Page 19157
1 Monday, 22
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22 [Open session]
23 [The witness entered court]
24 THE REGISTRAR: The pseudonym for this
25 witness will be "Witness DD".
Page 19261
1 JUDGE MAY: Yes, let the witness take the
2 declaration.
3 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I solemnly
4 declare that I will speak the truth, the whole truth,
5 and nothing but the truth. Witness
6 [witness answered through interpreter]
7 WITNESS: WITNESS DD
8 Examined by Mr. Sayers:
9 Q. Thank you, Mr. President, and good afternoon,
10 sir.
11 Let me just tell you that the Court has
12 granted you the protective measures that you had been
13 seeking. Over the television, your face will be
14 subject to facial distortion, your voice will be
15 distorted and for purposes of this case, you will be
16 known as "Witness DD". Do you understand that, sir?
17 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone is not switched
18 on or we cannot hear the witness.
19 JUDGE MAY: Witness DD, we've got to hear
20 what you say. Could you lean forward and speak into
21 the microphone so we can all hear.
22 MR. SAYERS: Mr. President, I propose to lead
23 most of this unless the Prosecution wishes me not to,
24 and for purposes of the personal information, I wonder
25 if we could go into private session for just a couple
Page 19262
1 of minutes.
2 JUDGE MAY: Yes.
3 [Private session]
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Page 19263
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22 [Open session]
23 MR. SAYERS:
24 Q. All right. Witness DD, I've just been told
25 that before you give your answer, I have to turn my
Page 19264
1 microphone off. So if you would wait until I finish my
2 question then give your answer, it will go more
3 smoothly. Is that all right?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Is it the fact, sir, that on July the 2nd,
6 1993, Fojnica was attacked by the ABiH, it being a
7 surprise attack with no prior warning?
8 A. It is a fact.
9 Q. I believe, sir, that you were awoken in the
10 early morning hours by the sounds of shooting and
11 explosions in your village.
12 A. Yes, that is correct.
13 Q. Only three days before this attack, sir, the
14 municipality of Fojnica had been declared to be a peace
15 oasis or so-called "peace oasis" by Lieutenant
16 General Morillon on behalf of UNPROFOR.
17 A. Yes. That is correct too.
18 Q. And on the evening of July the 2nd, 1993,
19 along with your son and several other Croats, you were
20 taken prisoner by the ABiH. Is that correct?
21 A. Yes, that is correct.
22 Q. You had some weapons but they were
23 confiscated by your captors, and none of you attempted
24 to resist capture. Is that the case, sir?
25 A. Yes, that is correct.
Page 19265
1 Q. You were then bound with thick ropes by ABiH
2 military police units and taken to a place called
3 Korita, one of the Muslim police officers having hit
4 you in the jaw, and he broke it, and then proceeded to
5 beat you repeatedly. Is that accurate?
6 A. That is correct too.
7 Q. From Korita, you were placed into the back of
8 the truck, still bound, and driven to the Silos
9 detention camp in Kacuni, arriving at that camp badly
10 bruised as a result of being thrown around in the back
11 of the truck during the rough ride there. Is that
12 right, sir?
13 A. That is correct too.
14 Q. You arrived at the Kacuni Silos around
15 6.00 a.m. The next day, July the 3rd, 1993, where you
16 were made to undress, and the guards standing watch
17 over you confiscated and stole your shoes, socks, and
18 valuables?
19 A. That is correct too.
20 Q. You were then placed with other prisoners in
21 cells, about 16 cells altogether, each cell measuring
22 about 10 metres by 5 metres?
23 A. And that is true too.
24 Q. Could you just describe to the Court, sir, in
25 your own words, what the conditions were like in the
Page 19266
1 cells in which you were detained?
2 A. Yes, I shall try. The conditions we lived
3 for two and a half months in were very bad. Hygiene
4 was completely lacking. It was filthy. It was
5 difficult to breathe because the air outside was hot.
6 There was no place to urinate, and we had to
7 do it in a prisoner's boot, a prisoner who was with me
8 there. When that boot was full, there was no place to
9 empty it, nor were we allowed to come out, so that we
10 suffered that urine in our bodies, because we were not
11 allowed to take that boot out. Before that, before we
12 were allowed to urinate in the boot -- I'm sorry I have
13 to say that -- we had to use a hole in the concrete and
14 we had to hide that, because when the BH army policemen
15 entered cells, they would beat us because they could
16 feel this stench, the unpleasant odour. They
17 discovered that. Then they brought a canister, which
18 we, from then on, used to urinate. It was very hard on
19 us.
20 Q. You had to share the cell with your brother
21 and about 12 other prisoners, and because there were no
22 beds or blankets, you had to sleep on the concrete
23 floor at night; is that right?
24 A. Yes. That is correct too.
25 Q. And your son, Zeljko, was put in a separate
Page 19267
1 cell with about six other prisoners?
2 A. And that is correct too.
3 Q. While in this detention camp, sir, you were
4 beaten and kicked every day for a month with ropes,
5 rifles, and boots, there being, at times, as many as
6 15 Muslim soldiers thrashing you, and during this
7 terrible time, three of your ribs were broken from
8 these beatings.
9 A. Yes, that is true too.
10 Q. And you also learned that you were not to
11 scream to say -- no matter how much pain you felt,
12 because you would then be beaten harder if you
13 screamed. Your captors would be standing on your
14 throat to stop you from yelling. Is that accurate?
15 A. And that is true too.
16 Q. Occasionally, some of your fellow prisoners
17 were beaten into unconsciousness?
18 A. That is correct too.
19 Q. And in the cell next to yours, sir, I believe
20 your son was incarcerated, and could you tell the Court
21 whether you could hear his cries from similar kinds of
22 beatings?
23 A. It was horrible. I don't know what to say
24 about the acts like that. When I heard my child
25 screaming, I had to press my ears so that I would not
Page 19268
1 hear it, but I could see and hear everything that was
2 going on in the adjoining cell.
3 My brother tried to calm me down, giving me
4 signs with his hands, trying to tell me to endure all
5 this, and I thought, "Well, what would you have done,
6 my brother, if you knew that your own son was there?"
7 But I did not dare do it, because we did not dare speak
8 out. We would only whisper to each other.
9 Whenever somebody would come at the door, we
10 would have to hop to our feet and look down in front of
11 us and keep our hands behind our backs. For me, it was
12 a dreadful episode.
13 Q. I believe that the maltreatment that you
14 suffered culminated on the 14th of July, sir. Could
15 you tell the Court what happened to you on that day?
16 A. I can say that on that day, they entered our
17 cell for -- on seven occasions in teams. 7, 9, 12 and
18 15 different individuals including policemen and
19 civilians, even women and children, and they beat us
20 until they could beat us no more.
21 Somewhere around 14 July, I don't know the
22 exact date, but that was the period that was the most
23 difficult for me. I did not know whether it was day or
24 night. I even fell unconscious. And if I couldn't get
25 up when I was being beaten, when one of the detainees
Page 19269
1 on the left or right would prop me up, and I would have
2 to stand straight as they would beat me.
3 Some people had to be splashed with water in
4 order to come back to. And that night, a bucket was --
5 of water was brought in. It was blue. We were all
6 bloodied, and we were given this blue water to wash
7 up. It was terrible that night.
8 Later on I learned, after I was released from
9 this camp, that on that day, in the cell where my son
10 was, the detainees in there were beaten on 14
11 occasions.
12 One day in passing, I saw my son and three --
13 with three other men. I could not recognise him. His
14 head was all swollen. He was black and blue. I could
15 only see the pupil of his right eye, this is how he
16 looked.
17 One of the detainees approached me and called
18 me by my name, "I did not believe that you would
19 survive when you saw how your son looked. I thought
20 that your heart would just give," and, indeed, it was
21 very hard for me.
22 Q. During the time of your detention, Witness
23 DD, were you forced to observe any religious beliefs
24 other than your own?
25 A. Yes, at that time in the evening there, a
Page 19270
1 policeman came and they demanded that we pray to
2 Allah. This was not right for me, and it hurt my
3 religious beliefs. We had to do it every night. We
4 prayed to Allah as we were ordered.
5 This was going on for about half an hour
6 every night, and the cell has to resound from these
7 prayers because they wanted to hear the -- the guards
8 outside wanted to hear the Croats pray to Allah.
9 MR. SAYERS: Your Honour, with the Court's
10 permission and to save time, could we take paragraphs
11 18 and 19 read with the Prosecution's agreement and
12 just move on to the last paragraph.
13 JUDGE MAY: Some of it you've covered
14 already. We don't need to go into that detail.
15 MR. SAYERS: Thank you, Mr. President.
16 Q. Witness DD, I believe that you were released
17 finally from Kacuni on September 13th, 1993, as part of
18 a prisoner exchange.
19 A. That is also correct.
20 Q. And since your release, you've been under the
21 care of physicians suffering from post-traumatic stress
22 disorder; is that right?
23 A. Yes, that is also correct.
24 Q. Could you tell the Court what symptoms you
25 still suffer from as a result of that condition, sir.
Page 19271
1 A. I could say I have great problems with ribs
2 which were fractured. I do not sleep at night. I can
3 sleep up to two hours. I have -- I dream what I went
4 through in that camp. I cannot get rid of it despite
5 the medication and I have been under medical control
6 for the last seven years. I've used different
7 medication and I go to neuropsychiatrists on a regular
8 basis, every month, month and a half.
9 I still cannot get rid of it. It was
10 diagnosed as post-traumatic stress syndrome and I still
11 suffer from it.
12 MR. SAYERS: Just one final question,
13 Mr. President. The witness has brought with him some
14 documents relating to his Red Cross registration, and
15 I'd just like to have those marked for the purposes of
16 the record with the Court's permission.
17 THE REGISTRAR: The document will be marked
18 D222/1.
19 MR. SAYERS: Obviously the document will be
20 under seal.
21 Mr. President, there are translations
22 appended to the back of the Croatian originals.
23 Q. Just one question, Witness DD, if I may. I
24 wonder if the usher could just put one copy of the
25 exhibit in front of you.
Page 19272
1 Could you just confirm that these are
2 documents that you brought with you in connection with
3 your incarceration and release?
4 A. Yes, that is correct.
5 MR. SAYERS: Thank you. No further
6 questions, sir.
7 MR. MIKULICIC: No questions, Your Honour.
8 MR. NICE: Your Honour will understand I
9 don't have any questions in to ask in relation to the
10 captivity, and I'm not in any position to formally
11 admit everything, that I don't have anything to ask,
12 and I may have nothing to ask in any event, but if you
13 can just give me one minute.
14 Cross-examined by Mr. Nice:
15 Q. Witness DD, you tell us that you were a
16 member of the civil defence. Before you were
17 incarcerated, if you needed leave of absence for
18 reasons of health, how would that involve the HVO
19 giving you such leave? Can you explain?
20 A. I did not understand this question.
21 Q. To be relieved of your duty as a civil
22 defence person, did you need the leave of the HVO?
23 A. I didn't understand the question. Can you
24 repeat it one more time, please?
25 Q. I'm not going to bother asking again and
Page 19273
1 taking this witness' time.
2 At the exchange of prisoners, do you know
3 for -- do you know where prisoners were coming from who
4 were exchanged with you, from which prison they were
5 coming?
6 A. I do not know exactly what prison they came
7 from. No, I do not know that.
8 Q. Might it have been Kaonik?
9 A. I know that it was not Kaonik.
10 MR. NICE: Yes, thank you. Nothing else,
11 thank you.
12 JUDGE MAY: Witness DD, that concludes your
13 evidence. Thank you for coming to the International
14 Tribunal to give it. You are free to go.
15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you.
16 [The witness withdrew]
17 [Trial Chamber confers]
18 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Sayers, I think it might be
19 sensible if you have your next witness here to make a
20 start.
21 MR. SAYERS: Absolutely, Your Honour.
22 JUDGE MAY: We'll go on to about quarter
23 past.
24 MR. NICE: Just before Mr. Sayers does that,
25 might I propose something that might be helpful, and
Page 19274
1 that is that we look at the affidavits that might be
2 logged in respect to this witness, the last two
3 witnesses, while matters are fresh in our memory.
4 Because all too easily you move from topic to topic and
5 I've only just received them yesterday, and I haven't
6 had a chance to think about them and, of course, I
7 haven't had chance to make researches into the
8 witnesses.
9 But I can see that the -- if it's only the
10 witness Branko Golub that's involved, you Your Honours
11 will notice, it's unlikely that I've got anything to
12 say in relation to the first page.
13 Then starting on the second page, paragraph
14 seven, again, probably nothing; seven, eight, nine,
15 ten, or eleven, but it's when we go over the page the
16 third page in paragraph twelve, we find in support of
17 really the last two witnesses these five lines. "After
18 the ABiH attack, all but a few hundred Bosnian Croats
19 were expelled from their houses by military force.
20 Many civilians were killed during the attack and over
21 6.000 Croats became refugees and were pushed out of
22 Fojnica and had to go to Kiseljak Vares and other
23 towns." It then deals with the burning of houses.
24 Unless I've missed something in the press of
25 getting through the first witness today, he gave a lot
Page 19275
1 of evidence and had to be asked quite a lot of topics,
2 we haven't had this detail, and insofar as I should
3 join issue with this -- on this topic at all, as you
4 will have seen from the line of questioning I've taken,
5 it's on the basis that a significant measure of the
6 removal of Croats was at the instigation of and under
7 the pressure of Croats themselves.
8 So we have here, as the supporting witness,
9 somebody giving, at least as it reads, the most direct
10 evidence of that particular part of the story, because
11 the first witness today didn't give it in any
12 first-hand detail at all, and the last witness didn't
13 give it at all.
14 So it's likely to be, and I mention it now so
15 you can look at it while it's fresh in your mind, it's
16 likely to be paragraph 12 that I will object to.
17 JUDGE MAY: Very well.
18 MR. NICE: Thank you.
19 JUDGE MAY: Let's go on with the evidence.
20 [The witness entered court]
21 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Let the witness take the
22 declaration.
23 THE WITNESS: I solemnly declare that I will
24 speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
25 truth.
Page 19276
1 WITNESS: Niko Grubesic
2 [Witness answered through interpreter]
3 JUDGE MAY: Yes. If you'd like to take a
4 seat.
5 MR. SAYERS: Thank you, Mr. President.
6 Examined by Mr. Sayers:
7 Q. Good afternoon, sir. Would you please tell
8 the Court your name.
9 A. Good afternoon.
10 Q. And what is your name?
11 A. My name a Niko Grubesic.
12 Q. Mr. Grubesic, I propose to take you fairly
13 quickly through some matters concerning your personal
14 background of uncontroversial nature. Is it fair to
15 say, sir, that you're a Croat from Bosnia-Herzegovina?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. You were born in 1958 in the village of
18 Kondjilo, on the border of Busovaca, Visoko, and
19 Kiseljak municipalities?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. But when you were five, your family moved to
22 the village of Oseliste near Kacuni in Busovaca
23 municipality?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. In August of 1992, you moved from Oseliste,
Page 19277
1 you yourself that is, to the Busovaca town centre.
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Did your parents remain in Oseliste, sir?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. You are married and you have two small
6 children.
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. Where do you live now, sir?
9 A. I live in Busovaca, and my home address is
10 Kula, and no street number.
11 Q. All right. I believe that you attended
12 elementary school in Kacuni, high school in Zagreb in
13 1977, and you graduated from the Zagreb law school in
14 1982?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. On your graduation in 1982, you returned to
17 your hometown, Busovaca, and worked there for five
18 years as a lawyer for the Busovaca municipal
19 administration in the Land Records Office?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. During that time, you fulfilled your one year
22 compulsory military service obligation in the Yugoslav
23 People's Army?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. After that, you established your own law
Page 19278
1 practice in Busovaca for about three years?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Now, after the first free elections held in
4 Busovaca, sir, could you describe to the Court what
5 your positions within the municipality were?
6 A. After the multi-party elections in Bosnia and
7 Herzegovina in November 1990, in late January 1991, I
8 was appointed as secretary of the Busovaca municipal
9 parliament or assembly.
10 Q. Who was the president of the municipal
11 parliament at that time?
12 A. Based on the election results in November
13 1990, Mr. Zoran Maric was appointed the president of
14 the municipal parliament. He was a member of the HDZ.
15 And Mr. Sunulahpasic, who was the member of the SDA,
16 was appointed to the position of the president of the
17 municipal government.
18 Q. I believe, sir, that from April the 2nd, 1992
19 until May the 9th of 1992, you were a member of the
20 Crisis Staff established in Busovaca. Is that right?
21 A. Yes. The Municipal Assembly appointed a
22 Crisis Staff which was appointed because the Municipal
23 Assembly believed that it may not be able to sit in the
24 future, and so it appointed its own Crisis Staff to run
25 the government.
Page 19279
1 Q. All right. And the Crisis Staff was
2 appointed to run the affairs of the municipal
3 government in time of war in lieu of the municipal
4 parliament which had been disbanded?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. And from mid-1992 until the end of the war in
7 March of 1994, I believe you worked as the secretary of
8 the Busovaca municipal Croat Defence Council, or HVO,
9 the temporary municipal administration in Busovaca
10 during the time of the war.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. What did you do from the end of the war in
13 1994 until the end of 1995, Mr. Grubesic?
14 A. In the period between March 1994 until about
15 November 1995, I was an official of the Busovaca
16 municipality, dealing with administrative matters, and
17 most of my work consisted in contacting international
18 humanitarian organisations in order -- dealing with the
19 repair of homes and buildings that were damaged during
20 the war.
21 Q. All right, sir. And I believe that you were
22 the mayor of the Busovaca municipality from November
23 1995 until August of 1998.
24 A. Yes. I was the mayor of Busovaca during that
25 period.
Page 19280
1 Q. Then from 1998 to 1999, you held the position
2 of director of the privatisation agency for the Central
3 Bosnia canton, one of the ten cantons of the Federation
4 of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
5 A. Yes. This was a newly established agency,
6 and I was tasked with setting it up and making it
7 operational.
8 Q. From August of 1999 until the present, sir,
9 what is it that you've been doing?
10 A. From August 1999, after having successfully
11 set up and started the agency for privatisation in
12 Travnik, I was, so to say, promoted, and I became the
13 deputy director for the agency for privatisation at the
14 Federation level. That means for all ten cantons. And
15 director of the agency is an ethnic Bosniak, Adnan
16 Mujagic, and I am his deputy.
17 Q. All right. Just going back to 1990 and 1991
18 for a moment. I believe that you were a vice-president
19 of the Busovaca branch of the Croat Democratic Union of
20 Bosnia-Herzegovina, the HDZ-BiH.
21 A. Yes. At the convention of the municipal
22 Croat Democratic Union's party in Busovaca held in
23 September 1990, I was elected the vice-president of
24 the -- I was elected the vice-president of the Croat
25 Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Busovaca, and
Page 19281
1 I was there until sometime in spring 1991.
2 Q. All right. Mr. Grubesic, the Court has heard
3 quite a bit of evidence about the elections that were
4 held nationally in November of 1990. Did those
5 elections have any impact upon you?
6 A. Yes. In the first multi-party free elections
7 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, I was elected to represent the
8 municipality of Busovaca in the assembly of the
9 Socialist Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. That was the
10 official name of Bosnia-Herzegovina at the time.
11 Q. You were a Member of Parliament in that
12 capacity, I take it.
13 A. Yes. There were two Houses, two Chambers in
14 the parliament. I was a member of one of these
15 Chambers. We either sat in the Chamber of
16 Municipalities, of which I was a member, or at times
17 both Chambers sat together, that is, both the Chamber
18 of Citizens and Chamber of Municipalities, and I would
19 then attend them both.
20 Q. In that capacity, I believe you were the
21 vice-president of the Legislative Committee of the
22 Socialist Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina parliament.
23 A. Yes. I was the vice-chairman of the
24 legislative board of the parliament of the Socialist
25 Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Page 19282
1 MR. SAYER: All right. I'll skip over the
2 rest of paragraph 10, Your Honours, and just go to
3 paragraph 11.
4 Q. Did you hold any positions in the Croat
5 Republic of Herceg-Bosna after it had been declared in
6 August of 1993, sir?
7 A. All the representatives of the Croat
8 Democratic Union, that is, all the MPs elected to the
9 assembly of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1991 were also MPs in
10 the House of Representatives in the Croatian Community
11 of Herceg-Bosna, and I was in the House of
12 Representatives in the Croatian Community of
13 Herceg-Bosna. I was the vice-chairman of the
14 legislative commission.
15 Q. Now, we heard a lot of evidence about the
16 formation of the political parties in Busovaca itself,
17 and as you've said, at the first convention of the
18 HDZ-BiH in Busovaca, you were elected vice-president of
19 the party. Who was elected president?
20 A. The president of the municipal organisation
21 of the Croat Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina in
22 Busovaca was Dr. Vjekoslav Barac.
23 Q. Was Mr. Zoran Maric elected to any position
24 within the HDZ-BiH at that time?
25 A. Yes. Mr. Zoran Maric was elected by the
Page 19283
1 convention, that is, in September, 1990, vice-president
2 of the municipal organisation of the HDZ in
3 Bosnia-Herzegovina, and I was also a vice-president of
4 the Croat Democratic Union of the Republic of
5 Bosnia-Herzegovina in Busovaca.
6 Q. And Mr. Kordic, Dario Kordic was he elected
7 to any position?
8 A. Mr. Dario Kordic was elected by the
9 convention the secretary of the municipal organisation
10 of the Croat Democratic Union of Bosnia-Hercegovina in
11 Busovaca.
12 Q. All right. Mr. Grubesic, the Court has heard
13 from a witness in this case, a Mr. Cicak, and according
14 to him, a gentleman by the name of Dr. Dragutin Franc
15 was a president of the Busovaca branch HDZ-BiH. Is
16 there any truth in that?
17 A. None. Dr. Dragutin Franc who died in the
18 meantime, was never elected the president of the Croat
19 Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Busovaca, and
20 if Mr. Dragutin Cicak made such a statement, I think
21 that it was done -- a wrong statement. But knowing
22 Mr. Dragutin Cicak, it seems to me that Mr. Dragutin
23 Cicak has certain mental problems.
24 He was a member of our municipal board and we
25 had some problems in the work on the municipal board
Page 19284
1 precisely because of Mr. Cicak, I think he has some
2 psychological problems, that is, he was not quite
3 healthy.
4 Q. Just for the Court's information, we've
5 submitted an affidavit of Dr. Petar Pavlovic in
6 corroboration of that particular observation.
7 Now, sir, in the second half of 1990, could
8 you tell the court whether the political parties in
9 Busovaca, the SDS, SDA, HDZ-BiH were getting along with
10 one another or whether they were not.
11 A. Well, after the conventions of the three
12 parties, that is the Croat Democratic Union of
13 Bosnia-Hercegovina, the Party for Democratic Action in
14 Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serb Democratic Party of
15 Bosnia-Herzegovina, talks took place between the
16 representatives, or rather the leaders, of these three
17 parties, at the municipal level, and it was agreed to
18 set up a coalition of the three parties in the
19 elections on the 18th of November, 1990. That is, an
20 agreement was signed and a joint list was formed for
21 the municipality of Busovaca, including representatives
22 of all these three parties and the atmosphere among
23 these three parties was quite harmonious, quite good.
24 Everything was resolved by consent and that
25 was, perhaps, the only example that those three parties
Page 19285
1 at the municipal level formed the coalition or formed
2 the coalition at any level, the pre-election
3 coalition.
4 Q. This is the coalition of the three parties
5 that you've just identified, the SDZ, SDA and HDZ-BiH?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. In your experience, sir, were there any such
8 coalitions in any other municipality of which you were
9 aware at this time?
10 A. As far as I am aware, there were 109
11 municipalities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. I do not any
12 that there was such pre-election coalitions in any
13 other such municipality such as the one in Busovaca.
14 Q. All right. We've already heard about the
15 electoral results in November of 1990. And those were
16 that the Croats won 30 seats in the municipal
17 parliament, the Muslims won 27 seats, and the Serbs won
18 3 seats.
19 Can you describe for the Court in your own
20 words any celebrations that followed these -- this
21 electoral victory for the coalition?
22 A. I only add something to what you have just
23 said. When it comes to 30 Croats, 27 Muslims and 3
24 Serbs, this was the ethnical division of the assembly
25 of Busovaca, and it included all the six political
Page 19286
1 parties which had won seats in the municipal assembly
2 so there were not only representatives of coalitions.
3 This was the ethnic structure of the municipal hall or
4 the municipal assembly of Busovaca. Excuse me.
5 Q. Were there any post-election celebrations?
6 A. After the results were announced, because the
7 elections took place in some other levels too, not the
8 municipal ones only, there was a major celebration in
9 Busovaca to mark the victory of the three coalition
10 parties that we just mentioned.
11 It was a huge public fete throughout, the big
12 fiesta in the town. Even the traffic was closed in the
13 high street. There were several thousand people who
14 had meet met to mark this electoral victory. This
15 celebration was attended by Croats, Muslims and Serbs.
16 Flags were tied together to symbolize, to epitomise
17 the unity of those three peoples.
18 Q. Could you please explain to the Court how the
19 various offices in the municipal parliament and
20 government, were allocated to the members of this
21 coalition, Mr. Grubesic, following the election?
22 A. Well, I have already said that the chief
23 duties in the municipal government were the municipal
24 mayor, first the municipal mayor and Mr. Zoran Maric
25 was appointed to that, a Croat representative of the
Page 19287
1 Croat Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina. So he
2 was elected mayor of the municipality.
3 Then Mr. Asim Sunulapasic, a Muslim
4 representative of the Party for Democratic Action and
5 he was the president of the executive board for the
6 municipality for Busovaca, that is the executive branch
7 of the government in the municipality.
8 Q. Who was elected or appointed as chief of
9 police?
10 A. The chief of police after the elections,
11 Mr. Husnija Neslanovic was appointed. He was a Muslim
12 and the representative for the Party of Democratic
13 Action, and in the course of negotiations the Party for
14 Democratic Action insisted on getting that particular
15 office as ranking the third in the municipal hierarchy.
16 Q. All right. And the commander of the
17 Territorial Defence was, I believe, Mr. Husein
18 Hadjimejlic?
19 A. Yes. Mr. Husein Hadjimejlic was appointed to
20 the office of the commander of the Territorial Defence
21 in Busovaca. He is a Muslim by ethnicity and he
22 represents the Party for Democratic Action.
23 Q. Was Mr. Kordic appointed to any position in
24 the municipal government and if so, can you tell the
25 Court what?
Page 19288
1 A. In addition to these offices, the most
2 important ones, which I have mentioned so far, there
3 were also other offices in the municipality which
4 ranked somewhere less. Not to list all these offices,
5 but let me mention one of them which was to which
6 Mr. Dario Kordic was appointed, and that was the office
7 of the secretary of the Secretariat for Defence or
8 rather the Office for Defence in the municipality of
9 Busovaca.
10 MR. SAYERS: Mr. President, that might be a
11 logical place to break and, with the Court's
12 permission, tomorrow, I'd like to take the witness
13 fairly swiftly through the next few pages of the
14 outline which consist primarily of political background
15 matters which the Court has heard quite a bit about
16 already.
17 JUDGE MAY: Very well. Mr. Grubesic, we're
18 going to adjourn now until tomorrow morning. During
19 the adjournment, would you remember not to speak to
20 anybody about your evidence, and that includes members
21 of the Defence team.
22 Don't speak to anybody about it until it's
23 over. Would you be back, please, tomorrow morning at
24 half past nine to continue your evidence.
25 We'll adjourn.
Page 19289
1 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned
2 at 4:13 p.m., to be reconvened on
3 Tuesday the 23rd day of May, 2000, at
4 9.30 a.m.
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