wounded or injured?
23 A. Your Honours, if you look at this list, you can see at the bottom
24 that it was established on the basis of case histories, that is on the
25 basis of what the patient said, from people who naturally did not have
Page 14707
1 adequate documentation and therefore everything would be taken with a
2 reservation. But will you please look at page 4? Owing to the dedicated
3 work, no incidents have been proven and nothing could be done that would
4 affect adversely the health of the wards. That is, nothing could happen
5 that would produce an adverse effect on them. On the other hand, if we
6 look at the hygienic situation, the epidemiological situation on the
7 bottom of page 4, the last passage says that only sporadic cases were
8 recorded without any epidemiological causal chain. That is, Dr. Hadzic
9 and all the Croats who worked there and all of us worked so well there
10 that there wasn't even a theoretical possibility of an epidemic breaking
11 out.
12 Q. Witness, isn't it true that these 55 wards who were recovering
13 from wounds were injured at the confrontation line while performing forced
14 labour outside the camp?
15 A. I hear that from you. I am not in possession of that
16 information. This is the first time I hear this. But allow me, Your
17 Honour, and Your Honours, look, see, we've even drawn up a list so that we
18 could monitor the state of health. Commissions were set up. And on page
19 4, it says that these people - the passage, the fourth passage on page 4 -
20 that they were being sent to the regional hospital in Mostar and that a
21 maximum use of the medical supply and transports, and then in the war
22 hospital, after that, the Heliodrom. That is, we even set up a commission
23 to have these people treated without delay.
24 Q. Witness, were there any women at the Heliodrom? Female
25 detainees?
Page 14708
1 A. I did not see them but I heard there were about a dozen women, and
2 one of Dr. Bagaric's orders was that women - although once again I say I'm
3 not legally educated; women can also commit crimes - women below the age
4 of 18 and over the age of 60, all severely ill, all those who need care,
5 hospital care, should be released immediately. If you look at the
6 diagnosis, the lumbago, if you look at them, there are ten of them, and
7 I'm also suffering from it and it almost happened that I couldn't be here
8 but I realised how important it was for me to be at the Tribunal and
9 therefore, I came. You see, even Mr. Krsnik does not have documents
10 because I did not give them because all I care about is the truth
11 regardless of what it is, but the truth that will help you and that will
12 help me.
13 Q. Witness, I'm going to show you one more exhibit and then we are
14 done. And I'd like Madam Registrar to provide you Exhibit P630.2.
15 A. Mr. President, I've seen something very important on page 4, on
16 page 4 of this document, if I may. There is a regular --
17 Q. [Previous translation continues] ...
18 A. The one that we've just been talking about. I mean it is very
19 important for you. It is very important for you to know this.
20 Q. Witness --
21 A. Allow me, page 4, in English --
22 Q. May I interrupt you? I think --
23 A. Yes, of course, by all means.
24 Q. I think the Defence counsel can come back to that in redirect on
25 this issue. So the Defence counsel will ask you to clarify whatever you
Page 14709
1 want to clarify in redirect.
2 I'd like you now to move to Exhibit P630.2. Do you have that in
3 front of you?
4 A. I do.
5 Q. Now, Witness, and you can glance through it but let me tell you
6 this is a letter from Mr. Stanko Bozic addressed to the President,
7 Mr. Mate Boban, and it's dated the 10th of October, 1993, and in this
8 letter, Mr. Bozic expresses his concerns about numerous problems at the
9 Heliodrom. And I'd like you to direct your particular attention to item
10 number 2, which is the English page number 2 and B/C/S page number 2 as
11 well. You have that in front of you?
12 A. I do, yes.
13 Q. Isn't it correct here that Mr. Bozic, under item 2, actually
14 describes several problem areas regarding the medical care at the
15 Heliodrom which you had assessed as being "very good" a few weeks
16 earlier?
17 A. Your Honours, as far as I can gather, this document was sent only
18 to Mr. Boban because it is addressed to him only. That is, neither
19 Dr. Bagaric nor I could have this document, and therefore I cannot say
20 anything about it objectively speaking, but I'll nevertheless try to
21 answer your question.
22 Item 2 under A, incorrect, because undoubtedly I was informed, and
23 I went there, and my colleagues, fellow physicians, they always told me
24 that we sent an ambulance whenever somebody needed to be taken to the
25 hospital. Item B is absolutely inaccurate, it's completely wrong, that is
Page 14710
1 not true.
2 THE INTERPRETER: We could not get a part of the witness's
3 answer.
4 A. In case of the medicines, if there were no medicines available in
5 the warehouse, then the hospital didn't have them and the Heliodrom
6 doesn't have it. The in-patient unit was set up and there were beds there
7 and all that, so that I definitely do not understand this because I
8 absolutely stand by what I just said, that item B is inaccurate. It could
9 have happened, for instance, at some particular point in time that there
10 would be no medicines, but we were getting medicines from Croatia. I had
11 the preventive medicines in sufficient quantities. Whenever I needed them
12 I got them. So I do not know what this is. Perhaps somebody is washing
13 his hands because of something.
14 Q. Sir, if I can address your attention to item 1. Isn't it correct
15 that Mr. Bozic here reports on detainees still being taken out for forced
16 labour? And we're talking about October 1993. And isn't it true that
17 detainees were still taken out of the Heliodrom, notwithstanding any
18 concerns expressed by the Red Cross, in August 1993?
19 A. Your Honours, how could I know that? I don't know. You say that
20 this was happening, but I don't know it. If Bozic has written that, then
21 it is his moral responsibility. I don't know. And please do not think
22 that I do, as a doctor. How could I know that? This is terrible. When I
23 hear that somebody is harassed, maltreated, that is a terrible thing for
24 me. If somebody is taken for forced labour, I find it terrible. I didn't
25 know anything about that. How could I have known? If this was true, then
Page 14711
1 I'm ashamed as a former member of the HVO. I'm ashamed as a human being,
2 as a doctor. It was no accident that I was chosen a member of the
3 presidency of the infectologists of the world, because I think that morale
4 and morality is my forte, my brightish side. So if this is true, then I'm
5 ashamed.
6 Q. Now, finally, Witness, could you look at the top page of this
7 document, the first page. There's something which is handwritten around
8 the name of Mr. Mate Boban, and isn't it true that Boban made a personal
9 note to Mr. Valentin Coric, which is his handwritten note, in which he
10 underlines the seriousness of the problem, to sort the matter out within
11 the limits of what is possible and the requirements of humanitarian law?
12 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Krsnik.
13 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I have not intervened
14 too much. We don't know whether this report was written by Mr. Bozic.
15 This is what my learned friend claims. We don't know whether this is
16 handwriting of Mr. Boban. This is my learned friend claiming. And the
17 answer to all these questions is: How on Earth could my witness know all
18 these things? He was in no position to know all that. And my learned
19 friend has already heard answers regarding this document. The witness has
20 on several occasions answered his questions, and the answer was that he is
21 seeing the document for the first time and that he has no knowledge
22 whatsoever about any of these things, and my witness has repeated that on
23 several occasions. Thank you very much.
24 JUDGE LIU: Well, it doesn't matter that we hear the answer from
25 this witness once again.
Page 14712
1 Mr. Bos, would you please repeat your question.
2 MR. BOS: Your Honours, I can wrap up, and I'll just put my last
3 question to the witness.
4 Q. Witness, isn't it true that following the months that the Red
5 Cross actually visited the Heliodrom in August 1992, the conditions in the
6 Heliodrom hardly improved, and that by the time of October 1993 the
7 conditions were still not up to the standards of international
8 humanitarian law? Witness, did you hear my question?
9 A. No. No. There was no link. There was a break in the link, so I
10 couldn't hear you.
11 Q. Let me --
12 A. But I can answer your first question, if you wish me to do so, the
13 question regarding Mr. Mate Boban. Sir, I have never --
14 Q. Witness, I have one more question to ask you. Just listen to this
15 question and respond to that question and then our cross-examination will
16 be over. Is it not true that in the months following the visit of the Red
17 Cross at the Heliodrom in August 1993 that the conditions at the
18 Heliodrom, or any other camp, hardly improved and that the conditions of
19 confinement in these camps never, ever complied with the norms of the
20 international community?
21 A. Your Honours, I have my documents. I have it with me. Your
22 registrar can see those documents, and in these documents she can see that
23 on the 11th of May we took all the measures in Heliodrom, when I was
24 invited there, and we did our best to adhere to the humanitarian law and
25 all the Geneva Conventions. I did not even know whether the Red Cross
Page 14713
1 came or didn't come, but I know that I worked all the time, that my first
2 concern was for the people, how to prevent illnesses among them, how to
3 remain their friend. And I believe that with time, the quality of the
4 work improved. My colleagues, who started by being totally ignorant, not
5 through their own fault, they finally learned a lot of things in order to
6 prevent things from happening. And if these -- so it is not the
7 International Red Cross or any other institution that dictated my work.
8 It was my own consciousness, my obligation as doctor, not the
9 International Red Cross, and I would like to reject all your insinuations
10 in that respect.
11 Q. Thank you, Witness. I have no further questions.
12 JUDGE LIU: Yes. Re-examination, Mr. Krsnik.
13 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour. Just one or two
14 things I need to clarify for your benefit. My learned friend has given me
15 the opportunity to ask a question. 698.1 is the exhibit that I would
16 kindly ask the registrar to put in front of the witness, 698.1/4.
17 THE INTERPRETER: Page 4. Sorry. The interpreter apologises
18 Re-examined by Mr. Krsnik:
19 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation]
20 Q. 698.1, page 4. Can you please tell us what you wanted to say
21 about this document. That's page 4 in B/C/S version.
22 [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]
23 [Technical difficulty]
24 JUDGE LIU: Well, Mr. Krsnik, it seems that the connection is
25 okay. Would you please repeat your question.
Page 14714
1 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour.
2 Q. [Interpretation] Witness, I would kindly ask Madam Registrar to
3 put Exhibit 698.1 in front of you, and can you please look at page 4.
4 This is the page that you wanted to read to us, i.e. that you wanted to
5 comment upon it, that is, document 698.1.
6 A. I would like to refer to the last passage, which is very important
7 from the point of view of prevention of contagious diseases, which in
8 these circumstances would have been the most difficult segment of
9 medicine. I'm proud that even under such difficult conditions, we had
10 permanent screening of patients - when I say "patients," I mean people who
11 were there, patients - for scabies, pediculosis, diarrhoea, enzymatic
12 diseases, because at any -- at no point in time we registered any of these
13 diseases. However, this didn't -- doesn't mean that they could -- that
14 these diseases couldn't break out at any given time. The order issued by
15 Dr. Bagaric said that the concern for detainees was a permanent concern.
16 He ordered us to protect our image as doctors, as human beings, and if I
17 can say something else --
18 Q. Yes, go on. We are not finished yet. I have some things that I
19 need to clarify which according to my mind require additional
20 clarification. Can we now ask Madam Registrar to put document P565.4 in
21 front of you? Do you have that document in front of you?
22 A. Not yet. Yes. This is the document.
23 Q. Can you please read the second passage slowly and tell me where is
24 it that this document says that there were 2100 detainees in Heliodrom?
25 This is what the Prosecution claims, and can you please find the place
Page 14715
1 where it says so? Does it say so anywhere? Is that -- does that refer to
2 the present number of detainees or of some future number of detainees?
3 A. No. What it says here is that the commanders of the 3rd Brigade
4 verbally informed us that they were not in a position to provide food for
5 2.000 detainees.
6 Q. Does it say anywhere that at any present moment there were 2100
7 detainees?
8 A. No, it doesn't say so. It just says that the verbally we were
9 informed by these people that they were not in a position to provide or
10 assure food for 2000 people. I don't know, Mr. Krsnik, what you are
11 implying here.
12 Q. That is because I did not want to object during cross-examination,
13 but what I'm implying is that in this document it doesn't say that there
14 were 2100 detainees at Heliodrom at any given point in time.
15 Let's move on, Witness. There is one more thing that I would like
16 to discuss with you. Where does it say, in which document - I believe
17 that when I'm asking this question, I'm referring to document P698.1 -
18 English version, page 4 - page 6. Can you please read once again the
19 first passage on page 6 and tell me where does it say that the detainees
20 who worked outside received special food or that they received more food
21 than any other detainee in Heliodrom? Where does it say so? What does it
22 say exactly? When talking about detainees, does it say where they worked,
23 for how long? The document speaks for itself. However, my learned friend
24 put some leading questions during his cross-examination, and I'm not
25 allowed to do that in my re-examination or my examination.
Page 14716
1 A. If you are referring to the first passage, it says here that it
2 has been noticed that detainees who were assigned to physical labour were
3 mostly of normal weight because of increased food.
4 Q. Does it say anywhere in the document who gave them more food and
5 where were they assigned to physical labour? Did they have to go outside
6 or were they working within the Heliodrom perimeter? My learned friend
7 asked you this. He said they were -- they received special food in
8 Heliodrom, those detainees who allegedly were assigned to forced labour,
9 according to him.
10 A. Personally, I believe that the Prosecutor did not have all the
11 medical documents. Maybe he could have consulted me. I would have given
12 it to him, because I know that we, in one of Dr. Bagaric's orders, read
13 that we had to do the screening of the weight of those persons who, for
14 one reason or another, were losing weight, and that they -- their food had
15 to be improved. So it very often happened that some detainees received
16 more and better food than even army members, but rest assured that
17 reinforced food was given only to such people who were losing weight. But
18 also rest assured that there was no way I could know that somebody was
19 taken away for forced labour and that for that reason they received more
20 food or better food.
21 Q. Can you now explain to the Honourable Court how is it possible
22 that your table, for which you said that it may have been stolen, when you
23 sent any of your reports, did you put the name of the addressee on top of
24 that report?
25 A. If you look at my reports, I would also -- I would always indicate
Page 14717
1 the addressee.
2 Q. Did you ever send this table to anybody?
3 A. No. Personally, I can't remember but I think that only Bagaric
4 had a copy of that table, because, you know, (redacted) are very
5 sensitive --
6 [Technical difficulty]
7 JUDGE LIU: Well, Witness, I'm sorry we have some technical
8 problems. You answered that, "No. Personally I can't remember but I
9 think that only Bagaric had a copy of that table, because, you know, (redacted)
10 (redacted) are very sensitive." Then you were cut off. Would you please
11 continue your answer to this question?
12 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] When I said "sensitive," I meant
13 that I always exaggerated things in my reports and I wanted Dr. Bagaric to
14 know everything.
15 On the other hand, you can't achieve things without being really
16 perseverant [sic]. I'm sure you have many of my reports, and I always
17 pointed out that this involved a lot of stress. I did this table with my
18 own hand, wanted to show it to Bagaric, and I showed it to him. I even
19 gave it to him. How this reached you, I don't know, because obviously it
20 wasn't addressed to anybody. It wasn't addressed to anybody else. I'm
21 glad you have it, because it shows what conditions we worked under. We
22 had to exaggerate things. I'm sorry, I'm finding this very difficult. I
23 can't help shedding a tear. I just wanted to point out that we worked as
24 human beings, and that's why sometimes we had to exaggerate things.
25 Q. Witness, my last question to you: Your documentation that you
Page 14718
1 have, as you can see, you have been provided with only four or five
2 documents signed by you. We don't know how many of such documents does
3 the Prosecution have. They have only provided us with these four or
4 five. However, the documentation that you have, would you be willing to
5 provide it to us on our request?
6 A. Mr. Krsnik, I may be invited to this Court again. I would like to
7 keep this documentation, although it testifies to a very difficult period
8 of my time, but also the period of time that I am proud of. I don't want
9 to give these documents to anybody.
10 Q. Maybe just photocopies for us to translate and for us to have an
11 integral picture.
12 A. Mr. Krsnik, sometimes when I'm alone by myself during the night,
13 when my family is asleep, I go through these documents, and I don't want
14 to leave it to you. I want to be able to live with my memories contained
15 in these documents.
16 Q. Can you hear me?
17 A. Yes, I can.
18 Q. Fine. Listen, it might be of assistance to us, so that I will ask
19 you, although you have not shown it to me, to show these documents to me.
20 I hope that you will find enough goodwill to give these documents to me
21 and then we shall have it translated, if need be. But thank you very
22 much, Witness. I have no more questions.
23 JUDGE LIU: Questions from the Judges. Judge Clark.
24 Questioned by the Court:
25 JUDGE CLARK: Mr. Witness, first of all I want to thank you very
Page 14719
1 much for coming and making yourself available to the Tribunal, in spite of
2 the fact that you have a very painful back condition, and I want you to
3 know that when I ask you these questions, that I have taken very careful
4 note of what you have said about how alien the concept of war is to a
5 person who is trained to providing care for all ill people, without
6 discriminating between their allegiances and their political
7 affiliations. I accept all that and I've taken very careful note of what
8 you say about the superhuman efforts that you have gone to, and obviously
9 you've been successful in achieving and preventing a severe epidemic in
10 the town of Mostar or in the Heliodrom. Now, you can take it that I've
11 listened very carefully to that. Nevertheless, I have a number of
12 questions for you, sir.
13 You said at the beginning of your evidence that when you were with
14 the HVO, that your expertise was in demand and that you therefore were on
15 call at the hospital, but you weren't there very frequently. Can I ask
16 you where you were when you were not at the hospital?
17 A. Your Honour Judge Clark, I wore the uniform, as a man who is a
18 member of the main medical staff, and I therefore had to make rounds of
19 the territory called Herceg-Bosna, all of it, in order to prevent any
20 epidemics from breaking out. And please don't misunderstand me. I'm one
21 of the few people who treat contagious diseases, but I also learned about
22 the prevention in the army. In the former Yugoslavia, you do not know
23 people who are familiar both with the prophylactic measures and the
24 treatment. I'm one of those few, because I passed my major's test, so I
25 had to go through the hospital to see what was the situation in the
Page 14720
1 infectious ward, because there were only four doctors. Otherwise I
2 travelled all the time around, went to Livno, to other places, merely with
3 a view to preventing any epidemics.
4 JUDGE CLARK: Thank you. And what I'm trying to understand from
5 you is: Was is your duty exclusively to prevent disease, or were you also
6 responsible in some way for the well-being of the prisoners at the various
7 camps? In other words, the conditions under which they were held, were
8 they something that you were involved with or were you uniquely involved
9 in the prevention of infectious diseases?
10 A. My only responsibility was the prevention of infectious diseases.
11 However, I have quite a lot of seniority behind me, and I'm a man who
12 treats people. That is my vocation. And yet in war we had young doctors
13 who were still not aware of that. So it was natural for me to train them,
14 just as I now teach other students. So my only job was the prevention.
15 But at the same time I was engaged in training. That was not based on any
16 orders. I did it on my own, because I knew that knowledge had no
17 frontiers and that knowledge shouldn't be only mine, that I should
18 transmit it and impart it to somebody else. Because in that way I also
19 preserve myself. I knew if they don't know how to do something, they will
20 be calling me, so that I will be involved again, and I therefore thought I
21 should train them, train other people. I think that the person who can
22 receive, absorb the knowledge is happy, but even happier is the one who
23 can impart his knowledge.
24 JUDGE CLARK: Thank you, Doctor. So can I take it from that that
25 your primary interest and responsibility was, no matter where you went in
Page 14721
1 Herceg-Bosna, to prevent disease and to educate other doctors and
2 paramedics in that area?
3 A. Your Honour Judge Clark, my primary responsibility and the reason
4 for my appointment was to prevent infectious diseases. All the rest I did
5 additionally and on my own. You know, I've seen a lot of the world. I'm
6 a member of numerous international organisations, so on and so forth, and
7 I am also a member of the faculty. And nobody told me, but Bagaric once
8 said, "Well, when you can show them." And even if he hadn't told me that,
9 I would have shown them, because I think that the one who learns will help
10 the man, because their knowledge should serve hope. And I am a big
11 adversary of ignorance, you know, a major foe of ignorance.
12 JUDGE CLARK: That's good to know. What I'm leading on to, then,
13 with further questions is: As you had a specific and obviously very large
14 area of responsibility, who in fact was the medical officer who was
15 primarily in charge of the well-being and health of the prisoners? Who
16 would have been the doctor who would have determined the policies at the
17 Heliodrom and Ljubuski? They're the camps that we're interested in.
18 A. Well, you see, when people find themselves in a situation like
19 that one, like the Heliodrom, the international conventions also say that
20 these men may not be under the control of units or individuals, but only
21 under the armed force. All the rest is contrary to humaneness. So the
22 control was carried out by physicians. The service was headed by
23 Dr. Bagaric, and the specific executors, when it comes to Heliodrom, were
24 doctors Dr. Hadzic and Dr. Stranjak and doctors who were serving with the
25 home guard units, such as Dr. Pinjuh, Dr. Pehar, and a number of others,
Page 14722
1 and they were to do that. And I was to give them guidance, to give them
2 instructions how to prevent diseases. But since I was a military
3 doctor -- and I've also passed the test for a major. It's a very
4 difficult test, much more difficult than the specialistic one. So that
5 the doctrinary views, to my mind -- for instance, every wound is infected
6 unless proven to the contrary. So I will always give tetanus. My
7 colleagues, for instance, didn't know it. And again, any water, until we
8 proved that it is chlorinated, is contaminated, and that is why I ordered
9 that the chlorine content ought to be 0.4. I know that it should be 0.2,
10 because just to be on the safe side. And I would do the same thing
11 again. But you have to know these things. You cannot fight against
12 something unless you know it. But this knowledge I acquired in the JNA.
13 That was not something that I was taught at the university.
14 JUDGE CLARK: Thank you, Doctor. I'm taking a long time to follow
15 through with my questions from your answers, but what I wanted to know
16 is: As you had a very large and specialised interest, but a unique
17 interest, would it be fair to say that you wouldn't have been the
18 appropriate medical person to in fact inspect all the facilities and
19 conditions under which prisoners were held at the Heliodrom or Ljubuski?
20 I know that we're moving on with time, Doctor, so we have to have answers
21 that are a little more succinct. I hope you don't think I'm being rude.
22 A. I didn't hear. I couldn't hear.
23 JUDGE CLARK: Sorry, doctor, I was saying that I notice that it's
24 20 to 4.00 now and time is moving on and I have a few more questions to
25 ask you, so we have to be a little more succinct, and I didn't want you to
Page 14723
1 take offence from that remark. What I wanted to know is, as you had a
2 very specialised area of interest and expertise, can I take it that you
3 were not the actual expert who carried out a full assessment of Ljubuski
4 and the Heliodrom in relation to the conditions under which prisoners were
5 held?
6 A. You want me to answer this? Your Honour Judge Clark, I personally
7 went to see those people, those wards, because my colleagues would take me
8 there. It would be either Mr. Bozic or Dr. Tomic who would take me
9 along. I was familiar enough, but a large number of things, taking people
10 for forced labour and so on and so forth, I really knew nothing about it.
11 Yes, there was talk but I did not see it. I do know, though, that that
12 part of the preventive medicine was done exactly as it is envisaged by the
13 postulates of the military wartime epidemiology.
14 JUDGE CLARK: I do not doubt that, sir, but were you aware or did
15 you personally see that any prisoners were held in solitary confinement?
16 A. Your Honour Judge Clark, rest assured that I do not know. Maybe
17 there were some. I'm not denying it. But they did not take me there. My
18 colleagues, and at times Mr. Bozic, took me along, but I do not know
19 that. I am not saying that there weren't because maybe they existed but I
20 do not know.
21 JUDGE CLARK: I accept that totally. We have just heard over the
22 months some fairly harrowing evidence, from two people in particular who
23 were held allegedly for a very long time in what were described as fairly
24 appalling conditions, but you don't know anything about that, you can't
25 help us in any way. Can I -- sorry.
Page 14724
1 A. I'm sorry, Your Honour Judge Clark -- yes, yes, of course, do go
2 on.
3 JUDGE CLARK: I didn't really want an answer, sir, because I felt
4 that your response was valid, that these things could have happened or
5 they may not have happened but you know nothing about it, and I would not
6 disagree with what you're saying. I was wondering if you ever noted
7 personally injuries as opposed to illness on detainees which would have
8 been, from a medical point of view, inconsistent with good humanitarian
9 management.
10 A. Your Honour Judge Clark, according to my documentation from May
11 1993 -- of May 1993, it says here -- it mentioned here places that I
12 visited, and it also says here that the detainees, the wards, said they
13 had no problems relative to harassment and that they were full of praise
14 for the guards, although I have it recorded somewhere. I cannot really
15 say that there were not such cases, but I'm telling you I went there with
16 my colleagues and I never saw any such case, and I give you my word of
17 honour. Had I seen it, I would have informed Bagaric, because I think
18 that it would be -- I think that it is inadmissible.
19 THE INTERPRETER: We are afraid we missed part of the answer.
20 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Krsnik?
21 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] We could not get the whole answer.
22 We did not hear the answer. He said something, "informed Dr. Bagaric,"
23 and then about 30 seconds were lost. We could not hear it.
24 A. I would have certainly informed Dr. Bagaric, and personally I
25 would have taken my utmost that such a person, be it even my brother, be
Page 14725
1 punished because nobody has the right to take another man's life. I'm
2 sorry that all this has been selected. You should have seen it. When I
3 wrote such reports, I was afraid that I would also become a victim, fall
4 victim to one of the extremists, but here certain things are presented out
5 of context. Well, you know, when Richelieu said, "Well, give me anybody's
6 letter and let me take something out of context and I will cut his head
7 off," so please.
8 JUDGE CLARK: I hope, sir, that you're not equating us with that
9 sentiment expressed by Richelieu. I wanted to ask you in conclusion about
10 the report of the --
11 A. May I say something, Your Honour? Judge Clark, may I say
12 something?
13 JUDGE CLARK: Of course.
14 A. I take pride in being here today, and I'm aware that you were
15 brought there by your ethical and professional reference. It wasn't a
16 state that brought you. And I hope that my answers and my dialogue with
17 you will help you in your work, and that is why I wish to express my
18 thanks to you.
19 JUDGE CLARK: I have one last question, which might be a difficult
20 one for you. I'm referring to your report which is called Exhibit 698.1,
21 and perhaps if the Registrar would kindly assist you or assist me by
22 putting that report in front of you, and I want to refer specifically to
23 the very last paragraph of your conclusion. Have you found it, sir?
24 A. I have, yes.
25 JUDGE CLARK: In this report, there is a reference to quite a
Page 14726
1 number of medical conditions among the prisoners, and then there is a
2 reference to 55 wards recovering from wounds. Now, Mr. Bos the Prosecutor
3 asked you about this, and you appeared to minimise the veracity or
4 authenticity or reliability of that assessment on the basis that it was
5 made by doctors who were apparently in isolation, and in fact, you
6 appeared to repeat the final paragraph of your assessment. Can you
7 explain to me why the fact that the assessments were prepared by medical
8 practitioners who were prisoners would affect its validity? Why would the
9 fact that they were prisoners make their assessment unreliable?
10 A. Judge Clark, unfortunately you are wrong. Not once does it say so
11 anywhere. In here it says they -- that they did not have adequate medical
12 documentation. For instance, among the diseases, it is mentioned that --
13 one can see that there are two with some problem or that there are seven
14 with eye anomalies, what kind of -- seven wards with -- so there was no
15 dilemma. My colleagues did not have adequate documentation, and had I
16 been there, they would have said the same thing, that without
17 documentation, everything is probable or supposed, and just look, Judge
18 Clark, at the conclusion that you are talking about, and I will read it
19 out. May I, with your permission?
20 JUDGE CLARK: Of course.
21 A. "In spite of all the listed shortcomings, the medical
22 epidemiological situation is very satisfactory, as infectious and
23 contagious skin diseases are present only in sporadic form without any
24 epidemic relationship. The sporadic appearance of these diseases is quite
25 normal in these locations, in such locations." And then the penultimate
Page 14727
1 passage, "The inspection established that there was no ill treatment of
2 wards."
3 I hope I've answered your question, at least in part, if not
4 fully.
5 JUDGE CLARK: The question that I really wanted you to address was
6 the one that was posed by Mr. Bos in relation to the 55 wards who were
7 described as recovering from wounds. As a non-doctor and as a lay person,
8 it would still seem to me that one doesn't have to have documentation in
9 order to make an assessment that somebody is recovering from a wound. And
10 why, then, is my question, why, then, did you minimise the accuracy or
11 appear to minimise the accuracy of that finding because the doctors who
12 made the finding were in fact not at liberty?
13 A. Allow me to repeat it once again. Far be it from me to minimise
14 it and -- because they are my colleagues, but the condition after the
15 wounding, one can be -- if you are hit by a bullet or something, then
16 you're finished, but it can be a muscle injury which doesn't take more
17 than five or six days, but for these five or six days you must be spared
18 work or whatever. And without medical documentation, allow me, if you now
19 went to a doctor here in the -- there in The Hague, without any
20 documentation, do you think you'd be believed? I wouldn't believe you,
21 and I do not think that my colleagues in The Hague would believe you.
22 JUDGE CLARK: I see. My final question -- well, maybe I have two
23 questions. Can you tell me how those -- your colleagues who were held
24 against their will in the Heliodrom, how they were actually housed? Were
25 the doctors and the nurses who were described in one of the reports in a
Page 14728
1 separate unit from the prisoners or did they find themselves in the same
2 rooms with mattresses on the floor?
3 A. It is only natural for the doctor to be in the infirmary, which is
4 open around the clock.
5 JUDGE CLARK: What I'm asking you is did those doctors and nurses
6 who assisted in the care of the prisoners, did they have any special
7 treatment or were they treated in the same way as the other detainees?
8 [Technical difficulty]
9 THE REGISTRAR: Repeat your question, please.
10 JUDGE CLARK: Sorry. I just wanted to know - perhaps you don't
11 know this - whether the doctors and nurses who were detainees and who
12 assisted in the care of their co-prisoners, did they share the same
13 accommodation as the other prisoners, or did they have special
14 privileges?
15 A. Two doctors. One worked in the infirmary which worked around the
16 clock, and of course he was accommodated there. The second doctor was in
17 the in-patient unit, and naturally he was accommodated there. It would be
18 very wrong for you to look for a doctor anywhere. For instance, the
19 doctors from the units who were there, they were also accommodated in the
20 in-patient hospital for those soldiers, not with the others. Because
21 after all, doctors are protected persons. They are protected so they can
22 place their knowledge in the service of others and to help them. That was
23 my order, because if a doctor is there, then he can help, and he is
24 duty-bound to be at a place -- at the location where a medical institution
25 is.
Page 14729
1 JUDGE CLARK: Thank you. Can I once again express my appreciation
2 for your assistance? Especially considering your back condition. I hope I
3 haven't added to it.
4 JUDGE LIU: Any questions out of Judge's questions? Mr. Bos?
5 MR. BOS: No, Your Honour.
6 JUDGE LIU: Thank you. Mr. Krsnik?
7 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Yes. It seems to me that there is
8 one thing which warrants clarification because I'm afraid there is a
9 misunderstanding and I will try to ask -- to rephrase Judge Clark's
10 question.
11 Further examination by Mr. Krsnik:
12 Q. In relation to these a 55 wards and the documentation, is it that
13 they had -- that they said that they had been wounded but did not say when
14 and produced documentation about their wounding, or were they wounded
15 after having been put at the Heliodrom? I don't know how else to say it.
16 And they brought the documentation and told these doctors, "Well, we were
17 wounded over there and here is documentation," or were they wounded at the
18 time when you wrote the report? Because that is the fundamental
19 question.
20 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr Bos?
21 MR. BOS: I object. This is a leading question, Your Honour.
22 JUDGE LIU: Well, it is a leading question, Mr. Krsnik.
23 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] But Your Honours, I don't really have
24 a problem because that is why we can't clarify certain things. I'm quite
25 clear what this report is about. The Prosecutor asked questions about
Page 14730
1 this and Her Honour asked this and I was trying to rephrase it, but I
2 think that the meaning is absolutely clear.
3 JUDGE LIU: You do not have to rephrase Judge Clark's questions,
4 you know.
5 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] No, no, no. My question -- my
6 question -- let me try to reword my question. It is quite logical. This
7 is the Tribunal which cares about the truth rather than if I went wrong
8 and I will ask my question properly. So my question, the sense of my
9 question, the meaning of my question is whether these people were wounded
10 whilst at the Heliodrom. That's the question because it is very important
11 to learn where they were wounded and when and whether the doctor knows
12 that or whether they were wounded two years before that and then produced
13 the documentation. That is why the documents were not trusted.
14 Q. So, Doctor, were they wounded whilst at the Heliodrom? Witness,
15 excuse me.
16 A. Mr. Krsnik, you see, in this last paragraph, it says they did not
17 have with them adequate and proper medical documentation. Had they been
18 wounded whilst at the Heliodrom, they would have unquestionably ended up
19 in the War Hospital, because the Heliodrom did not have the facilities for
20 the extension of that kind of medical help and we would be deluding
21 ourselves.
22 Now I will use a military medical term. There are different
23 degrees of emergency. Wounding is of the first order of emergency, and
24 this, the treatment is usually provided by a surgeon. There was no
25 surgeon at the Heliodrom. So had he been wounded at the Heliodrom, he
Page 14731
1 wouldn't be there. He would be somewhere in the surgical ward of the
2 hospital or where he would have been operated on. Or if it was a serious
3 wounding, then he would have been taken to Split. With all due respect to
4 my colleagues, they simply -- at the Heliodrom they were not qualified
5 enough to do that kind of intervention, but I wish to thank them, to
6 extend my heartfelt thanks to them for what they did.
7 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Thank you, Witness. I have no
8 further questions.
9 JUDGE LIU: Well, Witness, thank you very much for coming to give
10 your testimony. We all wish you good luck in the future. The court
11 deputy will show you out of that room.
12 [The witness withdrew]
13 JUDGE LIU: At this stage are there any documents to tender,
14 Mr. Bos?
15 MR. BOS: Yes, Your Honours. The Prosecution have six new
16 exhibits to tender: Exhibit P686.2, which is the table; Exhibit P698.1,
17 which is the report by this witness on the Heliodrom; Exhibit P699.1,
18 which is his report on Gabela; Exhibit P700.2, which is the witness's
19 report on Livno; Exhibit P702.2, which is the witness's report on
20 Ljubuski; and finally, Exhibit P565.04, which is the letter of Mr. Bozic
21 addressed to Mr. Stojic, dated 14 August 1993.
22 JUDGE LIU: Any objections, Mr. Krsnik?
23 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, of course what the
24 witness has said, that these reports were his, he owned up to them, so I
25 have no grounds for objections. As for the others, this one is admitted.
Page 14732
1 Well, 630.2 [as interpreted], unfortunately, has already been admitted, so
2 that I can't object to that one either. What I want to clear up now, Your
3 Honour, is the source of documents. Although the witness said that the
4 signature was his, and so on and so forth, these are not the originals.
5 They must be copies. And I still claim before this high -- the first
6 world tribunal that the source of these documents is not the Croatian
7 government, because the Croatian government cannot be the source of these
8 documents, because surely the Croatian government did not collect the
9 documents of the medical corps of a third country and it could not be in
10 the possession of them and it cannot have them now. So we want to know
11 which is the true source, for two reasons: so that we can look at them and
12 check the authenticity of these documents, and so the Defence could apply
13 for these same documents from that same source.
14 The complete documentation. Now, it is interesting. All of a
15 sudden documents are now emerging with the indication of a source of the
16 Croatian government. Well, excuse me. That is my government, so I will
17 immediately write to the Croatian government and to ask them to make their
18 archives accessible to me, because they've obviously opened their archives
19 to the Prosecution but not to me. I am not aware at all of these
20 documents of the Croatian government, and we hear that this is the
21 archives of the Croatian government. I do not think they have them, but
22 when it says here "the Croatian government," it really sounds pretty
23 curious and we'd like to know.
24 JUDGE LIU: Since Mr. Krsnik raised that question, Mr. Bos, are
25 you in a position to answer it at this moment or give us some explanations
Page 14733
1 about that?
2 MR. BOS: No, Your Honours. I can't be more specific than what's
3 indicated here, that we got these documents from the Croatian government,
4 and we got numerous documents from the Croatian government, and these were
5 included in here. And I think the witness has sufficiently authenticated
6 the documents, and I really don't see why we need to discuss where these
7 documents are coming from.
8 MR. KRSNIK: [Interpretation] Your Honours, oh, yes, it is very
9 important to discuss it, although the documents authenticated four
10 documents. I don't know about others. I don't know how many. I want to
11 know who, the first name and the last name, which ministry, which agency,
12 who gave those documents to you. It couldn't have been the Croatian
13 government, because the Defence also has the right to turn to the same
14 source. Your Honours, we must enjoy the same rights as the Prosecutor,
15 and now they are hiding their sources so that we cannot gain access to
16 them. So who is it who said that he was the Croatian government? I'm
17 telling you that it was not the Croatian governments.
18 JUDGE LIU: Yes, Mr. Stringer.
19 MR. STRINGER: Mr. President, I can perhaps try to offer a
20 solution, or at least some additional information, because it may in fact
21 just be an issue of the nomenclature that's been used on this particular
22 document. Throughout the trial we have distinguished between records or
23 documents obtained from the Zagreb archive, what we've called the Zagreb
24 archive, which this Trial Chamber heard considerable testimony about from
25 Mr. Prelec during the Prosecution case in chief. This is a place where
Page 14734
1 Prosecution staff have gone, and I must take issue with the comment made
2 by counsel. It is an archive that's open to not only the Prosecution but
3 to the Defence. Any number of Defence investigators and staff, from any
4 number of cases in this Tribunal, can be seen and found working in this
5 archive, and I have reason to believe that investigators working for
6 counsel are also taking advantage of that archive. But that's the Zagreb
7 archive, and I think we tried to be consistent throughout in identifying
8 documents coming from that archive.
9 Now, apart from the archive, there have been documents which we
10 have obtained from the Croatian government which are in evidence, and I
11 have in mind a series of documents that relates to events involving Robert
12 Nosic, for example. That's the HVO gentleman who was abducted from the
13 HVO military police station in Mostar in November of 1993. That's a
14 series of documents that was obtained from the Croatian government
15 pursuant to a request for assistance that this office issued to the
16 Croatian government actually before the archive even became available to
17 us. Going back to the very first day of this trial, the Trial Chamber may
18 recall the testimony of OTP investigator Jan Van Hecke, who testified
19 about these various categories of documents.
20 So as I stand before the Tribunal, or the Trial Chamber, at this
21 moment I can't tell you or counsel whether this particular series of
22 documents denominated "Croatian government" are in fact from the archive
23 or whether they were obtained pursuant to a request for assistance. I can
24 offer to find that information and provide it to the Trial Chamber if you
25 ask us to do so, but I think I would certainly what Mr. Bos has said,
Page 14735
1 which is that with respect to these four exhibits, the witness very
2 clearly authenticated them. He verified that they are in fact documents
3 that he made. So it's not clear to us why, really, it's necessary to do
4 anything more concerning their authenticity or admissibility.
5 JUDGE LIU: Thank you very much, Mr. Stringer. And you have said
6 that you'll do something else to help us to find the source of those
7 documents at a later stage. We are very glad to hear that. We believe
8 that it will be a great help to the Defence counsel for their
9 documentation.
10 As for the six sets of the documents used during the
11 cross-examination, we believe that the witness himself authenticated those
12 documents already, which is sufficient. So these six documents are
13 admitted into the evidence at this stage.
14 So we'll break now at this moment, and tomorrow morning, at 9.30,
15 we'll continue with the next videolink witness.
16 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 4.10 p.m.,
17 to be reconvened on Tuesday, the 27th day of August,
18 2002, at 9.30 a.m.
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