1 Wednesday, 9 April 2003

2 [Open session]

3 [The accused entered court]

4 [The accused Zaric not present]

5 --- Upon commencing at 10.00 a.m.

6 JUDGE MUMBA: Good morning. Please call the case.

7 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning. Case number IT-95-9-T, the

8 Prosecutor versus Blagoje Simic, Miroslav Tadic and Simo Zaric.

9 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. We are supposed to continue with the witnesses

10 for Mr. Simo Zaric. What is the latest position?

11 MR. LAZAREVIC: Your Honours, last time we had the opportunity to

12 talk to Mr. Zaric, yesterday afternoon, and we were informed that after

13 his arrival in the detention unit, he received three injections of some

14 sedatives and pain killers and he felt much better but after certain time,

15 pain started again and he was in pain when he called us and he said that

16 he is not aware of what his condition is going to be. This morning we

17 were informed he was not there. I still didn't have the opportunity to

18 speak with him and check whether he will be able to come tomorrow and what

19 his condition is going to be and what is the estimation of the medical

20 doctors.

21 JUDGE MUMBA: Very well, in that case, we are unable to continue

22 hearing his witnesses until further notice. Hopefully maybe tomorrow he

23 will be able to attend. The Trial Chamber wanted to find out from the

24 Prosecution, there was a matter in which they said they would be able to

25 respond today or is it Friday? Of the matters raised by Mr. Pantelic.

1 MR. RE: Thank you, Your Honour. Mr. Pantelic handed this to us

2 on the way in this morning. It being the foot notes to the

3 General Wilmot's report. There is also, we discovered, two and a half

4 days of testimony before the Stakic trial in relation to his testimony --

5 sorry, in relation to the evidence. We need at least a week to read all

6 this material, enter it on to our system to be in a position to respond to

7 Mr. Pantelic's proposed tender of the exhibit. Could we have until Friday

8 in relation to the other -- we don't object at the moment to the -- I

9 can't think of the exhibit number, the use of the paramilitary's document.

10 MR. PANTELIC: Maybe I can help to my friend. It's order of

11 Presidency regarding the volunteers, I believe.

12 MR. RE: I'll do this in order. I'm sorry. The Prosecution

13 doesn't object to D177/1 ID. We have read D178/1 ID which is apparently

14 an extract or a chapter from a book we've read it overnight. Or

15 yesterday. We were just asked for -- until Friday to.

16 JUDGE MUMBA: To respond.

17 MR. RE: To respond to this. And of course to compare it to

18 General Wilmot's report and if we could possibly have a week, given that

19 we've just received all of this information, two lever-arch folders of

20 footnotes which we say is a realistic or reasonable time, just to get on

21 top of it.

22 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. Very well. You have the time granted as

23 requested. Mr. Pantelic?

24 MR. PANTELIC: Yes, Your Honour, thank you. Just to inform Trial

25 Chamber that this morning I provided three copies of documents relating to

1 the General Wilmot's report. These are actually footnotes. There are

2 117. In fact, there is 100 here because we are still in process of

3 copying of various extracts of regulations of army. I mean, in order to

4 facilitate reading of General Wilmot's report so it's just for the

5 convenience of our learned friends in the Prosecution, also for the Trial

6 Chamber. These are quite well-known documents related to the JNA or VRS,

7 international regulations, et cetera. So basically, that's it. We are

8 doing our best to prepare the rest of these footnotes for today.

9 JUDGE MUMBA: Very well.

10 MR. PANTELIC: That's one thing. Another thing, Your Honour,

11 Defence for Mr. Blagoje Simic would like to tender, to offer into

12 evidence, one document which might be of importance for this case. This

13 is the -- actually, order of -- this is the order of Presidency of SFRY

14 issued on 13 of April, 1988 and the title is, "Order on the application of

15 the international laws of war in the armed forces of the Socialist

16 Federative Republic of Yugoslavia." I have three copies for the Bench,

17 one copy, English translation, B/C/S, and I have one copy for the -- for

18 our learned friends from the Prosecution.

19 [Trial Chamber confers]

20 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. Can we have the number for identification?

21 THE REGISTRAR: This will be treated as document 179/1 ter ID --

22 D179/1 ter ID and D179/1 ID. Thank you.

23 MR. PANTELIC: And another matter, Your Honour, yesterday the

24 Senior Legal Officer of the Trial Chamber informed me, actually left a

25 message on my portable phone because I was attending the judgement in

1 Celebici case, so also our case manager informed me yesterday that Defence

2 for Blagoje Simic should take necessary measures with respect to the

3 presence of the four 92 bis witnesses next week in The Hague and the

4 situation is the following: We immediately contacted witnesses and

5 Mr. Simo Jovanovic apparently is not in possession of passport. That's

6 one problem and it can be resolved within a couple of days, but the other

7 problem is that he's taking care about his ill mother and then at least

8 one week he will not be able to travel from Samac. We tried to contact

9 Mr. Lazar Mirkic and Mr. Branislav Marusic who are also on the list. They

10 are very occupied on their private businesses. They're travelling a lot,

11 so we left a message to their offices and during this morning we could

12 have response with regard to their availability and also the same applies

13 to Mr. Cedomir Simic because we weren't able to find him in his office

14 because it was late yesterday, around 3.00, 3.30 and I believe this

15 morning we could arrange it and we shall accordingly inform Senior Legal

16 Officer with the status of and possibility, availability of these

17 witnesses to come next week on Monday and Tuesday. And also, yes, we -- I

18 don't know what is our schedule for next week, until which day we are

19 sitting? Is it Wednesday or --

20 JUDGE MUMBA: We are sitting as from Monday, all the working days.

21 MR. PANTELIC: All week?

22 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.

23 MR. PANTELIC: Okay. Thank you very much.

24 JUDGE MUMBA: I said on all the days that are working days.

25 That's what I said.

1 MR. PANTELIC: Yes, thank you.

2 JUDGE MUMBA: The Trial Chamber is actually issuing an order for

3 these witnesses to travel to The Hague and be heard so that this question

4 of their private businesses shouldn't interfere with our work. They are

5 under obligation to comply and come so that we can hear their witnesses

6 next week so you must take steps to ensure that they understand that they

7 are under orders to appear.

8 MR. PANTELIC: Yes, Your Honour, I will do my best to inform them

9 during this day.

10 JUDGE MUMBA: Any other matters?

11 MR. RE: Yes, thank you, Your Honour. Could I just briefly

12 revisit D178/1 for a moment? Which is the book extract? I don't have --

13 I apologise I don't have the benefit of the a transcript from yesterday

14 with me in court at the moment, but my recollection is it wasn't entirely

15 clear at the time the purpose for which this was asked to be tendered into

16 evidence. If it's not there, could perhaps Mr. Pantelic put on the record

17 who the author of this report is -- or book is, what it is, where it's

18 from, and why he wishes to tender it into evidence, its relevance? That

19 would greatly assist the Prosecution in deciding whether or not -- in its

20 attitude to the tender of the document. It's just a little bit unclear

21 yet from what we have which appears to be a chapter of an unnamed book.

22 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, I'm sure Mr. Pantelic can answer that.

23 MR. PANTELIC: Yes, Your Honour. I believe that I mentioned that

24 yesterday on the transcript but I can repeat that, no problem. The author

25 of this book is Colonel Stublincevic, Stublincevic. The title is -- you

1 can find it at the left bottom side with a small letters, left bottom.

2 JUDGE MUMBA: What is the title?

3 MR. PANTELIC: The title is, "So they wanted." That's the title

4 of the book. Colonel Stublincevic was the commander of 17th Corps of JNA

5 in month of March, actually January, February, March, and April, and May,

6 1992. In this part of his book, he's speaking about the orders from the

7 2nd Army District under the command of General Kukanjac, who is covering

8 all area including Samac and neighbouring area and he speaks in his

9 book -- that's personal testimony, I would say -- about the movements of

10 JNA units prior to 16 of April, 1992, in this area, and certain military

11 orders regarding the position of the JNA units in this area. And it's

12 kind of -- I would say -- corroborative evidence of the role of JNA in the

13 region of Posavina and more precisely in Samac.

14 JUDGE WILLIAMS: Excuse me, I think we also should know the year

15 of publication and who the publishing company was.

16 MR. PANTELIC: Yes, Your Honour.

17 JUDGE WILLIAMS: Just to have all full details.

18 MR. PANTELIC: I will do my best to get the cover page of the

19 book. The publisher is some publishing company from Belgrade, and the

20 year of publishing is 2000. I think 2000, yes.

21 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.

22 MR. RE: Thank you for that. There are two other evidentiary

23 issues. One was the outstanding revised translation of D141/3, which the

24 Chamber's legal officer has contacted us about.

25 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.

1 MR. RE: The Prosecution has a revised translation, we have had it

2 translated twice. We concede, I think what Mr. Krgovic read on to the

3 record at the time but we do have it in revised form. There were some

4 words left out in the translation. Then the second translation. The

5 third revised translation we think is the right one. I can either tender

6 that or if the Trial Chamber is satisfied with the concession we make as

7 to the accuracy of what Mr. Krgovic read, I'm in the Trial Chamber's hands

8 on this.

9 [Trial Chamber confers]

10 JUDGE MUMBA: This is the agreed with the defence?

11 MR. RE: Yes, yes, they have copies of it and they agree the

12 revised translation is the correct one.

13 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, I think we can have it -- if you can tender it.

14 MR. RE: Formally tender a revised translation into evidence.

15 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. It will retain the same number as already

16 admitted. This is only the translation, the English.

17 MR. RE: That's right, it's a replacement, I think.

18 JUDGE MUMBA: Any other matters?

19 MR. RE: There was one other. Last week, Mr. Lukic for Mr. Tadic

20 tendered into evidence two documents from the International Committee of

21 the Red Cross relating to exchanges and guidelines for exchanges. As a

22 result of that, Mr. Maslic's and Mr. Vasovic's evidence, the Prosecution

23 has obtained the complete set of ICRC exchange agreements and guidelines.

24 We provided them to the Defence, the complete set, including the 22nd of

25 May, 1992, the first one upon which the two-page document they tendered

1 last week on the 23rd of May, 1992 was based. The full set has been

2 provided to the Defence. I'm just wondering if the Defence is in a

3 position to indicate at the moment whether there is any objection to the

4 tender?

5 THE INTERPRETER: Could you slow down, Mr. Re, please?

6 MR. RE: I'm sorry. Can I slow down, I will do. I apologise.

7 I'm wondering if the Defence are in a position to indicate today whether

8 there will be any objection to the Prosecution tendering the complete set

9 of ICRC exchange agreements relating to that particular conflict? The

10 documents aren't here because we left our stuff up in the other court, on

11 the next occasion.

12 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, Mr. Krgovic?

13 MR. KRGOVIC: [Interpretation] We received these documents from the

14 Prosecution yesterday, and we'd like to be given time until Friday because

15 we only have the English text. We do not have it in B/C/S translation and

16 we therefore cannot communicate and discuss it with our client so if we

17 can do it on Friday, please and could we also be provided with a B/C/S

18 translation of the document?

19 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, Mr. Re?

20 MR. RE: The documents Mr. Lukic tendered last week weren't in

21 B/C/S, they are ICRC documents. They are in the official working language

22 of the Tribunal, French and English.

23 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, and these are not the type of documents

24 requiring B/C/S translation. So we will adjourn now until our proceedings

25 tomorrow at the allocated time.

1 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at

2 10.20 a.m., to be reconvened on Thursday,

3 the 10th day of April, 2003, at 9.00 a.m.

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