Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 13304

 1                           Wednesday, 27 April 2011

 2                           [Open session]

 3                           [The accused entered court]

 4                           --- Upon commencing at 9.01 a.m.

 5             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Good morning to everybody in the courtroom.

 6     Yesterday, during the last session, we had an incident, unfortunate

 7     situation.  I would like to let everybody know that the situation is

 8     resolved due to the -- and thanks to the medical care here in The Hague.

 9     No reason to worry about it.

10             I forgot yesterday to mention that we are sitting pursuant to

11     Rule 15 bis.  That was decided already last week, on Thursday.  We put

12     that on the record that this week, Judge Mindua will not be present and

13     not be able to participate in the hearings due to another commitment.

14     Only Judge Nyambe and myself are the Bench.  This is the fact for

15     yesterday, today, and tomorrow's hearing.

16             If there is nothing else, we should continue with the witness.

17     She should be brought in, please.

18                           [The witness takes the stand]

19                           WITNESS:  ESMA PALIC [Resumed]

20                           [Witness answered through interpreter]

21             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Please take your earphones.  Good morning and

22     welcome back.  Please be seated and make yourself comfortable.

23             Ms. Palic, welcome back.  I have to remind you that the

24     affirmation that you made at the beginning of your testimony yesterday

25     still applies.  Mr. Elderkin has additional questions for you.


Page 13305

 1             Mr. Elderkin.

 2             MR. ELDERKIN:  Thank you, Mr. President, and good morning to

 3     Your Honours and everyone else in the courtroom.

 4                           Examination by Mr. Elderkin: [Continued]

 5        Q.   Good morning to you, Ms. Palic.

 6        A.   Good morning.

 7        Q.   Ms. Palic, we were just at a point of your story when we finished

 8     yesterday talking about the time after the 17th or 18th of July of 1995,

 9     when your house had been shelled and you moved up to Stitkov Dol.  You

10     said that people moved to Stitkov Dol from the villages on the left-hand

11     side.  Could you please explain to us what you mean by that reference,

12     the villages on the right-hand side?

13        A.   When I spoke about this, I had a picture of my house in my mind.

14     My house was the reference point for left hand and right hand.  That

15     means that on the left-hand side there were settlements of Stop, Vrelo.

16     Then there were people of the village of Ljubomislje, Laze, Borovac, who

17     also came to Vrelo, down to Vrelo.  Those were the villages that had been

18     occupied at the beginning of the war.  Then in 1992 people returned to

19     Ljubomislje to live there, and then in 1995 those inhabitants went in the

20     same direction as me, that is to Stitkov Dol.

21             On the right-hand side there was the centre, the Kula settlement,

22     then Zepa, Slap, Pribicevac, and after that, Ribioc, Vratar, Polje.

23             THE INTERPRETER:  Interpreter's note:  Could please all other

24     microphones be switched off when the witness is speaking.  There is a lot

25     of background noise.


Page 13306

 1             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  I think, Mr. Elderkin, this refers to you.

 2             MR. ELDERKIN:  Yes, indeed.  I see no other microphones are on

 3     other than my own.

 4        Q.   How many people were the -- up at Stitkov Dol?

 5        A.   Around 2 to 2.500.  It's a smaller village, but when you take

 6     into account the number of people in those settlements and the total

 7     capacity of Stitkov Dol, I would say around 2.500.  The fact is that the

 8     houses were full those days when we were there.  Also, all the auxiliary

 9     buildings.  There were women with small children, elderly people,

10     disabled.  For instance, my mother-in-law was among them.  Also, the

11     courtyards and the fields around the houses were full as well.  It was

12     maybe a fortunate circumstance that it was summer so people slept in the

13     courtyards and fields.

14             I remember I used to sit with some of those groups.  There were

15     pregnant women among them, those who did not find a place in a house to

16     sleep.  So they spent the night on meadows.

17        Q.   So just to be very clear, the figure of 2 to 2.500 people is your

18     estimate for the time when you moved up there to escape from the

19     shelling, as did other people; is that correct?

20        A.   Yes, that's my estimate.  I believe that my estimate is very

21     close to the actual number.

22        Q.   You've said a little bit about the make-up of the group up at

23     Stitkov Dol so that there were women with small children, elderly people

24     and disabled.  Were there also soldiers up at this location when you were

25     there?


Page 13307

 1        A.   There were no soldiers there.  There were no able-bodied men

 2     there, because this was the most critical period.  All the men were at

 3     the defence lines.  It could have happened that somebody maybe had to

 4     look for their family to get the clothes or simply to see their family,

 5     but I don't remember anybody except Amir Imamovic.  He was the president

 6     of the civilian protection of the Zepa municipality.  He was also

 7     captured later on.  He used to come on several occasions.  I spoke to

 8     him.  And also Hamdija Torlak used to come.  He was a president of some

 9     sort of a board in Zepa and also one of the negotiators before Zepa.  So

10     they are the only able-bodied men that I remember.

11        Q.   You've mentioned Messrs. Imamovic and Torlak, and also you spoke

12     about negotiations.  What was your awareness of negotiations that were

13     taking place with the Bosnian Serb side at that time?

14        A.   I knew that the Serbs imposed certain conditions for the

15     surrender, as well as us leaving the territory.  They said that all the

16     men had to surrender and go to collection centres.  That's how they used

17     to call them.  I would say that they were camps.  To put it simply, it

18     was clear that we had to leave Zepa.  The Zepa delegation, the

19     negotiators who negotiated on behalf of the authorities of Zepa and the

20     people in Zepa, they tried to get some guarantees for the safety of

21     civilians.  I also know that my husband was trying to buy time so that it

22     wouldn't happen that Serb army would march into Zepa and do what they did

23     in Srebrenica, the massacre that they did in Srebrenica.  He wanted the

24     international community to realise what happened in Srebrenica and to

25     have enough time in order to do something more humane, in order to


Page 13308

 1     prevent a new massacre.  And those precisely were the reasons because of

 2     which the men in Zepa made superhuman efforts in order to maintain the

 3     territory in Zepa until they could negotiate a safe passage of civilians

 4     out of Zepa.

 5             I remember something that I'm never going to forget.  We were

 6     already in Stitkov Dol.  Hamdija Torlak was one of the negotiators.  He

 7     came there one evening, to the house where I was with my babies.  He came

 8     in, and he lied on the floor, silent.  Those of us all around him simply

 9     waited for him to speak.  After some time, he made a deep sigh, and he

10     said, "I had to sign the surrender of Zepa."  You could hear it in his

11     voice.  It was the voice of a traitor.  Of course, we all knew that

12     anybody else who would have found themselves in his position, they would

13     have had to do the same thing.

14        Q.   What was your husband doing during the time while you were in

15     Stitkov Dol?

16        A.   I don't know if I already mentioned this.  When Srebrenica fell

17     and the chaos ensued in Zepa, the first thing that my husband requested

18     from the Ukrainian Battalion in Zepa was to protect us.  It was clear

19     that they were a small unit and that they could not protect the whole

20     territory.  That's why he insisted that they should alert the UN

21     headquarters.  He wanted that they should ask Mr. Smith,

22     Mr. Rupert Smith, to provide protection and whatever mechanism that the

23     UN was duty-bound to provide for the enclave.  However, this didn't

24     happen.  The Ukrainian commander, Dudnjik, went over to check-point 1

25     where Mladic arrived with his staff.  It means that they had occupied


Page 13309

 1     check-point 1.  It was an UNPROFOR check-point.  And the Ukrainian -- the

 2     Ukrainian commander was trying, or at least that's what he said to Avdo,

 3     that he was trying to request the end of the shelling and the end of the

 4     operations around Zepa, and this Ukrainian commander went away one day

 5     and never came back.  We heard that he was stopped by Mladic.

 6             The officer that deputised for him in Zepa said, "Avdo, here's

 7     your weapons.  This is it."  And then my husband and all other who were

 8     able to do that went up to the defence lines.  It could have been the

 9     13th or the 14th of July, a few days after the fall of Srebrenica.  So

10     they were trying to stop the breakthrough of the Serbian Army into Zepa.

11     And this went on until the 24th of July.  All this time my husband was

12     with the military.

13        Q.   You mentioned the Ukrainian commander Dudnjik going to

14     check-point 1.  Do you remember the location of that check-point?  We

15     know, for example, there was a check-point which the UN numbered 2 but

16     which was at Boksanica.

17        A.   That is the check-point.  I thought it was number 1, is the

18     check-point at Boksanica.  It was the first check-point when you enter

19     Zepa coming from Rogatica through Borike towards Zepa.  That was the

20     first check-point.  I thought it was check-point 1.

21             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Mr. Elderkin, it's just a reminder, you should

22     try to avoid leading questions.  Your last one was some sort of leading

23     question.

24             MR. ELDERKIN:  Indeed, and I'll do my best to avoid that,

25     Your Honour.


Page 13310

 1        Q.   Ms. Palic, during the time you were up at Stitkov Dol, was there

 2     any shelling?

 3        A.   Of course there was shelling.  Stitkov Dol is situated in a

 4     particular way.  It doesn't mean that it wasn't within the range, but the

 5     deployment of the artillery was such that shells did not land into the

 6     centre of the village.  The shells landed on the other side of the hill

 7     that protected the village, and everything around was shelled.  During

 8     that time, I cannot remember one single moment that the shelling was not

 9     going on, but the shells were not landing in Stitkov Dol.

10        Q.   Until when did you stay up there at Stitkov Dol?

11        A.   I remained in Stitkov Dol until the 23rd, the evening, the 24th.

12     So we left in the night between the 23rd and the 24th July, sometime

13     after midnight, probably around 2.00 a.m.  We waited for the shelling to

14     die down.  We had to leave - how should I call it? - this oasis and set

15     out for the mountain.  We were in danger.  We were threatened by the

16     shelling and by those PAMs and PATs.  So we set out at the time when it

17     felt most secure.  We assumed that Serbian soldiers would be asleep at

18     that time.  That's when we set out for the mountain, and we reached the

19     mountain sometime in the morning of the 24th.

20        Q.   And how long did you spend at that location, at the mountain?

21        A.   As soon as we arrived in this sort of mountain lodge that

22     belonged to a relative of mine, I went in with the babies.  I had to feed

23     them.  And then a boy arrived and said that Avdo requested that we should

24     go back, that the evacuation of civilians from Zepa had been agreed.  So

25     maybe I stayed there for a couple of hours.  Only as long as it took us


Page 13311

 1     to simply prepare for the way back.

 2        Q.   When you moved back down towards Zepa, how many people went with

 3     you?

 4        A.   It was the same column.  Everybody who went with me also returned

 5     and went back.  This was a huge column.  So all those people who went one

 6     way also went back.  Also, the news was then transmitted to other groups

 7     of refugees, and those people also began to go back towards Zepa, towards

 8     the centre of Zepa.  They were coming from all sides, from all the places

 9     where the refugee groups were.  They received this information, and they

10     began to return to Zepa.

11             Now, later on I had the opportunity to speak to some people.

12     Some of them set out immediately, some of them were still afraid, which

13     is perfectly normal.  Everybody was afraid to be the first one to leave.

14     They were wondering what was going to happen to them.

15        Q.   When did you arrive back in Zepa town?

16        A.   It was the early afternoon.  Maybe around 2.00, 3.00 in the

17     afternoon.

18        Q.   Could you please describe the scene when you arrived into the

19     town.

20        A.   What I remember is the following:  It was a very warm day in

21     July.  People were coming from all sides carrying bundles, clothes, bags.

22     They were out of their mind.  Everybody had lost someone.  Everybody

23     were -- was asking about someone.

24             As I have already said, everybody, and especially the people who

25     had been expelled and then ended up in Zepa, had their families divided


Page 13312

 1     between Srebrenica and Zepa.  Part of the family lived in Srebrenica, and

 2     a part of the family in Zepa.  Then when the attack on Zepa began, some

 3     of them fled towards the mountains, some of them stayed in the woods or

 4     in the cave.  There was panic.  Everybody was asking, "Did you see this

 5     one?  Did you see that one?  Do you know anything about this one?"  Then

 6     some news arrived about people who were killed at the lines.  It was very

 7     chaotic.

 8             There's one thing that I remember very well.  There was a column

 9     of buses lined up along the street leading from UNPROFOR to the health

10     centre, and there were Serbian soldiers there.  In front of a local cafe,

11     when I approached that place I saw my husband.  He was in front of the

12     cafe, and there was a Serbian officer standing there as well, and there

13     were some soldiers around them.  When my husband saw me, he approached

14     me.  We greeted each other.  Of course, I was panicked.  He tried to calm

15     me down.  He told me that a convoy with wounded people had already left.

16     There were many wounded.  I was only worried about him.

17             Of course, I was also afraid, and I was thinking How are we going

18     to cross all that territory?  Avdo told me not to be nervous, that

19     everybody would be okay.  He told me that Zdravko Tolimir was there.  He

20     pointed at that man, and he told me that he agreed with him that he was

21     going to accompany the convoy in his automobile in front of all the

22     buses.  He told him to keep his personal firearm and that if he notices

23     anything suspicious, he should just shoot him in the head on the spot.

24             I told him not to believe him.  It is true that he looks rather

25     civilised compared to all the creatures around him, but I told him not to


Page 13313

 1     trust that man.  My husband, of course, tried to be calm.  I'm sure that

 2     he himself was very well aware of everything.  He knew that he could not

 3     maintain Zepa.  The UN was doing nothing, so he simply had no other

 4     choice.

 5        Q.   Did you see any representatives in Zepa town that day from the

 6     International Red Cross?

 7        A.   I didn't see them.  I know that my husband's position was

 8     something that he insisted upon when talking to any civilian authorities'

 9     representatives who attended negotiations.  He insisted that the

10     evacuation process should not go in any other way except with the

11     assistance of the Red Cross, meaning that those who were departing had to

12     be registered and had to be provided safe passage out of the territory

13     where we were being driven out of.  However, I didn't see anyone.  No one

14     was making any lists or asking us anything.

15        Q.   Were there other soldiers from the Armija of Bosnia and

16     Herzegovina around in the area of Zepa town when you were down there

17     around the time you've described, when you saw your husband?

18        A.   There were no ABiH soldiers there.  Some lines had fallen.  Those

19     people, as throughout the war, tried to reach the Zepa mountain just like

20     we all used to.  I suppose that a part of those men withdrew towards it.

21     In Zepa itself, the only able-bodied men were from the civilian

22     authorities, as well as Avdo's driver, Mujo Bicic, and those lightly

23     wounded who were in the hospital.  That's all the men that were there.

24     In any case, I can distinctly recall Mujo Bicic and Mehmed Hajric being

25     there.  As for any other men, I don't think the Serb army would have


Page 13314

 1     allowed it.  They simply could not show themselves there.  There were

 2     Serb soldiers there, however.

 3             As one enters Zepa, and when I say that, I have in mind the

 4     source of the Zepa River down to the centre of town, all along that route

 5     there were groups of Serb soldiers.  I remember them so well.  They had

 6     long beards.  They looked unnatural, in a way, for human beings.  Their

 7     shirts were unbuttoned.  They had knives tucked in their belts, and they

 8     kept insulting us, throwing remarks at us.  They kept saying, "Turks, go

 9     to Turkey.  Kurds, leave."  And they were singing a song about Zepa.

10     However, it was a pejorative song of the population of Zepa heroically

11     defending their hearths, where at the same moment we were being forced to

12     leave.

13        Q.   And what did you do after speaking to your husband, as you

14     described?

15        A.   Well, I came to terms with what my husband instructed me to do.

16     I got on the bus he pointed out.  Still, I refused to believe that the

17     evacuation would be safe.  My sister was a girl at the time.  I handed

18     one of my babies to her.  And I was afraid of how things would develop.

19     For as long as one stayed in Zepa, there was some dignity left, but my

20     worst fear had always been to fall into their hands.  When I say "their,"

21     I mean the Serb army.  Many of them were acquaintances and even friends

22     of mine who, to my great disappointment, became criminals.  If things

23     developed in a way that we would be taken off buses, I was afraid to face

24     the same fate as many women who had been taken prisoner in 1992 in

25     Rogatica.  They ended up in Zepa after an exchange, previously having


Page 13315

 1     gone through different kinds of torture, mainly rape.  I also didn't want

 2     to see my children suffer.  So in a way, we were trying to come up with

 3     the best option, and perhaps that was my attempt to hand over one of the

 4     babies to my sister so as to give an impression that she was an adult

 5     woman.

 6             We split afterwards.  My mother was there as well, who had been

 7     handicapped ever since World War II.  We brought her into the bus.  In

 8     any case, I followed Avdo's instructions.

 9        Q.   How many people were there on the bus that you boarded?

10        A.   The bus was full.  I don't know how many people exactly could fit

11     in, some 50 plus.  Some were seated on the floor as well.  All the buses

12     were packed.  There were a few steps at the back of the bus near the rear

13     door just in front of the last row of seats and there were people sitting

14     there as well, then next to the driver, my mother was seated.  In any

15     case, the buses were full.

16        Q.   When did that bus eventually leave from Zepa?

17        A.   The boarding process took forever.  The people were beside

18     themselves.  In any case, we set off sometime in the afternoon.

19        Q.   Did you know what the intended destination was at the time you

20     set off in the bus?

21        A.   They said that we were going towards Kladanj, which was in ABiH

22     territory.

23        Q.   On the journey towards Kladanj, did you stop anywhere along the

24     way?

25        A.   My fear was that we would be taken out of Zepa and then arrested.


Page 13316

 1     As we were leaving Zepa, it almost became part of reality, because after

 2     we entered Borike -- actually, there is -- there is an open stretch just

 3     in front of the stables at Borike, and I could still see the passenger

 4     vehicle where Avdo was with Tolimir at the head of the column.  Suddenly

 5     I got afraid, wondering why we stopped.  I was two rows behind the

 6     driver.  In front of me there were a girl and her mother.  I was trying

 7     to see up front what was going on.

 8             The bus in front of us started again, but we remained in the same

 9     place.  That bus went ahead and then started backing up into the stables

10     compound.  I was wondering why.  Before the war, it used to be a horse

11     farm.  I couldn't figure out why we were to go there.  I had a sudden

12     attack of panic which I had to handle by myself.

13             A soldier came on the bus, who was maybe 25 years old.  He leaned

14     his weapon against a railing near the door and began talking to the

15     driver, although I don't know about what.  I felt sick, and they gave me

16     some water.  I was afraid that we would all be killed and butchered

17     there.  However, after a while, the driver said that the bus had a flat

18     tyre and that they backed into the farm to fix it.  Indeed, some half an

19     hour later, we set off again.

20        Q.   Did you see your husband again at any point during that journey?

21        A.   We went through Rogatica.  What remains etched in my memory is

22     that the Rogatica inhabitants were all lined up along their -- in their

23     windows.  Those were our Serb neighbours who came out to see us being

24     driven out.

25             We went through Rogatica and left the town when the buses stopped


Page 13317

 1     again.  It was already getting dark.  I could see my husband in the

 2     headlights of the bus, and I was wondering why he was returning.  He came

 3     onto the bus and remained with us from that spot all the way to Kladanj.

 4        Q.   And did you talk with your husband at all during that journey?

 5        A.   Yes, I did.  We did talk.

 6        Q.   Did he say anything about the situation that you'd found

 7     yourselves in?

 8        A.   We didn't discuss that.  I kept begging him to take care of

 9     himself, telling him that he mustn't trust Tolimir.  I asked him to

10     promise that once he got back, he would get away from them.  I told him

11     that he should have himself in mind and that he couldn't save anyone

12     unless he saved himself first.

13             I was trying to persuade him to think of his own safety.

14     However, he clearly put it to me that he cannot allow for the civilians

15     to be hurt.  He literally said, "Esma, I'll do this job all the way to

16     the end, no matter what happens to me."  That was the sort of person he

17     was.  He thought he was responsible for those people, and he never even

18     thought of placing himself before anyone else.  We also discussed some

19     future plans of ours.

20             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Ms. Palic, whenever you need a break, let us

21     know, please.  May we continue, or do you need a break?

22             THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Perhaps we could have a break.

23             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Yes, indeed, we should have a break, and I would

24     kindly ask the court usher to inform us when we can continue.

25             We adjourn.


Page 13318

 1                           --- Break taken at 9.50 a.m.

 2                           --- On resuming at 10.26 a.m.

 3             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Ms. Palic, I'm glad to see that we can continue,

 4     but please let us know at any point in time if you need another break.

 5             Mr. Elderkin, please continue.

 6             MR. ELDERKIN:  Your Honour, thank you.

 7        Q.   Ms. Palic, we've heard about your bus journey the day you left

 8     Zepa.  Where did the bus finally stop?

 9        A.   We stopped when we were told that we have arrived at the

10     separation lines near Kladanj.  If -- well, at 9.00 in the morning, we

11     were in that meadow where a UNHCR unit awaited us with refreshments.  We

12     walked for a long time before that through a gorge.

13        Q.   Where was the last point at which you were still with your

14     husband?

15        A.   When we arrived and got off the buses, my husband and I bid

16     farewell.  I was holding one of our daughters in my arms.  I told him to

17     take care of himself and left.  He told me to stick to the middle of the

18     road.  I didn't understand exactly what it meant at the time.  Later on,

19     I found out that there were mines along the road.  That is why he

20     cautioned me.

21             Let me tell you this as well:  That was the road that the people

22     from Srebrenica tried to use to reach the free territory.  It was a

23     stretch of about 10 kilometres.  Even if they were able to reach that

24     point in attempts to cross the road, they frequently stepped on mines and

25     were killed or wounded.  In any case, straying from the road would have


Page 13319

 1     been a great risk.

 2        Q.   Were your mother and your sister still with you at that time?

 3        A.   Yes, they were.  My grandmother was there as well.  I believe I

 4     told you that she was handicapped due to World War II.  There were other

 5     people with us as well, other refugees.  It was very difficult.  You can

 6     carry a child, but what do you do with an elderly person who was over

 7     70 years old?  We finally placed her on a branch and pulled her along the

 8     road.  The entire situation was rather humiliating.

 9        Q.   Did you want to leave Zepa when you went down to the town and

10     were prepared to get on the buses?  Was that your choice?

11        A.   No.  It wasn't the choice of anyone.  It was Ratko Mladic's

12     decision and the decision of his associates, the apparatus he surrounded

13     himself with, including Mr. Tolimir, who is present here.  They decided

14     about what would happen with us.  They decided we had to leave and in

15     what way.  All that story of free choice is absurd viewed in those

16     circumstances.  Basically, throughout the war we had no choice.

17             I can tell you two things about it since you ask.  If someone

18     asked me to stay in Zepa, promising that my husband would be safe, I

19     would stay there for my entire life, although I had not lived there

20     before.

21             I can also tell you that people lived in Zepa for generations,

22     and such families never dreamt of leaving.  They were the true indigenous

23     population of Zepa who never pondered leaving their property.  However,

24     they had to leave.  They never managed to adapt to the new social

25     circumstances, but they had to leave.


Page 13320

 1        Q.   What were the alternatives for you and for those people if they

 2     had stayed, had not got on buses that day?

 3        A.   Suffice it to say that Zepa, a small town, was attacked by such a

 4     force comprising that many brigades with that much equipment, with so

 5     many criminals, most of whom were convicted criminals.  One needs to

 6     wonder what would have happened with us had we stayed.  We simply would

 7     not have been allowed to live in a territory which they wanted to see as

 8     an ethnically pure Serb area.  We surely would have been killed and

 9     tortured.  We would be no more.

10        Q.   Do you know what happened to buildings in Zepa after the

11     population left in July 1995?

12        A.   Even before I left Zepa, I could see some of the villages in the

13     hills that had been entered by the Serb soldiers.  I could see houses

14     ablaze already.  They started setting fire to them, and I could see

15     tendrils of smoke.  They even torched my parents' house, or whatever was

16     left of it.  They razed, torched.

17             Once we left Zepa the last civilian convoy remained as well as a

18     number of wounded who were taken off that convoy in Rogatica as POWs,

19     including some of my relatives.  They spent some time in a camp in

20     Rogatica.  Then they were taken to Zepa to gather plums and do some work

21     for the Serb army and their leadership, and they knew that at the time

22     that everything was razed to the ground, torched and destroyed; they

23     could see it for themselves.  They knew it was all destroyed and anything

24     that could burn was burned.  By the time I left, it was no longer a

25     township.  It was a jungle.


Page 13321

 1             MR. ELDERKIN:  If could we see Exhibit P2178 on the screen, and

 2     at page 6, please, of that exhibit.

 3             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  While this is coming up, I would like to ask you

 4     something, Ms. Palic.  You told us about the situation at the separation

 5     line near Kladanj, and your husband left, and you went with your family

 6     along the road.  Why did your husband not come with you?

 7             THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I wish he had, but then my husband

 8     couldn't stand having left the people of Zepa behind.  He may have had an

 9     opportunity to leave.  And I asked myself that question, too, and I

10     thought about it, but if he had left Zepa, if he had left all his troops

11     behind, all those people with whom he had defended Zepa so many times,

12     the people who trusted him and their families, according to his moral

13     criteria and mine, it would have been unbearable for him to leave those

14     friends and associates behind with their families and children to save

15     himself and his own family.

16             It was very difficult to bear for me for years, but today my view

17     is that one's honour comes above all, all other things.

18             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Where did he go from that point?

19             THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] He returned with Tolimir, and I

20     asked Avdo, because I was extremely scared, while he was with us, while

21     there were so many of us on the bus, so many civilians -- it seemed to me

22     that he was safer while I could see him, and I was afraid what would

23     happen to him when he returned with Tolimir.

24             My husband tried to convince me that Zdravko Tolimir was a

25     trained officer, and when he said that, he meant that being a trained


Page 13322

 1     officer meant honouring the conventions and humanitarian law.  And I

 2     replied to him, "Well, if he's that highly trained, what's he doing in

 3     Zepa?"

 4             I knew that Avdo's intention was to convince me and to achieve

 5     that I don't torture myself, but it was important to me that Avdo

 6     returned safely, and I asked him to give me notice that he had -- that he

 7     was safe.  And indeed, when I was in Visoko two days later, I got a

 8     message from my husband through a ham radio network that he had made it

 9     to Zepa safely.

10             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  When you were travelling on the bus with this

11     group of people from Zepa and with your husband, where was Mr. Tolimir?

12     Was he also on the bus or in a separate car?

13             THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I don't know.  I suppose that he

14     remained in the front seat of his car.  He was not with us.  He was

15     probably in his car, I guess.

16             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Thank you very much.

17             Mr. Elderkin, please continue.

18             MR. ELDERKIN:  And, actually, for the exhibit on the screen, if

19     we could go back to page 5 first of all.

20        Q.   Ms. Palic, do you recognise this location that we see in an

21     aerial photograph on the screen?

22        A.   I do.

23        Q.   And just for orientation, there's a location indicated with an

24     English worded tag saying "Central Mosque," which is inside a large

25     square on the screen.  Do you see that?


Page 13323

 1        A.   Yes, I see it.

 2        Q.   And this shows the scene as the image was taken on the 27th of

 3     July of 1995 with buildings standing in the centre of Zepa village.  Does

 4     this correspond with the buildings that were there when you were leaving

 5     on the 24th of July?

 6        A.   It mostly does.  What -- what I see in the centre, yes.  I did --

 7     I didn't see those buildings such as the factory and so on, but the

 8     mosque, the cafes, the medical centre, yes, that was all there when I

 9     left.

10        Q.   Does this image cover the area where your family's house was

11     located?

12        A.   Yes.  It certainly does.  My house is on the right side,

13     150 metres roughly down the main street, to the right.

14             MR. ELDERKIN:  Perhaps I could ask for the usher's assistance.

15        Q.   It may help us just to put a marking to indicate where your house

16     was located roughly.

17        A.   Hereabouts.

18        Q.   And where we see the other smaller squares on this image running

19     alongside the roads, are those houses as far as you know?

20        A.   Which roads?

21        Q.   Starting off with the road where you've indicated your family's

22     house.  So heading up from there towards the top right of the screen we

23     see some other squares and --

24        A.   Yes, yes.  Yes.

25        Q.   And how about those heading from where we see the mosque, heading


Page 13324

 1     towards the left of the screen, and there's a road that curves up and

 2     back down again, and there are some squares along there.  Do you know if

 3     those were houses?

 4        A.   Yes, they were, both houses, and there was a school, and to the

 5     left from the mosque there was the UN base.  It was the

 6     Ukrainian Battalion.  And up there, there was also a neighbourhood called

 7     Kula, and the road went on to some surrounding villages.

 8             THE INTERPRETER:  Could the witness please move away from the

 9     microphone.  She's chafing the microphone with her clothes.

10             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Could you help, please, the witness to have a

11     certain distance from the microphone.

12             MR. ELDERKIN:  Those are the only markings I'd like to see on

13     this page of the exhibit, and I'd ask if that could be admitted as an

14     exhibit marked in court, please.

15             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  This aerial photograph with the markings will be

16     received as an exhibit.

17             THE REGISTRAR:  Your Honours, Exhibit Number P2178, map number 5,

18     shall be assigned Exhibit Number P2192.  Thank you.

19             MR. ELDERKIN:  Now could we see the next page, page 6.

20        Q.   Ms. Palic, the central mosque in this picture and the houses on

21     the road running leftwards, the road that first curves up and then down

22     in the picture, can you look at those areas and tell us if you know

23     anything about the destruction of buildings, including the mosque and

24     houses in that area after you had left Zepa in July of 1995.

25        A.   I wasn't there when they destroyed these houses and the mosque.


Page 13325

 1     The mosque was there on the 27th of July when the last convoy of

 2     civilians was blocked in Zepa.  They spent the last night in the harem of

 3     that mosque.  These buildings were burnt down after the civilians had

 4     left.  It was a part of the process of ethnic cleansing in Zepa.

 5             What I do know, and I returned to Zepa after eight years for the

 6     first time, and it was in 2003 or 2002 when people first started to go to

 7     Zepa.  And all houses were destroyed.  Some neighbourhoods were

 8     completely erased.  Vegetation in Zepa is very rich, and everything was

 9     already overgrown.  It had all become a desert.

10             MR. ELDERKIN:  I don't need to have that image up on the screen

11     any more.  Thank you.

12        Q.   Ms. Palic, I'm going ask you a few more questions now, and these

13     do concern your husband, and please do indicate to me if you need to take

14     a break at some point.

15             You've mentioned getting news that your husband had returned

16     safely to Zepa after you had arrived in free territory, and you received

17     such a message.  Did you hear anything about his whereabouts in the days

18     after that?

19        A.   No, nothing.  That was the only information I got from my

20     husband, and I received it indirectly.

21             On the 28th, in the evening, I heard the news on the radio that

22     the entire civilian population had been evacuated from Zepa, and the

23     whole leadership along with the commander of Zepa, Avdo Palic, had been

24     taken prisoner.  That was the moment when my war began.

25        Q.   Since you heard that your husband had been taken prisoner, did


Page 13326

 1     you receive any information that he was then at some point registered by

 2     the International Red Cross following his capture?

 3        A.   Since I was at Visoko, I immediately tried to alarm some

 4     acquaintances and family who were in Sarajevo and who were closer to the

 5     UN and the Presidency to do everything possible to save my husband.

 6     There were rules according to which you couldn't immediately report a

 7     person missing to the Red Cross.  Although there was a war, they adhered

 8     to that rule.

 9             I did have information that my husband was in Rogatica, though,

10     that they were questioning him there, and I got that information from a

11     Ukrainian soldier, indirectly, that is, and nothing else.  And when the

12     conditions were met, I reported my husband missing to -- I reported that

13     to the Red Cross.  And when the Red Cross raised that issue at meetings

14     with the Serb side, concerning my husband, they were always saying that

15     they had no idea.  It's a long story.  At first they even refused to

16     acknowledge they had arrested him.  They were saying that they had never

17     heard of him.

18             In a reply that was recorded by the Red Cross, Ratko Mladic said

19     that Avdo Palic had fled through the woods and probably died in the

20     process.  And there was a series of lies and invectives.  I was unable to

21     learn the truth of my husband.  Only in 1996, after the Dayton Accord was

22     signed in the month of January, Abdurahman Malkic and Sado Ramic, two

23     prisoners who were taken prisoner when -- while they were fleeing from

24     Srebrenica, and they spent some time in Bijeljina, in a building where

25     there was a secret prison.  There are four cells in that building, in the


Page 13327

 1     basement.  In one cell there was Abdurahman, in the other there was Sado

 2     and in the third there was my husband.  When these two were exchanged,

 3     they told me that they had seen my husband and that he had stayed there

 4     when they were transferred to the Batkovic prison on the 10th of August.

 5     No, Avdo was brought on the 10th of August, and they were transferred

 6     from that prison, whereas Avdo had to stay there.

 7        Q.   Did you ever receive any letter from your husband after he was

 8     captured?

 9        A.   No, never.

10        Q.   Have you seen or heard from your husband since you got off the

11     bus that took you away from Zepa?

12        A.   No.  I only got that message that he arrived at Zepa safely and

13     that information from those witnesses.  I had no other contact with my

14     husband.

15        Q.   You now know that your husband lost his life.

16        A.   Yes.

17        Q.   How many years passed before you learned that he was dead?

18        A.   Fourteen years, that is, in 2009, they identified the remains of

19     my husband.  He was found in a mass grave near Rogatica.

20        Q.   Can you tell us briefly what has been the impact on you and your

21     family of these events, including the disappearance of your husband?

22        A.   Well, the meaning of everything has changed.  Nothing of what I

23     had craved in life but did not achieve was due to the fact that somebody

24     else had made decisions about my life.  Since 1992, for the most part, my

25     life was reduced to what Mladic had decided and all that machinery of the


Page 13328

 1     Serb forces and political circles that wanted to cleanse those areas from

 2     the Muslim population.  My life was changed, and the lives of my children

 3     too.  They didn't have the life that they would have had if their father

 4     hadn't died.  I lived in agony for 14 years.  I wanted to find his mortal

 5     remains.  Now I'm trying to find those responsible for his murder.  So

 6     basically ever since the war my life has consisted in the quest for

 7     justice, and that has also affected my health.

 8        Q.   Ms. Palic, thank you very much.  I don't have any further

 9     questions.

10             MR. ELDERKIN:  Your Honours, I'm in your hands.

11             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Thank you very much.

12             Ms. Palic, you know that now Mr. Tolimir has the right to put

13     questions to you during his cross-examination, but let me tell you again,

14     whenever you need a break, please tell us.

15             Mr. Tolimir, you have the floor for your cross-examination.

16             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you very much, Mr. President.

17     I once again send my regards to everyone present including Ms. Palic and

18     may God's will be done in these proceedings and may the outcome be as God

19     wishes and not as I wish.

20                           Cross-examination by Mr. Tolimir:

21        Q.   [Interpretation] Ms. Palic, since you and I speak the same

22     language, please make a pause so that what you or I say can be recorded.

23     I will try to remind you what you said.

24             On page 24, that is a short while ago, you were asked by the

25     Prosecutor when you learned that your husband was killed, and you said in


Page 13329

 1     2009, after 14 years - that is under line 11 - when he was identified in

 2     a mass grave.

 3             Here's my question:  Do you know, were any other persons killed

 4     together with your husband at the same time since they were buried in a

 5     mass grave?  That may have been a source of information for you looking

 6     for your husband and trying to find the perpetrators of his murder.  Now,

 7     once the cursor stops, please begin your answer.

 8             Thank you.  Please go ahead.

 9        A.   In that grave, the bodies of Mehmed Hajric, Amir Imamovic, one

10     Hamdija Dedic.  In all, nine bodies were found.

11        Q.   Thank you.  Please tell us, were you able to find out whether

12     Mehmed Hajric was killed at the same time as your husband, and was

13     Amir Imamovic killed at the same time as your husband, and is that why

14     they were buried in a mass grave?  Please start your answer once this is

15     recorded.  Thank you.

16        A.   Mr. Tolimir, that is a question I would like to put to you.  As

17     early as 1998, I found your telephone number, and I wanted to ask you

18     about the fate of my husband, and I did call a number in Banja Luka, but

19     nobody answered the phone.  It wasn't easy for me to do, because I knew

20     you wouldn't answer me, and I didn't want to provoke, but all my letters,

21     all my phone calls, all my attempts to learn the truth, which went as far

22     as trying to set up contact with you, I don't know when these individuals

23     were killed, but what I do know is that my husband remained in that

24     secret prison, Vanekov Mlin in Bijeljina after these two persons,

25     Abdurahman Malkic and the other.


Page 13330

 1             At first it was by my private efforts that I managed to obtain

 2     some information, and later on a statement was taken from the prison

 3     warden and he confirmed that Avdo, indeed, was in that secret prison.

 4     And in the night between the 4th and the 5th of September, around

 5     midnight, Dragomir Pecanac arrived with his driver, and as the warden

 6     said, he took over the prisoner.

 7             What followed was that Pecanac, in his statement, said that he

 8     had handed over Avdo to Colonel Jovo Maric, the commander of some air

 9     force unit, a man who at that time was dead already, so he could neither

10     confirm nor deny that allegation, so that all the information about what

11     happened to my husband once he was taken away by Pecanac is insufficient.

12     I don't know what happened to him except that he ended up in that mass

13     grave.

14        Q.   Thank you, Mrs. Palic.  I know that you wanted to gather as much

15     information as possible.  I know that there were some proceedings before

16     national courts.  There were some witnesses here who also testified about

17     what you are talking about.  However, right now it is most important for

18     you and me and the Trial Chamber to get as many facts about the

19     circumstances of his disappearance as possible.  That's why I'm asking

20     you whether you know if he was killed at the same time with others or

21     not.  That's very important, because there were many misinformations on

22     the part of the exhumation commission and on the part of those who took

23     part in everything.  Because if we don't find out things at this

24     Tribunal, how are we going to find them out?  That's why I want you to

25     tell these things to me and to the Trial Chamber.  Don't be afraid even


Page 13331

 1     if you say something about me.  The Trial Chamber should hear everything.

 2        A.   Sir, I'm not afraid of the truth.  I'm very much for the truth.

 3     I just don't know, though, those things.  However, the fact is that

 4     nobody saw my husband in Rogatica except you, Ljubisa Beara, and other

 5     people from Mladic's staff, Pecanac and others.  So he was first kept for

 6     15 days there.  After that he was taken to Bijeljina, to the secret

 7     prison.  No other prisoner was with my husband in the cell.  They saw him

 8     in Bijeljina, but in Rogatica he wasn't seen by any of the other

 9     prisoners.  You know very well that in Rogatica he was kept in a private

10     apartment.  You interrogated him there.  Beara interrogated him there.

11     (redacted)

12     (redacted)

13     (redacted)

14     (redacted)

15     (redacted)

16     (redacted)

17     (redacted)

18     (redacted)

19     (redacted)

20     (redacted)

21     (redacted)

22     (redacted)

23     (redacted)

24     (redacted)

25     (redacted)


Page 13332

 1     (redacted)

 2             Mr. Tolimir, weren't you the officer who negotiated with Avdo in

 3     Zepa, the officer who was present when Avdo was arrested, when he was

 4     kidnapped by the soldiers of the Army of Republika Srpska in the UN base?

 5     In one of the statements we can see that you were present when Avdo was

 6     brought there as a prisoner.

 7        Q.   Thank you.  A witness testified here.  He was the one who took

 8     over Avdo Palic from the persons who arrested him, and he testified about

 9     the circumstances.

10             I would like you to only speak about what you saw or what you

11     know, because many people talk many things.  You said Maric said this,

12     and then Tolimir saw him and things like that, but I would like you to

13     tell us exactly what you know.  That's the only way we can find the

14     truth.  I mean, there's no problem if I'm involved in all this.

15        A.   But isn't that a shame?

16        Q.   I don't know what a shame is.  I don't think that it's a shame if

17     you speak the truth, that's why I want you to tell the truth.  Could you

18     please answer my following question:  You asked me a number of questions

19     here, and I have to tell you that before this Court I only have the right

20     to ask questions and not to answer.  So through my questions, I'm going

21     to try to tell you everything I know.  I'm going to say everything that I

22     can say, everything that I am allowed to say.

23             Please tell us, do you know that at the time while your husband

24     was interrogated in that apartment, he was interrogated by the State

25     Security Service and not the army?  You said that he was in that mill.


Page 13333

 1        A.   It was four.

 2        Q.   And do you know that he was also interrogated there by the same

 3     organs?

 4        A.   He wasn't registered.  There is no trace of him being registered

 5     anywhere except one thing.  The only trace comes from the fact that the

 6     warden of the prison in Vanekov Mlin was sufficiently intelligent, and he

 7     requested that Pecanac should sign a certificate certifying that he took

 8     over the prisoner.  So this is the only trace from which we can see that

 9     Avdo was treated as a war prisoner, because he was handed over as a war

10     prisoner.  So that's one thing.

11     (redacted)

12     (redacted)

13     (redacted)

14     (redacted)

15     (redacted)

16     (redacted)

17             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Mr. Elderkin.

18             MR. ELDERKIN:  I need to ask if we can go into private session.

19             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Private.

20                           [Private session]

21     (redacted)

22     (redacted)

23     (redacted)

24     (redacted)

25     (redacted)


Page 13334

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 6

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10

11     Pages 13334-13335 redacted. Private session.

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

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25

 


Page 13336

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 2     (redacted)

 3     (redacted)

 4     (redacted)

 5     (redacted)

 6     (redacted)

 7     (redacted)

 8     (redacted)

 9     (redacted)

10     (redacted)

11     (redacted)

12     (redacted)

13     (redacted)

14     (redacted)

15     (redacted)

16     (redacted)

17     (redacted)

18     (redacted)

19                           [Open session]

20             THE REGISTRAR:  We're back in open session, Your Honours.  Thank

21     you.

22             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Ms. Palic, you told us about the commissions set

23     up by the government and Republika Srpska.  Please continue.

24             THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] So as I was saying, none of those

25     commissions managed to yield the answer, which was the basic reason for


Page 13337

 1     the establishment of the commissions.  They did not investigate those

 2     responsible, and they did not tell me where the body of my husband was.

 3             You are now referring me back to the institutions in Sarajevo.

 4     Look, I do not amnesty anybody in this case, but the fact remains that I

 5     did not expect to receive an answer from them.

 6             All this could have happened the way that it did happen.  When we

 7     requested them to identify possible mortal remains it was one thing, but

 8     in this particular case all the responsibility rested with the

 9     Government of Republika Srpska.

10        Q.   Thank you, Mrs. Palic.  Please tell the Trial Chamber who

11     identified your husband.  Tell us everything you know about that so we

12     can see whether they found him in the mass grave or whether they placed

13     him in the mass grave after the identification, because this is going to

14     reveal many things about the manner in which those people were killed.

15        A.   In 2009, I received information that my husband had been

16     identified.  That was a great shock for me.  Why?  Because I was informed

17     that the body that was found out to belong to my husband had been buried

18     in Visoko as an unidentified body, that it had been exhumed from a mass

19     grave in Vragolovi close to Rogatica in 2001, and the identification was

20     done by the ICMP, because they do all the identifications in the former

21     Yugoslavia.  That's an international institute for the DNA analysis.

22             So the body of my husband was exhumed from a mass grave in 2001.

23     It was transferred to Visoko.  This means that it was handed over to the

24     federal commission.  Since no identification was made, because at the

25     time they did not do DNA analysis, he was buried as an unidentified body.


Page 13338

 1             You have to understand that this was a great frustration for me.

 2     I passed by that graveyard on many occasions, and I didn't know that the

 3     body of my husband was lying there.  I consider the Government of

 4     Republika Srpska responsible, because if they told me that they told the

 5     truth I would have known in the body of my husband was there.  We could

 6     have done all this analysis before.

 7        Q.   Thank you, Mrs. Palic.  Now, based on all your knowledge, could

 8     you answer my following question:  Do you maybe know whether the mortal

 9     remains of your husband were found in an individual grave or in a common

10     grave with other people who were killed at different times and different

11     places?

12        A.   I don't know if they were all killed in the same place.  My

13     husband's body was found in the mass grave near Rogatica where there were

14     also the bodies of Mehmed Hajric, Amir Imamovic and Hamdija Dedic, as

15     well as six other victims.  It is certain that the three I mentioned were

16     killed in the area of Rogatica.  Actually, there is information to that

17     extent, including information on the perpetrator.  However, I don't know

18     where my husband had been.  This is what I'm trying to find out.

19        Q.   Thank you.  I'm trying to point out a key fact, which is whether

20     he was killed at the same time, so that to be buried in the same grave,

21     or was he exhumed and then subsequently put in it.  This is what you need

22     to research, because it will provide many answers ultimately.

23        A.   There is indicia in existence that this was a secondary grave.

24     However, as I said, they're only indicia.  I think you know that better

25     than me.


Page 13339

 1        Q.   Since say that there are indications that it was a secondary

 2     grave, are there also indications that someone buried people killed in

 3     different places in that single grave in order to cover up any traces and

 4     lead the investigation in a wrong direction?

 5        A.   If anyone did that, it was done by members of the VRS in

 6     Rogatica.

 7        Q.   You also said that Republika Srpska was to blame.  Could the VRS

 8     bury the mortal remains of your husband and others in Visoko, those

 9     allegedly found in the mass grave, because it is in federation territory.

10        A.   This is an ugly question.  I'm telling you and the Chamber this:

11     There wasn't a single day spent that I didn't do something trying to find

12     out where my husband was.  I have the decision of the war crimes chamber

13     in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a senior judicial body which states that it was

14     the authorities of the RS who are tasked with determining or defining the

15     fate of Avdo Palic.  If he is found to be alive, he should be released

16     immediately.  If he is dead, the mortal remains need to be returned to

17     the family and perpetrators tried.  It means that the mortal remains were

18     to be given to the family, not to any federal commissions, because there

19     are three such commissions, including the government of the RS.  But not

20     a single one was able to tell us that he was, say, killed in Rogatica and

21     buried at this particular place.  This is the lead we would have

22     followed.  Only the last commission hinted at that, and then I insisted

23     that targeted individual identification be done of the bodies in the

24     grave.

25             If the commissions appointed by the RS between 2001 and 2007, had


Page 13340

 1     they done their job, everything would have been clear, but where are the

 2     results of investigations?

 3             Throughout the investigation, I don't see any responsibility with

 4     the federation commission.  I believe this is imputed.  We looked for so

 5     many years, we insisted, and all along the body was on our side.  It's a

 6     classical set-up so as to appear that, yes, it is ultimately you hiding

 7     the body.

 8        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  You know that the perpetrator of a crime

 9     is trying to cover up tracks.  I'm asking you this in goodwill.  Please

10     consider it carefully.  Did you ask the Prosecution who carried out the

11     exhumation in Vragolovi, The VRS or the commission of Bosnia-Herzegovina?

12     Did you find out who it did and who took his body to Visoko and for what

13     reason?

14        A.   The question you put to me is illogical.  As I said, the

15     exhumation of the mass grave in Vragolovi was carried out in 2001, and if

16     I'm not wrong, the VRS no longer existed.  There were only the joint

17     armed forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina.  How could then the army exhume his

18     body?  It is a fact that until 2001 he was buried in VRS territory, and

19     exhumations were never carried out by the army.

20        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  Please consider this carefully:  These

21     joint organs which carried out exhumations, did they take your husband's

22     body to Visoko, to ABiH territory, and buried him there, or was this done

23     by Republika Srpska, to take his body to the territory of the other

24     entity?  This is the question you need to explain to the Chamber.

25        A.   It was done by representatives of the federal commission.  The


Page 13341

 1     rule was -- well, it's difficult and tedious to explain, but every

 2     commission had a list of people they were looking for.  The RS government

 3     is duty-bound to assist with identifying and locating people in their

 4     territory, as is the federation in its territory.  Of course, many more

 5     Muslims went missing, and for the most part searches were done in -- in

 6     RS territory.  Now it turns out that it's the federal commission to

 7     blame, and they found him, and the blame is not on those who killed.

 8        Q.   Well, I didn't raise the issue of the blame.  I raised the issue

 9     of who found the body in the mass grave and who took it to Visoko.

10     Perhaps you can tell us I know, I don't know or something else.  When you

11     say the federal commission, the Court doesn't know which commission it

12     is.  Is it the one controlled by the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina and its

13     government or is it some other commission and territory?

14        A.   When we are referring to this, I cannot refer to the Army of

15     Bosnia-Herzegovina or the VRS.  These two military formations ceased

16     their existence once the Dayton Accords were signed, and shortly

17     afterwards, joint BiH forces were created.  I believe you know that.

18     There are no separate armies any more.  This is done by commissions for

19     searching for those who went missing, and there are two, one in the RS

20     and the other in the federation.  Need I say more?

21        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  I have no further questions about this,

22     because you are putting in the context of who is to blame.  I was simply

23     trying to find out whether the federation commission working in the

24     territory of the federation was supposed to go to Rogatica, which is in

25     RS territory.  Are they free to come without any authorisation or


Page 13342

 1     approval by the RS authorities?

 2        A.   There must be permission to come, and there must be police

 3     security provided.

 4        Q.   That is why I asked you.  How come a body is taken from Rogatica

 5     to Visoko, from the RS to the federation, without you knowing and without

 6     you being informed?

 7        A.   It is the ultimate crime, actually.  Had I not done what I did,

 8     had I not fought, had I not searched, had I not have the decision by the

 9     Court ordering the RS authorities to hand over the body to the family --

10     and I never turned to the federal commission because I didn't think they

11     were responsible.  This question was before all other questions.  The

12     disappearance of my husband was taken out of the context of those who

13     went missing in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  I fought for him to be found.  I

14     fought for the truth to be learned, and there were court decisions on my

15     side.  There's also the fact that my husband was the most senior prisoner

16     in terms of rank on any side, the Croatian, the Serbian, or the army

17     side.  It was a well-known case.  This is why I believe it to be more of

18     a crime by the RS, because they knew, but they didn't want to deliver

19     despite the obligation by the chamber for human rights and despite the

20     decision of the constitutional commission of the Constitutional Court of

21     Bosnia-Herzegovina.  They simply did not provide information that the

22     body of my husband was exhumed, and that was in the territory of the

23     federation.

24             Do you think that anyone in the federation would have an interest

25     in hiding my husband's body?  What for?


Page 13343

 1        Q.   It is not up to me to have an opinion about this.  I simply put

 2     questions about what you said.  You said you passed by the graveyard

 3     without knowing.  So the person who buried him didn't tell you.

 4        A.   That somebody is the Government of the RS.

 5        Q.   Did the Government of the RS bury him in Visoko in federation

 6     territory without the federation knowing?

 7        A.   Please, if I give you something without telling you what it is,

 8     how can you be responsible for it?  Once the body was exhumed from the

 9     grave in Rogatica, did anybody provide a list of those victims, saying

10     this is Mehmed Hajric, Amir Imamovic, Hamdija Dedic, and Avdo Palic?  No

11     one said so.

12             It is your responsibility or the responsibility of the person who

13     killed them, the person who located that mass grave there, and it is the

14     responsibility of the Government of the RS who did not conduct an

15     efficient investigation and did not hand over the body in time.

16        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  You know best how to arrive at the truth.

17     It is up to me to ask you to -- whether you have considered all these

18     elements, and since we entered the realm of politics, you may well end up

19     without appropriate answers on either side.  I hope you are aware of

20     that.

21        A.   I do not understand.

22             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  This was not a question.  I think this is a very

23     difficult matter to deal with in this courtroom.  I think it's very

24     important for Mr. Tolimir, and it is a very serious matter for you,

25     Ms. Palic.  I would like to invite both speakers to calm down, if that is


Page 13344

 1     possible, dealing with this problematic matter.  We should avoid

 2     debating.  We should try to continue by putting questions and answer

 3     questions.

 4             Mr. Tolimir, please carry on and put questions to the witness.

 5             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.  I am

 6     trying to.

 7             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

 8        Q.   You were asked by Judge Fluegge why your husband did not join you

 9     when he arrived with you at the separation line at Kladanj.  You

10     described how you arrived there and how he went back.

11             My question is this:  When your husband came on your bus, did he

12     tell you that I offered him to go to ABiH territory with you, and it was

13     because of that that I let him to go to your bus to accompany you to the

14     separation line?  Did he tell you that as you were moving between the two

15     lines of confrontation?

16        A.   No, he did not.  Not in those words.  He didn't mention your

17     offer.

18             Somewhere in my memory it seems to linger this idea that you were

19     ready to let him go.  He was a hindrance to you in Zepa.  Maybe I simply

20     wanted him to come with us.  In such circumstances, your only -- only

21     your need for survival operates properly.

22             Avdo was a commander.  Furthermore, he was the person who enjoyed

23     the trust of his people.  He radiated peace and security, which was

24     important for the inhabitants of Zepa.  Had Avdo left, what would have

25     been with the people?  Only one convoy had left by that time.  I'm


Page 13345

 1     certain that Srebrenica would have occurred in Zepa.  How would Avdo be

 2     able to go on living knowing that he had abandoned his people?  Also,

 3     what would that have meant in terms of his service?  It would surely be

 4     seen as a betrayal.

 5             By that time, I got used to this underhanded approach of yours as

 6     to who started the war, how, when.  It's always the same thing over and

 7     over again.  There's only one thing that is certain:  For as long as you

 8     are here, you're important in that context.

 9             Mr. Tolimir, if you were indeed of such good intentions, why

10     didn't you save my husband once his mission was completed, once he saved

11     the people of Zepa?  Instead, you offered to him a dirty way out, a

12     coward's way out.

13             Would you have abandoned your people?  I know many would.

14     However, I'm proud.

15        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.

16             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Ms. Palic and everybody else, it's a very

17     emotional situation for you, of course, but it's up to Mr. Tolimir to put

18     questions to you and not the other way round, because we are in a trial,

19     so that there is no possibility for Mr. Tolimir to answer your questions

20     I suppose you have, and I understand that very well, but it's only for

21     him to put questions to you.

22             Mr. Tolimir, carry on.

23             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

24        Q.   Ms. Palic, apart from taking care of the civilian population, was

25     your husband obliged to take care of his brigade first and foremost, and


Page 13346

 1     did he want his brigade to get out of Zepa either by convoy or some other

 2     way, and was there resistance to that by the Sarajevo authorities?  Do

 3     you know anything about that?  Thank you.

 4        A.   I only know that -- that Avdo only accepted an evacuation of his

 5     forces by air, because he didn't want his soldiers to take a land route

 6     without Red Cross monitoring.  Only by air, for reasons of safety.

 7             And as for resistance in Sarajevo, no.  I know that there were

 8     talks about that in Sarajevo, and there were representatives of the Zepa

 9     War Presidency involved, and they did everything to bring about such an

10     evacuation.

11        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  Since there was no evacuation of

12     able-bodied men, was it logical for him to try to provide support for

13     their evacuation through direct contacts with the Sarajevo authorities,

14     including Alija Izetbegovic, and did he tell you that he had been offered

15     to leave and do that and contact his unit the same way he contacted you

16     at Visoko?

17        A.   No, I don't know anything about that.

18        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.

19             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we please see D55, paragraph

20     108.  It's on page 30.  Now Ms. Palic can see what her husband wrote to

21     Alija Izetbegovic concerning the -- concerning his soldiers.

22             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

23        Q.   You can see the text right below the third paragraph.  This is

24     the letter which your husband in his capacity as brigade commander sent

25     to Alija Izetbegovic on the 26th of July.  I quote --


Page 13347

 1             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Mr. Tolimir, before you are going to quote,

 2     please tell us where we can find the English text.  Is it the last

 3     paragraph on that page, 29?  Yes.  Now I see it.  Paragraph 108.

 4     Continue, please.

 5             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.

 6             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

 7        Q.   I quote again what Avdo Palic wrote to Alija Izetbegovic on the

 8     26th of July:

 9             "President -- Mr. President, at about 2100 hours negotiations at

10     Boksanica at which General Smith, Hamdija Torlak, President of the

11     Executive Board of Zepa, and war criminal Ratko Mladic were present

12     concluded:  As General Suvalic informed me today during these

13     negotiations on agreement about the exchanges of all for all accepted

14     also by our side should have been adopted.  Minister Muratovic was

15     supposed to be present but he wasn't because security was not guaranteed

16     for him.  General Suvalic also informed me about this.  During the

17     negotiations General Smith stated that our side did not accept the

18     agreement about the exchange of all for all and that our side was

19     demanding some additional concessions.  Hamdija Torlak remained at the

20     place of negotiations in Boksanica and he was told that if we were ready

21     for an exchange of all for all during the night until 0800 in the

22     morning, General Smith would let us know so that a plan of helicopter

23     evacuation could be prepared.

24             "President, I ask you on behalf of my brigade which is on the

25     verge of a nervous breakdown, if our side does not accept the agreement


Page 13348

 1     to undertake everything so that it accepts the agreement and free us from

 2     our -- from our predicament.  We cannot believe that this problem looks

 3     like you will not solve it.  If the problem's not resolved tomorrow, I

 4     must make a decision to make a breakthrough with 2.000 men and 10 -- and

 5     a thousand rounds."

 6        A.   10.000 rounds.

 7        Q.   Yes, I apologise, "10.000 rounds and you have the picture of

 8     Srebrenica and intelligence data that we are blocked from all sides.

 9     Tomorrow the evacuation of civilians will be over and UNPROFOR will

10     immediately pull out so that tomorrow we will probably be left to fend

11     for ourselves.

12             "President, I ask you, in the name of the soldiers who have been

13     fighting for the last five days --

14        A.   Fifteen days.

15        Q.   "Fifteen days, like lions.  I ask you in the names of fallen

16     soldiers, and in my ranks, I have sons or parents of those who died, I

17     ask in the name of the evacuated families and children, who can hardly

18     wait to meet their fathers who are left on Zepa mountain to be

19     slaughtered or annihilated in any other way.  I ask you again in the name

20     of my soldiers to make it possible for us to defend Bosnia in some other

21     battle-fields, to liberate it and to die like men.  Do not let us die of

22     hunger, of the most common diseases, because we don't have a single

23     doctor but already have sick people who cannot reach the free territory

24     if we start the breakthrough," and so on.

25             And now let's take a look at the last sentence in this paragraph:


Page 13349

 1             "He could have left yesterday with the wounded, but did not want

 2     to leave his brothers-in-arms.  He wanted to know to the end what would

 3     be their fate and share it with them.  I will be waiting for your reply,

 4     hoping that you will successfully resolve this problem."

 5             And the ERN number of the document from which this is a quote can

 6     be seen in footnote 164.

 7             Did you know that your husband sent such appeals to

 8     Mr. Alija Izetbegovic and that there was no helicopter evacuation in

 9     spite of that?  Thank you.

10        A.   This was after my departure from Zepa, so I can't have known

11     this.  What I do know is that --

12             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Please continue.

13             THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] There was continuous communication

14     and that there were continuous efforts on the part of the Sarajevo --

15             THE INTERPRETER:  Interpreter's correction:  To inform the

16     Sarajevo authorities of the situation in Zepa.

17             THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] There is one fact:  Nobody, apart

18     from us who were there, including you, Mr. Tolimir, could not have a

19     faithful picture of what was going on there.  Avdo did all he could that

20     the Sarajevo authorities get correct information, and the UN in Sarajevo

21     too, that the people be adequately protected.

22             If you're asking me, I can say that it was my -- it is my

23     personal impression that we were left to our own resources and that

24     everybody had left us at the mercy of those -- those thugs that I saw in

25     Zepa, the Serb army.


Page 13350

 1             Could the Sarajevo authorities do more?  I don't know.  I know

 2     that the UN could have done more.  They could have stopped you.  And this

 3     is the source of my bitterness.  But that does not justify what you did

 4     there.

 5             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

 6        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  I kindly ask you the following:  Your

 7     husband wrote this one day after your departure.  The situation did not

 8     change in that one day.  And the date before your departure agreement D51

 9     was signed.  Could we please see it in e-court.  Did your husband talk to

10     you, and did you know that an agreement was signed under which the

11     soldiers were also supposed to cross over to BH Army controlled territory

12     under certain conditions?  Did he tell you about it?

13        A.   Yes, he did.  He said that they would come, too, because

14     otherwise I wouldn't have left him if I hadn't hoped that he would join

15     me.

16        Q.   Thank you.  Did he tell you that he spoke to me in the car about

17     the evacuation of able-bodied men and that we had the idea of him to go

18     to federation territory and arrange the evacuation from Zepa by

19     helicopter, irrespective of the pride that matters to all of us there?

20     But if we look at the result of that pride, that's something else.

21        A.   No, he didn't tell me, and it's normal he didn't, because then I

22     would have tried much harder to persuade him to come with us.  But I

23     repeat that this was a cowardly ruse.

24             Let us think about the objective situation where you give an

25     opportunity for the number one man to leave.  What else can that be


Page 13351

 1     called but betrayal?

 2        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  That's your opinion.  But those who had to

 3     resolve problems in the war such as your husband and I, had to find

 4     some -- had to find agreement.

 5             Now we can see here an agreement on the disarmament of the

 6     able-bodied population in the Zepa enclave.  And the other problems are

 7     outlined in these ten items.  Please take a look at item 2, which says:

 8             "Avdo Palic shall issue an order to his troop -- troops to --

 9             THE INTERPRETER:  The civilian and able-bodied population --

10             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation] of Zepa shall assemble around the

11     UNPROFOR base in Zepa which shall be assigned to the army of RS, that the

12     units under the command of Avdo Palic have accepted the truth and will

13     not try to take advantage of it."

14             Now look at item 10.  It reads:

15             "UNPROFOR, the ICRC, the UNHCR, and other international

16     humanitarian organisations, in co-operation with the Army of Republika

17     Srpska, shall enable the transport of its civilian population from Zepa

18     to territory under the control of Rasim Delic's army or to third

19     countries of their choice in accordance with the Geneva Conventions of 12

20     August 1949."

21             Which means that, apart from the able bodied and the civilian

22     population, your husband had to tackle the problem of the able bodied who

23     he commanded.  Here is my question.  Would all able-bodied men have

24     accepted the agreement if your husband had signed it, and if the Sarajevo

25     authorities accepted it?  Would that have been a better outcome that


Page 13352

 1     would have enabled them to come home to their families as your husband

 2     wrote in his letter?  Thank you.

 3        A.   I will get back to your question, but first I can see whether

 4     this says done on the 24th of July.  This is the agreement that

 5     Hamdija Torlak had to, was forced to, sign, which means that this

 6     agreement was imposed by force.  That's one thing.

 7             Another thing:  I state with full responsibility that if it had

 8     been agreed for the troops to surrender to you, the Serb army, what would

 9     have ensued would have been the same massacre as in Srebrenica.  I also

10     don't know what would have happened to the civilians, but the troops

11     would have been massacred.  I'm positive about that.  You know that even

12     those who fled to Serbia were mistreated, and that in a country which,

13     conditionally speaking, was not at war.  And what would have become of

14     them if they had surrendered to those in Zepa?

15             There is no such favourable option as you're trying to present

16     it.  If you had been so harmless, you wouldn't have shelled and killed so

17     persistently.  You wouldn't have come from the other end of the country

18     to drive us out of there.  You are saying that you would have let the

19     Zepa troops to leave without harming them?  Oh, come on.  Your

20     persistence to conquer in that territory was incredible.  You know how

21     much effort was put into conquering Zepa from 1992 to 1995, and yet

22     you're now trying to convince me that you would have let the soldiers to

23     leave and join their families.  Well, why didn't you do that at

24     Srebrenica?

25             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  I have stop you.  We need our second break now.


Page 13353

 1     We're running out of time.  But I would like to mention that on page 48,

 2     line 19, it reads:  "Please look at item 2 which says," and then you were

 3     quoting, but that was, in fact, item 3 of the document in front of us.

 4             Thank you.  We must have our second break now, and we will

 5     continue at 12.35.

 6                           --- Recess taken at 12.03 p.m.

 7                           --- On resuming at 12.37 p.m.

 8             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Mr. Tolimir, please continue.

 9             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.

10             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

11        Q.   Mrs. Palic, while we looked at D51 in e-court, you asked whether

12     it said the 24th of July.  I have to say yes, it says so at the

13     beginning, in the first paragraph and also at the very end, and the

14     agreement was signed on the 24th of July, 1995.

15             While it is still on the screen, I'm not a good reader, so that's

16     probably the reason why I read the third paragraph instead of the second,

17     but could you now take a look at the seventh paragraph where it says:

18             "In accordance with the Geneva Conventions of the 12th of August

19     1949 and the Additional Protocols of 1977, the civilian population of

20     Zepa shall be given the freedom to choose their place of residence while

21     hostilities continue."

22             Do you see that?

23        A.   Yes.

24        Q.   Thank you.  Since this was signed on the 14th of July, 1995, can

25     you tell us whether you know when the Dayton agreement was signed?


Page 13354

 1        A.   Not the 14th, the 24th.  That's what I asked you, whether it was

 2     the 24th.

 3             When the Prosecutor was posing questions, I said that I remember

 4     it well, that I remember that Hamdija Torlak came in one evening and then

 5     lied on the floor in the house where I was with my babies.  He was silent

 6     for a long time, and then he let out a deep sign and said, "I had to sign

 7     the surrender of Zepa."  He was a desperate man at that moment.

 8             Anybody else in the same position could not have done anything

 9     else.  You were the masters of life and death.  That's how you acted, and

10     that's how it was.  But whoever would have been in the same situation

11     would also feel the same burden of treason.  That's why he had a very

12     hard time.

13             So everything that you see written here, everything written here

14     was written on the instructions of Ratko Mladic, and this document was

15     probably written just for the purpose of writing it, not for the purpose

16     of actually agreeing on something.  So what I see here in this document

17     is for me yet another proof of the fact that you defined the rules of the

18     game, that you had your own goals and your own visions.

19             You mention Geneva Conventions here, but you cared nothing for

20     them.  This document is yet another proof that you blackmailed the

21     negotiators from Zepa.  And as for the Dayton agreement it was signed on

22     the 14th of December, 1995.

23        Q.   Thank you.

24        A.   But I don't see what it has to do with this.

25        Q.   It has to do with this, please.  Does that mean that this


Page 13355

 1     agreement was in force for less than 6 months and after that everybody

 2     had the right to return to the territory from which they fled during the

 3     war.  Isn't that something that this agreement guarantees?  And aren't

 4     some people living in Zepa now?  You yourself said that you went to Zepa

 5     after the war.  Thank you.

 6        A.   This question is extremely provocative, but as I told you, I am

 7     used to the ruses generated by the machinery of the Serbian nationalism.

 8             The Dayton peace agreement guarantees a lot of things, things

 9     that were never implemented, never ever.  On the contrary.  As for the

10     return to Zepa, it began probably sometime in 2001.

11             I would like to inform the Chamber and remind you in July 1995,

12     when you arrested Avdo, you know that the army was disintegrating, that

13     whatever choice they would have been offered, they were afraid and they

14     couldn't make proper decisions.  That's why it was agreed that the men

15     should be -- should cross over to Serbia.

16             A number of able-bodied men who were in Zepa crossed the Drina

17     River, arrived to Serbia and were then accommodated in collection centres

18     Sljivovica and Mitrovo Polje, I think.  Those men were later taken to

19     third countries, America, Norway, Scandinavian countries, Australia.

20     They were scattered all over the world.  Then they invited their families

21     to join them, and they started new life in those foreign countries.

22             So what am I trying to say here?  You imposed conditions that

23     those men could not return to Bosnia and Herzegovina, so that they went

24     to third countries instead.  When they went abroad and when they started

25     their new lives, well, who would return to Zepa then?


Page 13356

 1        Q.   Thank you, Mrs. Palic.

 2        A.   Just one more thing.  Where were they supposed to come back?  I

 3     want to remind you that if you look at the big house that belonged to my

 4     parents, together with auxiliary buildings and other things, it was a

 5     large property.  Today there is only a small weekend house consisting of

 6     two rooms.  And there are many similar houses in Zepa.  This is the

 7     so-called process of rebuilding.  There is nothing in Zepa.  There are no

 8     factories.  There are no jobs.  There is nothing in Zepa.  And when you

 9     were chasing us away, you knew very well how to do that.

10        Q.   Thank you, Mrs. Palic.  Could I ask you to make your answers

11     slightly shorter so that I can manage to finish this cross-examination.

12             Now, as for the events, there was a witness yesterday who

13     testified about crossing over to Serbia.  You said that it was agreed

14     that they would cross to Serbia.  Do you know who agreed that, where and

15     how?

16        A.   I think that Milosevic expressed the willingness to accept the

17     men from Zepa under the auspices of UN and I assume the Sarajevo

18     authorities.  Nobody from Zepa was involved in that.

19        Q.   Thank you.  So if it was done under the auspices of the UNHCR and

20     the Sarajevo authorities, does that mean that the Serbs took those people

21     to Australia?  Ah, yesterday's witness said that he returned after three

22     months.  Were they able to return whenever they wished to return?

23        A.   Where did he return after three months?  After -- no.  To Zepa?

24     Nobody returned to Zepa before 2001.

25        Q.   Thank you, Mrs. Palic.  You have to bear in mind that we had a


Page 13357

 1     witness here whose job is to issue permits for the return to Zepa, and he

 2     said that he personally issued 300 such permits which enabled people to

 3     return to Zepa.

 4             I think that we should speak only about things that we know

 5     about, and we should be more brief.

 6             Do you happen to know that more than 300 families returned to

 7     Zepa?

 8        A.   I don't think that it was that many.  A number of them returned,

 9     but not that many.  But the return did not start prior to 2001.  People

10     couldn't dream about going back to Zepa then.

11        Q.   Thank you.  People returned whenever they wanted, as you yourself

12     said.  But tell me this:  Does this agreement enable everybody to come

13     back after the hostilities?  Is that ethnic cleansing?  If the agreement

14     says that people can come back after the hostilities, and if that is also

15     something envisioned by the Geneva Conventions?

16        A.   Yes.  The Dayton agreement created the possibility for that, but

17     the Serbian authorities did not create such responsibility.  In Zepa they

18     did not create jobs.  They didn't give us the school.  They didn't give

19     us the electricity.  They didn't give us the most elementary conditions

20     for life.  There are things on a declaratory level and then there are

21     things in reality.

22             As for the Serbian authorities, the Dayton agreement is always

23     declaratory when it suits them but in actual fact it has an actual effect

24     only when it suits them as well.  Also, you yourself in this agreement

25     mentioned a number of things only on the declaratory level, but in real


Page 13358

 1     life, there was no return because there were no conditions fit for life.

 2             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Mr. Tolimir, I stopped you because you were

 3     overlapping again.  Please wait with your next question until the

 4     translation has finished.  Now, again your question, please.

 5             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

 6        Q.   Mrs. Palic, please tell us, this agreement signed by the

 7     representatives of the Muslim and Serb side, does it allow for the return

 8     of people after the hostilities?  Take the last sentence in item number

 9     7.  Take a look at the last sentence in item number 7.

10        A.   If you're referring to this document, that's what's written in

11     it, but I have to say it once again, this is a document dictated by

12     Ratko Mladic.  He used it for his own purposes.  The influence on the

13     contents of this document was not in the hands of Hamdija Torlak.

14        Q.   Thank you.  Yesterday at page 4, line 14 -- or more generally, on

15     page 4, line 14 onwards, you spoke about Hamdija Torlak.  First you said

16     that your husband was trying to buy time through negotiations, that that

17     was the reason why he sent the negotiators.  Now, that means that he gave

18     them the mandate and instructions.  Then, further on you said that

19     Hamdija Torlak arrived in Stitkov Dol.  He entered the house, lied on the

20     floor, and remained silent.  After some time, he let out a deep sigh, and

21     he said, "I had to sign the agreement.  I had to sign the surrender of

22     Zepa."  You could feel it in his voice.  You could hear the voice of a

23     traitor, although we all knew that that was the situation that could not

24     have been avoided.

25             So I didn't actually intend to ask you this, but since you


Page 13359

 1     mentioned it and you emphasise Hamdija Torlak, I have to ask you:  Was

 2     the agreement signed when you were in Stitkov Dol?  Thank you.

 3        A.   Yes.

 4             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Mr. Tolimir, this was not on the transcript of

 5     yesterday but of today, just for the sake of the record.  Please

 6     continue.

 7             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.  Can we

 8     see page 7 of today's transcript, lines 19, 21, et cetera.

 9             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

10        Q.   Mrs. Palic said:

11             "When I arrived to the mountain lodge, a boy arrived and told us

12     that the evacuation of civilians from Zepa had been agreed and that we

13     should prepare ourselves," et cetera.

14             My question is:  Did Hamdija Torlak come to Stitkov Dol or to the

15     mountain lodge after the agreement on the evacuation of civilians had

16     been signed?  I, of course, allow for the possibility that you made a

17     mistake about the dates, because you weren't very attentive to details at

18     the time.

19        A.   Hamdija Torlak came to the house in Stitkov Dol.  On that night,

20     we set out for the mountain, and just as we had arrived, that boy came to

21     tell us that we should go back because an evacuation was agreed.

22             Why did they return so quickly?  You know that better than me.

23     But the fact is that I heard it with my own ears, that I was present.  I

24     heard the man say that he was forced to sign that agreement.  Although he

25     didn't want to do it, he said that he had to do it.


Page 13360

 1        Q.   Thank you.  Did you, on the 24th -- were you in that mountain

 2     lodge when the boy arrived to tell you that the agreement had been

 3     signed?

 4        A.   Yes.  I assume -- yes, yes.  It's the 24th, because the

 5     evacuation began in the afternoon on the 24th.

 6        Q.   Thank you.  Does that mean that Hamdija Torlak, lying on the

 7     floor, told you that he signed the evacuation or he was silent and didn't

 8     want to say anything?

 9        A.   It was the night after that he told us that he didn't want to

10     sign it but had to sign it.  That was the same night that we set out for

11     the mountain.  Now, look, of course I'm quite tired right now and you're

12     trying to break my concentration.  We are talking about the dates now.

13     First the 23rd, the 24th in the afternoon we went out.  Then it was the

14     25th, 26th, 27th.  I'm talking about the dates that determine the rest of

15     my life.  The night before we left Stitkov Dol, you know it was the last

16     night.  We went towards the mountain only during the last night, because

17     we didn't know that those conditions would actually be accepted, the

18     conditions that you imposed.  Hamdija did sign them, and then I don't

19     know exactly what happened in the morning, and that's when we were told

20     that the evacuation would have been organised.  And then when we

21     returned, we thought that we would see some Red Cross vehicles.  We

22     thought that this part of evacuation had also been agreed, but I didn't

23     see any such vehicles.

24        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  Let us look at a footage from Zepa so that

25     we can actually see the picture, and perhaps that will help you recall


Page 13361

 1     things.

 2             Do you see this person in the still?

 3        A.   Yes, I see him.

 4        Q.   Can you tell us who it is?

 5        A.   Hamdija Torlak.

 6        Q.   Thank you.  He is putting his coat on his shoulders, and he's

 7     about to sit at the negotiating table.  We need to hear what he says, and

 8     perhaps we should start playing from 25:44.

 9                           [Video-clip played]

10             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

11        Q.   Can you tell us what Mr. Torlak said in his first sentence when

12     he mentioned the government and when he said that they agreed that it was

13     best for the entire population to leave Zepa?  Did you hear that on the

14     footage?

15        A.   I did.  But this is the same as the candy Mladic distributed in

16     Srebrenica before the cameras.  You were taping Hamdija so that he would

17     be forced to say that we decided to surrender and we decided to leave.

18     Why were you not taping as you were destroying, burning what you did when

19     he came?  What was the purpose of this?

20             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Mr. Tolimir.  Mr. Tolimir, we need the document

21     number you are using at the moment.  You didn't indicate.

22             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.  This is

23     P740.

24             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Thank you.

25             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The 19th of July, 1995.  At


Page 13362

 1     26 minutes, 5 seconds, to 26 minutes, 26 seconds.  This is the only part

 2     we'll be referring to given the shortness of time.

 3             Can we keep playing, please.

 4                           [Video-clip played]

 5             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Stop here, please.

 6             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

 7        Q.   Ms. Palic, could you hear Mr. Mladic's first sentence?  What did

 8     he say he would make possible?

 9        A.   I did hear him.

10        Q.   Did he say that he would allow a freedom of choice?

11        A.   He did.  But I need to repeat, this was taped for Mladic's

12     purposes.  I repeat, why was Mladic not taped issuing orders to kill,

13     butcher, burn, et cetera?  This was recorded for his needs, and you are

14     relying on it now.

15             As for any freedom of choice, since 1992, as of the moment you

16     surrounded Zepa with tanks, we never had any freedom of choice.

17             I need to remind you that what you are trying to do is ironic.

18     You know better than me what your aims and intentions were, and now

19     you're asking me to acknowledge your goodness?  You killed.  You torched.

20     People went missing.  There's nothing you didn't do, and now you're

21     discussing freedom of choice as if we were idiots.

22        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  I apologise.  We are showing you the

23     footage of a meeting, and Mladic never issued orders such as kill, burn,

24     and slaughter.  If you have something to that effect, you need to show it

25     to us, of course.  Otherwise, let us continue with the footage, please.


Page 13363

 1                           [Video-clip played]

 2             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Stop, please.  Thank you.

 3             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

 4        Q.   Did the wounded leave first from Zepa in keeping with the

 5     agreement reached by Mladic, Kulovac, and Torlak, and do you know whether

 6     Mr. Kulovac took the wounded out?

 7        A.   He did.  If I can remind you, Dr. Benjamin Kulovac never used to

 8     smoke.  He did not enjoy that vice.  I knew him well.  He was a friend of

 9     mine.  But here you can see he's extremely nervous and that all this is a

10     situation that is well set up.

11             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Let us shows the rest of the

12     footage to Mrs. Palic and she can see if we forced Mr. Kulovac to smoke

13     and whether we staged anything.

14                           [Video-clip played]

15             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

16        Q.   [No interpretation]

17        A.   Good forbid.  I don't even want to hear his name.

18        Q.   Very well.  In that case, we should see the footage of the 25th

19     of July.  This one was of the 19th of July.  From 26 minutes to 26

20     minutes, 26 seconds.  Next we'll see P740, the evacuation on the 25th of

21     July, 1995, that is to say, the day Ms. Palic left Zepa, from 36 minutes

22     40 seconds to 37 minutes 50 seconds?

23             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Mr. Elderkin.

24             MR. ELDERKIN:  The correct reference to the day Ms. Palic left

25     Zepa, I understood from her earlier testimony she left on the 24th of


Page 13364

 1     July but Mr. Tolimir has just stated that the evacuation on the 25th was

 2     the day she left.  If he could confirm the correct day, perhaps.

 3             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Ms. Palic, could you please repeat the day of the

 4     evacuation and when you left the village of Zepa.

 5             THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] On the 24th, in the evening.  That

 6     is when I left Zepa.  That is what I recall, and that is what I made

 7     notes of.  On the 25th, we were in Kladanj, and during that day we

 8     travelled on, eventually reaching Visoko on the 26th.  That's in my

 9     diary.  I may have gone wrong by a day, but I think it was on the 24th.

10     I think this is the footage showing Avdo coming back that day.

11             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.  I do not dispute

12     Ms. Palic's words.  I just wanted to show the footage of the 25th of July

13     showing the evacuation.  And she may well have left on the 24th.  I have

14     no issue with that.

15             Can we please play now from 36 minutes, 18 seconds.

16                           [Video-clip played]

17             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Stop, please.  We stopped at 36:45.

18             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

19        Q.   Can you see whether these soldiers are away from the bus on the

20     opposite side of the road next to the destroyed building?

21        A.   But do you know what the distance is?  Ten metres.

22        Q.   Thank you.  Now have a look at who's next to the bus at the

23     distance of 1 metre.

24             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Let's keep playing from 36:45,

25     please.


Page 13365

 1                           [Video-clip played]

 2             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

 3        Q.   Do you recognise your husband in this still, and do you know if

 4     he was there during the boarding process on the same day when you were

 5     there, or is this another day perhaps?

 6        A.   I don't know.  I don't see myself here.  I suppose this was on

 7     the day he returned.  He was close by.  Whenever the people were upset,

 8     he was there to help them during the evacuation.

 9        Q.   Thank you.

10             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Let's keep playing so that

11     Ms. Palic could identify certain people and remind herself of the events.

12                           [Video-clip played]

13             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.  Please stop.

14             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

15        Q.   Did you see these two men with sheets of paper in hand, and, if

16     so, can you recognise them?

17        A.   I recognised Mehmed Hajric as the person in the white shirt.  I

18     didn't recognise the person on the right-hand side though.  Mehmed Hajric

19     was the president of the Zepa War Presidency.

20        Q.   Thank you.

21             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Let's keep playing from 37 minutes

22     on.

23                           [Video-clip played]

24             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.  Stop, please.  We

25     stopped at 37:40.


Page 13366

 1             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

 2        Q.   Can you see the man in uniform with a patch on his right upper

 3     arm?

 4        A.   I can see him, but I don't see the patch.

 5        Q.   Thank you.  Did UNPROFOR members wear uniforms similar to this

 6     one?  Could he have been an UNPROFOR member?

 7        A.   I don't know his face.  I don't know the man, so you're asking in

 8     vain.

 9        Q.   Thank you.

10             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Let's keep playing from 37:40.

11                           [Video-clip played]

12             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Stop, please, at 37:50.  We won't

13     be using the footage any more.

14             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

15        Q.   Can you tell us whether Mr. Hajric was conducting the evacuation

16     with the help of UNPROFOR members because we saw one of them with a UN

17     patch, and were they closer to the people than the VRS soldiers who as

18     you said were standing some 10 metres away?

19        A.   Well, there's a difference in position, but it all took place

20     within a perimeter of 10 metres.  If this was indeed a Ukrainian soldier,

21     between him and your soldiers the distance was 10 metres judging by the

22     footage.  You showed the corner of the cafe building where I saw you

23     standing with your soldiers when I arrived in Zepa.  At that point in

24     time, the bus was behind the building where the staff was, whereas when I

25     was leaving, the buses were lined along the street between the UNPROFOR


Page 13367

 1     base and the hospital.  So this is such a small area.  This is an attempt

 2     to confuse a person who's not familiar with the location itself.

 3        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  Can you tell us whether you know if any

 4     lists were made based on which you were put on buses so that it would be

 5     ensured that you finally arrived in the territory you were trying to

 6     reach, and was this done by the representatives of the Zepa authorities?

 7        A.   No one registered me.  When I enter the bus, I didn't see anyone

 8     making lists.  I know that on another convoy on another day that people

 9     were listed.  Some acquaintances of mine told me, because they were on

10     that convoy.  I didn't inquire much.  They just told me that lists were

11     made on that convoy.  However, there were no lists on our convoy.

12        Q.   Thank you.  You said that at page 10, lines 10 to 12.  Let's look

13     at D173 next.

14             JUDGE FLUEGGE: [Previous translation continues] ... Before we

15     leave from this video.  Please keep it.  Keep the video on the screen,

16     please.  We would like to go back to 37 minutes, 40 seconds, if that is

17     possible.  Yes.

18             Judge Nyambe has a question.

19             JUDGE NYAMBE:  No, actually, I don't have a question.  I would

20     just like, if possible, for the video to move to show this individual in

21     uniform completely, a little bit up, because there is this unclear patch.

22     I just want to go up in the position in which he is.  Thank you.

23                           [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]

24             THE ACCUSED: [No interpretation]

25             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  We don't receive interpretation.  Perhaps your


Page 13368

 1     microphone is off.

 2             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.  Could we please go back

 3     from 37:40 to 37:30, and then we'll see the entire frame.

 4                           [Video-clip played]

 5             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] We have now seen the arm above this

 6     blurred band, and we saw the -- the patch.

 7             Could you please continue playing.

 8                           [Video-clip played]

 9             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Thank you.  I think this is fine.  We should now

10     continue.  You asked for the document D173.  It should be, please, placed

11     on the screen.

12             Mr. Tolimir.

13             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.  Let us display

14     paragraph 16 of this document, which is on page 3.  Thank you.

15             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation].

16        Q.   This is the statement of Mr. Joseph.  Have you heard of him?

17     Thank you.

18        A.   Yes.  Mr. Joseph is a witness.  Actually, he understood -- he

19     helped me understand what was happening in Zepa after my departure.

20     Mr. Joseph arrived at Zepa after I had left, I think, because when we

21     spoke once, we concluded that I must have left before he arrived with

22     somebody else from the United Nations.  I know the man very well, because

23     I melt him on a couple of occasions when I needed a witness who -- who

24     saw Avdo being arrested.

25        Q.   Thank you.  Let us see what he says in paragraph 16.


Page 13369

 1             "We created written lists of the evacuees, and as far as I can

 2     recall, we had separate lists for each vehicle.  I handed over those

 3     lists later either to UNHCR or someone in UNPROFOR.  We also tried to

 4     place one UNPROFOR soldier to each vehicle, but I'm not sure if we

 5     managed to do it all the time during the evacuation."

 6             Here's my question:  Do you believe that Joseph indeed did that?

 7     He also came to testify here, and he was sent to Zepa by General Smith to

 8     take part in the evacuation and see to it that everything goes as it

 9     should.

10        A.   Well, I told you when I was getting on the bus, I saw nobody

11     registering people.  I'm not familiar with this type of situation.

12     That's one thing.  And another, I have information that some people on

13     the following day, who were part of other convoys, were registered.

14     That's what I learned afterward.  Those persons on those convoys were

15     registered, and there were lists of people.  And then I think that

16     Mr. Joseph and I weren't there at the same time.  This is what we

17     concluded at one point.  Whether that's really the case, well, I don't

18     know.  I can't go into that now.  But any way, I wasn't registered by

19     anybody, but I do have information that some other people were registered

20     who were on subsequent convoys.

21        Q.   Thank you.  That's not all that important.  Maybe they didn't

22     want to interview you at the time because you were a well-known

23     personality.  Maybe that person from the Zepa authorities put your name

24     on a list because they wanted you to arrive in the free territory, and

25     they didn't want to expose you.


Page 13370

 1        A.   But where are those lists?  Has anybody ever seen them?

 2             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Please wait.  Please wait.

 3             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

 4        Q.   Ms. Palic, please read the second sentence of paragraph 16.  It's

 5     in the second line.  Thank you.  It says:

 6             "I later handed over those lists either to UNHCR or someone in

 7     UNPROFOR."

 8        A.   But you said that somebody from the Zepa authorities drafted

 9     those lists, and now we see that it reads they were handed over to

10     UNPROFOR and so on.

11        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  It really is not my intention to say

12     anything false.  We've just seen Hajric.  Have you seen him holding a

13     list?

14        A.   Well, as far as I personally am concerned, you may not be stating

15     false things bluntly, but you are telling the same old story again about

16     the allegedly good intentions of the Serb army.  But what were you doing

17     in Zepa in the first place unless you wanted to kill people, burn down

18     the place and destroy it?

19        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  Since this is the kind of language you're

20     using, you're forcing to go me show some documents that clearly show what

21     your husband did when it comes to burning and slaughtering.  But before

22     that, let me ask you whether you know that the VRS conducted sabotage and

23     terrorist activities against Zepa.

24        A.   Not only that they did that, but it was so frequent in 1992,

25     1993, 1995.  On a number of occasions they massacred people.  And I think


Page 13371

 1     I would need quite some time to enumerate these sabotage raids, as you

 2     call them where you slaughtered -- well, let me give you one example

 3     Brezevo Ravno.  They massacred people in their sleep, and there's a

 4     series of such situations.

 5        Q.   Ms. Palic, I don't want to oppose you.  Be free to say whatever

 6     you want to say.  But do you know whether there were sabotage groups from

 7     Zepa going into the territory controlled by the VRS?  Thank you.

 8        A.   I wish to make one thing perfectly clear.  When you surround a

 9     place, encircle it and isolate it, only if everybody there is dead you

10     must -- you can expect that they will not try to find a way out of their

11     situation.

12             It's a fact, and I know, and it happened at least twice in my

13     presence, and I -- I also mentioned it yesterday, but I'll repeat, not

14     only were we isolated without medication, without clothes, footwear,

15     food, the greatest problem was the hunger which reached its peak in late

16     autumn and in winter.  People were hungry.  I remember two such

17     situations when some men came to Avdo and said, "Let's go attack Borike,

18     because my child is hungry."  And others put forward other reasons.

19     People were already fed up with waiting to starve to death or be killed

20     by Kusic's shells.  But Avdo didn't let them go on such raids.  And it

21     wasn't Kusic who saved Borike and Han Pijesak and the other places in the

22     surroundings.  It was Avdo, because he didn't let them attack the Serb

23     villages.  It is their right to live in their homes.  We don't want their

24     homes, but we were not letting them have ours.  And Avdo didn't let them

25     leave the territory to maybe steal a cow or something which would have


Page 13372

 1     meant survival.  Whether he was fully successful in that, I don't know,

 2     but he did his best to bring that about, and you know that perfectly

 3     well.

 4        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  I apologise, but I am now really forced to

 5     show document D62, because of your answers.  It's a document signed by

 6     your husband.  This is a court of law.  If you are saying to me you know

 7     perfectly well this or that, then I'll have to show you this document.

 8             This is a document of the BH Army drafted on 26th June 1995.

 9             THE INTERPRETER:  Interpreter's correction:  28th June.

10             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

11        Q.   It was signed by your husband; we'll see that on the last page.

12     Can we turn the page immediately so everyone can see.  You will see his

13     name in the signature block.  It says "Commander, Colonel Avdo Palic."

14     Let's go back to page 1, please.

15             He's submitting a combat report, and he says in the first

16     sentence:

17             "Based on the Order of the Deputy Commander of the 28th Division

18     Srebrenica, Major Ramiz Becirevic, strictly confidential number,"

19     so-and-so, "dated 20 June 1995," which means June 1995, "on measures to

20     be taken for the execution of sabotage actions aimed at afflicting losses

21     upon the aggressor in terms of troops and equipment, and in general, at

22     turning Chetnik forces away from Sarajevo.

23             "Upon receipt of the orders given me by brigade commanders,

24     Major Zulfo Tursunovic and Ibrahim Mandzic, and by the assistant for

25     intelligence in the division, Captain Ekrem Salihovic, I reviewed the


Page 13373

 1     overall situation with respect to this kind of combat action, and based

 2     on earlier instructions issued to the Chief of Staff

 3     Major Ramo Cardakovic by the Chief of General Staff Brigadier General

 4     Enver Hadzihasanovic, I decided, together with Tursunovic and Mandzic, to

 5     proceed as follows."

 6             And then in paragraph two it reads:

 7             "Form a number of sabotage groups."  And I'll refrain from

 8     reading on to save time.

 9             You'll see that nine sabotage groups were formed, and they are

10     given exact tasks, and their targets are mentioned, such as Zljebovi and

11     so on, Rijeka, the former administrative building of Romanija Sokolac,

12     communication centre Solilo, the Chetnik fortification and observation

13     post, Crna Rijeka where the Main Staff was and so on.  And now if we look

14     at the last paragraph on this page --

15             THE INTERPRETER:  Interpreter's note:  The following page in

16     English.

17        Q.   -- "some 90 Chetniks were killed, dozens were taken prisoner and

18     a significant quantity of infantry armaments were seized," and then he

19     goes on to list what exactly.  And then Velimir Mrdjan is mentioned, born

20     in 1975.

21             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] It's on the following page in

22     English.

23             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  We have it on the screen now.

24             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

25        Q.   And so on.  And he requests additional instructions how to


Page 13374

 1     proceed, and he says that their own losses amount to two killed.  And in

 2     the last but one paragraph he says, "By carrying out the sabotage actions

 3     the -- the Chetniks have strengthened their positions and are grouping in

 4     the areas of," so-and-so.

 5             My question is:  Did your husband with this group of officers

 6     from the Operations Group or 28th Division, as it says, with Tursunovic

 7     and Mandzic and Salihovic, organise these nine sabotage groups and send

 8     them to conduct activities in VRS territory?  Thank you.

 9        A.   I'm not familiar with all these details.  I don't know what they

10     did and how.  I remember that they did have this one prisoner of war,

11     Velimir Mrdjan.  You are mentioning some places, but this is the

12     territory of Zepa.

13             At that time, Zepa territory was already being shelled from these

14     positions where -- of the Chetnik forces.  That's one thing.

15             I don't want to go into the details if this happened and how

16     because I cannot give information on that, but I do remember that

17     prisoner.  By the way, that prisoner was treated humanely.  Whatever I

18     cooked -- and he was wounded, and his soldiers left him behind, and

19     now -- it's coming back to me now.

20             Why did his comrades leave him behind?  This was your sabotage

21     action, and you left behind this soldier who was treated in Zepa, and

22     then he was released in accordance with the Geneva Conventions which seem

23     to have been unknown to you but Avdo knew them very well.

24        Q.   Thank you.  But do you know that this document was taken prisoner

25     with the communications documents where that group carried out its


Page 13375

 1     attack?  He was taken to Zepa, he wasn't left where his workplace was to

 2     be treated there and he was released only after an agreement was signed

 3     and when the evacuation began, he was the first on the bus with the

 4     wounded.

 5        A.   Take a look at the date.  That all happened while you were

 6     already attacking Zepa.  Take a look at the date.

 7        Q.   I can see the date but --

 8        A.   Beginning in March we were shelled from Serb positions.  During

 9     the last 10 to 15 days before the attack and before the fall of

10     Srebrenica, those attacks were very, very intense.  There was no peace in

11     Zepa any more.  You couldn't move around freely.

12        Q.   Thank you.

13             JUDGE FLUEGGE: [Previous translation continues] ... This

14     document, just put it on the record, is from the 28th of June, 1995.

15             Please carry on, Mr. Tolimir.

16             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. President.

17             MR. TOLIMIR: [Interpretation]

18        Q.   Was there food in Zepa one month before combat activities, on the

19     26th of June when your husband wrote this document?

20        A.   I really don't know.  Are you doing that on purpose, playing with

21     dates?  It wasn't the 26th, it was the 28th of June.  I don't know

22     whether you do that on purpose or whether you're trying to confuse

23     somebody.  I myself am pretty tired now.

24             There was food in Zepa after the arrival of UNPROFOR.  There was

25     food.  The food in Zepa was distributed in accordance with needs.  That


Page 13376

 1     means that all citizens received equal shares, and at the time, there was

 2     no hunger.

 3        Q.   Thank you.  You're correct, this was on the 28th of June.  That's

 4     when your husband wrote this report.  He sent his groups earlier.

 5     However, a moment ago, you said that they had to attack because there was

 6     no food.  Wasn't this particular attack carried out regardless of the

 7     food situation?

 8        A.   But this is not about that.  This is about combat activities of

 9     Serbian forces around Zepa that commenced in March 1995.  Just before the

10     fall of Srebrenica, at least 15 days before, we were not able to move

11     around freely.  This wasn't a protected area, safe zone any more.  You

12     were shelling, and people were dying.

13        Q.   Thank you, Ms. Palic.  I would like to take a look at D52, D5-2.

14     This is a document originating from the BiH Army, the 2nd Corps command

15     in Tuzla.  It is dated the 8th of July, 1995, in Tuzla.  This is

16     information on combat results of the units and commands of the

17     28th Ground Army Division of the 2nd Corps of the BiH Army.

18             My question is:  Was your husband part of the 28th Division of

19     the 2nd Corps of the BiH Army?  Thank you.

20        A.   I don't know.  I know that it was the East Bosnia Light Mountain

21     Brigade.

22        Q.   Thank you.  Now let us take a look at the first sentence where it

23     says:

24             "The soldiers of the 28th Ground Army Division located in

25     Srebrenica and Zepa, although completely encircled and facing big


Page 13377

 1     problems relating to survival and the obligation to protect free

 2     territory, decided to contribute as much as possible to the fight against

 3     the aggressor and stepped up their activities deep in the PZT,

 4     temporarily occupied territory.  An additional reason for the activities

 5     of the members of the 28th Division was to prevent enemy forces from

 6     sending additional troops to the Sarajevo theatre of operations from the

 7     area around Srebrenica and Zepa by causing losses, primarily the loss of

 8     manpower, which will force the aggressor to tie up troops in the wider

 9     area of Srebrenica and Zepa."

10             My question is does this show that there was no attack on Zepa

11     and Srebrenica, but the other way round, that the attacks were carried

12     out from Srebrenica and Zepa?  Does this document show us what I just

13     define?  A moment ago you told us that there was fighting between Muslim

14     and Serb forces and that the Serb forces started the attack, and now we

15     see that it's something different.

16        A.   This is a document that you submitted to me here, and I am

17     telling that you from March 1995 onwards, because I remember that time

18     very well, that's when I gave birth to my second daughter, literally

19     speaking from the day my second daughter was born, I spent all the time

20     in the shelter.  I remember that time very well.  Shelling was going all

21     the time.  And then just before the fall of Srebrenica, it was very

22     intense shelling.  There was not -- you couldn't say it was a safe zone

23     any more.  The freedom of movement, we didn't have.

24             Now, you submit us this document, and I on my part want to tell

25     the Trial Chamber that the Serbian forces shelled Zepa and killed people


Page 13378

 1     there.  Specifically, they killed Ziga Nesud, they killed Nemis Hodzic.

 2     These are just the names I happen to remember right now.

 3             So they were killing, shelling.  They made incursions.  Now

 4     you're talking here about the territories that belong to the territory of

 5     the Zepa municipality.

 6        Q.   Thank you, Mrs. Palic.  Take a look at the first point in this

 7     document where it says:

 8             "60 Chetniks were liquidated and according to unconfirmed reports

 9     the aggressor suffered even greater losses and had many wounded."

10             And then they list what they seized and then slightly below, it

11     says:

12             "In the village of Visnjica, large quantities of ammunition were

13     seized, but the soldiers were exhausted and could not remove it, so the

14     ammunition was destroyed, as were all the facilities that the aggressor

15     could have used for military purposes."

16             My question is did you hear that the whole of the village of

17     Visnjica was burnt?  Did you hear that on radio of Republika Srpska?  And

18     did we present this on the 8th of July, and was it signed by the

19     commander, Delic?

20        A.   You are asking me about things that are outside the bounds of my

21     knowledge.  I really know nothing about these details.  You can keep

22     talking about those villages until tomorrow if you want, but what I know

23     and what I claim here is that Avdo's army never killed civilians.

24     Soldiers, they killed and they were the soldiers that were attacking

25     Zepa, that encircled Zepa, that kept positions around Zepa and


Page 13379

 1     continually shelled us.  As for the civilians, Avdo's army never killed

 2     civilians with Avdo's knowledge.  And you know that, if you want to admit

 3     it.  I know that myself.

 4        Q.   Thank you, Mrs. Palic.

 5             JUDGE FLUEGGE:  Mr. Tolimir, we must come to an end for today.

 6     We're at the end of the third session, and we have to adjourn.  You may

 7     continue your cross-examination tomorrow.  We will resume at 9.00 in

 8     Courtroom I.

 9             Ms. Palic, please be -- I would like to thank you that you were

10     able to stand this examination, and the court usher will assist you after

11     we have risen.

12             We adjourn.

13                           --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.44 p.m.

14                           to be reconvened on Thursday, the 28th day

15                           of April, 2011, at 9.00 a.m.

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