Page 2359
1 Wednesday, 2 June 2010
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 9.02 a.m.
5 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Good morning to everybody in the courtroom.
6 To enable the protected witness to enter the courtroom, the
7 blinds should be brought down and the witness may then be brought in.
8 [The witness takes the stand]
9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Good morning.
10 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Please sit down. Good morning, sir. You wait a
11 moment so that the blinds could be --
12 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Good morning.
13 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Again, good morning, sir. The affirmation you
14 made at the beginning of your evidence to tell the truth still applies
15 and the protective measures are still in place.
16 Mr. Tolimir, you may continue with your cross-examination.
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.
18 May God be of assistance to all and may there be peace unto this
19 house. And may God's will be done in these proceedings and the outcome
20 as God wishes and not as I do.
21 WITNESS: PW-032 [Resumed]
22 [Witness answered through interpreter]
23 Cross-examination by Mr. Tolimir: [Continued]
24 Q. [Interpretation] We stopped off yesterday when we were showing
25 document 1D129, it is an exhibit, and the witness said that he wasn't
Page 2360
1 aware of the document and that he never talked to these women that
2 Naser Oric referred to.
3 My question is as follows: Was the Srebrenica zone demilitarised
4 or not? In view of your yesterday's statement where you said that a
5 forward command post was set up in the area around the protected zone -
6 thank you - in the area around the enclave.
7 A. What I knew at the time is what I said, and that's what was the
8 fact.
9 Q. Was the zone demilitarised or not?
10 A. Based on the information that we received, it should have been.
11 Q. Were you aware of the position UNPROFOR took in relation to the
12 demilitarised zone and was it tolerant in its conduct toward the
13 demilitarised zone?
14 A. I really can't answer the question. I wasn't near there. I was
15 not in touch with either other UNPROFOR or the zone itself.
16 Q. Thank you. Can you tell me, did you know that a group of
17 commanders from Zepa and Srebrenica, headed by Naser Oric, in April of
18 1995, arrived in the area of responsibility of the 2nd Corps of the
19 BH army, and that that toured the defence lines in Kladanj, the brigades
20 in Teocak, Sapna, Medjedja, Seonica, and Kakanj? Thank you.
21 A. I'm not aware of this at all. What I can tell you is that I
22 heard perhaps in 1996 that some of the commanders had gone out of there
23 earlier on.
24 Q. Thank you. Can you tell us if you know that the -- whether this
25 group of commanders and senior officers which came out of Srebrenica and
Page 2361
1 Zepa, whether they were received by Alija Izetbegovic in Kakanj. Thank
2 you.
3 A. I'm really not aware of this. I was a commander of a unit
4 attached to the staff. I was not an acquaintance of these commanders, I
5 was not in touch with them.
6 Q. Thank you. Can you tell the Trial Chamber, if you know, that
7 this group of commanders in April of 1995, that's to say, before
8 Srebrenica and Zepa, were in your area of responsibility with
9 General Delic, with the chief of the Main Staff of the BH army?
10 A. I'm not aware of this at all.
11 Q. Thank you. Tell us, please, was this group received by your
12 commander, Sead Delic?
13 A. I don't know about that. At that time I went rarely to Tuzla
14 Q. Thank you. Do you know that this group of senior officers from
15 Srebrenica and Zepa in the month of April met up with the command of your
16 corps in Tuzla
17 and other senior officers and your -- or your subordinates who happened
18 to be in the command at the time? Thank you.
19 A. Believe me, you keep asking these questions but I'm not familiar
20 with this group at all. I don't know these people and I've only heard of
21 Naser Oric.
22 Q. Thank you. Can you tell us, this group of commanders were they
23 part of preparations for the joining up of the enclaves with the
24 commander of the Main Staff, the commanders of -- the commander of the
25 corps, and commanders of the brigades that they toured in Sapna and
Page 2362
1 Medjedja?
2 A. I can only keep repeating what I've already said. I really have
3 no idea, to be frank, as to when these people came, where, who they met
4 with, and I don't know any of them. I've never met with them personally.
5 Q. Thank you. Can you tell us, what was your level in the corps
6 command at the time and were you involved in these preparations and
7 meetings; and if you were not, why not? Thank you.
8 A. I've already said that I was a commander of a unit attached to
9 the staff. I would send reports to the commander on the situation in the
10 unit every week or every fortnight, and as for all the other goings-on,
11 the commander had his assistants charged with various specialities and he
12 would be better placed to answer the question.
13 Q. Thank you.
14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we call up 1D31, page 1,
15 lines 19, 20, 21, and 22. Or rather, my apologies, before this appears
16 on the screen -- [Microphone not activated].
17 THE INTERPRETER: We can't hear the accused.
18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we now call up D1, page 5,
19 lines 22 and 23, and then lines 32 and lines 46, and that will make
20 things easier for the witness. It will make my question more
21 understandable.
22 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, are you sure you're asking for
23 document D1? Is that on the screen now? Thank you. Carry on, please.
24 THE ACCUSED: [Microphone not activated]
25 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
Page 2363
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you. Can we turn to page 5,
2 please. Yes. The witness should be able to see it. It's the
3 fourth paragraph, line 2. I'll read the two lines.
4 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
5 Q. "In late April 1995 we took off by helicopter from Zepa and
6 arrived in Zenica. It was a delegation that was dispatched from
7 Srebrenica headed by Commander Naser Oric."
8 And rather than read the whole statement, let's go to item 32 and
9 see -- or rather, line 32 - can you mark that for the witness? - to see
10 what happened when they arrived in Zenica. And it is stated here:
11 "From Zenica, all the members of the delegation were transferred
12 to Kakanj. And the invalids who had come along with us were transferred
13 to the other side. We were received by the Chief of Staff,
14 General Hadzihasanovic in Kakanj and discussions took place around the
15 events in Srebrenica. That was the reason why we got there. We were
16 supposed to go on from there to Tuzla
17 In the meantime, the commander of the General Staff, Delic,
18 arrived, who arranged a helicopter for us to transfer us to Visca, from
19 where we were transported to the corps command where Delic said the
20 commander received us. Subsequently we had meetings with Governor
21 Izet Hadzic. On the following day we toured the defence lines in
22 Kladanj, above the tunnel, and the following day we visited the command
23 of the Teocak brigade, Sapna, Medjedja, Snjeznica. And the following day
24 we went to Kakanj. President Izetbegovic got there and we talked to
25 him."
Page 2364
1 That's where I'll end my quotation. This is a statement by an
2 eye-witness who was present at the meeting.
3 Do you still deny that these activities had indeed taken place in
4 the area of responsibility of your corps in Tuzla prior to the fall of
5 Srebrenica and Zepa?
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, I don't think that we have the right
7 document on the screen or even not the right page of the document. We
8 can't find this portion you were quoting. Can you help us? Of course
9 I'm referring to the English page.
10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. I will
11 now do my best -- or rather, my legal advisor will try and indicate for
12 you the references in the English version. Since I don't speak English,
13 I'm merely reading from page 5 of the statement, which we received from
14 the Prosecution.
15 Thank you. Mr. President, it's page 6 in English.
16 JUDGE FLUEGGE: And which paragraph and line?
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Paragraph 3.
18 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Thank you.
19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Paragraph 3, up until the line
20 starting with Izetbegovic.
21 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Thank you.
22 Mr. Tolimir, it could be helpful if you would repeat the question
23 for the witness.
24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.
25 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
Page 2365
1 Q. Witness, can you tell us if you knew anything of these activities
2 and whether this eye-witness speaks truthfully about the activities which
3 happened in the area of responsibility of your corps and have -- and had
4 to do with Srebrenica and Zepa? Thank you.
5 A. First of all, let me say that I have never seen this report
6 before. Secondly, I don't know the person who gave the statement. My
7 answer can only be: I don't know, perhaps yes, perhaps not. I was not
8 involved in these activities and I had no information at the time.
9 Fourthly, I can say that of the entire list of people mentioned here, I
10 know only two persons. I knew them from before the war, and yet I had
11 contact with these people during the war only rarely, very rarely.
12 Q. Thank you, Witness. Based on the activities described by this
13 eye-witness, can you conclude that this was a delegation of commanders
14 from Srebrenica and Zepa who came to the corps command to attend
15 preparations for an operation aimed at joining up the enclaves of
16 Srebrenica, Zepa with the area of responsibility of the corps, and this
17 took place in April of 1995 before the fall of Srebrenica and Zepa?
18 Thank you.
19 A. All I can say really is maybe yes and maybe not, but I had
20 nothing to do with these activities.
21 Q. Thank you, Witness. [Microphone not activated].
22 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we please have 1D31 on our
24 screens now, page 1, lines 19, 20, 21, and 22. Thank you.
25 [Defence counsel confer]
Page 2366
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Page 2. In English that will be
2 page 2 and in B/C/S that's on page 1.
3 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
4 Q. This is a report from the intelligence administration, part of
5 which you were, to the president, Mr. Izetbegovic, a report that was sent
6 to him. And we see in lines 19, 20, 21, and 22 -- could you please
7 indicate the lines to assist the witness. This is in the fourth
8 paragraph and it says:
9 "In preparations for a future operation to link up the enclaves,
10 we brought in and took back four brigade commanders, two brigade chiefs
11 of staff and the Chief of Staff of the 28th Division. The division
12 commander who was meant to go on the next helicopter flight did not
13 return."
14 My question, Witness, is: Is this a document from your
15 intelligence administration, because you told us yesterday that you were
16 part of that administration, and was this document sent to
17 President Izetbegovic and does it refer to activities that I've just read
18 out? Thank you.
19 A. I appreciate your question, but you have to understand that this
20 is the first time that I see this document and how could I know what it
21 says here about some events and communication written by the brigade
22 general or Brigadier-General Talijan. I had nothing to do with this. My
23 combat was a non-combat unit. Our task was just to gather intelligence
24 and forward it. We never were informed of anything that is contained in
25 this information, nor was such information sent to us. You should ask
Page 2367
1 commanders or chiefs of units, but not us. Because I really have nothing
2 to do with this. I've never heard or seen this document in my entire
3 life. Perhaps the chief of department would be the right person to ask.
4 Q. Thank you, Witness. I didn't ask you whether you have ever seen
5 or heard of this document. My question, like the ones -- the previous
6 ones, was whether you knew anything about these activities which were
7 being discussed by the commanders in Zepa and Srebrenica before the fall
8 of Srebrenica because they were part of your command. And I was just
9 asking you whether you knew about their activities. I wasn't asking you
10 about this very document, nor was it my intention to tender it through
11 you. Thank you.
12 A. Well, I will answer for the last time this type of question. I
13 really don't know anything about these activities.
14 Q. Thank you, Witness.
15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we now please see 1D31,
16 page 1 -- oh, that's the document we already have. All right. Could we
17 then see, please, 1D32. 1D32.
18 THE REGISTRAR: For the record, that's Exhibit D16.
19 THE ACCUSED: [Microphone not activated]
20 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
21 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
22 Q. Can you see this document on the monitor, Witness?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Now I will read the first sentence of this document to you.
25 "According to intelligence information," and I repeat, "according
Page 2368
1 to intelligence information, the aggressor is grouping forces and
2 equipment around the demilitarised zones of Srebrenica and Zepa,
3 particularly in the sector of Milici and Vlasenica."
4 This was drafted on the 17th of February, 1995. Did you
5 participate in the gathering of this intelligence information? Thank
6 you.
7 (redacted)
8 (redacted)
9 (redacted)
10 Q. Witness, could you please tell me where you worked and what you
11 did up until the 17th of February, 1995, what unit were you in and what
12 military structure did you belong to? Thank you.
13 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
14 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. If we could go into
15 private session for just a moment.
16 JUDGE FLUEGGE: That was my intention as well.
17 Private, please.
18 [Private session]
19 (redacted)
20 (redacted)
21 (redacted)
22 (redacted)
23 (redacted)
24 (redacted)
25 (redacted)
Page 2369
1
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6
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11 Pages 2369-2373 redacted. Private session.
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15
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Page 2374
1 (redacted)
2 (redacted)
3 (redacted)
4 (redacted)
5 [Open session]
6 THE REGISTRAR: We're now in open session.
7 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Carry on, please, Mr. Tolimir.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. I
9 thought we were in open session. I don't have anything to hide. I don't
10 know why we were in private session. Let me ask the witness this:
11 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
12 Q. You say that you know nothing of the order. Had you ever
13 received the order, and it lists among the addressees, the 2nd Corps
14 command, the command of OG Srebrenica, and the command of the Zepa
15 Brigade, and you being part of the corps must have fallen under these
16 categories?
17 A. I don't know if such an order ever arrived and if it did, I
18 didn't see it.
19 Q. Thank you.
20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we now call up 1D -- or rather
21 D1, page 8. In Serbian, line 21.
22 JUDGE FLUEGGE: And which page in English?
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I think it's page 9 in English, but
24 I don't know. I don't speak English. I think it's page 9.
25 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Perhaps your legal advisor can help you.
Page 2375
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. It is
2 page 9 in English, line 21. Thank you.
3 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Thank you.
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we go back to page 1 in
5 Serbian, or rather, page 8. Page 8 in Serbian and page 10 in English. I
6 can't read it for the witness. Can we go one page back in Serbian,
7 please. Once again, can we have page 9 in Serbian, and that's two pages
8 ahead of the one we have now. This is page 24 in e-court. Can we go on
9 to page 26. Thank you. I will now quote.
10 "Pursuant to a decision issued by the commander of the
11 285th Brigade" --
12 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, excuse me, but could you please
13 indicate where you are reading. It is a page full of sentences. If the
14 witness should follow what you are quoting, you should indicate which
15 line it is and if we have the right page in English, otherwise it's not
16 feasible.
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. I'm
18 reading from line 21, which reads -- I don't know if -- if you can see
19 it, but it says:
20 "On the decision of the commander of the 285th Brigade" --
21 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
22 Q. Can you see that, Witness?
23 A. No, I can't find it.
24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can you please indicate with the
25 cursor line 21, which starts with the words: "Commander, 285th
Page 2376
1 Brigade ..."
2 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I can see it.
3 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
4 Q. Yes, and if we look at the line above, at the end of that line
5 you will see the start of the sentence which goes as follows:
6 "On the order of the commander of the 285th Brigade, nine groups
7 were formed which performed these tasks. These groups engaged in combat
8 and destroyed around 60 Chetniks, and a group went into the village of
9 Visnjica and set alight several homes. On the return from the area of
10 Zepa of the sabotage platoons in the area of Srebrenica and further
11 afield, activities aimed at raising the combat-readiness were taken."
12 My question is as follows: This order given by the commander to
13 the Srebrenica units to engage in sabotage activities in the rear of the
14 VRS units and around Serbian villages, did it result in the death of some
15 60 individuals and did it have to do with the intelligence you may have
16 gathered about the activities of the VRS in and around enclaves? Thank
17 you.
18 A. Let me repeat what I've already said. This is the first time I
19 see this document. It looks like an interesting read, reads like a
20 novel, but I've never seen this document before, I've never heard of
21 these events before, and I think that asking me to give an opinion on
22 this is pointless.
23 Q. Thank you, Witness. If activities are carried out around the
24 enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa, is it not logical for the forces in Zepa
25 and Srebrenica to engage -- is it logical for them, that is, to engage in
Page 2377
1 sabotage activities outside of their enclaves rather than attempt and
2 protect the area within?
3 A. I really don't get your question. I don't see what it is that I
4 have to say. I wasn't specialised in this sort of operational activity,
5 I wasn't a commander, I don't see what it has to do with me.
6 Q. Well, Witness, it has to do with your activities. You furnished
7 your commander with intensifying activities of VRS in and around the
8 enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa. As a result, the commander issued an
9 order whereby combat-readiness was to be raised and sabotage
10 activities were to be undertaken, which in fact resulted in the death of
11 60 individuals in and around demilitarised zones.
12 JUDGE FLUEGGE: What is your question, Mr. Tolimir?
13 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
14 Q. My question is: Were these activities and the loss of life the
15 result of the intelligence they furnished to -- their commander with as a
16 result of which he issued this order? Thank you.
17 A. I must admit that your statement is true insofar it states that
18 we handed over the intelligence we had to the assistant commander for
19 intelligence, and he in turn gave them to the commander. Now, all the
20 rest, which orders followed and which activities followed, I don't know.
21 Q. I know, Witness, that you did not take part in these activities,
22 but you did take part in gathering intelligence about the activities of
23 VRS. And was it necessary to report on intensified activities of the VRS
24 in February when there were none and was this done, in fact, just to
25 engage in sabotage activities in the VRS-controlled areas?
Page 2378
1 A. I can never give a yes or no answer to questions that are this
2 complex. The answer may be yes and the answer may be no. I don't know.
3 Q. Witness, on the first day of the examination-in-chief, in answer
4 to Judge Mindua's question, you said that you knew nothing of the
5 air-lift. Do you recall that, yes or no?
6 A. I think I do.
7 Q. Was your answer that you didn't know anything about the air-lift?
8 A. I said that I had no idea, and I do still say that.
9 Q. Thank you. Did you see a document yesterday which had to do with
10 the air-lift, and it was not admitted into evidence, where the commander
11 of Zepa and Srebrenica said that even vagabonds were aware of the plan to
12 link up Zepa and Srebrenica with the AOR of the corps and that he wanted
13 to change the axis from Srebrenica to Zepa? Were you the only one then
14 who were not informed, unlike all the other ones in the enclave who knew
15 that such a plan was in the making? Thank you.
16 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
17 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. I object to the
18 question. It's argumentative, first of all; and secondly, it misstates
19 what the document actually said.
20 JUDGE FLUEGGE: In your line of questions, Mr. Tolimir, there's a
21 problem. There are many, many statements instead of questions.
22 Sometimes you ask a question at the end if that is right what you are
23 stating, but you should really ask questions to the witness. It is much
24 more helpful for your defence. Could you please rephrase your last
25 question to enable the witness to answer.
Page 2379
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. My
2 question for the witness is as follows: Did he give in answer to my
3 questions today the same answers that he gave to Judge Mindua's question
4 when he asked him about whether he knew about the air-lifts or not?
5 Thank you.
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: This question was already answered, that he stood
7 by that.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
9 Can we call up Prosecution 65 ter document 3. This is the
10 agreement on demilitarisation.
11 THE REGISTRAR: For the record, that's Exhibit D21.
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we turn to the next page,
13 please.
14 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
15 Q. Please look at Article 1, where it is stated:
16 "Demilitarised area will include the territory -- so the
17 demilitarised area will include the area within the current lines of
18 conflict. The precise boundaries will be marked by the UNPROFOR
19 commander on the ground after consultations."
20 This is my question: Witness, was the area within the lines of
21 conflict in Srebrenica demilitarised, based on the intelligence you
22 gathered? Thank you.
23 A. This is something that I've seen now for the first time and I
24 can't tell you whether Srebrenica was demilitarised or not. If I have to
25 give an answer, then it will be: I don't know.
Page 2380
1 Q. Thank you, Witness. My question was as follows: Did you have
2 this knowledge from the intercepts that your unit made?
3 A. I think that the question put a moment ago had to do with 1993,
4 and now we've skipped to 1995. I would kindly ask you, as a senior
5 officer, to stick to one period. It's been 17 years and it's very
6 difficult for me to remember all these things.
7 Q. Thank you, Mr. Witness. Please tell us, based on the
8 intelligence you gathered, both in 1993 and in 1995, was Srebrenica a
9 demilitarised zone or not? Thank you.
10 A. According to this agreement, it should have been, but our main
11 task was to collect intelligence information about the enemy, and the
12 enemy, in order for them to carry out normal activities and to keep their
13 units there, the enemy would say no. I wasn't in Srebrenica, so I can't
14 answer your question. I know that the Army of Republika Srpska was well
15 armed and that they held positions around Srebrenica. Now, as to what
16 the people inside the town had, I don't know about that.
17 Q. Thank you, Witness. Tell me, please, did you intercept
18 communications of your army at all, and did you in the intercepted
19 conversations of the officers of the VRS hear anything about the status
20 of the army, about combat groups, sabotages, infiltration of weapons in
21 Srebrenica in the enclave itself? Did you hear anything about it at all?
22 Thank you.
23 A. While I was in that unit, we never intercepted conversations of
24 the BH army for the simple reason that the BH army did not have radio
25 relay communications. It was mostly wire, fixed communications, and
Page 2381
1 package radio. Right now I would probably be best placed to answer your
2 questions if I took reports from 1995 and if I read them. So if I were
3 to read some reports from the period of time that you're referring to,
4 perhaps I could give some answer to your question; as it is, I cannot.
5 Q. Thank you. In order to avoid you reading documents now, would
6 you please tell us whether Srebrenica and Zepa were demilitarised, and
7 can a zone in which there's more than 6.000 armed soldiers be ever
8 considered to be a demilitarised zone?
9 A. I really cannot answer that question. If the zone was indeed
10 demilitarised, as is stipulated in the agreement, then there shouldn't be
11 any armed soldiers there and there shouldn't be any soldiers around the
12 demilitarised zone. But since I never visited Srebrenica, it's pointless
13 for me to continue answering this.
14 Q. Thank you for your answer. Would you please tell us what forces,
15 then, could have carried out this sabotage operation and killed 60 people
16 if these forces were not armed? Could this have been done by civilians?
17 Thank you.
18 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
19 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. I think the witness
20 has gone over this a couple of different ways and I think the witness has
21 already answered the question in about 50 different ways. What the
22 question now put to the witness calls for is just rank speculation, since
23 the witness has said he doesn't know anything specifically about these
24 events or the units that were involved in it, or how it was ordered or
25 planned or carried out, if at all. So I object to the question on that
Page 2382
1 basis, and I think it might be more appropriate to move to a different
2 area of examination.
3 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, I think that was a good advice by
4 Mr. Vanderpuye. Really, your last question was pure speculation.
5 Everybody could answer that in that way. He wants to do that but it is
6 not helpful to find out the truth what happened at that time really.
7 Please carry on and perhaps move to another topic.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
9 Could we now see 1D151 -- I apologise. Could we now see 1D151,
10 page 5, lines 6 and 7.
11 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, I'm told that this document is not
12 in e-court.
13 [Defence counsel confer]
14 THE ACCUSED: [Microphone not activated]
15 [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. Since the document is
16 not in e-court and I wanted to show it to the witness, can I nevertheless
17 put the question to him.
18 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
19 Q. And my question is: Do you know that General Delic, as the army
20 commander, informed the public, the general public, that there was a plan
21 to connect Zepa and Srebrenica with Tuzla and that that plan was in the
22 hands of the commanders of Zepa and Srebrenica and the commander of your
23 corps? Thank you.
24 A. I'm not aware of that.
25 Q. Thank you. Do you know that General Delic after the fall of Zepa
Page 2383
1 and Srebrenica spoke at a session of the Assembly of Bosnia and
2 Herzegovina
3 and Srebrenica with the 2nd Corps and that the commanders of Zepa and
4 Srebrenica had the plan in their hands. Are you aware of this, given
5 that this speech of his at the Assembly was carried in the media and
6 there were numerous comments and a lot of discontent was caused by the
7 statement of his? Thank you.
8 A. I personally didn't hear this statement of his. Now, whether I
9 know of how dissatisfied and bitter the people were, because a lot of
10 them had come into the area where we lived, then yes, I am aware of that.
11 I saw it with my own eyes and it had nothing to do with the army. These
12 people were embittered and it was normal because there were mothers who
13 came with children and there were wounded, elderly people there, and then
14 several thousand people were gone, were missing.
15 Q. Thank you, Witness. Did the intelligence service come up with an
16 intelligence game where they were showing to the command staff that Zepa
17 and Srebrenica were endangered while at the same time they were covering
18 Zepa and Srebrenica with an air-lift by using this intelligence
19 information as a pretext? We saw that in one of the documents that was
20 on the screen, where they were saying that they used the intelligence
21 information as a cover-up? Thank you.
22 A. I don't know about such games. But from a human point of view,
23 if so many people are put in such a confined area, then nothing good will
24 come out of it.
25 Q. Mr. Witness, was it to be expected that these people from Zepa
Page 2384
1 and Srebrenica tended to link up with Tuzla and conduct such offensive
2 operations that they, in fact, did eventually conduct? Thank you.
3 A. This was war time. Since both you and I studied the
4 Geneva Conventions and its provisions, the normal thing would have been
5 to release these people and there would have been nothing for you and me
6 to discuss today.
7 Q. Thank you. I'm satisfied with your answers. We will now turn to
8 another group of questions which pertain to your testimony in-chief where
9 you spoke about intercepting communications. And on page 2187, line 28
10 [as interpreted], and 2188, line 4 of the transcript of this case, you
11 said as follows, I'm quoting:
12 "If intercepted conversations were recorded and the tape
13 contained four hours of intercepts or more, than these tapes would be
14 taken to the corps command where the EDA would play them, re-record the
15 important intercepts, erase everything else, and send the tape back."
16 Do you remember saying this to the Prosecutor?
17 A. I think I do remember.
18 Q. Thank you. Tell me, please, while the tapes were carried to be
19 re-recorded, how long did it take to re-record them and do what you
20 describe here?
21 A. I would like to thank you because this is a topic that I'm
22 familiar with and I can actually give you some answers. Whenever the
23 shifts finished their work, they would take the full tapes containing
24 recordings and in exchange they would give empty tapes. And that would
25 be taken to the command of the 2nd Corps. The shifts lasted ten days.
Page 2385
1 They rotated every ten days. They would listen to these recordings,
2 re-evaluate them, and I'm telling you this based on what I know. I never
3 participated in this, but I know what they were saying, that they would
4 re-listen, re-record important conversations, and then erase. Sometimes
5 it would happen that they would forget to erase what wasn't needed and
6 then we would have to do that. So these shifts stayed at the command of
7 the 2nd Corps for ten days. The rotations were ten days long and this,
8 what I said, pertained to the tapes both from the south location and the
9 north location. And these teams would stay at the corps command for
10 ten days.
11 Q. Thank you. Did you have any situations where you had nothing to
12 record intercepts with because you had no tapes and you didn't have them
13 because the tapes would stay at the corps command for ten days?
14 A. I will be open enough and tell you that, yes, we had such
15 instances too. And then we would use our own judgement to erase some
16 intercepts to have sufficient space on tape to record new ones. The
17 proper way to do it would be to keep everything on tapes, and as I have
18 said yesterday, we used the experience of the JNA, where tapes would be
19 taken to the analysis department, they would keep what they needed, erase
20 everything else.
21 Q. Thank you. Were there any situations where intercepted
22 conversations would be just jotted down on paper and not recorded because
23 you had no space on tapes?
24 A. As far as I know, we had no such instances for the simple reason
25 that one can remember a maximum of two sentences perhaps and not more
Page 2386
1 than that.
2 Q. Thank you. When did you receive notebooks for your unit for the
3 first time? You spoke here on page 4521851, lines 19 to 28, you say:
4 "We did not have enough food, let alone notebooks. They did not
5 appear until 1995."
6 Did you receive, then, notebooks in 1995; and if so, in which
7 month? Thank you.
8 A. I've already stated this. Except for our own resourcefulness and
9 our own efforts to find notebooks wherever we could, we started receiving
10 notebooks from the logistics department of the corps command. We wrote
11 reports on various forms. The main problem up until period of time was
12 that we did not have an obligation to save these notebooks.
13 In order to keep better records, I and the people who worked with
14 me decided that every document, incoming and outgoing, had to be recorded
15 regardless on the type of the form and the size of the notebooks, whether
16 it was A4 or A5. We also had loose sheets of paper that we used. So the
17 improvement that we introduced was that we would record the exact time,
18 the exact frequency, and we would also record the existence of the
19 document. And this is something that had been done prior to this, except
20 that there was no duty to keep, to save, documents and records. Up until
21 that time, the only document that was important was the typed-up
22 document. Once a document was typed up and was assigned a number that
23 was put in the heading, then only that document was to be kept and
24 preserved. That was the only duty we had.
25 Q. Thank you, Witness. Could you tell us, was it standard practice
Page 2387
1 in the JNA that all the intercepts had to be destroyed as well as the
2 notebooks if anything was written down on them because at that time they
3 were not recognised as evidence in court? Thank you.
4 A. I believe that based on my experience I shouldn't even try to
5 answer that question. This had to do with state relations, and you very
6 well know how such relations are regulated.
7 And, Your Honour, I believe that this is no place or time to
8 answer a question like this.
9 Q. Thank you, Witness. You don't have to answer me, but answer the
10 Trial Chamber. Do you know whether in the former Yugoslavia a tape, a
11 reel-to-reel tape, could ever be used as an exhibit in trial proceedings
12 before a court? Thank you.
13 A. How could we judge another state and use materials in our own
14 state that under the then-international agreements and conventions were
15 not allowed?
16 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Witness, I doubt if your position is correct.
17 You were asked by the accused:
18 "Could you tell us, was it standard practice in the JNA that all
19 the intercepts had to be destroyed as well as notebooks if anything was
20 written down on them because at that time they were not recognised as
21 evidence in court?"
22 If you focus on the first part of this question, was that
23 standard practice? That has nothing to do with the relations between
24 states. You should answer that question. Was it standard practice in
25 the JNA that all the intercepts had to be destroyed as well as the
Page 2388
1 notebooks?
2 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Mr. President, there were clear
3 tasks for people at my level and clear instructions as to what types of
4 documents could be kept and which not. Some had to be kept permanently,
5 some, such as personnel files, were kept for a certain number of years.
6 But again, I would like to reiterate, this was peace time. There was no
7 war going on, so there was no need for this type of work. And that is
8 why I said that maybe this is not the place or the time for me to talk
9 about these things.
10 Maybe I misspoke, but in my own experience I never had occasion
11 to have something that I wrote down or a tape be -- is used in a court of
12 law. I know very well that in democratic countries, such as the
13 United States, for instance, without a court order you could not seize
14 anything or use it. However, during war time, the situation is
15 completely different. We -- I mean, to have a court order so as to be
16 able to defend oneself and intercept, that's a completely different
17 situation to the situation as it was before the war.
18 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Perhaps there was a misunderstanding. That was
19 not the question. The question was if it happened that if it was the
20 normal practice to destroy notebooks and tapes at the relevant time we're
21 talking about. Could you focus on that, please.
22 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I've already said it was standard
23 practice for certain documents to be kept for a certain period of time.
24 How long that period would be and what type of documents, I really don't
25 know, but I know that some documents had to be kept for two years, three,
Page 2389
1 five, ten years, and some of them were to be kept forever. But I was not
2 a person who had any responsibilities in that, so I really didn't know.
3 I just produced the documents.
4 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir.
5 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. I
6 wasn't -- it wasn't my intention to discuss political issues with the
7 witness. But let me ask the witness this:
8 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation].
9 Q. Was Mustafa Hajrulahovic, was he a person who would know or order
10 you --
11 THE INTERPRETER: The interpreter would request the accused to
12 repeat his question.
13 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Could you please repeat your question. The
14 interpreters didn't catch it.
15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.
16 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
17 Q. Witness, tell us, please, did General Mustafa Hajrulahovic, was
18 he informed about your practice of destroying notebooks and of the fact
19 that you had a shortage of the necessary equipment and materials for
20 taping intercepts? Thank you.
21 A. I don't know if the gentleman, who is now late, was informed or
22 not, but I know that when I arrived at the unit it was not standard
23 practice to keep those log-books. For a simple reason that you cannot
24 ask someone to keep something unless they actually issued that to you.
25 So all these different notebooks and log-books we brought with us when we
Page 2390
1 came there because there was no standard issue. I know that in peace
2 time it's done differently. You would go to the quartermasters and get
3 whatever you need, but at this time we had nothing. So the only thing
4 that we had to keep were the documents that had a stamp on them with the
5 number and date.
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, is that a convenient time to have
7 the first break?
8 THE ACCUSED: Okay.
9 [Trial Chamber confers]
10 JUDGE FLUEGGE: We must have the first break now on technical
11 reasons and resume at 11.00.
12 --- Recess taken at 10.34 a.m.
13 --- On resuming at 11.02 a.m.
14 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Judge Nyambe has a question for the witness and
15 then, Mr. Tolimir, you may continue.
16 Judge Nyambe.
17 JUDGE NYAMBE: Yes. At page 28, lines 12 to 17, of the
18 transcript you stated, among other things, that there was no duty to
19 keep, to save documents and records. Do you recall that?
20 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.
21 JUDGE NYAMBE: That being the case, what was the criteria that
22 was used to determine what to keep and what not to keep?
23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I've already said, when I arrived
24 at the unit which had operated in the way it had because these were not
25 professional soldiers, they had no equipment, no documents --
Page 2391
1 JUDGE FLUEGGE: There's no interpretation in the B/C/S, I think,
2 especially there's no direct connection to the Defence.
3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour, I can hear you,
4 but I was not receiving any interpretation. But it's just now that we do
5 have the interpretation.
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: We try to carry on.
7 Please carry on with your answer. I have interrupted you because
8 of the technical problems. Perhaps it is solved in the meantime.
9 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] As the Bosnian army --
10 JUDGE FLUEGGE: There's still -- wait a moment.
11 It should be okay now.
12 Excuse me, please repeat again.
13 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] One, two, three. One, two, three.
14 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Now please again repeat the -- your answer.
15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I've already said that the BH army
16 was composed of non-professionals, or rather, people, normal, regular
17 people. So when I arrived there, there was a need to bring some order to
18 all that. In my statement I said that these notebooks as well as some
19 others that were not marked were preserved by chance. That's how fate
20 would have it.
21 As for when I arrived in the unit, I felt the need to bring some
22 order in there because it was already the third year of the war. We
23 needed to get the maximum out of our people, and you will certainly know
24 that we had no idea what would happen in July - and I'm referring to the
25 period February -- January, February 1995. So that as for the keeping of
Page 2392
1 the documents, there arose the need to keep them for a certain period of
2 time.
3 And I can say that all the printed documents that had a heading
4 and stamp on it were handed over to the depots. And when the Tribunal
5 arrived, we did not really know what it was they were looking for and
6 what it was they needed. And then as we worked together and in
7 conversations, we learned or it was learned that these notebooks were
8 still in existence. They wanted to see them, and when they did they said
9 that was exactly what they needed. And that was how those notebooks
10 found their way here. And I'm not saying -- or rather, what I'm saying
11 is there are many notebooks from the previous, earlier, period but many
12 of them had been burnt. And when I arrived there, I insisted on reports
13 being made and these reports would have a heading and a stamp and a
14 number assigned to them.
15 JUDGE NYAMBE: Thank you.
16 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir.
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.
18 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
19 Q. Earlier, Witness, we left off with a question about the
20 procurement of these notebooks that Judge Nyambe was referring to. I
21 asked you how it was possible - and that's what I would like to ask you
22 now -- so how was it possible that you exchanged all kinds of different
23 materials for notebooks and that you did not receive notebooks, and that
24 your chief, your immediate superior and his superior, did not know that
25 you did not have -- that there was a shortage of these materials that you
Page 2393
1 needed? Thank you.
2 A. I truly don't know if my superior up the chain of command in
3 Sarajevo
4 they were the key to our work. Without magnetic tapes, we would not be
5 able to have recordings of intelligence. We wouldn't have been able to
6 preserve the substance of these intercepts.
7 I recall very well that in the summer we went through a period of
8 crisis because of the shortages. We particularly had a shortage of food,
9 and for a period of 15 days we would rely on the mushrooms that were
10 growing nearby and we had them for our meals. They are very nutritious.
11 And in this way we were able to set aside some resources to buy
12 notebooks. You will know, of course, that whatever could be spared was
13 sent to the front lines. Notebooks were the last thing that senior
14 officers and commanders would be concerned about.
15 Q. Thank you.
16 Did you know that -- don't you find it odd that you, being such
17 an important structure, had to get by on mushrooms and had to rely on
18 your own resourcefulness to obtain notebooks, whilst your government in
19 Sarajevo
20 of the importance of your unit? Thank you.
21 A. I really don't know how many millions the government in Sarajevo
22 had or how much it spent. What I do know is that we were toward the
23 lower end of the scale when it came to our importance, regardless of the
24 role that we played. Apparently other things were considered to be
25 important.
Page 2394
1 Q. Do you know if audio recordings of intercepts which were adduced
2 as evidence in this case had been preserved as well? Thank you.
3 A. I think that we discussed this yesterday when we talked about the
4 various reports and records. My opinion is - which I cannot confirm with
5 100 per cent certainty - is that some of these audio recordings can be
6 found in the central archives in Sarajevo.
7 Q. Thank you. Can you tell us why there isn't a single notebook to
8 be found here which does not have the labels on them that the Prosecution
9 showed here? Thank you.
10 JUDGE FLUEGGE: I would prefer to have first the question if the
11 witness is able to answer the -- to hear the answer to the question if
12 the witness is able to give the answer, and then you might raise
13 something.
14 Witness, could you answer the question?
15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I think that there should be such
16 notebooks. We saw yesterday in the documents that we had notebooks of
17 A5 size and A4 size, some of them with multi-colour covers. And I know
18 that such notebooks were handed over to the Prosecution. Now, why they
19 haven't found their way here is something I don't know.
20 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
21 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. The last part of the
22 witness's answer is the reason why I was objecting to the question, is
23 that he wouldn't know what's in evidence and not in evidence before the
24 Court. But I think it's clear on the record what the disposition of
25 those notebooks are. Thanks.
Page 2395
1 JUDGE FLUEGGE: And I think the Chamber's of the view that this
2 witness is able to deal with the different kinds of questions.
3 Mr. Tolimir, please carry on.
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. I put my
5 question because in the course of the examination-in-chief --
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Please carry on with your questioning. It's not
7 necessary to explain anything.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] -- what was shown and --
9 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Please just carry on with your questioning.
10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
11 Can we call up 1D128, page 47, paragraph 3. 1D128. Can we have
12 a look at paragraph 3 on the right-hand side, and I will read it for the
13 witness. It's in English.
14 Again, it's the book that we showed the witness yesterday. I'm
15 quoting the words of the author of the book.
16 "The many intercepts that were later published and disclosed at
17 the trial of General Krstic give the impression that the VRS troop
18 movements were efficiently followed by the Muslims in real time. There
19 were dozens of intercepts which showed that the ABiH interception
20 stations at the" northern and southern locations "closely followed the
21 VRS conversations about the column heading for Tuzla. However, at
22 Krstic's trial no attention was paid to whether this intelligence was
23 shared with UNPROFOR. This would, after all, have been a logical step,
24 given that the Bosnian Muslims dearly wanted to get UNPROFOR or NATO on
25 their side in the fight against the VRS."
Page 2396
1 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
2 Q. I have read out a portion of the analysis on Srebrenica and Zepa
3 conducted by the Dutch institute. This is my question: You were
4 involved in the hand-over of documentation to the Prosecution, as we were
5 able to see yesterday. Were you ever in the course of the war involved
6 in the hand-over of intercepts to UNPROFOR or NATO or was anyone from
7 your service involved in it?
8 A. Never, either during the war or after the war did I hand over
9 anything to UNPROFOR or NATO. Now, did anyone from the command do this
10 and on what basis is something I can't tell. I don't know.
11 Q. Thank you. Would it be logical to divert the attention of NATO,
12 having been sought to strike upon the VRS forces, since as you indicated
13 yesterday, as we were able to see yesterday, the intelligence in the
14 gathering of which you were involved happened -- was gathered in real
15 time? Thank you.
16 A. I will state again, because it's the case and that was the
17 situation, the intelligence was gathered in real time. We were the
18 producers of intelligence. Now, the path from there on to the corps
19 command, who was involved in this process, is something I really don't
20 know.
21 Q. Thank you. On the first day we were able to see only a list of
22 documents or notebooks handed over to the Prosecution. This is my
23 question: Does there exist a list of documents containing the intercepts
24 that you delivered to your superiors in the course of the war?
25 A. I will repeat what I said. The process of recording outgoing
Page 2397
1 telegrams takes place in such a way that there would be a log-book of
2 incoming and outgoing telegrams where it would be noted. Now, the
3 communications centre which received telegrams would also have a log-book
4 of incoming and outgoing telegrams because what I was referring to was
5 the intelligence network. I don't know what happened of these log-books,
6 but I believe that all of them were handed over to Sarajevo in 1996.
7 Q. Witness, I think you understand why I put this question. If you
8 have a list of documents that you handed over to the Prosecution, do you,
9 by the same token, have a list of documents as they were sent to the end
10 users in the corps and in the army? Would you have such a log-book with
11 such entries kept in the central archives in Sarajevo? Thank you.
12 A. I understood your question fully. What I'm saying is related to
13 the time-period of which I have knowledge. We had a log-book of outgoing
14 telegrams, a log-book of incoming telegrams, and you would have the
15 code-name of a given telegram, the exact time, and every midnight
16 stations would compare the number of telegrams sent out and received and
17 match them. Now, what happened with those log-books, I'm not claiming
18 that all of them were handed over to Sarajevo
19 where are they today, do they still exist or not, I don't know.
20 Q. Thank you, Witness. Can you tell us the following: When was the
21 first time that the intelligence contained in the intercepts you
22 commented on in this trial and in the Krstic trial was made available to
23 your government or to your army in general?
24 A. Now, I'm not sure whether it was first the representatives of the
25 ICTY or the NIOD that came first, and whatever we did, we did on the
Page 2398
1 orders of the command concerned. They took statements, and then
2 afterwards, ICTY representatives came up. They were asking for
3 information concerning the name you mentioned in your question. In those
4 early days, the information sought directly concerned the gentleman named
5 above. At first individual reports were provided, and at a later stage
6 everything that could be found in the archive of the 2nd Corps or the
7 intelligence department of the 2nd Corps at that point in time was taken.
8 As for the rest, I can't talk about it. Was this something that
9 I was specifically told? I don't know. I didn't hear anything.
10 Q. Thank you, Witness. Is my understanding of what you said
11 correct? For the first -- the first time that these intercepts became a
12 matter of interest was when the representatives of the Dutch institute
13 showed up, the NIOD, and representatives of the ICTY, and that was in the
14 matter of General Krstic?
15 A. Let's clarify this. NIOD representatives were not specifically
16 interested in either the general - and I'm referring to General
17 Krstic - or in intercepts. If I remember correctly, they wanted to get a
18 view of the situation from the participants in the war. My superior
19 wanted me to say something from the perspective of the interception of
20 certain communications. And as for the others, I don't know. I know of
21 my superior. I think there was the corps commander as well. I am not
22 familiar with these other names mentioned here. NIOD representatives
23 left after talking to me. I don't know if they said anything to my
24 superior. They didn't tell me anything other than asked me to give them
25 precise answers to their questions. They were never specifically asking
Page 2399
1 for information concerning General Krstic. They never even mentioned
2 him. As far as I know, the first time that ICTY representatives -- it
3 was only when the ICTY representatives came that they were interested in
4 General Krstic.
5 Q. Thank you. And a moment ago you said that your boss approved
6 your conversation with representatives of the NIOD and the ICTY. Could
7 you tell us what year this was, was this your boss during the war time or
8 your boss later on when this was happening? Thank you.
9 A. What I can tell you is this: We gave a statement. I may be
10 mistaken in the date or the year, but I believe it was 1998. But please
11 don't take my word for it. My boss was the one who handed over the
12 documents. And as for 1995, who my boss was then, I can't really recall
13 because they changed all the time, almost every six months or every year
14 there would be a new person.
15 Q. So we have now established that these were your bosses from 1998,
16 so we cannot confuse that with 1995. So this was in 1998. Have I
17 understood you correctly, that boss? Thank you.
18 A. I'm glad, sir, that you got it, but in 1998, or rather, in 1997
19 and 1998 there were two different departments within the corps, security
20 and intelligence. And there were assistant commanders for security and
21 the other one was also an assistant commander and an assistant commander
22 for intelligence. In 1998 I returned to the corps command, and these two
23 departments were now combined into one G2 according to NATO standards and
24 a certain number of individuals then were to be in that one department.
25 And one of them who signed the notes, he became the boss of G2, the head
Page 2400
1 of G2.
2 Q. Thank you, sir. Could you tell us, please, whether up until 1998
3 any after your superiors, either at the intelligence department or within
4 the command chain, did anyone ask any information from you regarding the
5 contents of the intercepts?
6 A. Are you referring to any specific time-frame or are you talking
7 about the ongoing developments?
8 Q. Well, I was really referring to the period from since the war
9 ended up until 1998. Did anyone ask you to provide information about the
10 contents of those intercepts?
11 A. No, I wasn't asked by anyone for such information, but let me
12 clarify this. The intercepts or the surveillance continued.
13 Q. Thank you. I know that. I was just asking about the documents
14 that we are discussing now. Witness, tell us, please, did any of your
15 superiors ever at the army level have contacts with foreign
16 representatives, either UNPROFOR or NATO or a NATO member country? Did
17 any of your superiors ever forward to them intelligence data that your
18 service collected during the war?
19 A. I really wouldn't know whether anyone sent information, but as
20 far as I recall, within the corps command there was a department that
21 liaised with UNPROFOR. That's all I knew.
22 Q. Thank you. Was this liaison department with UNPROFOR, did they
23 have access to your information and did anyone else have access to
24 your -- to the information or intelligence that you had? Because you
25 said it was handed -- up until when it was handed over to Sarajevo
Page 2401
1 A. I don't know if anyone had access. I'm just saying that all the
2 material from -- all these materials were archived in early 1996 and our
3 work continued.
4 Q. Thank you. At the time when he was the chief of the security
5 department, could you tell me -- and I'm referring to Hajrulahovic and
6 after him, in other words, during the period of his successor, was any of
7 your intelligence data used by any of the international factors, the
8 UNPROFOR, NATO, or any NATO member states and so on, any of those who
9 were in charge of monitoring the situation in the former Yugoslavia?
10 Thank you.
11 A. I really don't know what information was used in the
12 negotiations, but as for the general you mentioned, I only know that he
13 passed away. I never had any personal contacts with him. All I know is
14 that he held this post during the -- in the early years of the war.
15 Q. Thank you. Now I would like to read out the next sentence in
16 this paragraph, the words of Rupert Smith, and I mean Rupert Smith who is
17 the commander of UNPROFOR during the events that we are discussing here
18 and which are the subject matter of these proceedings. He says the
19 following:
20 "Smith's door was always open to the head of the Bosnian
21 intelligence service, General Mustafa Hajrulahovic but he never dropped
22 by. On the other hand, the ABiH army had excellent intelligence contacts
23 with the Americans."
24 That's in the last paragraph. You can see and recognise the
25 words. You can recognise the name, Smith, and -- thank you.
Page 2402
1 Does this mean that representatives of the UN who are supposed to
2 report to the Security Council about -- on the situation in the field
3 never forwarded to your service any information that you're aware of?
4 A. I really had no dealings and nothing to do with the things that
5 are described here in this book, and I believe that you are just
6 confusing the levels. I was never at this level. I didn't know any of
7 these people. I wasn't even in Sarajevo
8 Q. Thank you. As an intelligence officer, do you know whether your
9 superiors from the intelligence department shared their intelligence with
10 the American intelligence services? Do you know anything about that?
11 Thank you.
12 A. No one ever told me nor did I know anything about what they
13 shared and with whom. If that did happen, this would have had to be done
14 at a higher level. At my level, these things did not happen.
15 Q. Thank you.
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we see 1D128, please, page 18.
17 This is the e-court number.
18 JUDGE FLUEGGE: It is on the screen.
19 THE ACCUSED: [Microphone not activated]
20 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
21 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Your microphone, please.
22 [Defence counsel confer]
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] "Dissemination of intercepted
24 signals is always accompanied by great secrecy. The exchange of comment
25 in particular is very limited. Only a small circle of the highest
Page 2403
1 political and military policy makers are given access to this. This
2 secrecy is also important when it comes to sharing intelligence between
3 the United States and its allies. The British foreign secretary,
4 Malcolm Rifkind is reported to have resisted the release of intercepts
5 made by the GC headquarters which the NSA wanted to hand over to the
6 Yugoslavia Tribunal in support of the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic.
7 At the end of 1996, the Clinton
8 intercepts for this purpose, but once again the British government
9 blocked the process."
10 [Microphone not activated].
11 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
12 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
13 Q. From this quotation we can see what we already know, that such
14 communications are held as very -- or confidential, in the highest
15 secrecy. Now, can you tell me who else had access other than you and the
16 people who actually processed them? Could you tell us who other than you
17 had access to them? Thank you.
18 A. I can only tell you that access to raw intelligence was allowed
19 to people who actually analysed them, the command, the superior command,
20 and then they sent it to their superior command in Sarajevo. Now, who
21 the people were who had access to them, I don't know.
22 (redacted)
23 you ever prohibited in 1994 and 1995 from meeting certain individuals or
24 to travel abroad? Did anyone ever impose such restrictions on you?
25 Thank you.
Page 2404
1 A. As I've already said, during the war I didn't travel anywhere --
2 abroad nor any of my men, that's one. Two, there were restrictions and
3 there was a ban even after the war on these activities. We could not do
4 this without the approval of the competent command. And as for these
5 other things, I really don't know what to answer.
6 Q. Very well. Thank you.
7 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
8 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. I would just ask for
9 a redaction in the transcript at page 45, line 6.
10 JUDGE FLUEGGE: That will be done. Thank you.
11 Please carry on.
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
13 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
14 Q. Witness, when was it first that you heard -- what year did you
15 hear for the first time that documents have to be handed over to the
16 ICTY, the OTP, the Office of the Prosecutor, and when was -- when did
17 your superiors ask of you to do this for the first time?
18 A. As far as I can recall, this happened for the first time in the
19 spring of 1998. That's approximately the same time, the time of the
20 first reports. In other words, it could have been a few weeks or days
21 earlier or later, but in any case in spring of 1998.
22 Q. Thank you, Witness. Tell us, please, at your level and in your
23 department, did you know that other services, too, were engaged in
24 collecting intelligence and they -- and that they, too, could document
25 the same events that you did? Thank you.
Page 2405
1 A. I don't know which other services you are specifically referring
2 to, but in -- when the -- when in 1998 the security and intelligence
3 departments were merged, of course there was intelligence from the
4 security department. For instance, the reports or notes that I discussed
5 yesterday where I said that I hadn't seen them before. So these were the
6 types of documents, and also I know about these other two individuals who
7 worked with us together at the location, at the facilities, where we
8 monitored the work. As for the others, I don't know anything about them.
9 Q. Thank you. So for the most part, all those materials, including
10 the intercepts that are under discussion here, had to go through your
11 hands, through the department and your men, they all had to be registered
12 in your department, yes or no, please?
13 A. I know that these were materials that we had handed over. As for
14 whether there were other documents collected from elsewhere, you should
15 ask those different departments or individuals.
16 Q. Thank you. Now, this is what you know or knew about your army.
17 And now I would like to ask you about other armies. Do you know that
18 other armies too could intercept and tape conversations and information
19 in the areas referred to here in these intercepts used as evidence before
20 this Trial Chamber?
21 A. Believe me, I don't know. I know that there were some
22 departments in the Army of Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav Army. As
23 for the others, I really don't know anything about them.
24 Q. Thank you. Did the Republika Srpska army, was it capable and was
25 it able to intercept and monitor conversations in the same manner that
Page 2406
1 you were? Thank you.
2 A. To be honest, I think that they did have the capabilities, but
3 I've already said here that our system of packet communications and
4 cryptographic encoding were done and I don't know how it was done in the
5 Republika Srpska army. And at this point in time I don't know how they
6 operate because the technologies have changed and now most of the work is
7 done through analogue systems and digital -- actually, there was a
8 transition from the analogue to the digital system, and how it's being
9 done now I really don't know.
10 Q. Thank you. Do you know whether foreign services other than the
11 services of the former Yugoslav republics, for instance, NATO states such
12 as the United States, Britain
13 monitored all communications in the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina
14 the war?
15 A. I really don't know whether they had all of this under their
16 control, as you're saying. But I know that they did control us in the
17 physical sense. They controlled personnel, ammunition, units,
18 facilities, and so on. It was their permanent task.
19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we see 1D128, page 13, in
20 e-court. 230 and 231 are the page numbers of the book. And this is a
21 book by the Dutch institute and it's about Srebrenica.
22 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
23 Q. But let me ask you first: Do you know that the United States had
24 a so-called mercury satellite which was capable of intercepting even
25 radio communications on talkie-walkies and similar equipment?
Page 2407
1 A. I'm not aware of the existence of that satellite. I don't know
2 what it was used for. Now, whether they used their satellites in the
3 territory of Bosnia
4 Q. Thank you. Do you know that the CIA director John Deutch came to
5 Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996
6 when he was the CIA
7 had been satellites for intercepting communications?
8 A. I truly regret, but I neither know John Deutch nor do I know that
9 in 1996 he came for a visit and what he said on that occasion. I don't
10 know anything about that.
11 Q. This is on the left side, first paragraph, second sentence -- I
12 apologise, on the right side. This is the right side. It doesn't say
13 here that he came to visit Republika Srpska, but the other things I said
14 about his visit you can find that in this document.
15 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
16 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. I know we've gone
17 around on this topic for quite some time, but I don't see what the
18 relevance is of the questions that Mr. Tolimir's putting to the witness.
19 I don't see what the relevance is of this witness's knowledge of the
20 capacity of other entities to intercept -- I don't see what that has to
21 do with either the accuracy, reliability, or the ability of the ABiH army
22 to intercept VRS communications. And so either I would ask Mr. Tolimir
23 to either clarify the basis of it, otherwise I just don't see how this is
24 relevant to the testimony of this witness.
25 JUDGE FLUEGGE: I think the Chamber would appreciate if you could
Page 2408
1 focus on that part of the evidence of the witness he can really testify
2 about. Please carry on.
3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. We have
4 an intelligence officer testifying here who also acted as an advisor to
5 the OTP on the same topic that we are discussing here. This is why I've
6 been putting these questions to him here. And I even asked him whether
7 he would act as their advisor in my case as well. This is why I'm
8 putting these questions to him. I think that as an officer he should be
9 able to answer this, and I always lay the foundation for my questions.
10 JUDGE FLUEGGE: And you realise what the witness was able to
11 answer. Please carry on but focus on his knowledge.
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.
13 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
14 Q. Mr. Witness, do you know that the drones and also various
15 aircraft, manned and unmanned, was used to intercept communications in
16 the conflict that we are dealing with in this Tribunal, yes or no?
17 A. No.
18 Q. Thank you. Do you know that the NATO centre for air operations
19 with its headquarter in Vicenza
20 operations over Bosnia
21 Do you know about that?
22 A. No.
23 Q. [Microphone not activated]
24 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for the accused, please.
25 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
Page 2409
1 Q. Thank you. The majority of the notebooks whose cover we saw here
2 in your evidence in-chief, was it manufactured in Italy?
3 A. I'm not aware of that and this is the first time that I hear such
4 a question. I never paid attention to where the notebooks were from. It
5 was important for us to simply have notebooks. We didn't care where they
6 had been manufactured.
7 Q. And can you tell us where you obtained these notebooks? The OTP
8 showed us on the screen a number of these notebooks containing intercept
9 records, and almost all of these notebooks, up to the number of 48, were
10 all manufactured in Italy
11 JUDGE FLUEGGE: What is the question, Mr. Tolimir? You've got
12 the answer already.
13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] This witness said that he heard it
14 for the first time so I simply reminded him, and my question comes now.
15 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Put -- please put questions to the witness.
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we see 1D136, please. Thank
17 you.
18 [Microphone not activated].
19 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
20 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
21 Q. Tell me, please, what we see on our screens, is it notebook 84?
22 It says "84" over this picture.
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Thank you. Is this notebook from the collection of notebooks
25 containing intercepts made by your unit?
Page 2410
1 A. I think so.
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we now see page 2 of this
3 notebook. And the witness can now tell us whether this document comes
4 from his unit.
5 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
6 Q. Can you conclude based on this that this document comes from the
7 facility mentioned here as the facility north in this case?
8 A. Yes. That's what it looks like, like a notebook from the
9 northern facility.
10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we now see page 1 of this
11 document, 1D136. Thank you.
12 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation].
13 Q. You intercepted communications in 1995. How do you then explain
14 that in the upper corner it says in Italian: "ID." And then it says
15 "Italian university." And the date is the 1st of January, 2001. Thank
16 you.
17 A. I really don't know and I don't know what this stands for,
18 "1 GEN
19 I have no explanation.
20 Q. Well, if it is from 1995, how come it says here on this notebook
21 "1st generation 2001"?
22 A. I can't explain what is written here, but how do you think that I
23 could have handed over this notebook to the OTP representatives in 1998
24 with this date, 2001, written on it?
25 Q. Thank you. Everything is odd concerning this, but one could ask
Page 2411
1 whether this notebook was created in 1995 or perhaps in a later period of
2 time.
3 A. I'm testifying under oath here and I'm certain that all notebooks
4 that we handed over to the OTP representatives come from 1995 or earlier
5 period of time. They were created when the intercepts were recorded in
6 the southern and northern facility in time up to 1995, and how this
7 writing came to be on the notebook I have no idea. It could have been
8 done later.
9 Q. Thank you.
10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Now could we ask the Trial Chamber
11 to request the OTP to produce the original notebook so that all of us
12 here can see that we didn't put this stamp on the notebook. Thank you.
13 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
14 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. It's no problem. I
15 believe we can have the notebook available for Mr. Tolimir to inspect if
16 he'd like. Again, I believe Mr. Gajic has had an opportunity to view it
17 as well. But I would object to the line of questioning all together, and
18 the reason for that is, I would ask Mr. Tolimir, rather, to proffer a
19 good-faith basis for putting a question to the witness that the book was
20 manufactured in 2001, because as you can see from the exhibit before you,
21 there is nothing put fictitious writing on the cover of this book.
22 It's -- there's a photograph there of a chipmunk with a University of
23 Italia T-shirt on. It purports to be an identity card of this chipmunk.
24 It's signed by the mayor in Sindaco, it says, of Popotiucci, which are
25 completely fictitious characters' names and numbers on this book. So --
Page 2412
1 and it says the signature of the chipmunk on the identity card as
2 "Popotia," it says.
3 So I would ask Mr. Tolimir to put or to come forward with a
4 good-faith basis for the line of questioning to suggest that this book
5 was manufactured at a time other than what the witness says. Otherwise I
6 don't think it's a relevant line of questioning. But of course, as I
7 said, I'll be happy to make this book available to the Trial Chamber and
8 to anybody else who would like to see it.
9 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye, this problem could have been
10 raised in re-examination, but I would like to clarify to shorten this
11 kind of question, I would like to ask the witness:
12 Can you tell me which parts of this cover page of this notebook
13 were produced by you or members of your unit? What you can see here on
14 the screen, is there anything or what was written down or in other way
15 produced on this page by you or members of your unit?
16 Do we have a problem with the transcript? Thank you. I was told
17 we have a problem with record on LiveNote, but it is covered fully.
18 Thank you.
19 Do you remember my question? Could you explain that.
20 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] This is how it was. Underneath
21 "Carta Di Identita Dei Popoti," it says "Number 14, log-book of notes 4,"
22 and then the designation of the piece of equipment, 100 plus 450B, that's
23 what the members of our unit wrote. And then over the picture you can
24 see number 84, if I'm not mistaken. We wrote that number together with
25 the OTP representatives in 1998, and you can probably find this notebook
Page 2413
1 under number 84 in the record which was made when the documents were
2 handed over. I'm not 100 per cent sure, but I'm pretty confident that
3 this notebook would be found under number 84 in the hand-over record.
4 That's all that we wrote. As for the rest of the text, I don't know
5 about it. I'm actually convinced now that this notebook can be found
6 under number 84 in the record made in 1998.
7 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Thank you very much.
8 Mr. Tolimir, please carry on. We have now the explanation you
9 wanted to have. Please carry on -- one question by Judge Nyambe. Sorry.
10 JUDGE NYAMBE: Just a clarification from the witness. Looking at
11 the document on the screen, there is a number "1 GEN 2001." You can see
12 that?
13 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, I can.
14 JUDGE NYAMBE: Here is the question: At the time you used -- at
15 the time this notebook was used by you or somebody in your department,
16 was that number on the notebook?
17 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I can't make any
18 statements in relation to the part of the text which says "1 GEN 2001,"
19 but I can definitely tell you that the number that we have there, which
20 is 00789467, was not written there before 1998. And I'm also sure that
21 this large number written in a marker was not written before either. And
22 I'm sure that this document can be found among the 135 documents that we
23 handed over. That part I'm sure of.
24 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, please carry on.
25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. I owe
Page 2414
1 you an explanation for my request to show -- to have this shown again.
2 The witness said that this particular stamp, "1 GEN 2001," may have been
3 placed there subsequently. And I said that this document was constantly
4 within the chain of custody of the Prosecution. And I'm reiterating my
5 request for the original notebook to be shown to the witness. The
6 Defence could not have had any part in this because we were never given
7 the original documentation which is in the possession of the Prosecution,
8 and we would like to tender this into evidence, if you agree.
9 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
10 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. As I said, I will
11 make that notebook available for Mr. Tolimir to look at and inspect. I
12 believe that his legal advisor has already done so. The date that's
13 indicated on the document, 1st January 2001
14 document, purports to be the date that the chipmunk signed it. That's
15 how fictitious the cover of this document is. That's the reason why I've
16 asked for Mr. Tolimir to present a good-faith basis for making -- or to
17 putting the question to the witness suggesting that the book was
18 manufactured at a date other than what the witness has said. And he's
19 repeatedly said that it can be found in the log, look on the second page
20 of this notebook, as Mr. Tolimir has done, you will see a number
21 reflected in the log-book that the witness has also just identified.
22 So --
23 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye, it would be helpful to shorten
24 the whole question of the originality of this book to have it available
25 after the next break, and I would like to ask Mr. Tolimir to move to
Page 2415
1 another topic and to leave this behind until we will have the original in
2 the courtroom. Please carry on but not again with this document, please.
3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
4 Please let me know if you will receive this notebook into
5 evidence. Secondly, a doubt was expressed here as to whether the Defence
6 might have had a hand in this and added this or not, and that's why we
7 would like to see the original notebook and we would like the witness to
8 see the notebook, and then we will decide what to do on this score in the
9 future.
10 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, please listen to what I have said.
11 The notebook will be available in the courtroom. Please move to another
12 topic. We can deal with that later. And nobody said that there is a
13 doubt that perhaps the Defence has put something on this book; nobody
14 said that. I haven't heard it. Please carry on with another topic. We
15 come back to this document later.
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.
17 Can we now call up again that book and page 231. That's 1D128.
18 That's page 13 in e-court. Can we have page 17 in e-court, i.e.,
19 page 239 of the book, the headline: "Other European countries."
20 Thank you.
21 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
22 Q. I will quote this. It has to do with Srebrenica and Zepa. I
23 quote:
24 "Besides the United Kingdom, Germany, and France
25 countries also conducted Sigint operations in the former Yugoslavia
Page 2416
1 date, almost nothing has been known about this. One known fact is that
2 Italian monitoring stations were active during the war in Bosnia. To
3 give one example -- to give one example, some time before the attack on
4 the enclave the Italian monitoring service, via a monitoring station in
5 Italy
6 Srebrenica and President Izetbegovic. In this call the mayor requested
7 permission to evacuate the population, but this was refused by
8 Izetbegovic."
9 And then moving on to the last line. It is also stated that the
10 Italians had ten parabolic antennas to listen in to communications
11 traffic in the Balkans, the Middle East, et cetera.
12 This is my question: A moment ago we were able to see that NATO
13 had a unit in Vicenza
14 interception activities took place in Italy, hence my question. You, as
15 an intelligence officer, did you have any knowledge of the presence of
16 the intelligence services of Italy
17 communications in Zepa and Srebrenica? Thank you.
18 A. I had no idea of the presence of any Italian services or centres
19 intercepting conversations.
20 Q. Thank you. Did you know that the mayor of Srebrenica, as it is
21 stated here, tried to get in touch with President Izetbegovic in order to
22 request permission for evacuation? Was this something your service was
23 acquainted with?
24 A. No, we didn't have information to that effect.
25 Q. Thank you.
Page 2417
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we have page 22 in e-court now,
2 and that's page 251 of the book on Srebrenica.
3 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Sorry for interrupting you. We have a big
4 problem with the transcript in LiveNote, and I was told the engineers
5 are -- have to start the whole system again to resolve this problem. And
6 therefore it is suggested that we have the second break now, and in the
7 meantime this problem can be solved so that we have appropriate -- we
8 have the record of everything is clear, but that we have both screens
9 working sufficiently.
10 We must have the second break now and we will resume ten minutes
11 to 1.00.
12 --- Recess taken at 12.21 p.m.
13 --- On resuming at 12.56 p.m.
14 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, if I'm not mistaken, you have -- we
15 have not the transcript on -- the LiveNote transcript on our screen yet,
16 but somebody will solve this problem.
17 Mr. Tolimir, you have used more than four hours now and we should
18 try to finish this witness today because our next hearing is Tuesday,
19 next week, and the Prosecution must have the chance to re-examine the
20 witness. Therefore, please carry on and try not to waste time.
21 Mr. Tolimir.
22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.
23 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
24 Q. Witness, I was about to ask you another question on this book,
25 but I'm afraid we won't have time anymore to deal with this book which
Page 2418
1 addressed in great detail the issue of interception in Bosnia and
2 Herzegovina
3 will and everybody else.
4 Can you tell us when did you obtain these multi-coloured
5 notebooks that we can see on our screens now?
6 A. The only thing I can tell you is that we obtained notebooks in
7 different periods of time, different batches. At one point we also
8 received a shipment from the corps command. But I think that this sort
9 of notebooks appeared in early 1995.
10 Q. [Microphone not activated]
11 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
12 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
13 Q. Can I conclude, based on your answer, that these notebooks were
14 used also during the period when the intercepts we were discussing were
15 taken? Thank you.
16 A. I can speak about the period of early 1995 because I was there
17 myself. I can't tell you and I don't want to make any statements in
18 relation to the preceding period. We had small shipments, I think,
19 previously, whereas in 1995 there were more of such notebooks to be found
20 on the market and everywhere else. So that's how we obtained them.
21 Q. Can you tell the Trial Chamber if there existed a different sort
22 of notebooks which contained the intercepts recorded in manuscript which
23 includes also the period between 10th and the 17th, which was the period
24 we were referring to?
25 A. I think that there were other sorts of notebooks as well. You
Page 2419
1 could see that we had A5-size notebooks and A4-size notebooks.
2 Q. I know that there are other sorts of notebooks, but I'm asking
3 you: Were intercepts transcribed manually in any other sorts of
4 notebooks than the ones we were able to see and which covered the period
5 of the 10th and the 17th July 1995? Thank you.
6 A. As I said, most of the notebooks used in 1993 [as interpreted]
7 looked like this. Now, whether there were other notebooks that we
8 received from division platoons, I don't know what sort of notebooks
9 division platoons monitoring communications used. What I do know is that
10 most of the notebooks used for this purpose in 1995 were of this sort.
11 Q. Thank you. Can we find an intercept noted in a notebook which
12 would not have been of the format that we were able to see a moment ago
13 on our screens?
14 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
15 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. I would just note
16 that in the record at page 60, line 10, it refers to notebooks being used
17 in 1993. I think that's a transcription error, but I just wanted to
18 clarify it for the record so that we're clear going forward.
19 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Witness, could you please clarify. Were you
20 referring to 1995 or 1993 in your last answer? It is written --
21 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] As far as I remember, I said --
22 sorry. I said that in 1995 most of the notebooks used were of this
23 format. And I'm speaking of the period when I joined the unit, which
24 doesn't mean to say that these sort of notebooks had not been used
25 previously as well.
Page 2420
1 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
2 Q. Thank you. Tell me, is there an intercept relating to the
3 critical period between 10th and the 17th which is related to these
4 events and originates from intercepted communications of the VRS and
5 which has not been recorded in one of these notebooks? Thank you.
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Sorry, Mr. Tolimir, we had again problems with
7 the LiveNote, but now you may continue.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. My
9 question for the witness was as follows.
10 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
11 Q. Is there a notebook where intercepts were transcribed between the
12 period of the 10th and the 17th of July, 1995, other than the notebooks
13 manufactured in Italy
14 A. If you're referring to the communications intercepted by my unit,
15 I don't think that there are any other notebooks for the mentioned
16 period.
17 Q. Thank you. How do you account for the fact that only in these
18 notebooks were the communications intercepted at all three locations and
19 which are now the subject of this trial?
20 A. I think that this is quite a simple issue here. I think that
21 this was the only stationery available to us, and I think the same goes
22 for the 21st Division, the 25th Division, perhaps the 22nd as well. Ever
23 since my arrival in the unit, in late winter or early spring, this was
24 the sort of notebooks that we received and used.
25 Q. I'm not interested in what the other units had. Please focus on
Page 2421
1 my question. My question was: Were there any other handwritten records
2 of intercepts made in notebooks other than these, the ones that we
3 discussed? And I'm referring to the intercepts captured by your unit.
4 Thank you.
5 A. I don't think that there should be.
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir --
7 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
8 Q. Thank you. You said that you didn't think that there should
9 be --
10 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, I think you have now the original
11 notebook in your hands. The Chamber would appreciate to have the
12 possibility to look at that as well and could the -- Mr. Vanderpuye
13 perhaps indicate if there is any confidential material because it was
14 shown on the screen now.
15 MR. VANDERPUYE: On the cover of the notebook, I don't believe
16 there is, no. On the inside there is. Mr. Tolimir doesn't have the copy
17 with him because I offered it earlier and they indicated that they didn't
18 want it. But I have it and if the Trial Chamber would like to see it,
19 it's certainly here. I can certainly make it available to you and I
20 would like to make it available to you. And I don't know if Mr. Tolimir
21 would like to see it now at this point, but it's right here on my desk.
22 JUDGE FLUEGGE: We would like to see it because we dealt with
23 that quite a long time and to clarify this topic. We would like to
24 receive it.
25 Court Officer, could you -- the Court Officer, could you bring
Page 2422
1 it, please. Thank you.
2 Carry on, please.
3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
4 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
5 Q. Witness, you said a moment ago that there were no other
6 intercepts relating to the period between the 10th and the 17th which
7 would have been recorded in any other notebooks. So my question is this:
8 In the notebooks of this size, which were manufactured in Italy
9 there any intercepts recorded which did not relate to the period between
10 the 10th and the 17th?
11 A. Yes, there are many such intercepts.
12 Q. And do these intercepts relate to the earlier or the later
13 period?
14 A. Both.
15 Q. Thank you. How much earlier were such notebooks used -- so how
16 much in advance of the intercepts you started to make and which already
17 related to the operations in Srebrenica and Zepa?
18 A. Well, we can set the date from which we started using them at my
19 arrival there, which was late February/early March. And up until
20 November, I think you can find various intercepts recorded in such
21 notebooks which had nothing to do with the relevant period.
22 Q. Fine. If these notebooks contain handwritten records of
23 intercepts, and let's take it that these notebooks only contain
24 intercepts relating to Srebrenica and Zepa and nothing else, was it
25 possible for certain intercepts to have been recorded into them at a
Page 2423
1 later date? Thank you.
2 A. No, that was absolutely not possible. All the notebooks were
3 used in the facilities themselves and nothing was copied into them from
4 any other documents. The records contained in them were the
5 transcription directly from the communications as they were listened to
6 on the UHER reel-to-reel tape recorder.
7 Q. So please then tell me, the intercepts that they contain, do they
8 solely relate to Zepa and Srebrenica?
9 A. These notebooks do not only contain intercepts related to Zepa
10 and Srebrenica. I said that they also contain intercepts made several
11 months ahead of that period as well as after.
12 Q. Thank you. I think we're clear on that. Can you tell me when
13 you received these notebooks for the first time and who from? You said
14 something about it in general terms, but I should like to know
15 specifically.
16 A. Let's be quite clear. These were insignificant details at the
17 time. As I said, we received some of the notebooks from the logistic
18 service of the 2nd Corps. Some of the notebooks were bought in exchange
19 for flour at the location where the unit's command was stationed.
20 Q. [Microphone not activated]
21 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
22 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
23 Q. Who did you buy the second batch of notebooks from and they are
24 also manufactured in Italy
25 A. Well, in the village where the unit was stationed.
Page 2424
1 Q. Thank you. Is it possible based on the bar code present on these
2 notebooks to determine with the manufacturer when the notebooks were
3 produced and released to the market? Thank you.
4 A. Based on what I know about it, though I don't know what the bar
5 code specifically contains save for some information about the
6 manufacturer, et cetera, one should be able to define whether these
7 notebooks were manufactured in the relevant period or not. But let me
8 tell Their Honours that the intercepts recorded in them were made in that
9 period and that the notebooks were handed over to ICTY representatives in
10 1998. And that's something I stand by fully.
11 Q. But in what way can you demonstrate that the contents of these
12 notebooks were made back in 1995 before they were handed over to ICTY
13 representatives for their purposes by your command?
14 A. I can demonstrate it with several details, one of which is that
15 every notebook was entered into the log-book with a designation of the
16 military unit concerned, since the military units changed their
17 designation numbers. Every unit would get its designation number, be it
18 an infantry brigade or anything else, and this is something that can
19 easily be checked through the documentation.
20 The second detail is the handwriting which can be recognised by
21 the individuals involved in the work, and some of the notebooks - I can't
22 recall if all of them - I signed at the end, saying that the notebook had
23 as many pages so as to make it impossible to add anything to it.
24 And then thirdly, there is a log-book of all records of the unit
25 concerned and of all the documents when they were filed, et cetera, all
Page 2425
1 of this was handed over to the archives.
2 Fourthly, all these notebooks which were filled, as soon as they
3 were full they would be returned to the unit's command and kept in the
4 safe. They would also be filed under certain number there.
5 Fifthly, there were records of -- and the notebooks themselves
6 which were taken by ICTY representatives, they were the ones to see them
7 first, and at that time they did not contain these numbers, 84, 92,
8 et cetera. We were supposed to sort all this documentation out and hand
9 it over to them accompanied by a record of this.
10 Q. You just said that the notebooks did not contain these marks at
11 the time and that you had to jointly work on this and make a record of
12 the hand-over, et cetera. Does it mean that you were involved in this
13 process of placing markings?
14 A. You were able to see the notebook which had number 84 on it.
15 This was written in 1998 because it was item 84 in the record of the
16 handover. So the only thing that was added to that notebook was
17 number 84 which was placed in 1998.
18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can I call up 1D136, page 2, in
19 order for me to be able to put a question to the witness. We'll be --
20 what we will soon have on our screens is page 2 of that notebook you
21 referred to a moment ago.
22 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
23 Q. You see it says: "Army of the Republic of Bosnia
24 Herzegovina
25 to know what was done at this level. So what strikes me as curious is
Page 2426
1 that an operator should have written the name of his army there but not
2 the title of his unit as well. How do you account for this?
3 A. Quite simply, this would be written by operators working in these
4 facilities. Whenever they had some spare time to rest they would write
5 titles, draw lilies, as you can see them, or write "PEB." And the
6 important thing here was to see which unit this referred to and the dates
7 when the records were made.
8 Q. Thank you. But this is not the date when this record was made
9 because here it says this is written by the user of this notebook. It
10 says the student between 20th of April, 1995, up until the 9th of May,
11 1995. In other words, less than a month that this person was a student
12 for 19 days. So does that mean that this notebook was actually filled
13 for -- in a period of less than a month?
14 A. Well, where it says "student" and whatever's written after it,
15 that has nothing to do with anything. What it says here is that the
16 first intercept was recorded on the 20th April and that the last
17 intercept was recorded on the 9th of May, 1995. This is what we insisted
18 on. These intercepts may have come from various routes, but they were
19 and this -- all the entries in this notebook were made from the 20th --
20 from those dates to that date.
21 Q. Thank you. Now, tell us, please, did you -- were you sent for
22 training abroad other than the school you went through in the JNA during
23 or before your centre was established?
24 A. I did not go abroad at the time when this centre was being
25 established. But I was sent abroad later on, after the year 2000.
Page 2427
1 Q. Could you tell us where you were in the year 2000, what country,
2 and was this for training or was it on private business?
3 A. I travelled to Malaysia
4 was the basic intelligence course.
5 Q. Thank you. Did you travel to any other country?
6 A. No.
7 Q. Do you have a passport which could corroborate what you've just
8 told us? Thank you.
9 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye.
10 MR. VANDERPUYE: Mr. President, I really just don't see the
11 relevance of this particular line of questioning at all. If he wants to
12 ask him about his training, I don't see any problem with that.
13 JUDGE FLUEGGE: I think the accused should carry on until five
14 minutes past half past 1.00, that means 1.35. And think about how to use
15 this time properly.
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. I asked
17 whether the witness had a passport which would show what countries he
18 travelled to. Thank you.
19 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
20 Q. Yes or no?
21 A. No.
22 Q. Thank you. Tell us, when you came here to the Tribunal, did you
23 come here with a passport? Did you have a passport with you?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. When was that passport issued?
Page 2428
1 A. At the beginning of this year.
2 Q. Where was your last passport?
3 A. Well, you should know that every time you're issued a new
4 passport, the old passport is destroyed.
5 Q. Thank you. Did any of your operators go abroad for training?
6 Thank you.
7 A. No, never, not one of them.
8 Q. Thank you. We had a witness here who told us that he did go for
9 training abroad. He was from the northern location. Is it possible that
10 he was sent there without you knowing about it?
11 A. Well, I really don't know who this might have been, that this
12 could have been anyone from the northern location. This could have been
13 later on, but before 1999 -- before 1999 no one was sent abroad.
14 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye -- Mr. Vanderpuye.
15 MR. VANDERPUYE: Thank you, Mr. President. Again, I don't see
16 the relevance of this line of questioning. The second thing is that the
17 question as it was put to the witness misrepresents the record in this
18 case because the question was asked whether or not there was anybody --
19 any of his unit that received the training and framed in terms of a
20 person in a completely different unit. So I don't think it was fairly
21 put to the witness to begin with.
22 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir, could -- you have already received
23 the answer and therefore I think we shouldn't deal with that anymore.
24 Carry on, please, but not with the same topic.
25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. Could
Page 2429
1 the Trial Chamber please inspect this notebook and see all the labels on
2 it. And we would like to suggest that it be actually examined by an
3 expert so that we could determine the time when it actually came into
4 being.
5 JUDGE FLUEGGE: I wanted to give you the chance to finish your
6 questioning and then the Chamber was -- intended to deal with this
7 notebook. Perhaps first questions to this witness.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.
9 MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]
10 Q. Is it possible, Witness, that entries were made in these
11 notebooks after the fact because the intercepts were not used at the time
12 of their actual recording? Thank you.
13 A. Well, based on my experience and the way we worked, I've already
14 told you that there was a period, a realtime period, when these reports
15 were made and these intercepts written down that would be within an hour
16 or two of the realtime communications and then they would be forwarded
17 on. However, this time-frame of an hour or two was quite realistic in
18 view of the technology that we used. And if these intercepts contained
19 significant and urgent information, they would have been sent immediately
20 on; and if not, they would just be recorded, taped, and then transcripts
21 made. And I have already answered this question several times.
22 Q. Thank you, sir. Was it standard practice to broadcast via public
23 media transcripts of intercepts of conversations between the members of
24 the enemy force?
25 A. No.
Page 2430
1 Q. Thank you. Do you know that the media actually broadcast and
2 reported on conversations between General Kukanjac and some other
3 officers from Visegrad?
4 A. Well, I do know about that, but I heard about this in some TV
5 programmes after the war.
6 Q. Did the media report and broadcast some statements by
7 General Mladic?
8 A. Well, I really wouldn't know what they reported. You have to be
9 aware of the fact that there were power shortages, so I don't know
10 whether they were or weren't.
11 Q. Do you recall whether there was an intercept of a conversation
12 between General Mladic and Fikret Abdic broadcast in the media? Thank
13 you.
14 A. I cannot recall.
15 Q. Thank you. Was any of your intercepts of General Mladic's
16 conversations with any members of the VRS published in the media?
17 A. Well, I can just tell you about what I know from the time when I
18 was there. I can tell you that General Mladic did not really use the
19 means of communication that we intercepted, not very frequently.
20 Q. Thank you. Did anyone ever ask you to -- for permission to
21 broadcast one of your intercepts in order to show what was going on in
22 Zepa and Srebrenica? Thank you.
23 A. I or any of my subordinates were never asked to do anything like
24 that, but whether something like that happened before my time, I don't
25 know.
Page 2431
1 Q. Thank you. Please tell us now whether you or any of your
2 subordinates from either the northern or southern location were ever sent
3 for training abroad.
4 A. In the period in question, I state with certainty that none of
5 our men were abroad for any type of training.
6 Q. Thank you. Did you ever send people abroad for training? Did
7 you propose individuals who should be sent abroad?
8 A. In the period up until 1998, no one was ever sent abroad and
9 there were no proposals to that effect.
10 Q. Thank you. Was training offered for your members, your
11 subordinates, by -- to be conducted by NATO? Thank you.
12 A. Not one of my subordinates nor I ever went to a NATO base to
13 undergo any type of training.
14 Q. I didn't ask whether you went to NATO bases. I just asked
15 whether any of them were sent for training by NATO.
16 A. Well, I think my answer was clear. No one could leave the unit
17 without my authorisation, which I would have to obtain from my superior
18 command, and that is why I stated with certainty that no one was ever
19 sent for training to any base while I was there.
20 Q. Thank you. You told us that you got some of the notebooks from
21 the logistics section and that some of them you obtained in the village.
22 I want to ask you whether that relates to both the southern and the
23 northern location notebooks?
24 A. That is absolutely correct. All the notebooks would arrive at
25 the unit command where they were then logged and sent to the locations.
Page 2432
1 We didn't check whether they had come from logistics or whatever else.
2 They would all be just registered together and then forwarded on.
3 Q. Well, you told us a little earlier that they were obtained from
4 logistics or in the village, and I asked you whether this was done --
5 whether the batches were from the village or -- and whether those bought
6 in the village were sent to both the northern and the southern locations?
7 A. Those notebooks were purchased in the villages where the command
8 was located, but these were not all the notebooks that we had. And I
9 recall this because I was questioned by my superiors about this and I
10 stated clearly that such notebooks and these notebooks were also
11 purchased from elsewhere. And I've already explained that at that time
12 there were -- there was a batch or a shipment of such notebooks, they
13 appeared in the market, and you could see them everywhere. Whether they
14 came from the humanitarian aid convoys or batches or not, I don't know.
15 Q. Thank you. Please tell us, could the Italian manufacturer
16 actually distribute these notebooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and sell
17 them there? Thank you.
18 A. I really don't know whether the producer -- manufacturer could or
19 couldn't do that, but they were in the market. You could find them in
20 the market at the time.
21 Q. Thank you. Just answer this question, please: Did any of your
22 members from either the northern or southern location travel to Italy
23 did you travel to Italy
24 A. I would love to travel to Italy and I hope that I get an
25 opportunity soon because one of my nephews lives there, but I never had
Page 2433
1 that opportunity until now and none of my men did. And during the time
2 when I was the commander of that unit, none of my men travelled to Italy
3 Q. Thank you.
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I would like to tender this
5 notebook 1D131 into evidence and I would like to tender this book into
6 evidence, 1D128 and 1D126.
7 THE INTERPRETER: Interpreter correction: 1D36.
8 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Is 1D36 on the screen at the moment? Is there a
9 translation? There's no translation. Is there a translation pending?
10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. This is
11 a document that was tendered by the Prosecution. 1D136, 136. Now, we've
12 asked for this document to be uploaded into e-court, and now I would like
13 to tender it into evidence. Thank you.
14 JUDGE FLUEGGE: This is clear. We have your indication. The
15 Defence list of potential exhibits for this witness, and there you
16 indicated that translation of this document is pending. And this is the
17 reason why I asked you.
18 [Trial Chamber and Registrar confer]
19 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Are you tendering only this page on the -- we
20 have on the screen now?
21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. President, Mr. President, I'm
22 tendering both the first and the second page if that's possible.
23 JUDGE FLUEGGE: And I understand --
24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And we will obtain a translation.
25 JUDGE FLUEGGE: I understand the situation that a translation is
Page 2434
1 not necessary because of the content of this document. It will be
2 received.
3 Is there a need to have it under seal, Mr. Vanderpuye?
4 MR. VANDERPUYE: Mr. President, the second page of the document
5 contains the location of the site, so I would say yes.
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: It will be received under seal.
7 THE REGISTRAR: 65 ter 1D136 is now Exhibit D47, under seal.
8 JUDGE FLUEGGE: And the other document you tender, which was it?
9 1D126. Is that correct? No, 128. It will be received under seal.
10 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit D48, under seal.
11 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Thank you.
12 The Chamber has reviewed this notebook. Of course we are not
13 experts in printing and handwriting, but after first view it seems to be
14 except the following everything was printed and covered by a kind of
15 plastic cover, except the portions the witness has indicated under the
16 headline "Carta Di Identita Dei Popoti," there is a handwriting number 14
17 and then a certain number, it's not legible for me. And then at the end
18 in this line, the number 100 plus 450 and then two letters, TS maybe.
19 And then we have this big number 84 with an underlining and on the left
20 side a number, a typical number of the OTP.
21 If you want further investigation, you should move for that in
22 writing. This is to clarify the situation.
23 Mr. Vanderpuye, do you have re-examination?
24 MR. VANDERPUYE: Only very briefly, Mr. President. I guess I
25 might as well pick up where you are, and that relates to this, I think
Page 2435
1 it's D47 that's just been marked, which is the notebook in question. I
2 don't know if other than the two pages are uploaded in the e-court, but I
3 would like to turn to the third page if we can. We can no longer do
4 that? Oh, only the two pages are in. May I use the original notebook
5 for a moment, then, please, Mr. President.
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Yes. Please hand it over to Mr. Vanderpuye.
7 MR. VANDERPUYE: What I'd like to do is I'd like to show this to
8 the witness and then if we could place it on the ELMO and we can go to
9 the third page.
10 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Yes.
11 MR. VANDERPUYE: I'd like to know if it's possible to place side
12 by side - maybe not - the image from the ELMO against an exhibit in
13 e-court. I will do them sequentially, then. Thank you.
14 Re-examination by Mr. Vanderpuye:
15 Q. Witness, first have you had an occasion to look at the book and
16 can you tell us whether or not, in your opinion, it's an original or if
17 it's not an original book?
18 JUDGE FLUEGGE: We don't have it on the ELMO at the moment.
19 Something happened. It disappeared. Now we have it again. Thank you.
20 MR. VANDERPUYE:
21 Q. I'll repeat my question. Looking at the book, can you tell us
22 whether or not, in your opinion, it's an original book or if it's not?
23 A. This book is absolutely an original dating from 1995.
24 Q. And what I'd like to refer you to in particular is the number
25 that's on the screen now, which reads: "STR POV BR," and then it reads
Page 2436
1 "08/2-01-161" and it appears to say -- to be dated 12.04.95. Do you see
2 that on the screen in front of you?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. And tell us what that number is.
5 A. This number is a strictly confidential number, 08/2, that is the
6 number assigned by the competent command to each and every unit every
7 year. This is a registry number assigned to a unit, 08/2. That number
8 varied. As for the other numbers, they indicated certain issues, and the
9 last number, 161, is the number under which this was logged in the
10 log-book in the unit where I worked.
11 Below that we see the date when this was logged and this notebook
12 was sent in this form to the locations. Because we had an insufficient
13 number of men at the command, normally each page should be logged under a
14 number and the last page should also bear the signature or the date when
15 that individual, a platoon commander or a unit commander at the location,
16 actually logged that book.
17 Q. And would the logging of the book take place before the entries
18 that are made in the book?
19 A. It would be logged before any entries were made in the book.
20 There were times when we found notebooks that lay around from earlier and
21 where we would subsequently log those notebooks. But normally all the
22 notebooks that we obtained, they would be logged and then sent to the
23 locations.
24 MR. VANDERPUYE: If I could have, please, P285 in e-court.
25 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Can this notebook be removed from the ELMO?
Page 2437
1 MR. VANDERPUYE: I'd like to have it there just for a moment
2 longer.
3 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Okay.
4 MR. VANDERPUYE: I think it should be page 4 in e-court is what
5 I'm looking for.
6 Q. While that's loading, Witness, was the purpose of the
7 registration of the notebooks done for the purpose of -- was the purpose
8 of registering the notebooks so that they could be identified at a later
9 point in time?
10 A. At this time no one knew -- we had no clue why or what those
11 notebooks would be used for. But as I already said, when I arrived there
12 and on orders from my superiors, we wanted to bring some order into the
13 whole thing so we wanted to register these books and bring some order
14 here. And this was simply the period when we tried to bring some real
15 military order there.
16 MR. VANDERPUYE: If we could just blow up the entry in this
17 exhibit number that's marked -- denominated number 84 and what I'd like
18 to do is compare that to the number that's in the book itself. If we
19 could focus in just a little bit just on the number 84 so it's very
20 clear.
21 Q. Now, the number that's indicated under 84 in this entry which
22 you've indicated previously was a list of documents that you compiled
23 that were transferred to the representatives of The Hague in 1998 reads
24 as follows: "STR
25 correspond to the entry that's in the notebook in front of you right now?
Page 2438
1 I mean the physical notebook. So you can pick it up and take a look and
2 see if it matches.
3 A. I've already said about the heading of this notebook, and I can
4 see now that it is the identical number that was logged here. But I also
5 mentioned that the 84 -- the number 84 was entered later on in 1998.
6 That was just a sequential number, and in order to make things even
7 clearer, we also indicated the format of the notebook so that you can
8 easily single them out by just looking at them. So we see that this
9 format of this notebook was A5, which means that it's a small-sized
10 notebook. And then further to the right in the columns we should also
11 see the dates when the first entries were made in that notebook and when
12 the last ones were made.
13 Q. And do you have any doubt whether the book that's in front of you
14 now is the book that's recorded in the log that you prepared in 1998?
15 A. Personally, I have no doubts whatsoever, and a little earlier I
16 saw - because this is the first time that I have had this notebook in my
17 hands since the war - I saw another signature in this notebook.
18 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Please continue.
19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] You will understand that by looking
20 at some of the information I'm kind of taken back into that time. You
21 will see that there is another signatory there. I can tell you his name
22 because I recognise his signature. And when this individual counted the
23 sheets that were filled, he saw that there were 52 sheets and he placed
24 the date there and his signature. That's one of the heads of the
25 department. If you want me to state his name, I can.
Page 2439
1 MR. VANDERPUYE:
2 Q. You don't need to state his name right now because we're in open
3 session.
4 A. Very well.
5 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Tolimir.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. My
7 question is: What is the relevance of a document produced in 1998 to the
8 events we are discussing here and the intercepts from back in 1995?
9 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Mr. Vanderpuye is re-examining.
10 Please carry on but bear in mind we are really running out of
11 time.
12 MR. VANDERPUYE: I understand that, Mr. President. Thank you
13 very much.
14 Just for the record, this reflects the last page of the notebook,
15 which is on the ELMO. The ERN number indicated is 0078-9575. I think I
16 will tender the whole book, but I just want the record to be clear as to
17 what the witness is referring to.
18 Q. Witness, I just want to ask you a couple of other questions
19 because we are --
20 JUDGE FLUEGGE: No, you don't have time for that. I am very
21 sorry. We are over time already for ten minutes.
22 MR. VANDERPUYE: Oh, I wasn't aware of that. Okay.
23 JUDGE FLUEGGE: The courtroom will be used this afternoon by
24 another Trial Chamber.
25 MR. VANDERPUYE: No problem. No problem, Mr. President. Then
Page 2440
1 this will conclude my examination, except I will tender the notebook in
2 full so that it's clear for the Court.
3 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Thank you for your understanding. It is -- it
4 will be received.
5 THE REGISTRAR: As Exhibit P304, under seal.
6 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Thank you.
7 [Trial Chamber confers]
8 JUDGE FLUEGGE: This concludes the questioning for you, sir. You
9 will be pleased that you are now free to return to your normal
10 activities, but please be patient for one minute and sit down so that we
11 can raise all together.
12 I would like to mention two things. We should be more aware of
13 the time we have available. We are only sitting three days a week and it
14 was not very satisfactory by both parties because there was an extended
15 use of time. It was indicated four hours by each party, but each party
16 used more time. And in future, both parties - and bearing in mind the
17 situation of today - especially, Mr. Tolimir, you should think about a
18 better use of time. We are not only -- we have not only to guarantee a
19 fair trial, but also an expeditious trial. And we have a big trial and
20 therefore we should use the time in the most practical way we can.
21 Yesterday I asked the Defence if they have any objections to the
22 Prosecution's supplemental motion for leave to amend its 65 ter exhibit
23 list with two additional exhibits. You indicated that you would respond
24 today so that we can make a decision.
25 Mr. Tolimir.
Page 2441
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President. I think
2 that my legal advisor has already informed the Prosecution of our
3 position, and that is that we have no objection --
4 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Thank you very much.
5 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] -- to the admission. And I would
6 like to thank the witness and everybody else who assisted us in the
7 courtroom today. Thank you.
8 JUDGE FLUEGGE: Thank you very much.
9 We have to adjourn and resume next Tuesday at 9.00 in
10 Courtroom II. Thank you very much. We adjourn.
11 [The witness withdrew]
12 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.57 p.m.
13 to be reconvened on Tuesday, the 8th day of
14 June, 2010, at 9.00 a.m.
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