1 Monday, 5th July, 1999
2 (Open session)
3 --- Upon commencing at 2.37 p.m.
4 JUDGE JORDA: Please be seated. Have the
5 accused brought in, please.
6 (The accused entered court)
7 JUDGE JORDA: Good afternoon to the
8 interpreters. I'm making sure that everybody can hear
9 me. Good afternoon to Prosecution counsel and
10 Defence.
11 We are still in the Prosecutor's rebuttal.
12 I'm saying this for the public gallery. This is now
13 the end -- well, at least the last part, if not the
14 end, the last part of this long trial. We'll now give
15 the Prosecutor the floor for his rebuttal. I think we
16 are coming to the end of that rebuttal.
17 What is your schedule, Mr. Prosecutor? How
18 is this week going to work out in respect of the
19 Defence?
20 MR. HARMON: Good afternoon Mr. President.
21 Good afternoon Your Honours. Good afternoon, Counsel.
22 We have one witness to present tomorrow. He
23 will be a short witness. We have no additional
24 witnesses to present to the Trial Chamber.
25 Today we will be presenting a set of
1 documents. My colleague and I will present
2 approximately six or seven sets of documents. Tomorrow
3 we have approximately two sets of documents and we will
4 conclude our case.
5 JUDGE JORDA: Very well. Let me now ask the
6 Defence whether we might hope that the end of your
7 surrebuttal, Mr. Hayman, will be completed by the end
8 of Friday. This is Monday afternoon. If we hear a
9 witness from the Prosecution tomorrow, you could begin
10 when, and how long would your surrebuttal last?
11 MR. HAYMAN: Good afternoon, Mr. President
12 and Your Honours.
13 JUDGE JORDA: Good afternoon.
14 MR. HAYMAN: Based on what has been presented
15 so far in the Prosecution rebuttal case, Mr. President,
16 the Defence believes it can complete its surrebuttal to
17 that component of the rebuttal case this week. We
18 don't know, however, what is coming in the "sets" of
19 documents that my friend and colleague referred to. We
20 don't know what they are. We don't know what it may
21 surrebut those materials, if it's necessary to do so,
22 in our judgement. So we cannot say yet, Mr. President,
23 exactly what the parameters will be, but so far we have
24 not seen anything that we believe will throw us of off
25 schedule.
1 JUDGE JORDA: If you can, you would try to
2 finish by 1.30 on Friday. If you can. If necessary,
3 we'll extend the time. Thank you.
4 We now turn to the Prosecutor for the
5 presentation of documents.
6 MR. HARMON: Mr. President, I would raise one
7 issue with the Trial Chamber, and that is the issue of
8 notification. The Prosecutor has complied with the
9 orders of this Court to notify the Defence of the names
10 of witnesses and the substance of their testimony. To
11 date we have not received any notification that the
12 Defence intends to call any witnesses, and if they are
13 intending to call witnesses, we would ask that the
14 Court order them to notify us today of the names of
15 those witnesses so we can have the benefit of the
16 notice that we have accorded them.
17 JUDGE JORDA: Perhaps that's because the
18 Defence doesn't intend to call any witnesses.
19 MR. HAYMAN: We don't have a present intent
20 right now to call any surrebuttal witnesses. We don't
21 know if any witnesses may be necessary in terms of
22 responding to material that has yet to arrive at our
23 door. We will, Mr. President, if we form that intent
24 to call a witness, we will give prompt notice along the
25 lines, the format, that the parties have adhered to, to
1 the Prosecutor, but we have to have a chance to see
2 what it is first.
3 JUDGE JORDA: But notification was supposed
4 to take place how long before the presentation of the
5 witness? I don't remember. What was the amount of
6 time. Mr. Fourmy, can you help me, please? Mr. Hayman
7 is saying that if he intends to present witnesses ...
8 Seven days. Yes, thank you, Mr. Dubuisson.
9 How are you going to work, Mr. Hayman? If
10 you say that -- if we present surrebuttal witnesses -
11 there are no hearings next week - I think those were
12 times given to you in order to draft your briefs. How
13 are things going to work?
14 MR. HAYMAN: Well, Mr. President, the
15 schedule is such that we're hearing part of the
16 rebuttal case more than seven days before, or
17 approximately seven days before, the commencement of
18 the surrebuttal is scheduled, but we're hearing parts
19 of the Prosecution rebuttal case less than seven days
20 before the date on which our surrebuttal is scheduled
21 to begin.
22 If we feel we have to call a witness in
23 response to something that has yet been presented in
24 the Prosecutor's rebuttal case, then it is a physical
25 impossibility. It is a mathematical impossibility, if
1 the Court wishes us to present that witness on Thursday
2 or Friday of this week, to give seven days' advance
3 notice of that witness. Indeed, it may be a physical
4 impossibility to get any such witness here on such
5 short notice. We don't know because we don't know what
6 witness that might be to respond to the documents that
7 we have not yet seen or perhaps to respond to the
8 testimony from Major Morsink that we have not yet
9 heard.
10 What I've said is, we will give prompt
11 notice, same-day notice, to the Prosecutor if we form
12 an intent, and, of course, we'll advise the Court if
13 we're in session, or advise your staff if we're not in
14 session, if we form an intent to call a witness in our
15 surrebuttal.
16 Now, the seven-day notice was the Court's
17 rule. The Court is free to be flexible in these final
18 stages of the case and we'll respect the Court's
19 wishes, but it's a physical impossibility for us to
20 give seven days' notice to respond to evidence that has
21 not been presented if we are to present our response
22 this week.
23 JUDGE JORDA: Very well. At least we agree
24 on one point, Mr. Hayman, that is, that since rebuttal
25 has begun, we're working in different sequences. The
1 Judges have a certain degree of autonomy in making
2 decisions in that area. We will see where things stand
3 either at the end of today or tomorrow at the end of
4 the rebuttal.
5 I think that would be best, Mr. Harmon.
6 Don't you agree?
7 MR. HARMON: That's fine, Mr. President.
8 Thank you.
9 JUDGE JORDA: It is now 2.45. You can have
10 the floor in order to present your documents.
11 MR. HARMON: Thank you, Mr. President and
12 Your Honours.
13 The first document I will be presenting is a
14 binder. I've given those to the Registrar already.
15 When he distributes these binders, I will explain what
16 is contained within them.
17 THE REGISTRAR: The binder will be 757.
18 MR. HARMON: I will explain this document,
19 Mr. President and Your Honours. There is, attached at
20 the front of this document, an index of 50 pages. It
21 is divided into three sections. The first section is
22 found at the first page, and it is a document that has
23 previously been admitted into evidence. It is an
24 extraction from the Nadrodni List and it deals with
25 confidential defence data and procedures for their
1 protection.
2 The second section of this document is found
3 on page 3, and again, the theme is HVO communications.
4 The second part, running from page 3 until page 15, has
5 a sampling of HVO documents dealing with encryption
6 capabilities and codes, the use of codes by the HVO.
7 Section 3 of this document, starting on page
8 16 and running through the end of the document,
9 consists of samples of orders by the HVO for
10 communications equipment and invoices and shipping
11 forms from the maintenance and repair depot in Travnik,
12 showing delivery of certain types of equipment to the
13 HVO in various municipalities that are mentioned in the
14 indictment.
15 This table is, as is stated at page 16, does
16 not reflect nor is it intended to reflect all the
17 different types of communication equipment that was
18 available to the HVO or is it intended to represent the
19 total volume of communications equipment that was
20 available to the HVO in each of the municipalities.
21 Tab number 22 is interesting because this is
22 a document that deals with the organisation of
23 communications in the JNA and the SFRY, and it
24 describes in that document the various types of
25 communications equipment, some of which is found in the
1 ensuing tabs of this exhibit.
2 From tab 23 on, one will see, for example,
3 the delivery to the HVO of mobile telephones, radio
4 set, communications vehicles of the TAM sort,
5 et cetera.
6 So this is, Mr. President, an exhibit,
7 consisting, as I say, of 99 pages, dealing with the
8 theme of HVO communications.
9 The second set of documents, Mr. President,
10 deals with General Blaskic's testimony about the attack
11 on Stari Vitez that occurred on the 18th of July. You
12 may recall that General Blaskic testified that on the
13 18th of July, he was in Busovaca attending a holy mass
14 and he was having lunch with a parish priest, and at
15 page 19484 of the transcript, starting at line 4
16 through line 7, Colonel Blaskic testified that --
17 previously he had testified that he was surprised by
18 this attack and did not learn of it until he returned
19 from Busovaca.
20 At page 19498 at line 4, he says:
21 A. In this attack, we had many casualties
22 in the HVO, that is, the special purpose
23 unit did, and I was informed that
24 somewhere between 13 and 14 -- 13 to 15
25 soldiers had been killed.
1 It is the Prosecutor's view that this was not
2 an attack that was solely the result of Vitezovi
3 activity but that multiple units engaged in this
4 attack.
5 The next exhibits, Mr. President, are a
6 series of exhibits dealing with notification of death
7 and wounding for various units of the HVO, including
8 the military police, including the HVO home guard units
9 and the like, and I'll pass these out one at a time,
10 Mr. President. If I could have the assistance of the
11 usher?
12 There are six documents in this set.
13 THE REGISTRAR: This is 758, that is, the one
14 that has 18 November, 1994, and it's 1423/94.
15 MR. HARMON: This, Mr. President and Your
16 Honours, is a document dated the 18th of November,
17 1994, reflecting that this particular soldier was
18 wounded on the 18th of July, 1993, and he is a member
19 of the 92nd Regiment of the 3rd Battalion. That can be
20 seen in the upper left-hand corner.
21 The next document ...
22 THE REGISTRAR: This is 759, which is dated
23 24 January, 1996, and it is 1779-09-96-926.
24 MR. HARMON: This document, Mr. President and
25 Your Honours, indicates that a soldier, who is named in
1 the document, was killed on the 18th of July at the
2 Mahala in Stari Vitez. He was a member of the 92nd
3 Viteska Home Guard Regiment.
4 THE REGISTRAR: This is 760, 14 December,
5 1994. This is 1545/94.
6 MR. HARMON: This is a document,
7 Mr. President and Your Honours, that indicates that the
8 named individual in this document, who is a member of
9 the 92nd Regiment of the 3rd Battalion, was wounded in
10 the Stari Vitez area, and that's on the 18th of July,
11 1993.
12 THE REGISTRAR: This is 761, 10 January,
13 1996. This is 1730-1/96-92.
14 MR. HARMON: This is a document,
15 Mr. President and Your Honours, that indicates on the
16 18th of July, 1993, the named individual was a member
17 of the 4th Vitez Military Police Battalion and he was
18 killed in Vitez on the 18th of July, 1993.
19 THE REGISTRAR: This is 762, 16 October,
20 1995. This is 1779-09.
21 MR. HARMON: This is a document that
22 indicates that the named individual, who was a member
23 of the Vitez Regiment, was wounded on the 18th of July,
24 1993, and is signed by Mario Cerkez.
25 The last document ...
1 THE REGISTRAR: This is 763, in handwriting
2 17 December, 1992.
3 MR. HARMON: This document, Mr. President and
4 Your Honours, is a report of a wounding indicating that
5 on the 18th of July, 1993, this particular individual
6 was wounded in an attack on the Mahala. It is signed
7 for the command of the Fifth Battalion.
8 And that concludes this series of documents,
9 Mr. President.
10 Our next document, Mr. President, is a
11 newspaper article from the publication Le Monde. It is
12 dated the 5th of May, 1993.
13 THE REGISTRAR: Document 764.
14 MR. HARMON: This is a document,
15 Mr. President and Your Honours, entitled "The
16 Croat-Muslim Conflict in Central Bosnia." It is from
17 the special correspondent in Vitez from Le Monde, and
18 on page 3 of the translation, the top paragraph
19 references the ultimatum that has been at issue in this
20 case, an ultimatum that expired on the 15th of April
21 followed by the fighting the following morning of the
22 16th.
23 Just so the record is clear and for counsel's
24 recordkeeping purposes, the documents that deal with
25 the wounding of the individuals and the killings of the
1 individuals on the 18th of July were seized pursuant to
2 a search warrant that was issued by the ICTY.
3 The next document we have, Mr. President, is
4 a citizenship certificate from the Republic of Croatia
5 showing that Tihomir Blaskic is a Croatian citizen.
6 THE REGISTRAR: Document 765.
7 MR. HARMON: The last document I am going to
8 present, Mr. President, before yielding the floor to my
9 colleague, Mr. Kehoe, is a document which is dated the
10 21st of November, 1995, and it is a decision on
11 appointing General Blaskic to the post of Inspector in
12 the Chief Inspectorate of the Croatian army, and the
13 document is sealed and -- over the seal of Dr. Franjo
14 Tudjman.
15 THE REGISTRAR: This is 766.
16 MR. HARMON: Now, Mr. President, I'll yield
17 the floor to Mr. Kehoe.
18 JUDGE JORDA: Mr. Kehoe, please proceed.
19 MR. KEHOE: Yes. Thank you, Mr. President.
20 Good afternoon, Mr. President, Your Honours. Good
21 afternoon, Counsel.
22 In conjunction with the documents relating to
23 the communication capabilities of the HVO as presented
24 by my colleague, we would also like to present a series
25 of documents that were presented in large part, barring
1 two, from the Croatian side of the Federation.
2 If I may, Mr. Usher? Thank you.
3 THE REGISTRAR: This is 767.
4 MR. KEHOE: Mr. President, with the exception
5 of number 12 and number 13 in this set of documents in
6 767, all of these orders or requests for the British
7 battalion to take Blaskic and others either from Vitez
8 to Kiseljak or from Kiseljak to Vitez and Busovaca were
9 given to the Office of the Prosecutor pursuant to a
10 binding order by the Ministry of Defence, or the
11 Federation side of the Ministry of Defence, and
12 specifically the Croat side.
13 Your Honours, when you review these
14 documents, you will see where are the times and places
15 of Blaskic's and other HVO personnel's travel between
16 Kiseljak and Vitez and vice versa and the particular
17 times that those took place. Again, we don't maintain
18 that these are the only times that Blaskic did or could
19 have got to Kiseljak, these are simply the ones that
20 were produced to the Office of the Prosecutor by the
21 HVO side of the Federation.
22 The next set of documents, Mr. President, has
23 to do with the home guards and the existence of the
24 home guards, and in a series of questions not only in
25 response to the Prosecutor but also in response to
1 questions by Judge Rodrigues, the accused maintained
2 that there were no home guards and that they were not
3 fully established. I would like to offer a series of
4 documents concerning the home guards, if I may? It is
5 a series of ten documents.
6 It might be easier, Mr. Registrar, to just
7 number that -- we'll go through each document in
8 sequence, because they are not to be taken as a bundle,
9 just one after the other, similar to what Mr. Harmon
10 just did. So if we could take it from 768, 769?
11 The first document would be 768, which is a
12 document of the 5th of February, 1993, signed by Bruno
13 Stojic, the Minister of Defence, ordering the
14 establishment of the home guards.
15 Document 768 was a document that was seized
16 pursuant to a search warrant signed by the Tribunal.
17 The next document is document 769, dated
18 8 February, 1993, an order of Milivoj Petkovic to
19 implement the order of Bruno Stojic and establish the
20 home guards. This document was obtained from the
21 government of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
22 The next document is a plan for setting up
23 the municipal home guard and home guard's command,
24 dated in Vitez March 1993. There is one copy for Vares
25 and another for Kakanj. They are exactly the same
1 documents and they are signed by the accused, Tihomir
2 Blaskic. That was obtained from the Bosnian
3 government.
4 THE REGISTRAR: This is 770.
5 MR. KEHOE: Yes. Thank you. The next
6 document -- sorry. The next document, Your Honours and
7 counsel, is an order of the accused dated 11 March,
8 1993, again reiterating an order on the setting up of
9 the home guards. That would be document 771, and this
10 document was a document that was seized pursuant to a
11 search warrant.
12 JUDGE JORDA: Could you give us the page of
13 the transcript where the accused's statement is found,
14 that was given as a sworn statement? Could you give us
15 the page number, please.
16 MR. KEHOE: Mr. President, the entire page
17 sequence dealing with the home guards goes from page
18 21983 to 22903. That includes various questions.
19 On page 22898, we talked about two documents,
20 and the question was asked on line 24 of page 22898:
21 "Q. Did the home guard units, the
22 Domobrani, exist in Central Bosnia?
23 A. No, the home guards did not exist.
24 Q. Were there a corps of command or did you
25 have an assistant for the home guards?
1 A. Yes. We were in the stage we had
2 determined and appointed commanders for
3 the home guard units and in the process
4 of establishing the home guard units,
5 but the war with the BH army in the
6 spring of 1993 stopped us in this
7 process and we were not able to
8 implement that project, that is to say,
9 we never actually organised and formed
10 the home guard units."
11 JUDGE JORDA: I would like to consult with my
12 colleagues, please.
13 (Trial Chamber confers)
14 JUDGE JORDA: Mr. Kehoe, the Judges consider
15 it appropriate to ask you whether you consider that
16 there was a false testimony on the part of the accused
17 who, at the time, was under oath. This is the question
18 that the Judges are asking you. This is the question
19 that the Judges are asking. They are asking whether
20 you intend to maintain that.
21 MR. KEHOE: Yes, Mr. President, on numerous
22 various issues.
23 JUDGE JORDA: Very well. At what point will
24 you do that? Will that be later?
25 MR. KEHOE: Yes, Mr. President. I think
1 regarding the fallacious testimony of the accused, the
2 prevarications of the accused, we will, of course,
3 discuss those in our post-trial brief that we will be
4 filing on the 22nd, and then, of course, there will be
5 significant discussion on that score during final
6 argument, but rest assured that given the testimony not
7 only during the Prosecution case but also during the
8 Court witnesses that Your Honours called, that the
9 issue of the accused's credibility is very much in
10 issue and very much on the table and we challenge
11 that.
12 JUDGE JORDA: Very well. The Judges thank
13 you for your answer. You may now proceed. You may
14 proceed, Mr. Kehoe.
15 MR. KEHOE: Yes, Mr. President. Thank you.
16 The next document is a document again concerning the
17 home guards. This is 772, a document of the 12th of
18 March, 1993, listing three individuals that were
19 proposed as the temporary home guard commanders, and
20 this is signed by the head of the Defence Department
21 from Travnik, Marijan Skopljak.
22 The next two documents are documents that we
23 will place in evidence at 773 and 774. These two
24 documents signed by Zvonko Vukovic place the command of
25 the home guards under the Central Bosnia Operative
1 Zone.
2 The document at 16.30, 774, gives immediate
3 orders to the home guards to conduct round-the-clock
4 inspections or introduce round-the-clock duties and
5 other matters.
6 THE REGISTRAR: This is 773, that is, the
7 document from 15.30; and 774, which was for 16.30.
8 MR. KEHOE: The next document is a document
9 that is dated the 16th of March, 1993. This, of
10 course, would be document 775. It is an order from
11 Zvonko Vukovic to immediately have the home guard
12 commanders come to a meeting at the command of the
13 Central Bosnia Operative Zone at 11.00 on the 17th of
14 March, 1993. That document, 775, was obtained pursuant
15 to a search warrant.
16 Document 776 is a document that is dated the
17 23rd of March, 1993, which has a list of individuals
18 with their pedigrees attached. It is directed to the
19 assistant commander of the home guard for Vitez and is
20 signed by Marijan Skopljak. I would indicate to Your
21 Honours, in this document as well as in document 772,
22 they both mention an individual by the name of Nenad
23 Santic who, of course, was very prominently mentioned
24 during the attacks in the Santici and Ahmici area.
25 The last document in this array is a document
1 signed by -- I don't believe it's signed but someone
2 signed on behalf of the accused, from the 1st of April,
3 1993, at 11.10, and notes that given the fact that
4 orders on the formation of the home guards have not
5 been carried out, and he asked for more rapid
6 deployment, and then he calls upon a -- requesting
7 information from the home guards as well as setting up
8 a meeting on the 6th of April, 1993, where he notes at
9 that meeting that commanders will assume command of
10 their particular home guard units and receive letters
11 of appointments and other documents.
12 That document, for consistency, is
13 document 777.
14 Mr. President, that is the last document in
15 the sequence of the home guard documents. I would like
16 to return to the testimony of a different witness, not
17 the accused, but a witness that I'm sure Your Honours
18 can recall, and it was Dr. Bilandzic, Dr. Dusan
19 Bilandzic, who testified in September of last year
20 before Your Honour, Judge Rodrigues, joined us.
21 If Your Honours recall, during the testimony
22 of Dr. Bilandzic, an issue was raised concerning an
23 interview that Dr. Bilandzic had with Nacional, where
24 he discussed this meeting with the Serbs where they
25 looked at maps and hashed out various issues regarding
1 the division of Bosnia. This meeting, of course, was
2 on the heels of the meeting between Milosevic and
3 Tudjman in Karadjordjevo.
4 Without going into all of the details of that
5 interview which, of course, are in Prosecutor's
6 Exhibit 464, Your Honours will recall that Dr.
7 Bilandzic, on cross-examination, said that he retracted
8 a significant portion of that, and his retraction,
9 which is Exhibit 465, he noted: "The interview did not
10 distort the essence of what he said," but he said his
11 entire retraction was not published in Nacional.
12 What we have, Mr. President, is Nacional's
13 response that they published once -- the testimony of
14 Dr. Bilandzic was brought before this Court, and
15 Nacional issued an editorial, if I may present it to
16 Your Honours, commenting on exactly what happened
17 during the interview with Dr. Bilandzic.
18 While we're waiting, Mr. President, and
19 bringing this before the Registrar, I know Your Honour
20 wants of the actual pagination of the discussion with
21 Dr. Bilandzic, and the pages where these matters were
22 discussed with Dr. Bilandzic focus page 11401 and
23 incorporate 11411. I will note that Judge
24 Shahabuddeen's questions on this matter begin again
25 11464 and just on to 11466. My memory doesn't serve me
1 correctly, but I think they were questions, Your
2 Honour, that you asked at the end as the pagination
3 sequence from the cross doesn't follow, but I think
4 that's what happened.
5 In this particular document, which is an
6 editorial board article that was published by Nacional,
7 there is discussion about the particular article that
8 appeared in Nacional, Exhibit 464; the retraction,
9 Exhibit 465, and this Nacional article reflects that
10 Professor Bilancic was given the opportunity to read
11 his initial article before it was published, that he
12 never actually retracted much of the things that he
13 says he retracted, specifically the conversation
14 between him and Tudjman, where Tudjman noted that the
15 Muslims would have to go along with the Serb-Croat
16 division of Bosnia.
17 I place this document in the record but just
18 go to the penultimate paragraph in this particular
19 article by Nacional, where the article -- or the
20 editorial board of Nacional reflects as follows:
21 "Having analysed Dusan Bilandzic's testimony
22 in The Hague, the editorial board of Nacional,
23 including three editors who were present in 1996 when
24 Bilandzic vigorously and convincingly described the
25 talks on carving up Bosnia-Herzegovina, still firmly
1 defends the authenticity of his interview to Nacional
2 of 25 October, 1996."
3 So this document not only does that but also
4 reflects that Dr. Bilandzic was given the opportunity
5 to read the initial article and also given the
6 opportunity to read his retraction. So we offer that
7 into evidence to complete the picture concerning Dr.
8 Bilandzic's testimony.
9 I do believe, Mr. President, that at this
10 point, looking for more paper around here, just making
11 sure that we've covered it all, heaven knows we were
12 discussing how this case is a threat to the trees of
13 America and the rest of Europe, but I do believe that
14 we are done with the paper for today, I believe.
15 JUDGE JORDA: This was a threat for the
16 American forest, Mr. Kehoe, and I suppose it could also
17 be a threat for the Judges' health.
18 MR. KEHOE: Absolutely. I didn't leave out
19 the European forest as well, Judge. I'm sure it's just
20 for every tree around.
21 I do believe that is all we have at this
22 juncture, Mr. President and Your Honours.
23 THE REGISTRAR: For the transcript, I want to
24 be sure that the article in Nacional is 768 -- 778.
25 Excuse me.
1 MR. KEHOE: 778.
2 JUDGE JORDA: Very well. If that's what you
3 have to say, we're going to adjourn and we will resume
4 at 10.00 tomorrow morning to hear your witness. You
5 will then be finished with your rebuttal; is that
6 correct?
7 MR. KEHOE: Yes, Mr. President.
8 JUDGE JORDA: Court stands adjourned.
9 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned
10 at 3.27 p.m., to be reconvened on
11 Tuesday, the 6th day of July, 1999
12 at 10:00 a.m.
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