Page 23142
1 Tuesday, 12 July 2011
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 9.05 a.m.
5 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning, Your Honours. Good morning
6 everyone in and around the courtroom. This is case number IT-08-91-T,
7 The Prosecutor versus Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin.
8 JUDGE HALL: Thank you, Madam Registrar. Good morning to
9 everyone. May we take the appearances today, please.
10 MR. HANNIS: Thank you. Good morning, all. I'm Tom Hannis,
11 along with Crispian Smith for the Prosecution.
12 MR. ZECEVIC: Good morning, Your Honours. Slobodan Zecevic,
13 Slobodan Cvijetic, Eugene O'Sullivan and Ms. Tatjana Savic appearing for
14 Stanisic Defence this morning. Thank you.
15 MR. KRGOVIC: Good morning, Your Honours. Dragan Krgovic and
16 Aleksandar Aleksic appearing for Zupljanin Defence.
17 JUDGE HALL: Thank you.
18 And if there are no preliminary -- yes, Mr. Zecevic.
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12 [Open session]
13 THE REGISTRAR: We are in open session, Your Honours.
14 JUDGE HALL: So could the witness please be escorted back to the
15 stand. Thank you.
16 [The witness takes the stand]
17 JUDGE HALL: Mr. Macar, good morning to you, sir.
18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Good morning.
19 JUDGE HALL: Of course the Chamber and counsel would have
20 indicated yesterday we are alive to your concerns, and we would, as the
21 day progresses, accommodate you, as we sought to do yesterday. We were
22 wondering whether you would prefer to have another chair than the one
23 that you are now in?
24 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] This chair is quite comfortable and
25 I have asked for a higher chair in the witness room with a different kind
Page 23146
1 of a seat, with a higher seat, and I think that the lady I was talking to
2 actually understood what I meant.
3 JUDGE HALL: Thank you.
4 So before I invite Mr. Hannis to resume his cross-examination, I
5 give you the usual warning as to your solemn -- reminder as to your
6 solemn declaration.
7 WITNESS: GORAN MACAR [Resumed]
8 [Witness answered through interpreter]
9 JUDGE HALL: Yes, Mr. Hannis.
10 MR. HANNIS: Thank you, Your Honour.
11 Cross-examination by Mr. Hannis: [Continued]
12 Q. Mr. Macar, I'd like to start this morning by having a look at the
13 video from the police parade on 30 March 1992, and I believe this is
14 Exhibit 1D633. And I ask not to start at the beginning, but start at the
15 point where the presenter introduces Mr. Cvijetic, who is going to
16 administer the solemn declaration.
17 And, first of all, can you tell me, if you know, who is that
18 person who is doing the presenting at this moment? We'll start the video
19 now.
20 [Video-clip played]
21 MR. HANNIS: Can we pause.
22 Q. Do you recognise that gentleman?
23 A. No.
24 Q. Thank you.
25 MR. HANNIS: If we can go forward then and play the portion where
Page 23147
1 the solemn declaration is read out.
2 [Video-clip played]
3 THE INTERPRETER: [Voiceover] "The solemn declaration will be read
4 by the minister of the interior of the Serbian Autonomous Region of
5 Romanija, Zoran Cvijetic.
6 "I declare that I will perform the duty of authorised official
7 conscientiously and responsibly, that I will abide by the constitution of
8 the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Yugoslavia and the
9 law, and that I will protect the constitutionally-established order of
10 the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Yugoslavia, rights,
11 freedoms, and security, and that I will carry out these and other tasks
12 and assignments of authorised official even in cases when carrying out
13 these tasks and assignments would bring my life into jeopardy."
14 MR. HANNIS: We can pause there.
15 Q. I want to ask you some questions about the solemn declaration.
16 MR. HANNIS: I don't know if we can put up on the screen for the
17 witness now the transcript which has the solemn declaration. I
18 understood that the video and the transcript were both marked with this
19 exhibit number, so I'm not sure how it appears in e-court.
20 Q. Yes, at 1503, Mr. Macar, can you see the text of the solemn
21 declaration that we just heard read out?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Now, I think I recall from your OTP interview that you said you,
24 yourself, did not take a solemn declaration for the new Serbian ministry;
25 is that correct?
Page 23148
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. No one told you that you you needed to do that?
3 A. No.
4 Q. You are aware, aren't you, that some members of the former joint
5 MUP of Bosnia, particularly non-Serbs, were released from work in various
6 SJBs around Bosnia when they refused to take this new solemn declaration?
7 You knew about that, didn't you?
8 A. The pre-war amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs envisaged
9 that a solemn declaration had to be made. When I started work way back
10 in 1977, the solemn declaration was made only by cadets who graduated
11 from the police high school at Vrace. Even when the OTP investigators
12 spoke with me, they asked me about that. They asked me whether I was
13 aware of the fact that a solemn declaration had to be made, and I said
14 that I was not aware of that. And I was a bit taken aback by the
15 question. I couldn't tell whether it was provocative or not. And then I
16 checked through some of my colleagues, in the meantime. They showed me
17 some amendments to the Law on the Ministry of the Interior which
18 envisaged that a solemn declaration had to be made.
19 Q. Well, let's have a look at the Law on Internal Affairs.
20 MR. HANNIS: Could we see Exhibit P530. And I need to see
21 Article 41, which is at the English 6. And I think it's the B/C/S
22 page 6. It's tab 3 of our list.
23 Q. And this is a Law on Internal Affairs that was promulgated in
24 March of 1992. I think the Official Gazette date is the 23rd of March,
25 1992. You see Article 41 talks about authorised officials. And in the
Page 23149
1 English, if we could go on a little further to the top of the right-hand
2 column. It says:
3 "The authorised official shall make a solemn declaration before
4 the minister or an official ..."
5 And if we can go further down in the English, you'll see the
6 text. And can you see the text of the solemn declaration in your B/C/S
7 version, Mr. Macar?
8 A. Yes, I'm reading it now. Yes, I can see the text.
9 Q. One difference from what is in the law and what was read out on
10 the 30th of March, 1992, is in Sokolac. The language used was the
11 constitution of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the
12 established order of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina;
13 whereas, in the law itself, it just says the constitution and the
14 republic. But other than that, would you agree with me that the text
15 appears to be the same?
16 MR. ZECEVIC: I am sorry, I have to object. The quoting of the
17 transcript of the video is not entirely right.
18 MR. HANNIS: If it's not entirely right, then it's up to the
19 Defence. They put this document in. And if they put in the transcript
20 that's incorrect, they should advise me before I'm relying on it.
21 MR. ZECEVIC: No, no, no, no. The transcript is perfectly all
22 right, and it reflects what was said on that particular date. However,
23 when you are reading the differences, you are not reading it all, that's
24 the point. That's the point I'm trying to make.
25 MR. HANNIS: Well, we can all see both transcripts. Can you
Page 23150
1 point out to me where I read something that's not correct?
2 MR. ZECEVIC: If my memory serves me well, it mentions Yugoslavia
3 as well.
4 MR. HANNIS: Yes. Additionally, Yugoslavia is in what was read
5 out in Sokolac, and that's not in the law.
6 Q. Would you agree, Mr. Macar, that those are the differences
7 between what is in the law and what was said in Sokolac?
8 A. Yes, this is the partial difference.
9 Q. Okay. Now, I'd like to show you another solemn declaration.
10 MR. HANNIS: If we could look at Exhibit P510. This is the
11 previous Law on Internal Affairs. This is tab 75 on the Prosecution's
12 list. This was the Law on Internal Affairs from 29 January 1990, that
13 was in effect up until this time. If we could look English page 12 and
14 the B/C/S at page 5, Article 41, same article.
15 Q. Now, we've heard evidence during this trial with some people
16 saying that they didn't understand what all the fuss was about the solemn
17 declaration because it was identical to the old one. And, as far as I
18 can understand, this 1990 version of the Law on Internal Affairs is the
19 old solemn declaration. And I want to point out to you in the English
20 upper right-hand column --
21 MR. ZECEVIC: And also in Serbian upper right-hand column because
22 it's showing the part which is not ...
23 MR. HANNIS: Thank you.
24 Q. I'll begin with the part that says:
25 "That I will protect the constitutional order and the rights,
Page 23151
1 freedoms, and security of working people and citizens with all my
2 strength..."
3 And I would indicate to you that this language of working people
4 and citizens has been omitted from the new solemn declaration that's in
5 the Law on Internal Affairs from March 23rd, 1992.
6 Do you agree, or do you need me to take you back to the old law
7 or the transcript from Sokolac? In neither place, I tell you, is that
8 language about working people and citizens included, would you agree?
9 A. First of all, I would like to say that where it says here
10 security of working people and citizens, this is communist terminology,
11 communist language that was used, not only in this law but in many other
12 laws. And here, you speak about citizens because I can't see why this
13 difference should be made between the workers or working people and
14 citizens because they are both citizens. So this is communist
15 terminology that was just copied from one act to the other, from one
16 legal instrument to the other, year in, year out. And it is very
17 striking because people are divided into two categories, and then you
18 have to ask yourself who are citizens, as opposed to the working people.
19 If you look at this legal instrument and many other pre-war legal
20 instruments in Bosnia-Herzegovina, you can see that in subsequent laws,
21 this kind of terminology was deleted.
22 Q. Nothing new is put in place in the new law. There's no reference
23 to working people or to citizens or to anyone; right?
24 A. I would like to check, but I think that the language is the
25 security of citizens or something like that, but I'd have to see it
Page 23152
1 again.
2 MR. HANNIS: Could we put back up the transcript from the Sokolac
3 video. It's 1D633.
4 Q. Do you see it there? My English says:
5 "Rights, freedom, and security, and that I will carry out these
6 and other tasks."
7 There's no reference to anybody in terms of who those rights and
8 freedoms apply to; right?
9 A. If we were to launch a theoretical debate then --
10 Q. No, no, I don't want to launch a theoretical debate. Can you
11 just answer my question. There's no reference to citizens or working
12 persons or anybody; right?
13 A. But rights, freedoms and security cannot belong to objects --
14 Q. No, no, Mr. Macar, I have to ask the question. You have to
15 answer.
16 MR. ZECEVIC: No, no, Mr. Hannis, with all due respect --
17 MR. HANNIS: Your Honour, I would request that counsel direct the
18 Trial Chamber and not direct his remarks to he me, personally.
19 MR. ZECEVIC: Your Honours, the witness precisely answered
20 Mr. Hannis' question. I don't understand why Mr. Hannis is protesting
21 because the witness started answering his question, precisely what the
22 question was, his answer was aimed at that. That is why I intervened.
23 JUDGE DELVOIE: Mr. Hannis, apart from that, we can all read. It
24 isn't there, but, I mean, we can all read. And, eventually, I would like
25 the witness to take his headphones off and ask you what turns on it,
Page 23153
1 because I'm --
2 MR. HANNIS: Well, Your Honours -- Your Honours, I have a
3 follow-up question to ask relating to the possible reasons that some
4 people declined to take the new oath. And I'm going to suggest that one
5 of the possibilities is because of the change in language. Now, my
6 question --
7 JUDGE DELVOIE: The absence of the citizens and the working
8 class?
9 MR. HANNIS: Yes and the addition of the Republic of Serbia ...
10 [Overlapping speakers]
11 JUDGE DELVOIE: The new republic ... [Overlapping speakers]
12 MR. HANNIS: Yes, the addition and the omission.
13 JUDGE DELVOIE: And the omission.
14 MR. HANNIS: Yes, both.
15 JUDGE DELVOIE: That would have been hard-line communist, then.
16 MR. HANNIS: Well, Your Honour, possibly, or someone who is just
17 not comfortable with the change that he doesn't understand.
18 JUDGE DELVOIE: And what is the relevance to this case? I mean,
19 the absence of the citizens and the working class?
20 MR. HANNIS: Well, partly, Your Honour, it's because the Defence
21 and certain Defence witnesses -- I think Mr. Zupljanin is quoted in a
22 newspaper article that's in evidence somewhere as having saying there is
23 absolutely no difference between the new solemn declaration and the old.
24 That's not correct. There are differences.
25 JUDGE DELVOIE: Relevant differences? I mean, except for the
Page 23154
1 fact that it's a new republic, and the republic now is called
2 Republika Srpska. But is the omission relevant to this case?
3 MR. HANNIS: Well, Your Honour, I think it can be, because the
4 new -- the change in the oath may have been the reasons that some people
5 did not want to remain in a Serbian MUP. I don't know.
6 JUDGE DELVOIE: Thank you.
7 MR. HANNIS: But the point I'm trying to make, Your Honour, is I
8 ask a question whether it was in there or not. The response I got was
9 something about having a theoretical discussion. And I disagree with my
10 learned friend that the witness was answering my question. He was not.
11 JUDGE DELVOIE: Do you need the witness to answer the question to
12 tell us what we can read?
13 MR. HANNIS: No, Your Honour, but if he could take his headphones
14 off for a second, I have a comment about that.
15 Your Honour, the way a witness answers questions to one party,
16 compared to the way he answers it to another party, is sometimes a factor
17 the Trial Chamber can consider in deciding the credibility of that
18 witness, the reliability of the witness, bias, motive, prejudice, and
19 what weight to give his evidence. That's the point I'm trying to make
20 there. Thank you. That's all I had to say before he puts his headphones
21 back on.
22 Q. All right. Mr. Macar, let's move on to something else.
23 MR. HANNIS: Could we look again at Exhibit P353. This is tab 6.
24 Q. This is one day after the Sokolac police parade. It's the
25 31st of March, 1992. And this is the dispatch sent by Mr. Mandic.
Page 23155
1 Now, in the speech that Mr. Stanisic made in Sokolac, he claimed
2 that the legality of the new Serbian MUP was based on the result of the
3 negotiations of three ethnic communities under the auspices of the
4 European community, and he says, provided by the constitution of the
5 Serbian Republic and the Law on Internal Affairs recently adopted.
6 Mr. Macar, you are aware, aren't you, that sometime between the
7 18th of March, 1992, and the 31st of March, 1992, Mr. Izetbegovic had
8 withdrawn his signature to the so-called Sarajevo agreement, and as of at
9 least 27 March, everyone knew that that agreement was not in effect? You
10 knew about that, didn't you?
11 A. I don't know when exactly Mr. Izetbegovic withdrew his signature.
12 I do remember his famous statement, though, that he holds one opinion in
13 the morning and another in the afternoon. I'm not sure when he withdrew
14 his signature and how.
15 Q. You are aware that on the 27th of March, there was a session of
16 the Assembly of the Serb people in Bosnia and Herzegovina in which
17 Mr. Krajisnik informed the deputies that Mr. Izetbegovic, or at least the
18 Muslims, were no longer going to follow the Sarajevo agreement, did you
19 know that?
20 A. What could be read or heard in the Sarajevo media is my only
21 source of information.
22 Q. All right. In Sokolac, you mentioned that you spoke with
23 Mr. Stanisic after his remarks. Who else was with him that day, that you
24 recall?
25 A. There were a lot of people from Sokolac who were looking on. I
Page 23156
1 had an opportunity to speak to Mr. Stanisic at the stadium. I don't
2 exactly remember who was around him. I may be able to do so if I could
3 look at the video once more. I was interested in this new MUP of the
4 Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and in the political implications
5 of that.
6 Q. Okay. Yes, I had thought about showing you the video and asking
7 you if you could identify some people in there, but I think it will be
8 better if I can do that later, because when we were trying to stop the
9 video, the persons in the background were somewhat blurred. I'm going to
10 see if we can get some better images to do that later on, perhaps
11 tomorrow.
12 Did you speak to anybody else who might have been travelling with
13 Mr. Stanisic on that date, if you remember?
14 A. No.
15 Q. And you said that after that you went back to work in Sarajevo.
16 What time did you leave Sokolac and arrive in Sarajevo on that Monday?
17 A. It took me about an hour of slow driving. And there were
18 check-points of the Green Berets at the points of entry to Sarajevo, and
19 there were also active duty and reserve police officers of the Stari Grad
20 police station, so I took a roundabout route. I went directly to the
21 city SUP, to Mr. Leutar's office. Because of the security-relevant
22 events throughout March, we had this practice of meeting and discussing
23 all the current problems.
24 Q. Yes. And you mentioned, I think, that on the 31st of March, the
25 day that Mr. Mandic sent out his dispatch, that there was a meeting in
Page 23157
1 Mr. Leutar's office where he told you a little bit about what was
2 happening in the MUP. Mr. Leutar is no longer alive; right?
3 A. Unfortunately. He was a true professional. And, probably, even
4 in the post-war period, he would have been able to make a great
5 contribution to the work of the security authorities.
6 Q. Okay. Do you know when and how he died?
7 A. He was brutally killed in Sarajevo. An explosive device was
8 planted under his vehicle.
9 Q. What year was that?
10 A. If I remember well, it was after 1996, but I don't remember when
11 it was exactly.
12 Q. Okay. You said that during these discussions, I think that
13 Mr. Leutar told you that the headquarters of the Serbian ministry would
14 be in the building of the former BH ministry. Does that mean the
15 building where you were working in the beginning of 1992, the very same
16 building?
17 A. No, I said that the headquarters of the MUP of the Serb Republic
18 of Bosnia-Herzegovina, to the best of my knowledge, would be in the
19 building of the MUP of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that there would be
20 something like a joint headquarters, that is, in the building of the
21 Ministry of the Interior of the former Bosnia-Herzegovina.
22 Q. Well, what building was it that you worked in, in January of
23 1992? What building was that?
24 A. I worked at the city Secretariat of the Interior on
25 Augusta Cesarca Street.
Page 23158
1 Q. And I think you mentioned that Jozo had told you that there was
2 going to be a new Croatian MUP, but that was going to be in Mostar;
3 right?
4 A. He didn't say that it would be established but that the
5 preparations to establish a Croatian MUP had been completed, that those
6 preparations had been made in Mostar for a MUP of the Croats, and that
7 the equipping of that ministry with materiel and everything had been
8 finished. He didn't say, however, where the headquarters of the ministry
9 would be, because it was my understanding that the headquarters of all
10 these ministries would be in the building of the MUP of the former Bosnia
11 and Herzegovina. I think it was on Berise Kovacevica Street.
12 Q. So all three ethnic MUPs in one building in Sarajevo?
13 A. Yes. The headquarters.
14 Q. So you continued to go to work through the rest of that week, I
15 think, until Friday, April 3rd; right? And you actually worked on
16 April 3rd and then left about 4.00 that afternoon; right?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. I'd like to show you a document, sir.
19 MR. HANNIS: This is Exhibit P29. It's tab 8 of the
20 Prosecution's list.
21 Q. This is an article from the newspaper "Oslobodjenje" for the
22 1st of April, 1992. I see the photograph there, that's Mr. Stanisic
23 apparently in Sokolac. And that looks like the event that we saw on
24 video that you attended on the 30th of March; correct?
25 A. The photograph is too blurred for me to be able to tell. I can't
Page 23159
1 really make out the faces.
2 Q. Can you not recognise that that is Mico Stanisic in the
3 photograph, in a raincoat?
4 A. Yes, although he was much younger then.
5 Q. Weren't we all.
6 You'll see the article below that, my English translation
7 translates that as "April fool reality." And the bold entries, right
8 below the big headline, says:
9 "Serbian members of the service already invited to join 'Serbian
10 MUP' Delimustafic sends his appeal for unity. The ones who leave - will
11 be fired."
12 You were there in Sarajevo, you must have known about all this
13 going on; correct?
14 A. Believe me that there were so many security problems in the city
15 of Sarajevo that I didn't have the opportunity to read this. You could
16 read a lot of stuff in the papers those days, so I don't know whose
17 comments these are.
18 Q. Well, just a few minutes ago, you told me you got all your
19 information from the media; is that not correct?
20 A. No, I may have said that about something in particular, but I
21 didn't receive all information from the media. Probably you asked me a
22 specific question, and I answered that I was able to get some information
23 from the media, most probably from television.
24 Q. The invitation to join the Serbian MUP is a reference to
25 Mr. Mandic's dispatch sent out on the 31st of March; right?
Page 23160
1 A. I didn't read the dispatch itself. It was addressed to the
2 secretary. Mr. Leutar was present at the meeting who retold us the
3 contents of the dispatch. Let me remind you that Mr. Stanisic informed
4 me that structural talks about the co-ordination of the future ministry
5 in that building that I mentioned were to follow.
6 Q. Let me ask you about something that's in my English translation
7 of the last paragraph of this article. It says:
8 "The report of the commission for the abuse of the authority
9 within MUP was announced yesterday. It says that the illegal burning of
10 the confiscated money caused damage of 27.702.000 BiH dinars and that
11 there were illegalities in the handling of temporary confiscated weapons
12 and vehicles."
13 Were you aware that there was some suspicion in circles that
14 Momo Mandic had been involved in some of that? Did you know about that?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Let me show you Exhibit P2320.
17 MR. HANNIS: This is at tab 79 of the Prosecution's list.
18 Q. Who was Mr. Leutar's immediate superior, your boss's boss?
19 A. The secretary of the city Secretariat of the Interior of
20 Sarajevo.
21 Q. Okay. And along the line of work in headquarters, who would have
22 been his boss?
23 A. The deputy and the minister, eventually.
24 Q. And who was the deputy, by name?
25 A. As it says here, it was Mr. Zepinic.
Page 23161
1 Q. Thank you. Have you ever seen this document before? This is
2 dated the 1st of April, 1992, and it appears to be from the full
3 collegium of the ministry to the CSBs and the SUP Sarajevo and to all
4 SJBs. Did you ever see it?
5 A. No. I was able to read it now. Bearing in mind the situation in
6 the MUP and the functioning of the ministry, especially in 1991 and part
7 of 1992, this dispatch seems ironic, or, well, let's put it another way,
8 unprofessional.
9 Q. Unprofessional in what way? It's from the collegium. It's
10 signed by the minister. It's signed by the deputy minister. It's signed
11 by all the heads of administration. The only one it's not signed by is
12 Mico Stanisic who is listed as an advisor. In what way does this
13 dispatch seem unprofessional?
14 A. Let me tone down my assessment. Possibly somebody finally
15 remembered that the ministry should start operating and doing its work
16 because a year or so earlier, the functional system of that ministry was
17 disrupted, and the ministry actually lost most of its remit.
18 Q. In fact, this is a rapid response to the situation that has been
19 created because of the memo sent by Mr. Mandic the day before, and I can
20 show you if you need to, but I will tell you dispatch number 02-2482 of
21 31 March, 1992, as referred to in the document here, is Mr. Mandic's
22 dispatch announcing the new Serbian MUP. So would you agree that
23 Mr. Delimustafic and the collegium is trying to stop that process and
24 calling upon all MUP employees to return to work and carry out their
25 regular task no later than by tomorrow, the 2nd of April?
Page 23162
1 A. I don't know what the deepest intent was. I'm reading this at
2 face value. But I would like to tell you, Your Honours, that sometime in
3 mid-March, I had an opportunity to spend some time with Mr. Delimustafic
4 and --
5 Q. Well, I am sorry, let me stop you there. That's not an answer to
6 my question. That was not something that was informed in your 65 ter or
7 the proofing note, as far as I know. It's not something that I want to
8 go into at the moment. Perhaps Mr. Zecevic or the Judges may ask you
9 about it.
10 So you did not see this, but you see Mr. Mandic's signature is on
11 this document as well; right?
12 A. Yes, I can see it.
13 Q. And as we noted, there is no signature from Mr. Stanisic on this
14 first 1st of April document. Let me show you something that may provide
15 an explanation for that.
16 MR. HANNIS: If we could look at P171 --
17 JUDGE HALL: Mr. Hannis, is this a convenient point before you go
18 on to another document?
19 MR. HANNIS: Yes, Your Honours. I'm sorry, I missed the clock.
20 JUDGE HALL: Yes, so we take the break and return in 15 minutes.
21 [The witness stands down]
22 --- Recess taken at 10.02 a.m.
23 --- On resuming at 10.22 a.m.
24 [The witness takes the stand]
25 MR. HANNIS: If we could put up Exhibit P171, please. And top
Page 23163
1 middle, I want to focus on in the B/C/S. If we can enlarge the upper
2 half of the page, those two middle columns. Yes. Thank you.
3 Q. Mr. Macar, this is from a publication called "Glas," dated the
4 1st of April, 1992. And the particular article is one that my English
5 translation reads as "Inspection of Units in Trebinje." It's from the
6 Tanjug agency, reporting that on this date Mico Stanisic, minister of the
7 interior of the Serbian Republic, was in Trebinje where the SAO
8 Herzegovina police and Special Police Units were established on that
9 date. Did you know about Mr. Stanisic being in Trebinje on the 1st of
10 April for what looks like a similar event to the one you saw in Sokolac
11 on the 30th of March?
12 A. No, I did not know that.
13 Q. Were you aware of him visiting any other SAOs for similar events
14 in late March or early April 1992, or is the Sokolac one the only one you
15 have any knowledge of?
16 A. I only am aware of Sokolac.
17 Q. If, indeed, as this article indicates, he was in Trebinje on the
18 1st of April, that would be a reason why his signature was not on that
19 1 April dispatch from the collegium that we looked at just before the
20 break; right?
21 A. Well, the first question is whether he was invited to the
22 meeting. Well, I can't really speculate on the basis of this article.
23 Q. All right. Let's go to your testimony last week, at page 22.848
24 in the transcript. You were talking about the events of Friday,
25 April 3rd. And you said that at about 1400 hours that day you went to
Page 23164
1 Mr. Leutar's office, and that he took you aside and spoke with you, and
2 told you that there had been a meeting of the leading Muslims in the MUP
3 at headquarters and that they had decided at that meeting to arrest a
4 total of 14 ethnic Serbs in leading positions in the MUP; is that
5 correct? Is that how you remember it?
6 A. No, I did not say senior Muslim officers, but senior officers in
7 the MUP headquarters who were of Muslim ethnicity, and the rest is
8 correct.
9 Q. Okay. Did he tell you the names of the 14 Serbs who were
10 proposed to be arrested?
11 A. He gave me the names. I remember some of them.
12 Q. Yes. I think last week you mentioned Tomo Kovac, Kukobat; is
13 that correct? That's a name I'm not familiar with. Who was that?
14 A. Kukobat - you probably have it in your materials - was the chief
15 of the crime service in the public Security Services Centre in Sarajevo.
16 Q. You also mentioned last week, yourself and Mr. Planojevic. But I
17 think in your e-mail from March of this year, you also mentioned
18 Mico Stanisic and Mr. Kijac; is that right? Do you remember them being
19 among the 14?
20 A. Yes, yes.
21 Q. What about Momo Mandic? He seems like a likely candidate. Do
22 you remember if his name was mentioned?
23 A. I don't remember him mentioning the name of Mr. Mandic, out of
24 the 14 names that I remember. Well, it's been 20 years.
25 Q. Did he tell you all 14 names or only some?
Page 23165
1 A. I don't really remember, because when I heard my own name, quite
2 naturally this would come as a surprise for anyone, and then he -- I
3 can't really tell you whether he mentioned all 14 names.
4 Q. Fair enough. Now, from what I read in your testimony earlier
5 last week and in your e-mail about these events, it seems like this was a
6 meeting that happened that very day, and Mr. Leutar has the information
7 almost simultaneously, or within an hour of it actually happening; is
8 that correct?
9 A. Yes, that's correct.
10 Q. He didn't attend the meeting himself; right? He is a Croat. He
11 wouldn't have been at that meeting?
12 A. No. No, he was not.
13 Q. Okay. Do you know how he came by the information? Was there
14 some eaves-dropping equipment in the office where the meeting was held?
15 How did he know so quickly?
16 A. Mr. Jozo Leutar was very well informed as a senior officer, and
17 he also had some friends among the Muslim personnel. Now, as to what
18 channels he used to gain this information, I can't really speculate, but
19 I do know that he was quite concerned and that the comment that he made
20 after I sought some additional explanations from him, he said, well, he
21 didn't know what to give me as a reason. He said something along the
22 lines of, Look at those fools, what are they doing? And this is
23 something that's really is etched in my memory.
24 Q. You never saw any document about this meeting or the 14 of you
25 who were supposed to be arrested; right?
Page 23166
1 A. Well, as I've already explained, on that day, the 3rd of April,
2 sometime around 1400 hours, I went to Sokolac with my late wife to visit
3 my children and my parents. And after that, I could not go back to
4 Sarajevo. I wasn't in Sarajevo anymore in order to be able to learn
5 anything more about this information.
6 Q. And as I understand your testimony from last week, you --
7 although they attempted to stop you at the check-point, you did not stop;
8 right?
9 A. That's correct, because my policeman's honour did not allow me to
10 be checked by the Green Berets, paramilitaries. I actually was able to
11 recognise a small-time criminal from Bascarsija in their ranks, together
12 with the active and reserve police from the Stari Grad police station.
13 They were all together.
14 Q. Were you concerned that you might actually be arrested if you had
15 stopped?
16 A. It's not that I was concerned, and it's not that I was concerned
17 only about possible arrest. The way they held their automatic rifles,
18 the people who manned the check-point, this could have resulted in some
19 undesirable consequences. But at the same time, I assumed because there
20 were many civilians there passing through, I thought that they would not
21 use their weapons. My wife was panicked and quite upset, and she even
22 told me to stop because she could not believe what was going on. She was
23 able to see that they were removing clothes, pillows, bed covers from the
24 trunks of the cars of those people, whatever it was that those people
25 were carrying in their cars.
Page 23167
1 Q. Did you take it seriously at the time that there was a plan to
2 arrest you and 13 other Serbs? Did you actually think that somebody was
3 going to arrest you?
4 A. Well, the information that I received at that level from this
5 kind of senior officer is definitely something that should concern you,
6 but I think that I was more focused on trying to find out what was behind
7 all that. Unfortunately, it turn out that this information was, indeed,
8 correct.
9 Q. Did you talk to any of the other Serbs who were supposedly on the
10 list that Friday or that weekend, to see what they knew about it,
11 Mr. Stanisic, Mr. Kijac, Mr. Planojevic? Talk to any of them to see what
12 they knew about this?
13 A. Well, as I've already said, Mr. Leutar, knowing that Secretary
14 Kijac was not in his office, took me to his office in order to share this
15 information with me because there were some other people in Leutar's
16 office. Now, private telephone numbers that belonged to Mr. Kijac or
17 Mr. Stanisic, I did not have those numbers in order to be able to
18 communicate with them and my rule of thumb was always to socialise less
19 with the police officers. And there were very few of those people whose
20 home phone numbers I knew and whom I socialised with, because in the
21 official communication, we had the duty centre where we could leave
22 messages and try to contact people for official business. And I did plan
23 for Sunday evening because I had some -- or, rather, my wife had some
24 obligations in the Ministry of Finance where she worked, and I also had
25 my own job, and I planned to go back to Sarajevo on Sunday evening. And
Page 23168
1 our usual practice was that whenever we went to visit our children, to
2 leave on Friday, unless there were some emergencies, and to go back on
3 Sunday evening.
4 Q. Yes, I recall you testified about that last week. And that's a
5 little puzzling to me. If you took it seriously that there was a plan to
6 arrest you, why would you go back to work on Monday?
7 A. I did not feel any kind of guilt on any grounds, and I thought
8 that I would be able to face all those problems. I knew that there was
9 no legal basis for any kind of treatment of this kind.
10 Q. Did you hear while you were in Sokolac about the attack or
11 take-over of the Vrace police school by Mr. Mandic, Momo Mandic, and
12 others from the Serb police force?
13 A. I received information about that from TV. I don't know what day
14 it was. I think it may have been Sunday.
15 Q. Is that one of the reasons you didn't go back to Sarajevo on
16 Monday?
17 A. Since I received a report that traffic was disrupted on the roads
18 leading into and out of Sarajevo on the Sokolac-Sarajevo route, and also
19 after I received some additional information from Mr. Nujic, I did not
20 go. My wife called her ministry, I think the minister at that time was
21 Mr. Pajic, and he advised us not to travel to Sarajevo.
22 Q. If there had been an active warrant for your arrest or an
23 all-points bulletin, don't you think that Sokolac would have been one of
24 the first places the police would have looked for you, knowing that you
25 were from there and your parents were from there? That kind of
Page 23169
1 information must have been in your personnel file in the MUP; right?
2 A. If you are now talking about the time when the Ministry of the
3 Interior functioned normally, then the answer to your question is yes;
4 but if you are now talking about the ministry as it functioned in this
5 time-period, where the ministry, in fact, operated in contravention of
6 the Law on Internal Affairs and other legal frameworks, then the measures
7 could have been ordered by a smaller circle within the Ministry of the
8 Interior and taken also in that smaller circle.
9 Q. And someone knew how to contact you by phone in Sokolac because
10 Mr. Nujic called you that Monday morning; right?
11 A. Well, in line with the procedure, all senior officers, including
12 myself, had their numbers on their files. And, usually, I would say to
13 the duty officer, I'm going to visit my parents, and my parents' number
14 was there on the file, and they were able to contact me. And this is how
15 Mr. Nujic, because, after all, I did not make it a secret that I was
16 going to visit my parents and my children, that's how he knew it.
17 Q. You mentioned at page 22.856 from last week that starting from
18 Monday and Tuesday, I guess that would be April 6th and 7th:
19 "Many people came to Sokolac, a couple thousand. They had all
20 fled. Among them were also my relatives."
21 Where had these people come from that were fleeing to Sokolac?
22 Had they come from Sarajevo?
23 A. For the most part, from Gorazde. Especially my mother's family
24 lived in the Gorazde area.
25 Q. And so they had managed to get to --
Page 23170
1 A. And some of the family members were from Sarajevo.
2 Q. And they managed to get through the roadblocks, out of Sarajevo,
3 on Monday and Tuesday?
4 A. On the Sokolac-Sarajevo route, they could not. I know that a
5 family past through Olovo, bypassing the main road, and managed to reach
6 Sokolac.
7 Q. Okay. Thank you. Now, you, some time after this, went to --
8 well, where did you go first? Did you go to Vrace or Pale when you began
9 to work with the RS MUP?
10 A. To Pale, and then a day or two later, I went to Vrace.
11 Q. And you mentioned in Pale you went to a facility whose name I
12 have a hard time pronouncing, Buducnost, Buducnost. Can you help me with
13 that?
14 A. It seems to me that this is what it was called. It was a scout's
15 hall, a small building.
16 Q. Sometime I've heard reference to a Kalovita Brda, is that the
17 same facility, or is that something else?
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Thank you. You were asked some questions about the inspectors
20 who were working for you when you began with the RS MUP. You mentioned
21 Mr. Kovac, Ljubomir; Mr. Orasanin; a Kapetanovic. Do you recall when
22 Ostoja Minic was hired and began working as an inspector? I think you
23 said in August 1992. But we've seen from the documents that he
24 participated in the interviews of some of the Yellow Wasps who had been
25 arrested at the very end of July, so do you know if he started before the
Page 23171
1 Yellow Wasps had been arrested, or was it only at that very same time?
2 A. I was quite specific. Mr. Ostoja Minic was tasked with assisting
3 in the prosecution of the Yellow Wasp cases in Bijeljina. And if my
4 memory serves me right, Ostoja Minic used to work in the CSB in Tuzla,
5 but then he fled to Bijeljina. I think for awhile he was in the military
6 police and then he was transferred to the public security station in
7 Bijeljina. And once a team was set up that would deal with the
8 Yellow Wasps case, Mr. Minic was in that team. And that's how he
9 actually became part of that group and he went on working in the crime
10 enforcement division from August 1992 onwards.
11 Q. Okay. And I think you said that there were four or five
12 inspectors working for you in the time-period from April to the end of
13 July. I want to ask about that, starting, first of all, by looking at
14 one of the payroll documents.
15 MR. HANNIS: This is Exhibit 1D570.
16 Q. And that will be up on the screen in a moment, Mr. Macar.
17 MR. HANNIS: It's tab 18 of the Prosecution list.
18 Q. You see this appears to be a payroll for the crime
19 administration. Mr. Planojevic is listed as the assistant minister, and
20 you are the co-ordinator. Inspectors include Mr. Milanovic,
21 Mr. Orasanin. Petko Pekic's name is on here, but it says he was on sick
22 leave. Do you recall that? Did he work any part of that time, or was he
23 sick the whole time? Do you recall?
24 A. No, he wasn't working.
25 Q. Further down, we see Danilo Vukovic listed as an inspector. And
Page 23172
1 Sinisa Karan, I don't see a designation for him, was he working as an
2 inspector at that time? Do you recall?
3 A. Mr. Sinisa Karan was an inspector. I don't remember the exact
4 date when he joined the MUP. What Mr. Vukovic and Mr. Andan, I think --
5 he was sent to Bijeljina to help out the SJB and to assist in the efforts
6 to set up a Bijeljina CSB.
7 Q. Yes. And the bottom right, we see what appears to be the name
8 and a signature, the name of Dragan Andan. What was his position at the
9 time? Was he inspector working in your administration, or was he in some
10 kind of independent position? Do you know?
11 A. No, he didn't work in my administration, and I wouldn't speculate
12 now in which administration he did work. This signature means that he
13 received the salary of Mr. Vukovic who was in Bijeljina. And I believe
14 that these salaries were paid out retroactively when the budget was set
15 up.
16 Q. Yes. We see some dates by some of these salaries, seems they
17 paid on the 28th of July for Mr. Karan. And then there's a note about
18 travel orders for Mr. Planojevic, and you, Orasanin, Pekic, and Vukovic.
19 What was that about? Is that extra pay you get when you travel out on
20 your inspection tours or work-related duties?
21 A. When the budget was set up, and I can see that it was in July or
22 so, there were these symbolic fees. If you were to convert that into
23 euros, it would be a negligible amount. So we did get some money when we
24 were out in the field, but it was very little converted into German marks
25 at the time, or euros nowadays.
Page 23173
1 Q. But I understand the higher the number, the more travel you were
2 doing; right? So, for example, we see you got 10.000 which was more than
3 your entire regular monthly amount of 8.500. Mr. Orasanin got 2.000,
4 does that mean that you travelled five times as many places or as many
5 miles as he did? What does that mean?
6 A. No, it doesn't mean that. If there were other inspectors with
7 me, I also received the money to cover some of their expenses.
8 Q. And do you recall what travel you personally did in June 1992,
9 where you went?
10 A. It's been 20 years, so, really, if you could remind me of a
11 particular event, that would jog my memory, but otherwise. And,
12 generally speaking, in the crime enforcement administration - I apologise
13 if I interrupted you - there were orderly records of travel orders for
14 vehicles and persons. We were very precise about it, as if it were
15 peacetime. We did so because at some check-points, especially military
16 check-points, there were problems with passing through. We had to show
17 our IDs and prove who we were, and so on. Most of us at the time didn't
18 wear uniform, especially crime enforcement inspectors. We also used our
19 old official IDs until new ones were made. And if you had a travel
20 order, you could show very accurately where you were and when.
21 And let me add the following: We mostly travelled through
22 war-affected areas or areas where there had been incidents involving
23 weapons, so we needed some sort of evidence for where we were in case of
24 possible consequences.
25 Q. Thank you. And that's fair enough, Mr. Macar, I'm not sure where
Page 23174
1 I travelled in June of 2011 much less June of 1992.
2 I want to show you another document. This is tab 25 of the
3 Prosecution's list.
4 MR. HANNIS: It's 65 ter 20149.
5 Q. This is another payroll document. It appears to be for
6 July 1992. Yeah, the first name on the list as assistant minister is
7 Mr. Planojevic, but then I see there's a line drawn through his name.
8 We've heard evidence, and I understand, that sometime around the 22nd,
9 23rd of July, Mr. Planojevic was relieved of his position as assistant
10 minister. Do you recall that?
11 A. I think that this mistake was corrected and that Mr. Planojevic
12 received his due for the period when he was in his position.
13 Q. I agree, it seemed like he was entitled for payment for at least
14 three-quarters of the month, but do you recall that he was replaced or
15 removed from that position toward the end of July?
16 A. Whether he was replaced or transferred to another position in
17 agreement with the minister is something I don't know. I think that
18 there was some sort of agreement under which he voluntarily left the
19 position of assistant minister and immediately was transferred to the
20 State Security Service or national security.
21 Q. Did you ever hear about it? Did Mr. Planojevic, himself, ever
22 tell you about any disagreement he had with Mico Stanisic that led up to
23 his leaving his position as assistant minister for the crime
24 administration? What do you know about that, if anything?
25 A. Mr. Planojevic and I had good relations. Initially, we planned
Page 23175
1 together and made some pioneer arrangements for the setting up of the
2 ministry. During this period -- but I don't know if this is fit for open
3 session because it has do with Mr. Planojevic's private life. After ten
4 years, he got a child. His wife was at Herceg Novi which is in
5 Montenegro, and I believe that she gave birth there. At the same time --
6 JUDGE HALL: Should we go into private session.
7 MR. HANNIS: Your Honours, we can. I know the witness has
8 testified about it, but I don't remember if it was in open session when
9 we heard about this before. Out of an abundance of caution, we can and
10 then we can open it up later.
11 JUDGE HALL: Yes, we would do that.
12 [Private session]
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 23176
1 (redacted)
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 (redacted)
20 (redacted)
21 (redacted)
22 [Open session]
23 THE REGISTRAR: We are in open session, Your Honours.
24 MR. HANNIS:
25 Q. Mr. Macar, returning to the document, we see your name and the
Page 23177
1 title is "co-ordinator," but co-ordinator has been scratched out. Is
2 that to reflect the fact that when Mr. Planojevic has left his position
3 you now are the assistant or acting assistant? What happened there?
4 A. No. I was still co-ordinator. This is late July or thereabouts.
5 That is -- or, rather, why the word co-ordinator was struck out, I don't
6 know. It may have been out of revolt or any other reason.
7 Q. But who took over Mr. Planojevic's position when he left?
8 A. After August, that is, in early September, when the decision was
9 made to move the ministry to Bijeljina, upon the request of the minister,
10 I worked as a co-ordinator, and I was tasked to organise a crime
11 enforcement administration.
12 Q. Well, you had been working as co-ordinator up to this point, was
13 that a change, then, in your position or not?
14 A. No. No, my appointment was still in force, appointment to the
15 position of co-ordinator. But I got an oral order from the minister to
16 set up the ministry, and I actually acted as chief, too, but there was no
17 decision on my appointment to the position of chief. So you can check
18 that in the documents. It never says that I was chief.
19 Q. Okay. I understand that you didn't get an official written
20 appointment, but there was nobody else doing that job, de facto you were
21 the one acting in that position; correct?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And it looks like everyone's salaries have gone up since the last
24 month. Now instead of 8.500, you are getting 20.000, correct, at least
25 on paper?
Page 23178
1 A. Both in 1991 and in 1992, there was high inflation. So in order
2 to compare, you would have to convert the respective amounts to
3 German marks, and then you would find that the salaries were
4 approximately the same. You probably know that inflation was such that
5 the exchange rate was set almost hourly.
6 Q. Okay. Thank you. The number of inspectors -- we see some new
7 names here that weren't seen on the previous list. I don't believe
8 Tadija Cvoro was an inspector previously. Is that a new one?
9 A. Yes, Mr. Tadija Cvoro was an experienced police officer from
10 before the war, and I believe that he was a reserve police officer
11 because he had retired before that. We employed him for certain tasks.
12 Q. And Radivoje Stanisic, Zeljko Vasiljevic, those were new ones as
13 well from the last pay period?
14 A. Vasiljevic was wounded in combat in the early days of the war,
15 and he was treated in military hospital. His leg was badly injured, and
16 he was on sick leave. And then we had consultations and decided that he
17 should remain on the list until the final outcome that would take into
18 consideration his medical -- or his state of health. And
19 Ranka Vasiljevic, if you want me to explain, was a very good
20 administrator, court administrator in Sarajevo. That's why we hired him
21 in the administration as an administrator because we needed his profile,
22 especially from September 1992 onwards.
23 Q. Thank you. And Mr. Stanisic's condition of being sick, I suppose
24 that salary of only 6.000 is a reflection that he is not working full
25 time; is that right?
Page 23179
1 A. Vasiljevic?
2 Q. No, Radivoje Stanisic.
3 A. Radivoje Stanisic is an economist who worked in one of the audit
4 services. We had no inspectors who had experience with white-collar
5 crime, and by hiring Mr. Stanisic, we tried to make up for that. He may
6 have been hired on the 15th or the 10th or the 20th, and that's -- that
7 explains his salary.
8 Q. Thank you.
9 MR. HANNIS: Your Honours, I'd like to tender that document, and
10 I note it's time for the next break.
11 JUDGE HALL: Admitted and marked.
12 THE REGISTRAR: As Exhibit P2384, Your Honours.
13 JUDGE HALL: And we would resume in 15 minutes.
14 [The witness stands down]
15 --- Recess taken at 11.16 a.m.
16 [The witness takes the stand]
17 --- On resuming at 11.35 a.m.
18 MR. ZECEVIC: Your Honours, if I may, just before we start, with
19 the leave of the Trial Chamber, may I respond on the question posed at
20 the beginning, tomorrow, concerning the 54 bis? Thank you very much.
21 MR. HANNIS: Thank you.
22 Q. Mr. Macar, I see you've got a new chair. Let us know if that
23 causes you any problems. I want to show you one more payroll document
24 before moving on to another topic.
25 MR. HANNIS: It's 65 ter 20150 at our tab 44. I think the same
Page 23180
1 document was on the Defence list as 65 ter 901D1 at their tab 68.
2 Q. You see there one, Mr. Macar, it appears -- it has a date
3 14 September at the top, but it appears to relate to salary for the month
4 of August. Am I reading that correctly?
5 A. That's what it says.
6 Q. Now, I have a question: I know that at the beginning of August,
7 you and several inspectors were doing a lot of work on the Yellow Wasp
8 case, and Ostoja Minic, an inspector, worked on that case, and I don't
9 see his name on that list, is that because he was an inspector working
10 out of the CSB in Bijeljina; is that right?
11 A. I've already stated, Ostoja Minic worked in the Bijeljina SJB
12 because the Bijeljina CSB was not yet operational. The organisation was
13 not yet in place.
14 Q. We have seen documents in April of 1992, and certainly prior to
15 August 1992, purporting to come from the Bijeljina CSB, including input
16 into the daily bulletin or daily report that was put out by the RS MUP.
17 Did you not know about that?
18 A. When I'm talking about the establishment of functions and
19 organisational units in the Security Services Centre, I'm talking about
20 it working at full capacity with all the sections from the crime police,
21 the regular police, the financial affairs and personnel, and so on.
22 That's what I'm talking about. And then you have to appoint people to
23 the appropriate posts. Once you have done that, your centre is fully
24 established in organisational terms.
25 Q. Okay.
Page 23181
1 MR. ZECEVIC: Sorry, there's an intervention in the transcript.
2 I don't think that it was properly recorded what the witness has just
3 answered. The last sentence.
4 MR. HANNIS:
5 Q. Mr. Macar, your answer, the last sentence in English says:
6 "Once you have done that, your centre is fully established in
7 organisational terms."
8 If you said something different, can you tell us what you meant
9 it to say?
10 A. Well, that is not even an approximation.
11 Q. Well, then please repeat what you said, and we'll see if we get
12 it correctly this time.
13 A. I'll try to be as brief and as simple as possible. Once you
14 appoint a person to the post of the centre chief, that does not mean that
15 the centre is established in organisational terms. When I said that the
16 centre was established much later, in late 1992, that means that the
17 organisational units that are part of a Security Services Centre were
18 established. All the auxiliary services, all the units, the crime
19 enforcement section, the uniform police section, the analysis section,
20 the financial affairs section, and at the time when I came to Bijeljina,
21 this did not exist. And it was only when the ministry headquarters was
22 set up there and when some personnel was re-assigned, it was possible to
23 start building the CSB in Bijeljina, to set up some bare bones.
24 Q. Thank you. In terms of Mr. Minic working on the Yellow Wasp
25 case, how was that done in real life? He was not a member of your
Page 23182
1 administration at headquarters. Did you draft him to do the work? Did
2 you assign him? Did you request permission from the Bijeljina SJB chief?
3 How did that work?
4 A. I think that I was quite specific in my previous answers. I, and
5 my colleagues from the crime enforcement section, did not assume the
6 tasks of the SJB. We were in Bijeljina to assist the SJB in the Yellow
7 Wasp case, and the SJB itself had its own crime service, and Mr. Ostoja
8 Minic was part of that service. I don't know how long he had worked in
9 that public security station because I have some information, according
10 to which, he first served in the military and then transferred to the
11 SJB.
12 Q. Thank you. But was it the minister who sent you to Bijeljina to
13 assist with the Yellow Wasp investigation?
14 A. Yes, and he made me responsible in that area which was within the
15 purview of the crime police service.
16 Q. Okay. So Ostoja Minic, and whoever else from the local SJB was
17 working on the investigation, would have been working under your
18 direction for that task; is that right? Ostoja Minic wasn't going to be
19 telling you what to do; right?
20 A. No.
21 Q. I caused a problem for myself by asking two questions, and when
22 you gave me a short answer, it's not clear. So, was Ostoja Minic working
23 under you for this task?
24 A. Yes, because I co-ordinated work on the Yellow Wasp case. In
25 that particular sphere, that was assigned to the Ministry of the
Page 23183
1 Interior.
2 Q. And before I forget the document that's on the screen, the
3 September 14th payroll regarding August 1992, is that accurate, as far as
4 you remember, as far as the inspectors that were working for you at the
5 time?
6 A. First of all, I would like to correct you. They did not work for
7 me, they worked in the Ministry of the Interior. Now, whether some of
8 the names are missing or not, I can't really recall, but this would be,
9 more or less, an accurate list.
10 Q. Well, I don't want to quibble with you, but you are the number
11 one on the list. If they weren't working for you, who were they working
12 for? Weren't you the one that co-ordinated their work, assigned their
13 task, sent them on inspection tours to wherever they got sent?
14 A. Yes, but I was not privately in the MUP. Well, I'm not going to
15 insist on that.
16 MR. HANNIS: Thank you. Your Honours, I'd like to tender that
17 document.
18 JUDGE HALL: Admitted and marked.
19 THE REGISTRAR: Exhibit P2385, Your Honours.
20 MR. HANNIS: Thank you.
21 Q. Now, if we can take a look at Exhibit P1252. This was shown to
22 you by Mr. Zecevic last week. It's a document dated the 17th of April,
23 1992.
24 A. My apologies, it's not very legible. Could I get a hard copy?
25 MR. HANNIS: It's tab 10 of the Defence binder. Let me see, I've
Page 23184
1 got a hard copy that may be easier for you to read. I'll hand it to the
2 usher.
3 Q. You were able to help us a little bit when talking about this
4 document in terms of how documents were numbered within the RS MUP. And
5 on this document, at the top above the date, above the heading, we have
6 the number 10-18/92. Are you able to see that on your copy? It's above
7 the typewritten date of 17 April.
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And I think you told us the number 10 referred to the
10 administration for analysis; is that correct?
11 A. I think that's what I said.
12 Q. And that's right, isn't it?
13 A. That's what I assume, and I would be able to be even clearer if
14 my memory could be jogged.
15 Q. Okay. Well, it's my understanding that in these kind of numbers
16 on the document, the first number does refer to the office or the
17 administration from which it comes. And, for example, there will be a
18 number for the administration for uniform police, and a different number
19 for the administration for crime police, and a different number for
20 communications and cryptographic protection; right?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And I think you told us before that the number 01 would refer to
23 the minister's office?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Thank you. And the second number, the dash 18 before the slash
Page 23185
1 92, as I understand it, the 92 refers to the year in which this
2 communication came from the analytical administration, and that number
3 dash 18 would mean that was the 18th communication or document sent in
4 1992 by that administration; am I correct so far?
5 A. In my administration, that is how things were done. If we sent a
6 document at the request of the minister, and if we sign it for him, then
7 the ordinal numbers followed each other, regardless of the fact that the
8 minister had asked for this document to be drafted on his behalf. And
9 now whether they divided their documents -- whether they made a
10 distinction between documents sent by the section or by the
11 administration and by the minister, I don't know that.
12 Q. Thank you. I understand. Let me show you a different document
13 and see if we can talk a little further about that.
14 MR. HANNIS: Exhibit 1D046, which is Prosecution tab 104, I
15 believe, recently added to my list, Your Honours. I don't know if you
16 received our e-mail for the last ten or so.
17 Q. This is a document dated the 15th of May, 1992, from
18 Mico Stanisic. The number on this one is 01-1/92. And from what we've
19 said before, it sounds like this is, sort of, the first one in 1992 from
20 the minister himself or from the minister's office. Do you have any
21 reason to disagree with that?
22 A. Could I please look at the signature because I would like to see
23 who sent this document, whether it was sent from the minister's office.
24 MR. HANNIS: Yes, if we can go to the next page. I am sorry, I
25 don't have a hard copy with me at the moment.
Page 23186
1 Q. You see the signature and the stamp at the bottom?
2 A. And I would just like to check whether there's any indication as
3 to how this was sent and the level of encryption and the urgency. If we
4 could go back to the beginning of this document.
5 Q. Doesn't seem to have any of that information on it, does it?
6 A. Yes. It says here "strictly confidential." You can see that
7 above this line, "strictly confidential mail." Strictly confidential
8 correspondence did not -- was not logged in the regular logs, and perhaps
9 this is the first strictly confidential document sent by the minister. I
10 hope that I have been of some assistance to you here.
11 Q. Yes, that is helpful because we have seen documents earlier than
12 the 15th of May that appear to be coming from the minister or the
13 minster's office. But what you are telling me now, it says that
14 depending on their classification, they may be logged in a different book
15 and get a different order, a numerical order. That makes sense?
16 My question is: Have you, Mr. Macar, seen this document before
17 today? Did you see it in 1992? And do you need us to scroll down
18 through the whole thing? It's about the formation of a war --
19 A. Yes, I would like to look at it in order for it to jog my memory.
20 So if you could just scroll it.
21 MR. HANNIS: Certainly. If we could do the lower half of this
22 first page now.
23 Q. And let us know when you've read through number 6, and then we
24 can go to the second page.
25 A. I have read it.
Page 23187
1 MR. HANNIS: Now, if we can go to the second page and to the top
2 half first. And could I have the second page in English, please.
3 Q. You finished?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Okay.
6 MR. HANNIS: If we can go all the way to the bottom on the B/C/S
7 so the witness can see to whom it was sent. That's good.
8 Q. Did you receive this document in 1992? I know on the 15th of May
9 you would not have been acting head of your administration, you were
10 under Mr. Planojevic at the time, but I wonder, did you see it?
11 A. Yes, I did see this document.
12 Q. Okay. And in item number 9, you see it says:
13 "In order to command and control the overall forces of the
14 ministry, a staff shall be established comprising:"
15 It lists various people; the minister of the interior as
16 commander, and then it includes assistant ministers for crime, police,
17 communications, materiel and finance as members, which I take it to mean
18 Mr. Planojevic at the time would have been a member as the assistant
19 minister for crime. Do you know did this staff ever meet, ever function
20 in 1992?
21 A. I don't think that this body ever functioned.
22 Q. At least you, yourself, never went to any meeting of such a
23 staff; right?
24 A. I did not. And, as far as I can recall, this order was issued as
25 a consequence of the knowledge -- well, we have already said that the
Page 23188
1 active and reserve police and the crime police was engaged in combat to
2 an excessive extent, and sometimes you would have a situation where, side
3 by side in a trench, you would have soldiers who had committed crimes or
4 misdemeanours before the war and had been dealt with by the police, or
5 were dealt with by the police during the war because of those crimes,
6 such crimes and misdemeanours. And at the beginning, the police was
7 under the command of the Republika Srpska army because it did not have
8 its own structures. It did not have its platoons, companies with the
9 command structure. But they were all mixed up, and they were all under
10 the command structure of the Republika Srpska army.
11 I know that there were many complaints about police officers from
12 the crime police who objected to the fact that they were in the trenches
13 fighting side by side with people whom they had had to deal with. And
14 those people were now armed, and there was a great deal of fear among the
15 police officers. And in the end this, among other things, led to setting
16 up of an organisation. Once you had a sufficient number of people from
17 the ministry to keep them in a single formation from the platoon up, to
18 have their own command structure, to have assigned to them an area of
19 responsibility and not to be all mixed up with the other forces. And
20 that, I think, was one of the key reasons why this was done.
21 Q. Okay. But, in fairness to the army, isn't it true that some of
22 them might have had a similar complaint about reserve police officers who
23 were in the trench side by side with them, because some of those reserve
24 police officers were criminals who had been guilty of offences before the
25 fighting started? So some of the army soldiers might have complained
Page 23189
1 about policemen, the same way policemen were complaining about some of
2 the soldiers next to them in the trench; right?
3 A. If you compare those two indicators, I think that the number of
4 persons who joined the reserve police and who had committed crimes or
5 misdemeanours was at the level of statistical error, if you compare it
6 with the number of criminals who had had to join the army under the
7 Law on the Armed Forces because the police was in existence from 1945
8 until 1992.
9 Q. But a lot of the reserve police who were in the fighting were
10 only very recently put into the police, correct, in 1991 or 1992?
11 A. Well, as I've already said, there were standing orders to the
12 centres and the stations to remove this personnel from the ranks of the
13 police of the ministry, and this was done. I believe that there may have
14 been some isolated cases. A soldier may have noticed somebody wearing a
15 uniform that they were not supposed to be wearing. But if you compare
16 the numbers, although there were some complaints, we responded. But if
17 you compare it with the number of persons who had committed crimes or
18 serious misdemeanours, well, it was thousands of times bigger, this
19 figure. And this was not because the police was capricious or anything,
20 but the police forces -- the policemen responded because of the factual
21 state of affairs.
22 Q. I don't want to have a prolonged argument with you about that.
23 Let me put this in context chronologically. This is May the 15th. You
24 are aware that on the 12th of May there was an Assembly session of the
25 Serbian people in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and it was at that Assembly session
Page 23190
1 that the VRS, the Army of the Republika Srpska was created and announced;
2 correct? On the 12th of May?
3 A. It was in early May, as far as I remember, but when you mention
4 the Assembly, my memory -- it's easy for me to remember if you mention
5 the place where the Assembly session was held.
6 Q. Banja Luka.
7 A. I wasn't present at that Assembly. I have already said that. I
8 attended most Assembly sessions during the war. The reasons are clear,
9 it's communication lines. I know that the VRS was set up during that
10 period, although from the organisational point of view, we did have an
11 army because there was the TO.
12 Q. Let me move on to something else. On the 6th of July, at page
13 22.879, you were shown a document that is 1D635. It was Defence tab
14 number 14.
15 MR. HANNIS: If we can have a look at that.
16 Q. This is dated the 22nd of April, 1992, from the federal
17 Secretariat of the Interior.
18 A. If I could get a hard copy again.
19 MR. HANNIS: Perhaps Mr. Zecevic can help. There's the Defence
20 binder.
21 Thank you, Mr. Zecevic.
22 MR. ZECEVIC: [Interpretation] Tab 14.
23 MR. HANNIS:
24 Q. And if we could enlarge the English on e-court. You recall this
25 is a document where the federal authorities had a state commission for
Page 23191
1 genocide and had sent this document apparently to the authorities in
2 Republika Srpska asking for information concerning crimes against
3 humanity. Do you remember looking at that the last week?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. I'm just curious about the formulation of this. In the first
6 paragraph, it mentions:
7 "The state commission for the collection of data for the
8 verification of war crimes, crimes of genocide, and other crimes against
9 humanity and international law committed against Serbs and other
10 ethnicities during the armed conflict in Croatia and other parts of the
11 country."
12 Now, do you know why Serbs were singled out and identified
13 specifically by name, and everyone else was lumped under "other
14 ethnicities"? To me, that seems to suggest there was an emphasis on
15 cases where Serbs were victims. Do you disagree?
16 A. I do. And if you want, I can state my reasons.
17 Q. Well, before you do, let me ask you this question, and maybe you
18 can give me your reasons in the answer. It's, like, if the state
19 commission just wanted information about war crimes and crimes of
20 genocide and international law, what difference does it make who the
21 victims are? Just say, Give us all your information about war crimes
22 committed in your territory, regardless of the ethnicity of the
23 perpetrator, regardless of the ethnicity of the victims. Why wouldn't it
24 be phrased that way, do you know? Do you have a reason or just a theory?
25 A. This most certainly is not a theory. The way I understand this
Page 23192
1 document, it puts emphasis on the fact that war crimes were committed
2 against Serbs and others. Because if they had said war crimes against
3 Serbs, that would be different, but here it says against Serbs and
4 others, so this is a way of pointing out what exactly it is they want.
5 Committed against Serbs and other ethnicities, et cetera.
6 Q. Why not say against Yugoslavs and others?
7 A. You probably know that in former Yugoslavia there were Serbs and
8 Muslims, Croats, et cetera, et cetera, and Yugoslavs, that is, people who
9 stated their ethnicity as Yugoslav rather than another ethnicity. I know
10 from the people -- I know that many people I knew personally who were
11 Serbs but stated their ethnicity as being Yugoslav, and that's actually
12 the most numerous group of Yugoslavs who were actually Serbs because they
13 were in mixed marriages, or for any other reason.
14 Q. Okay. Thank you. Let me show you another document on a
15 different topic.
16 MR. HANNIS: 1D73. This was Defence tab 15, so you may be able
17 to find the hard copy in your binder, Mr. Macar.
18 Q. At page 22.885 of the transcript, Mr. Zecevic was asking you
19 about this document. And it's dated the 25th of April, 1992. It's a
20 decision where Mr. Stanisic is apparently giving some directions about
21 who is entitled to make appointments and which ones need to be confirmed
22 or consulted with the ministry about. Do you recall talking about this
23 one last week?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Mr. Zecevic asked you whether this order was implemented in
Page 23193
1 practice, and your answer was:
2 "It often was not."
3 My question is: How do you know that it was not implemented in
4 practice?
5 A. I know from information that the administration got during its
6 visits in 1992, I mean visits to the centres. And, finally, from the
7 meetings where the minister himself passed on information to his
8 administrations. In some reports Mr. Zecevic presented, I think there
9 was also the information that some senior officer in some municipality
10 was appointed by the Crisis Staff, or that he didn't meet all the
11 criteria as set out by the Law on Internal Affairs; that is, there was no
12 decision of the minister appointing him, or something like that.
13 Q. Did you ever personally hear that from Mico Stanisic, and, if so,
14 what person, what position, what location did he tell you about where
15 that had not been done in accordance with this decision?
16 A. What I heard from Mr. Stanisic was a common practice. There was
17 information about some CSBs, and that's why he gave this general
18 authorisation, so that it wasn't necessary to go to each and every SJB.
19 But when we did go to SJBs or CSBs, we received specific information.
20 THE INTERPRETER: Could the witness please repeat.
21 MR. HANNIS:
22 Q. I am sorry, the interpreters are asking you to please repeat. I
23 think they lost track of your answer.
24 A. In principle, I heard of this practice at one of the meetings
25 where other senior officers were also present, that his decisions are not
Page 23194
1 being acted upon. In most cases, I got information from the reports
2 about visits, visits of our inspectors from the crime enforcement
3 administration. When I say visits, I mean visits to SJBs and CSBs. And
4 there was also my personal observation when I went to places. And I
5 heard of many cases from periodic reports from CSBs, and the time I'm
6 referring to is 1992.
7 Q. We'll come to this in more detail later on, but now that you say
8 that I'll ask you a question or two about Doboj and Teslic. You had some
9 inspectors go to that CSB and write some reports about the situation in
10 Doboj CSB and related to Teslic SJB; correct?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. I think you've earlier mentioned the Mice, a group who caused a
13 lot of problems in Teslic. You knew about them from these reports?
14 A. From the reports submitted by inspectors of the crime enforcement
15 administration when they visited Doboj.
16 Q. And do you recall that one of the things that the Mice did in
17 Teslic was to kill a number of civilian prisoners, non-Serbs, in town
18 while the regular police force, including the police commander,
19 Mr. Markocevic, were present in the police building? Did you know about
20 that?
21 A. I do not remember the details.
22 Q. Would you agree that the exploits of the Mice were rather severe
23 and notorious?
24 A. They were certainly illegal, and as far as I know, legal steps
25 were taken against them in accordance with the law.
Page 23195
1 Q. Were you aware that members included both military and some,
2 apparently, police personnel?
3 A. As I've said, I do not remember the details. I did receive
4 reports, but I don't remember the details of this particular case.
5 Q. Okay. We'll look at some of those reports later on. Let me move
6 on to a different topic right now. At page 22.887, you were asked about
7 how many dispatches the crime enforcement administration sent out in the
8 period between April and the end of summer 1992. And then you were asked
9 actually how many were received. And your answer was:
10 "I believe received 31 documents."
11 It's is very precise number going back to April through July of
12 1992. How are you able to remember that you received 31 documents?
13 A. I think I said 29 or 31. Because when we moved to Bijeljina and
14 set up our headquarters there, we were beginning to establish the
15 administration. We brought with us a notebook where the markings of the
16 documents were entered, and the administrator was to transfer them to the
17 new register or log-book. We commented on that before, and I believe
18 that I also commenced in my previous answers that it was necessary to
19 improve the functional system of the Ministry of the Interior with all
20 its organisational units as well as information flow, which was
21 significantly disrupted by the existence of various ministries and the
22 fact that the SJBs were under the influence of Crisis Staffs.
23 I want to point out, lest you should understand that the
24 information system was only disrupted in April 1992, the system of
25 subordination and information --
Page 23196
1 Q. Stop, stop, please. You've answered my question. We'll talk
2 more about communications later.
3 Did you have a log-book? Did your crime administration in MUP
4 headquarters have a log-book where your administration recorded both
5 outgoing and incoming dispatches in 1992?
6 A. Yes, there was a log-book. We used regular notebooks, not the
7 required books or forms because we didn't have any. That's how we worked
8 until we got to Bijeljina.
9 Q. Do you have a copy of that log-book or any of those notebooks
10 reflecting the communications outgoing and incoming for 1992?
11 A. I don't have private archives. And with the permission of the
12 Trial Chamber, I would like to state something which I also stated to the
13 investigators, and I believe it's important for what I'm yet to say, and
14 I was reminded by this question, if I had any documents. I can show you
15 a document of which I have a copy, and that's one of the very few copies
16 that I have, and it was made on the 29th of November, 2005. It was sent
17 to the minister of the interior. I can paraphrase the reason for you --
18 JUDGE HALL: Well, before you go further, Mr. Macar, perhaps the
19 usher can show it to counsel who is on his feet, and then to counsel on
20 the other side, and then we would proceed from there.
21 MR. HANNIS: I appreciate that very much, Your Honour. If it's
22 in B/C/S, it won't help me a lot, but I'll take a look. Yes. Actually,
23 Your Honour, before we deal with it, I would like to have a copy of it,
24 then, perhaps, during the break, I can consult with some B/C/S speaker on
25 my team and then I'd be in a better position to know whether or not I
Page 23197
1 want to try and deal with it, or I want to object to it coming up in this
2 fashion.
3 MR. ZECEVIC: I agree. What would be probably the best way is
4 that we are provided with a copy because I haven't seen the document
5 myself. And I see the time. We are close to a break, so we can, over
6 the break, discuss it and ...
7 [Trial Chamber and Registrar confer]
8 JUDGE HALL: Would the usual 15 minutes be sufficient to allow
9 for you to review it and translate it, especially Mr. Hannis?
10 MR. HANNIS: Given it's the lunch hour, Your Honour, I'm not sure
11 if I will be able to find a speaker to help me during that time-period,
12 but, I can try. And if not, then what I'd ask is that if, you know, we
13 can return the document to him and deal --
14 JUDGE HALL: Tomorrow.
15 MR. HANNIS: -- with it once I've had a chance to do it, later
16 today or tomorrow.
17 JUDGE HALL: Yes, yes. So we take the break now.
18 [The witness stands down]
19 --- Recess taken at 12.29 p.m.
20 --- On resuming at 12.52 p.m.
21 MR. HANNIS: Your Honours, while the witness is coming in, I did
22 get a copy of the document, but I haven't been able to get with a
23 language assistant to look at it yet. I request that we address it
24 later, probably tomorrow, once I've had a chance to do that.
25 [The witness takes the stand]
Page 23198
1 MR. HANNIS:
2 Q. Mr. Macar, I've seen a copy of the document that you've just
3 presented but haven't had a chance to go over it with a language
4 assistant, so I've asked the Judges if we can come back to that perhaps
5 tomorrow.
6 But I see you have a blue folder from which you took that
7 document. Do you have any other documents in there that you were
8 intending to bring to our attention before you leave?
9 A. Well, I have an overview of the public security stations that I
10 made in late a September 1992, once there were already some indications
11 that the MUP headquarters would move to Bijeljina. Since some colleagues
12 were all ready to be employed in the administration, I made a list of
13 those security stations in order for people to know how many stations
14 were within each centre. So this was done in September 1993, I think. I
15 have all my decisions from the war time period, and I found this document
16 among them. I kept this document -- I had it in my possession when I was
17 supposed to talk to the OTP investigators. I do not have any kind of a
18 private archive that would contain any documents from the Ministry of the
19 Interior, and I did not ever put together any such archive during my work
20 in the ministry.
21 Q. All right. Would you be willing to provide the Court a copy of
22 that and allow us to make a copy?
23 Thank you, Mr. Macar.
24 Now, I want to move on to the subject of meetings. You mentioned
25 that there were, sort of, regular meetings with the minister and then
Page 23199
1 sometimes among your administration other groups. Let me ask you about
2 the period from April through July when Mr. Planojevic was head of the
3 crime police administration. How often during that time-period did you
4 attend any meetings where the minister was present, Mico Stanisic?
5 A. First of all, I did not say that there were regular meetings
6 because in war time how can you say that? It's not always on Monday or
7 Friday. It was dictated by the situation. At the beginning, the
8 meetings were attended by Mr. Planojevic, who would tell me about the
9 issues discussed at the meeting, and in some cases when Mr. Planojevic
10 was not present, I attended.
11 Q. During that time-period between April and the end of July, do you
12 recall how many meetings you attended in Mr. Planojevic's place where
13 Mico Stanisic was present? I'm just talking about April to the end of
14 July when Planojevic left his position.
15 A. Well, definitely more than two. I don't want to speculate
16 though. I mean, the exact -- to give you an exact figure after such a
17 long time, I can't really be expected to remember.
18 Q. Well, you were able to tell me you got 31 documents in 1992.
19 That was a pretty exact number.
20 A. Well, if you are in a job for a long time and you find yourself
21 in a situation where after April 1992 until sometime in October when we
22 moved to Bijeljina, there is this ministry and you bring with you a
23 notebook with maybe 22 or 31, well, that would be unprofessional, to say
24 the least. But due to the circumstances, in light of the communications
25 system and how it was organised at the time, when the SAO region was set
Page 23200
1 up and what it got, it mainly got from the Sarajevo centre, and, of
2 course, it struck me because I knew that we started with zero because
3 this figure is a minor figure in light of the problems and the war
4 itself. And I remember quite clearly that the notebook had a grey
5 binding and it remained in the archive of the crime police
6 administration.
7 Q. Okay. Let me ask you about Exhibit P1013. This is Defence
8 tab 18, so I think it's in your binder. And this is dated also the 15th
9 of May. This looks like a teletype going out from Mr. Zupljanin to
10 subordinate SJBs in the Banja Luka CSB area. Do you remember looking at
11 this last week?
12 A. I made a comment saying that this is a document from the Ministry
13 of the Interior, the Banja Luka CSB, was relayed by the centre to its
14 public security stations.
15 Q. Okay. And you'll see in the heading it says this is regarding
16 the "communication of the Serbian Republic of BiH MUP number 01-57/92
17 dated 11 May 1992." Now, based on the discussion we had earlier about
18 the numbering system, 01, I take it, means this comes from the minister's
19 office; is that correct?
20 A. No. What it says here, it's the Security Services Centre
21 Banja Luka, dispatch number such and such number, so this is the number
22 of dispatch that is assigned by the Banja Luka CSB. It's in their log.
23 Q. No, I understand that. And that's the number at the top,
24 dispatch number 11-1/01-37, I take it that's the Banja Luka number, below
25 that where it goes to the SJBs, to the chief, you will see it says
Page 23201
1 "regarding," that's the one I'm asking you about. Isn't this
2 Mr. Zupljanin forwarding to his subordinate SJBs a dispatch that
3 Banja Luka CSB has received from the ministry, and that's the one
4 numbered 01-57/92, dated 11 May?
5 A. Yes, this is the dispatch that had been sent from the MUP
6 headquarters, the minister, and now it is forwarded to the -- it goes out
7 into the field.
8 Q. And we see the content which apparently is what was in the
9 dispatch received in Banja Luka from the ministry. And my question is
10 the 01-57, the 01, isn't that a reference to this coming from the
11 minister's office and not from the crime administration and not from the
12 communications and data protection administration? You understand my
13 question?
14 A. Yes, 01 is a designation of the minister's office.
15 Q. And when you talked about it last week, you said you were
16 familiar with this order. Do you know who drew it up because you said
17 you remembered it from the time it was drawn up?
18 A. Yes, because there were several documents on this same topic
19 drafted in the same time-period and sent by the minister. Some of the
20 documents were sent directly from the minister's office and bore the
21 number of the minister's office, and some were relayed by the other
22 subordinate organisational units, the analysis department, and so on.
23 I would, for instance, give an instruction to relay it and then
24 we would assign our own number, the number of the crime enforcement
25 section, and so on, whoever was issued an order to relay it. So you do
Page 23202
1 not have the exact number of documents that were actually sent by the
2 minister, because in some cases the administrations, themselves, assigned
3 numbers in their own headquarters to make things -- to speed things up if
4 it was required, and the documents that were drafted on the orders of the
5 minister and were forwarded to the addresses specified by him.
6 Q. What I'm trying to find out, Mr. Macar, is if you know,
7 personally, who actually drafted this particular content because you
8 had -- you had a grammatical or semantical complaint about the use of the
9 word "unprincipled" in this document. So do you know who actually wrote
10 it in MUP headquarters, was it the minister, was it you, was it somebody
11 else? Do you know?
12 A. Well, I could not have made this kind of mistake because in
13 police jargon, the word "unprincipled" is seldom used. I would like to
14 look at the original dispatch sent from the ministry because this mistake
15 could have been made when the document sent by the minister was retyped.
16 And I'm sure, because I know the minister, that he used police
17 terminology for the most part. And I would like to look at the original
18 document and then I would be able to say.
19 Q. But without knowing specifically who the author was, you can't
20 say for certain that the person who wrote it did not intend to use the
21 word "unprincipled" instead of "unprofessional," which you say would be
22 the more proper police terminology in a document like this; right?
23 A. Well, I don't know what kind of sanctions you would get for
24 unprincipled behaviour, if there are any sanctions for that kind of
25 behaviour. And there is a sanction envisaged for unprofessional
Page 23203
1 behaviour. And from the time I started working in the police, I never
2 encountered this kind of a term, and it was not used at all.
3 Q. Well, this document is about getting removed from the ministry
4 people or policemen who engage in certain kinds of behaviour. Here it's
5 talking about fighting, violent behaviour, assaulting authorised
6 officials. But would you agree with me it would also include looting,
7 assault and murder of civilians? That's also the kind of behaviour you
8 would want to address; correct?
9 A. The order was written on the basis of the information obtained by
10 the ministry, or, rather, the minister himself. I have already said that
11 in some areas it was indicated that some former criminals were among --
12 were in the police ranks now, and we didn't know whether this held true
13 for all the areas, but this document was sent to all areas by way of a
14 warning and instructing them how to -- what to do.
15 Q. Yes, I'm just having a hard time understanding your quibble about
16 the difference between unprincipled and unprofessional in the context of
17 this document. Isn't this kind of conduct and assault or murder of
18 civilians, isn't that conduct both unprofessional and unprincipled?
19 A. Well, I hope that I can be of some assistance to you. I know
20 what you are driving at but let me help you understand this dispatch. It
21 says quite clearly here, that in the ranks of the police --
22 Q. Sorry. I appreciate your efforts to help me understand, but my
23 question was: Do you agree that that kind of conduct would be considered
24 both unprofessional and unprincipled? Can you answer that yes or no,
25 please?
Page 23204
1 A. Unprofessional.
2 Q. But principled?
3 A. I didn't understand you, sorry.
4 Q. Obviously. Never mind, let me move on.
5 You were talking at page 22.890 with Mr. Zecevic about the
6 problem starting up this new MUP and how you didn't have any materials or
7 supplies, including typewriters and paper and fuel. I agree that was a
8 serious problem for the RS MUP, but it wasn't such a problem in some
9 areas, for example, in Banja Luka and Doboj which had previously been
10 operating as CSBs, and maintain most of that materiel and equipment when
11 the fighting started; right? They were in much better shape than the
12 rest of the RS MUP; agreed?
13 A. Well, as for us being in a better condition than other parts of
14 Republika Srpska, well, that is true, but if you want to say that we had
15 excessively good equipment and technology, that's not true. And the
16 other problem was personnel, it wasn't just equipment.
17 Q. I understand. You said that, Because of these problems we had to
18 make due with friendly contacts that we had with what was left in
19 warehouses, and so on. Some of the friendly contacts that helped provide
20 equipment and materiel to the RS MUP included the SDS; right?
21 A. The SDS -- I noted that I was not a member of the SDS, but I did
22 not speak about it in any other context.
23 Q. No, but I'm asking you: Aren't you aware that the SDS helped
24 provided new RS MUP with materiel and equipment? You didn't know about
25 any of that?
Page 23205
1 A. I would have felt that and I wouldn't have had to make due, and
2 my administration wouldn't have had to steal fuel from myself to be able
3 to use the vehicles for the needs of the administration. Of course when
4 I say stealing from myself, I'm putting it in a joking way. I would have
5 been only too happy to go to them and get fuel, although I wasn't a
6 member of the SDS. No, I did not know about that.
7 Q. And you didn't know about the MUP of Serbia and/or the federal
8 SUP providing certain equipment and materiel to the new RS MUP in 1992?
9 Didn't know about any of that?
10 A. My administration was never affected by the benefits of receiving
11 that equipment or materiel, not even uniforms. I'm not aware of them
12 supplying anything, and if they did, the quantities can't have been but
13 small because I would have known if it had been on a greater scale.
14 Q. You mention another one of the problems that was discussed in
15 meetings at the MUP headquarters was the problem about the lack of
16 prosecutors and courts not operating in the territory, and that it wasn't
17 before June or July that a number of prosecutors and judges got their
18 formal official appointments. Let me ask you, regarding Doboj and
19 Banja Luka CSB territories, did they not already have judges and
20 prosecutors in place who had been working since before the war and who
21 were working even without official appointments before June and July of
22 1992? Did you know about that?
23 A. I know that in the Doboj area there was a prosecutor's office,
24 but I'm not sure in what capacity they worked. I got information from
25 the inspectors when we visited the area. In 95 per cent of the
Page 23206
1 municipalities, the prosecutors offices and courts of law were not
2 functional though. I don't believe that even the prosecutor's office and
3 court in the areas of Doboj and Banja Luka functioned with their full
4 capacity. And the example of Banja Luka shows that in most places
5 covered by the centre, the prosecutor's office and court were not
6 functional.
7 Q. After enumerating all these problems --
8 MR. ZECEVIC: I am sorry.
9 MR. HANNIS: Yes, Mr. Zecevic.
10 MR. ZECEVIC: Part of the answer was not recorded. Perhaps you
11 can ask the witness to clarify because he gave the -- in his answer, he
12 explained how he found out that this was the case.
13 MR. HANNIS:
14 Q. Mr. Macar, you heard what Mr. Zecevic said ...[Microphone not
15 activated]
16 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for the Prosecutor.
17 MR. HANNIS: I am sorry.
18 Q. Mr. Macar, you heard what Mr. Zecevic said. Can you tell us how
19 you came to find out this information that in 95 per cent of
20 municipalities the prosecutors offices and courts of law weren't
21 functional? I think the interpreters didn't pick up all of your previous
22 answer.
23 A. Are you now referring to the Doboj centre and the Banja Luka
24 centre, that is, the areas covered by them or the entire RS?
25 Q. I'm not sure.
Page 23207
1 MR. HANNIS: I need some help from my friend across the way which
2 I should be referring to.
3 MR. ZECEVIC: I believe the answer was aimed at Banja Luka and
4 Doboj.
5 MR. HANNIS:
6 Q. Okay. Banja Luka and Doboj for now, please.
7 A. That's what I supposed. That's why I asked. Based on the
8 reports from the inspectors of the crime enforcement services that he
9 drew up after visiting the Doboj centre and based on the periodica
10 reports from the CSB, I was able to tell that in the Doboj area where
11 there were SJBs, prosecutors offices and courts were not functioning. I
12 doubt that even in Doboj itself, the prosecutor's office and the court
13 were fully functional, which can be seen from the reports of the Doboj
14 CSB regarding the municipalities covered by that centre and its SJBs.
15 Q. Okay, Mr. Macar. After going through these various problems with
16 Mr. Zecevic, he asked you if this was discussed with your colleagues at
17 the ministry. Page 22.898, line 15, you said:
18 "Yes, at collegium meetings and briefings at the headquarter."
19 Can you explain to me what the difference is, in your mind,
20 between collegium meetings and briefings? Who attends collegiums and
21 what is the difference between that and a briefing?
22 A. A collegium can be a meeting of the inner circle of senior
23 officials or the wider circle of senior officers; that is, the chiefs of
24 administrations. And when we speak about briefings, apart from the
25 senior officers from the MUP headquarters, there are also the chiefs of
Page 23208
1 the centres and other senior officers as invited by the minister.
2 Q. Okay. Let me see if I understand. The inner circle collegium
3 meeting, that's the minister, and what, all the heads of the
4 administrations? Is that the inner circle?
5 A. The minister and the chiefs of administrations, and of course the
6 head of the public security department, if we are talking about public
7 security. And let me continue, briefings or shorter meetings are about a
8 certain topic. And they are held according to need, depending on what
9 the topic was that was to be discussed, and it's attended by those senior
10 officers who can say something relevant about that and who are concerned.
11 MR. ZECEVIC: I am sorry, perhaps Mr. Hannis should inquire with
12 the witness. I believe that looking at him, it appears to me that --
13 MR. HANNIS: I noticed that, too. And I was just about to
14 inquire.
15 Q. Mr. Macar, it looked like you were having some discomfort. Do
16 you want to continue on for another 20 minutes or would you like to
17 recess now?
18 A. Well, I can hold out another five minutes or so.
19 Q. Okay. I'll try to do that, Mr. Macar, and we'll be done for the
20 day. The inner circle, did that also include the head of the
21 National Security Service or only public security?
22 A. As a rule, when we speak about inner circle meetings or collegium
23 meetings, those dealing with public security were held separately from
24 those dealing with national security.
25 Q. All right. I understand. We've seen some documents that are, I
Page 23209
1 think, described in the heading as a meeting of the extended collegium of
2 the ministry. And looking at the attendees, it seems that that extended
3 collegium included the heads of CSBs. Did it include anyone else, as a
4 norm?
5 A. The chiefs administrations at headquarters, the chiefs of the
6 centres. There were also sometimes wider collegium meetings attended
7 also by the chief of state security or national security. These were the
8 extended collegiums.
9 Q. Do you recall how many collegiums meetings ...[Microphone not
10 activated]
11 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.
12 MR. HANNIS: Sorry.
13 Q. Do you recall how many collegium meetings you would have attended
14 in 1992 after July, when Mr. Planojevic was no longer the head of your
15 administration?
16 A. I was reminded during the examination by looking at documents.
17 I'm certain about the collegium at Trebinje, and I think there was one in
18 Bijeljina and in Pale.
19 Q. We'll look at some of those specific meetings later on. Do you
20 remember attending one on Mount Jahorina, I think, in September?
21 A. I think I attended the meeting at Pale, I think so.
22 Q. Is that the same one that I'm referring to when I say
23 Mount Jahorina?
24 A. It's all the municipality of Pale.
25 Q. Thank you.
Page 23210
1 MR. HANNIS: Your Honours, I'm about to go into a more lengthy
2 topic, perhaps this is a good point to stop for today.
3 JUDGE HALL: So we take the adjournment until tomorrow. And I
4 remind everyone that tomorrow and Thursday we are sitting in the
5 afternoons in Courtroom III.
6 [The witness stands down]
7 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.29 p.m.
8 to be reconvened on Wednesday, the 13th day of
9 July, 2011, at 2.15 p.m.
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