Page 4333
1 Monday, 2 April 2007
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 [The witness entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 9.01 a.m.
6 JUDGE ROBINSON: Let the witness make the declaration.
7 THE WITNESS: I solemnly declare that I will speak the truth, the
8 whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
9 WITNESS: THOMAS HANSEN
10 JUDGE ROBINSON: You may sit.
11 I should say before we start that on Wednesday, that's Wednesday
12 the 4th, we'll be stopping at 1.15 p.m. in order to allow another Trial
13 Chamber to give its sentencing judgement in a case. So please bear that
14 in mind, we'll stop at 1.15 on Wednesday.
15 Now, this is Captain Hansen; and in accordance the procedure that
16 I had explained, I'll allow both parties to put questions whether by way
17 of cross-examination or examination to Captain Hansen, and these will be
18 based on the statement that has been provided.
19 So let us start with Mr. Whiting of the Office of the Prosecutor.
20 MR. WHITING: Thank you, Your Honour. Good morning.
21 Examination by Mr. Whiting:
22 Q. Good morning, Captain Hansen.
23 A. Good morning.
24 Q. My name is Alex Whiting, and I'm one of the Prosecutors in this
25 case. We've never met before, is that right?
Page 4334
1 A. That's right.
2 Q. And we have never spoke before, is that right?
3 A. That's right.
4 Q. I arrived in The Hague on Friday.
5 THE INTERPRETER: Would the speakers please bear in mind that they
6 are being interpreted, so please make pauses between questions and
7 answers. Thank you.
8 JUDGE ROBINSON: Let me just repeat that. You have to observe a
9 pause between the question and answer in the interest of the
10 interpretation.
11 MR. WHITING: Thank you, Your Honour, and thank you to the
12 interpreters.
13 Q. Captain Hansen, I'm going ask if you could -- we have a very short
14 time, so if could you try to make your answers as brief as possible, even
15 if yes or no is sufficient, then just limit it, please, to just yes or no.
16 Do you understand?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Sir, I want to draw your attention to the 28th of June, 1995. You
19 were in the PTT building when an air bomb hit the TV tower in Sarajevo; is
20 that right?
21 A. I was in the TV building; but if it was an air bomb, I'm not sure.
22 Q. When the bomb hit, were you in the TV building or the PTT
23 building?
24 A. PTT building.
25 Q. Okay. Thank you. After it hit, another UNMO came into the PTT
Page 4335
1 building and spoke with you about what he saw; is that right?
2 A. He came to make a report about what he had observed.
3 Q. You yourself did not see anything; is that right?
4 A. That's correct.
5 Q. I want to show you a report that you have written.
6 MR. WHITING: And with the assistance of the usher I would like to
7 pass out copies. I know everybody probably has a copy.
8 Q. Captain, this is 65 ter 536. Captain, is this your report?
9 A. This is my report, yes.
10 Q. Now, in the report, you include a grid reference. Do you see that
11 in the first bullet point?
12 A. Yes, I see it.
13 Q. Who came up with that grid reference?
14 A. The UNMO that reported this.
15 Q. So the -- your testimony is that the UNMO came into the building
16 and told you this information and gave you a specific grid reference?
17 A. That's correct. We always worked with a grid references; and when
18 he came in, I asked him to -- to tell me where it was fired from because
19 he had seen where it was fired from. And he went down to the parking
20 place again together with another UNMO, and they came back and reported
21 this was the grid it was fired from.
22 MR. WHITING: Now, I'm going to ask that a map be shown - it's 65
23 ter 3096 - on the e-court system.
24 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Whiting, may I just ask the Captain: How are
25 grid references determined?
Page 4336
1 THE WITNESS: I don't understand the question.
2 JUDGE ROBINSON: Well, you said that the UNMO went and returned
3 and gave you the grid reference.
4 THE WITNESS: Yes, that's correct.
5 JUDGE ROBINSON: That's a technical matter.
6 THE WITNESS: He came back and showed on the map and as the bomb
7 was fired from a place very near to where he parked the car, within to 200
8 to 300 metres from he parked the car. And he could point out the
9 direction, and from that we were quite sure about the grid reference he
10 gave as well.
11 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, Mr. Whiting.
12 MR. WHITING: I will try to clarify.
13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. What I'm really trying to get at is the
14 numbers 866587, how is that arrived at.
15 THE WITNESS: I referred to a map we were using by the UNMOs in
16 Sarajevo.
17 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for the witness, please.
18 JUDGE ROBINSON: Witness's microphone need to be turned.
19 JUDGE ROBINSON: It's my microphone that was on.
20 Yes, please give us the answer again.
21 THE WITNESS: I say that they refer to a map was used by the UNMOs
22 in Sector Sarajevo to the map. Do you want me to --
23 JUDGE ROBINSON: What information would they need to have to
24 arrive at the grid reference, this number 866587.
25 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Well, that's a reading of a map. If
Page 4337
1 you read the grid to find -- find an exact place on the map. I'm not sure
2 about your question, because it's -- it's obvious to me what to use the
3 grid for. Are you asking --
4 JUDGE ROBINSON: There is some basic empirical data on which the
5 grid reference is determined.
6 THE WITNESS: I'm not sure what you're asking about, sir.
7 MR. WHITING: Perhaps I could clarify it with a question.
8 [Trial Chamber confers]
9 JUDGE ROBINSON: Go ahead, Mr. Whiting, and we can return to this.
10 MR. WHITING: Thank you, Your Honour.
11 Q. Is it fair to say, Captain Hansen, and correct me if I am wrong,
12 that the first number, 866, refers to a number that you derive on one side
13 of the map, that is the left-hand side of the map on the grid; and the
14 second number then is 587, and you go along the top of the map and where
15 those two points meet is what the grid reference refers to?
16 A. That's correct.
17 Q. And the grid that is used has a correlation to distance; that is,
18 you can calculate -- if you have one grid reference and then another grid
19 reference, you can calculate the distance between the two points, because
20 they refer to every 100 metres or so?
21 A. Yes, they do.
22 Q. Okay.
23 A. In this case, they refer to 100 metres?
24 Q. Now, if you look at this map, you can see there is the PTT
25 building, the TV tower, and the grid reference that has been identified.
Page 4338
1 And you have said that you have identified the grid reference as being a
2 point some 2 to 300 metres away from the PTT parking lot. Is that right?
3 A. That's right.
4 Q. Okay. Now, at the time this incident occurred -- well, by the
5 way, you mentioned - and I don't believe it is in your report - that the
6 UNMO, who says he saw this, calculated the grid reference with another
7 UNMO. Who -- do you know the identity of this other UNMO?
8 A. I don't remember him.
9 Q. So you don't remember the identity of either of these two UNMOs
10 that we're talking about?
11 A. I think I remember one of them.
12 Q. Okay. We'll get back to that.
13 Now, at the time this occurred, the UNPROFOR was using the PTT
14 building as a headquarters; is that right?
15 A. That's right.
16 Q. I think we're going a little quickly, if you could take a pause.
17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes.
18 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] I'm sorry, Your Honour. Could we
19 slow down a little bit, please, because I'm listening to the translation,
20 and I find it difficult to follow the English. So kindly just slow down a
21 little, please, because the speed is rather great. Thank you.
22 MR. WHITING: Yes.
23 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, please slow down a bit in the -- in the
24 answers.
25 MR. WHITING:
Page 4339
1 Q. Is it fair to say, Captain Hansen, that there were over 100
2 people, maybe even 150 people, working in the PTT building at the time?
3 A. There was a lot more than 150.
4 Q. How many would you say there were?
5 A. I know there was a headquarters for Sector Sarajevo, and there was
6 the people working for the headquarters for the military operation that --
7 as UNMOs, we were only 80 UNMOs.
8 Q. But how many total people would you say were working in that
9 building, since you said it was more 150. You said a lot more than 150.
10 A. It could be between 3 and 500 people.
11 Q. And that building is building of several floors and it has windows
12 looking in the direction of this grid reference. Is that correct?
13 A. That's correct. But all the windows on most of them were blended.
14 Q. Now, are you aware of anybody else who saw this bomb being
15 launched from this location?
16 A. No. No.
17 Q. You yourself participated in the investigation of the bomb on the
18 TV tower later that day; correct?
19 A. We were not allowed to carry out any investigation.
20 Q. Isn't it true that you participated with the Bosnian police later
21 on that day in the investigation. You were present when they did the
22 investigation?
23 A. That's not correct.
24 Q. You're certain about that?
25 A. Yes.
Page 4340
1 Q. Do you know what the results of the investigation were?
2 A. No.
3 Q. So you're not aware that the results of the investigation
4 determined that the bomb that hit the TV tower was a 250-kilo bomb -- air
5 bomb?
6 A. As I have been telling to an investigation team later on in
7 September, I think it was in September, we were not allowed to make any
8 investigation at the scene, and we were -- what was not normal we were not
9 informed by the Bosnian the result of this investigation. They always
10 carried out themselves.
11 Q. When you say "we were not informed," who do you mean?
12 A. The UNMOs.
13 Q. How do you know that the UNMOs were not informed? I mean, you can
14 speak about yourself not being informed but how do you know about others?
15 A. Because as being the operation officer, I was the one who always
16 received the reports from the Bosnians whenever they have carried out an
17 investigation. They wanted -- in many cases, they wanted us to -- I'm
18 missing the word. They wanted to us confirm that we made a report that
19 was similar to the one that had been doing.
20 In this case, we were not allowed to carry out any investigation.
21 I was on the scene where the bomb hit, shortly after it hit. But I was
22 waiting there for, I think, two hours, and we were not allowed to carry
23 out any investigation.
24 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] You were not allowed to carry out
25 an investigation. You were not allowed by whom? Who were the people that
Page 4341
1 prevented you from conducting an investigation?
2 THE WITNESS: The Bosnian police and military.
3 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] Thank you.
4 MR. WHITING:
5 Q. Sir, you testified that you were on the scene. What do you mean
6 by that?
7 A. If I can explain how things happen. After this UNMO came to the
8 office and reported, we made the report which was sent to the offices
9 where it was meant to be sent. I went down to the liaison officer from
10 the BiH and told him that we were now going -- the UNMOs, we were now
11 going to the scene. I took one of the UNMOs from the PTT building, one of
12 my UNMOs working together with me.
13 And we arrived to the scene, we were the first UNMOs or the first
14 UN personnel to arrive. We went into where the bomb had hit and were then
15 taken away from -- from the scene of the either police or military, I
16 don't remember that. There was still incoming shells at that moment and,
17 they told us were not allowed to carry out any investigation for our own
18 security.
19 We were then waiting for, as I said before, I believe more than
20 two hours and were not allowed to go no the scene and carry out any
21 investigation. That was, for us, very unusual because normally the BiH
22 wanted us and always pushed us to -- or wanted us to carry out the
23 investigation. But in this case we were not allowed to do, and afterwards
24 we didn't receive any report from the BiH about this, their own
25 investigation.
Page 4342
1 Q. Let's take this one step at a time, Captain. I'm going to ask if
2 we could look --
3 MR. WHITING: First, could we admit this map into evidence,
4 please.
5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, we admit it. Give it a number, please.
6 THE REGISTRAR: Your Honours, this becomes P517.
7 MR. WHITING: Could we now look at Prosecution Exhibit 134,
8 please, and if we could scroll down to the bottom of the page.
9 Q. Captain, this is a report from the Bosnian police about the air
10 bomb investigation -- about the investigation into the air bomb that hit
11 the TV tower that day. And if you look at the bottom there, it says: "UN
12 military observes, group SW-2, Captain Idriz from Kenya and Captain Thomas
13 from Denmark and others were present in the investigation."
14 Now, I take it that the "Captain Thomas from Denmark" is a
15 reference to you?
16 A. That's correct.
17 Q. And according to this report, you were present along with the
18 others for the investigation. Are you now saying that is not true?
19 A. I am saying I was not present at any investigation. I was there
20 waiting for two hours, and I had to leave, again, without carrying out any
21 investigation.
22 Q. Are you aware that the air bomb hit at approximately 9.20, 9.22 in
23 the morning?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Do you see that according to this report in the second paragraph
Page 4343
1 the -- this police centre was informed at 10.45 and then proceeded to the
2 scene.
3 A. Yeah.
4 Q. If you were there for some two-hours, you would have been there
5 when they were there; isn't that right?
6 A. That's correct.
7 Q. But you said you did not participate in the investigation?
8 A. That's correct. I was taken to another room. When I arrived to
9 the TV building, I went to the scene where the impact had been,
10 immediately, and then I was taken away to another room. And we were
11 waiting in another room for two-hours, I believe.
12 Q. Now, I want to show you a short video --
13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Please explain what you need by taken to another
14 room.
15 THE WITNESS: I was told that because for my own security or our
16 security because there is still incoming shells, at the moment, we were
17 taken to another room.
18 JUDGE ROBINSON: Were you free to leave the room?
19 THE WITNESS: Yes, I was free to leave the room.
20 JUDGE ROBINSON: But you remained in that room?
21 THE WITNESS: Yes, we did.
22 JUDGE ROBINSON: For how long?
23 THE WITNESS: I believe it was two hours. It's a long time ago so
24 it's difficult to --
25 JUDGE ROBINSON: And who else was in the room with you?
Page 4344
1 THE WITNESS: When reading the report now, I believe it was
2 Captain Idriz from Kenya.
3 JUDGE ROBINSON: Who is that Captain Idriz? Is that the same UNMO
4 who gave you the report?
5 THE WITNESS: I believe that, yeah. Yeah.
6 JUDGE HARHOFF: Captain Hansen, when you say you were taken to the
7 scene, does that mean down at the place where the bomb had exploded on the
8 ground, or were you also able to visit the roof of the building?
9 THE WITNESS: I was at the bottom of the building where there was
10 damages from the bomb.
11 JUDGE HARHOFF: But you were not on the top of the building?
12 THE WITNESS: No, I was not.
13 JUDGE HARHOFF: Thank you.
14 MR. WHITING:
15 Q. Captain, I'm going to show you a very brief, one-minute video clip
16 of an air bomb being launched, and I will ask you questions about it
17 afterwards. Bear in mind that this clip, this air bomb that is being
18 launched is an 100-kilogram air bomb, as opposed to the 250-kilogram --
19 JUDGE ROBINSON: Ms. Isailovic is on her feet.
20 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, before watching this
21 video, this video was disclosed to the Defence, but if the Prosecutor
22 could tell us what time the launch of this air bomb refers to, because I
23 don't believe this is relevant in this particular case.
24 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, give us some more information about the --
25 MR. WHITING: The -- it's the air bomb that -- the launching of
Page 4345
1 the air bomb in the video is -- I can't say when it is. It's during the
2 war, but that's not the issue that I'm showing it for. And our expert,
3 Mr. Zecivic, will talk about this video clip and talk about the launching
4 of the air bomb and identify what it is and so forth. There will be
5 further evidence about it later, but I'm showing it foro different
6 purpose.
7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Which is what?
8 MR. WHITING: To show what it looks like and ask him whether such
9 a thing would be visible and how -- and to what area it -- if it were
10 launched from the location that we're discussing.
11 [Trial Chamber confers]
12 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Whiting, just explain the relevance.
13 MR. WHITING: Your Honour, it's -- the witness has testified that
14 this information that he received is that it was launched some 2 or 300
15 metres away from the parking lot. I would like to show a launch and have
16 him explain whether that would -- how visible that would be from that
17 location, whether it would be unusual to have seen it, or whether other
18 people would have seen it.
19 So it is directly relevant because he has talked about launch from
20 that location. We want to show what it looks like and how visible it
21 would. It seems to me that is absolutely on point.
22 JUDGE ROBINSON: Well, he didn't see it.
23 MR. WHITING: No. No. He knows the location. He was at the
24 location, and he knows how far it was. He has testified how far it was,
25 and he knows how visible that location would be from that distance and he
Page 4346
1 knows the area. So it's -- it goes directly to how visible this would and
2 whether others would see this. And I don't see any -- I certainly don't
3 see any prejudice in showing it. If ultimately Your Honours conclude it's
4 not relevant, that's fine. But it seems me there is a sufficient basis to
5 show it.
6 JUDGE HARHOFF: The difficulty we have, Mr. Prosecutor, is that as
7 interesting as this might be, and I would certainly like to see the video,
8 the video has nothing to do with this witness. He didn't see it. He has
9 no idea where it could have come from. He didn't see the launch. He
10 didn't see the trajectory. The only thing he saw was that he had a short
11 glimpse of the impact. That is why I have difficulties in accepting that
12 in relation this witness this video is admissible.
13 MR. WHITING: Your Honour, this witness has been called because he
14 has information about somebody else who saw it. He was there at the
15 time. He knows the location that was identified as the launch point, and
16 he can testify whether -- whether, in his view, a lot of people in the
17 area would have seen this launch as it is depicted or whether it was not
18 unusual that only one person to his knowledge saw it.
19 So even though he himself did not see it, he was there. He is
20 familiar with the area, and he has talked about that.
21 JUDGE ROBINSON: But has he ever seen an air bomb in passage, in
22 flight?
23 MR. WHITING: It doesn't matter. The question is going to be --
24 It's not the trajectory; it's the launch. The question is going to be
25 would this have been visible -- this launch have been visible from that
Page 4347
1 location, from the PTT building or other areas. Would -- given what he
2 shows about the time and where it was launched from and who was around,
3 would he -- would others have seen it.
4 It's -- it seems to me impossible to bring a witness who is going
5 to testify about somebody having seen something and not test, be able it
6 test whether that was surprising that to his knowledge only one person saw
7 it. It's foreclosing my ability to test this evidence. And again, I
8 don't -- there is no certainly prejudice. At worst, we're going to end up
9 with evidence that you have ultimately deem is not relevant. But I don't
10 think -- it will take about two minutes to do this.
11 Ms. Isailovic.
12 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honour.
13 I think that this raises another issue, because all the evidence
14 which are introduced before -- all the evidence which is introduced before
15 your Chamber will help you to determine which kind of device hit the
16 television building on that day in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
17 So I think that this is going a little bit too fast, and this is
18 not relevant to our case. And I think it would be wise to ask the expert
19 who is going be called to testify to spell this out in detail for us. But
20 here we have a fact witness who is testifying about something which is
21 quite specific, and to my mind this video has nothing to do with this
22 witness.
23 MR. WHITING: Your Honour, if I may just respond to that. There
24 is also evidence in the case that this -- the bomb hit was an air bomb,
25 and it was a 250-kilogram air bomb. So there is certainly a basis for
Page 4348
1 putting this question to the witness.
2 [Trial Chamber confers]
3 JUDGE ROBINSON: The Chamber's ruling is that the video is not to
4 be shown.
5 MR. WHITING: Could we look, please, at 65 ter exhibit 3094.
6 Q. Captain, do you recognise this photograph to be a view from the
7 PTT building parking lot, in fact, it's from the upper parking lot?
8 A. It is. It is.
9 Q. Do you recognise what is in the red square to be what was known as
10 OP4.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And do you recognise that in the yellow box is roughly the area
13 where, according to the information that you say you received, the -- this
14 air bomb was launched from?
15 A. I think that's correct.
16 MR. WHITING: Could this be admitted into evidence, please.
17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes.
18 THE REGISTRAR: As P518, Your Honours.
19 MR. WHITING:
20 Q. Would you accept, sir, that a launching of a missile or an air
21 bomb from that location would be highly visible.
22 A. It would be visible from the area, yes.
23 Q. Now, do you accept the possibility that the UNMO that you spoke to
24 made a mistake and did not see the air bomb launched from that location
25 but saw it fly over that location? Would you accept that possibility,
Page 4349
1 sir?
2 A. There is always a possibility. But from what he told me at the
3 moment and from going down to the place where he saw it, where he parked
4 the car, the car was parked closer to the wall that you see at the middle
5 of the picture. So when he went out from the car, he could easily look
6 into the area. Sorry. I also believe that the new building that you see
7 at the right of the picture is a new one that has been built after the
8 war.
9 Q. And just for the record, that building is -- the building just all
10 the way to the right, it's grey, red, and blue. Is that correct?
11 A. Yes, sir.
12 Q. Have you ever seen an air bomb being launched?
13 A. I have not seen the launch of it, but I have seen it when it is
14 flying in the air. But the report doesn't tell anything about -- or my
15 report doesn't tell anything about an air bomb.
16 Q. Right. I'm just going that you accept for a moment - I understand
17 that you yourself do not know what kind of a projectile it was - but it
18 is, to be fair, a rapid and unexpected event. Correct?
19 A. Say again, please.
20 Q. When an air bomb is launched, or let's say any bomb is
21 launched, -- no, let me put this differently.
22 The UNMO who provided you this information did not know in advance
23 that this bomb was going to be launched; correct.
24 A. That's correct. He reported to me that he parked the car with the
25 front pointing -- front of the car pointing in direction where you have
Page 4350
1 the yellow figure on the -- on the picture. When he was standing out and
2 went to close his door, the door of the car, he saw it launched. And
3 attached to the report you have filed here, there was also a sketch where
4 he tried to draw a sketch from the projectile that was fired.
5 Q. Do you know if he had ever seen an air bomb being launched before?
6 A. I don't know.
7 Q. And so I come back to my question: Since he didn't know it was
8 going to happen, it is a sudden unexpected event, he had never seen it
9 before, isn't it possible that he made a mistake when he said where it was
10 launched from and that in fact it just flew over that location?
11 A. There might always be a possibility that he makes mistake. As
12 UNMOs, we were supposed to report only what we had seen with our own eyes;
13 and if you look at all the reports that we had filed by UNMOs, from the
14 when I was an operation officer, I very often refused to report things
15 that people believe that had seen.
16 But this UNMO came to me and he was quite sure about what he had
17 seen. We questioned him several times from different angles to see if
18 there should be any mistakes about it, because he as well knew that this
19 was an important witness he had -- thing he been seeing. He was a Muslim
20 UNMO himself, so he knew that it could have important to -- it could be
21 important and it could have -- an effect on the situation.
22 Q. But, sir, you say that as UNMOs, you're trained to report what we
23 had seen with our own eyes, and you say this was important information.
24 But the UNMO who says he saw it did not in fact report it, did he?
25 A. He reported it himself, but he was not supposed.
Page 4351
1 Q. No. I'm going to interrupt you there for a moment, sir. He did
2 not write a report about this, did he?
3 A. The UNMOs were not supposed to write reports like this. They were
4 supposed to bring information in for the UNMO headquarters, and I'm an --
5 as an UNMO operation officer, I was supposed to write the reports.
6 Q. Sir, isn't it the case that he did not want to write the report
7 because he thought it was sensitive, and you offered to write the report
8 for him. Isn't that what happened?
9 A. That's correct.
10 Q. Okay. So he ordinarily would have written a report about
11 something like that but chose not to?
12 A. No. If he had been in his UNMO team, he could have been writing a
13 report that would have been sent into the UNMO headquarters and then I
14 would send the report for the headquarters in Zagreb and for the
15 headquarters in Bosnia. But always it would be me or one of my operation
16 officers who would write the report and not him.
17 MR. WHITING: I don't understand --
18 JUDGE ROBINSON: This is not very clear, because earlier you were
19 asked whether -- the UNMO did not want to write the report because he
20 thought it was sensitive and that you offered to write the report for him.
21 And you said that that was correct.
22 THE WITNESS: That's correct. If he had been in the UNMO team, he
23 would have been writing -- if he had been out in the team in the building
24 itself, he would have been writing a report, sending it in for the UNMO
25 headquarters, and then I would have been writing the final report that
Page 4352
1 would have been send to the headquarters for the UNMO in Zagreb.
2 In this case, when he came directly the parking place, he had
3 something to do in the building; and when parking the car, he saw this
4 missile rocket that was launched, so he came directly to my office. And
5 when we were discussing about this, he could have been writing the report
6 his own hand, but I still would have been the one to write the report to
7 send to Zagreb. And that is the report that you see in front of me -- or
8 in front of you.
9 Attached to the report, there is a sketch which he had been doing
10 himself and this was made by his hand and not by mine.
11 JUDGE HARHOFF: Captain, I believe the difficulty we have in fully
12 appreciating your testimony is that it is unclear to us why the UNMO
13 simply did not write a report. Under normal circumstances, he would have
14 been obliged to do so, wouldn't he? But I understand that you are saying
15 that he was not in case because he was not a member of any team that had
16 business to do in that area? Or how are we to understand your
17 explanation?
18 THE WITNESS: Sorry that I am unclear.
19 He was a member of a team coming into the PTT building where the
20 headquarters was. When he had been out in the team -- if he had been out
21 in a team or if he had returned to the team, then he was supposed to write
22 a report that should have been sent in to headquarters, where I was
23 sitting as an operation officer, and then I would be rewriting his report,
24 what we did all the time. The report we were sending for the headquarters
25 in Zagreb, they were sent by CapSat and not in a written form in a report
Page 4353
1 like you see it on paper here. So they were always been done by the
2 operation officers, and I was the operation officer in charge of the
3 operation officers.
4 JUDGE ROBINSON: When you say out in the team, do you mean that
5 were he out in the field.
6 THE WITNESS: He was normally out in the team. As you see, if you
7 take a look of the picture within the red square, that is one of the teams
8 that was placed on the inside of the Sector Sarajevo, on the BiH side.
9 And this UNMO was placed in one of those teams. If he hadn't had anything
10 to do in the PTT building, he would have returned to the team; and
11 together with the team leader, he would have been writing a report that
12 would have been sent in for the headquarters, the headquarters for UNMO
13 Sector Sarajevo; then I would have been writing the same report again and
14 sent it to the headquarters Zagreb.
15 Now, when he was in the PTT building, instead of sitting down that
16 he was writing a report, he was telling me; and if you look at the sketch
17 he has been doing, I have been using the same words as he has been using
18 in the sketch himself. So this is the sketch and report he has been doing
19 himself, and I was the one to send the Sector Sarajevo report to Zagreb.
20 JUDGE ROBINSON: So it's because he was in the PTT building --
21 THE WITNESS: Because he came in the PTT, yeah.
22 JUDGE ROBINSON: -- why he wasn't required to write a report.
23 THE WITNESS: Yes.
24 JUDGE ROBINSON: Oh, I see.
25 MR. WHITING: I'm sorry, Captain, I'm going to have to press this
Page 4354
1 issue a bit more, because now I think you given two different explanations
2 for why he did not write a report.
3 You said, on the one hand, he did not write a report because it
4 was too sensitive, and he did not want to write a report, suggesting that
5 ordinarily he would have been required to write a report. And now, on the
6 other hand, you're suggesting it was simply because he was in the PTT
7 building, and it was a matter of convenience. Which of these explanations
8 is correct?
9 A. You can say that both them are correct, because he didn't want to
10 put his name in the report. We normally didn't put names in reports. As
11 you see, before there -- when teams were making investigations, they were
12 always put a name on the investigations, who carried out the
13 investigation. In this case, we decided not to put his name on --
14 Q. Well, now, the report -- you did not sit there in the PTT building
15 and write this report, did you? You didn't write the report until the
16 next day.
17 A. That's not correct.
18 Q. Well, look at the date on the report.
19 A. Yeah.
20 Q. The date on the report is the 29th of June at 12.30 in the
21 afternoon.
22 A. And then there would be another report as well.
23 Q. No, I'm sorry, this report that you wrote?
24 A. Yeah.
25 Q. You wrote the following day, right?
Page 4355
1 A. That's correct.
2 Q. Okay. So you -- when you say he came into the PTT building and you
3 could just write the report, you did not write the report that day.
4 A. But there was then another report written the same day for sure.
5 Q. I'm sorry. If there was a report written on the 28th of June, why
6 would you have to write this report the following day with the exact same
7 information in it?
8 A. Because there was a daily report that was sent every day before
9 1800 in the evening, and then an update of the daily report every day at
10 2400 hours. And this one, as it is written, the subject is "Special
11 report under impact on the TV building," but there would be -- in the
12 files there would be a report on what has happened as well.
13 Q. Captain, are you sure about this information or are you just kind
14 of --
15 A. I'm sure.
16 Q. Okay.
17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Well, Just to clarify, so there is in existence
18 on the file, a report which is part of the daily reports for the 28th on
19 this incident.
20 THE WITNESS: There would will be, yeah.
21 MR. WHITING:
22 Q. This special report makes no reference to that. It does not say
23 it is an update or that this information has already been provided, does
24 it?
25 A. That's correct.
Page 4356
1 Q. Why not?
2 A. Because that was not supposed to be like that.
3 Q. Well, wouldn't -- if somebody is reading this report, wouldn't you
4 want to indicate that this information has already been the subject of a
5 previous report? Wouldn't that be important?
6 A. It wasn't done that way, and I think that at that time people
7 understood what we had been reporting.
8 Q. Now, you say that you chose not to include the name of the UNMO.
9 Isn't that important information that should be included in the report?
10 A. Not necessarily.
11 Q. Well, why not?
12 A. Because as reporting, as an UNMO, it's not a question of the name
13 of the UNMO, but it's a report from an UNMO.
14 Q. Sir, just a few minutes ago, you told us how you were trained as
15 UNMOs that were trained to report what had you seen, that this was
16 important information. How is it possible that it would not important
17 who saw it. How is that possible?
18 A. Because at the time we knew the UNMO who he was, and it's still
19 possible to find him again.
20 Q. Well, isn't that, in fact, not clear since you couldn't remember
21 and you are still not certain who the UNMO is?
22 A. That's correct.
23 Q. And isn't it true that you chose not to put his name in.
24 Ordinarily you would put his name in, but you chose not to in this case.
25 Isn't that true?
Page 4357
1 A. That's correct. But it's not ordinary to put a name in the
2 report.
3 Q. Aside from the report that you now say you wrote on the 28th of
4 June, did you tell any body on the 28th of June that you had gotten this
5 information?
6 A. It was not a secret to anyone because the UNMO came into the
7 operation room --
8 Q. No, I'm sorry. I want to interrupt for a moment. Please, focus
9 on my question. Did you tell anyone on the 28th of June, putting aside
10 the report you now say that you wrote, did you tell anybody on the 28th of
11 June about this information?
12 A. I'm quite sure that we did not tell anyone about it.
13 Q. Now, let's look for a few moments at the report, and I'm going
14 to -- do you know anything about air bombs.
15 A. Not specific.
16 Q. Okay. Do you -- are I aware -- you give the dimensions that the
17 UNMO claims the bomb was. Are you aware that a -- that a 250-kilogram air
18 bomb is approximately one and a half times wider and three times longer
19 than those dimensions? Is that something that you're aware of?
20 A. I have seen that the air bombs, the other ones passing the PTT
21 building, I have seen them flying in the air, and I have seen the impact
22 of them.
23 Q. And so you are aware of this a 250-kilogram air bomb is much
24 larger than the dimensions that are provided in this report?
25 A. I think so, yes?
Page 4358
1 Q. Are you aware that when an air bomb is launched, there is a smoke
2 trail from the rockets and that the smoke trail stops when the rockets run
3 out of fuel, and then the air bomb descends and lands on its target?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. So you say here that the UNMO observed no smoke. There was no
6 smoke observed while Selos [phoen] trajectory object was in flight. Based
7 on your experience, wouldn't that indicate to that you the rockets had run
8 out of fuel already when the UNMO saw it, and it was already heading
9 toward its target?
10 A. The UNMO didn't report about an bomb. He reported about a missile
11 or a --
12 Q. I'm sorry. Accept for a moment that it's an air bomb. If it were
13 an air bomb - accept that for a moment - then wouldn't this information,
14 based on your experience, suggest that the -- that the air bomb had
15 already -- the fuel from the rockets had already run out, and it was
16 heading -- it is descending toward its target?
17 A. I'm not supposed as an UNMO, I think now, to -- to think about if
18 it as an air bomb or significant. I was at the time only supposed to
19 report what the UNMOs reported to me, and that's what I'm do.
20 Q. I'm asking you not as an UNMO; I'm asking you as a witness to this
21 event and based on the information that you received and your
22 understanding of how these worked. Accept that it ask an air bomb, then
23 the information that you received would suggest that the rockets had
24 already run out of fuel at the time he saw it, since did he not see any
25 smoke. Correct?
Page 4359
1 A. I'm not quite sure about why you're asking. I mean, if it's an
2 air bomb, or a rocket that has been run out of fuel, then of course there
3 would be no smoke.
4 Q. Okay. Thank you. You say on page 2 of your report that -- it's
5 the second-to-last paragraph. You say that the UNMO team at OP4 was
6 taking shelter at the time. It did not see anything. That is not true,
7 is it? That information is not true?
8 A. If I have been writing it here, then I believe it is true.
9 Q. Well, where did you get that information?
10 A. From the OP4.
11 Q. Who in OP4?
12 A. The people present at OP4. We, of course --
13 Q. Can you tell us a name?
14 A. No, I can't tell any names.
15 Q. In fact, sir, isn't it true, that -- were you familiar with
16 Mr. Brennskag, Per Brennskag?
17 A. I remember his name, yeah.
18 Q. Do you know that, in fact, he was at OP4 on that day, and he
19 observed this very air bomb?
20 A. No, I'm not sure. Because when I had within writing it here, then
21 I have reason to believe that we have contacted OP4 and questioned them
22 about if they had observed anything, because they should have been able to
23 see down in the area as you point out yourself. So when I have been
24 writing it here, then I have only reason to believe that they didn't see
25 anything at the movement when it was launched.
Page 4360
1 Q. But you can't tell us who you talked to?
2 A. No, I can't.
3 Q. When did you talk to that person?
4 A. Right after when we did the investigation and before filing the
5 report.
6 Q. You agree with me, don't you, that from OP4 you could see this
7 location perfectly?
8 A. Yes.
9 JUDGE ROBINSON: May I just ask, Captain, in your report, you say
10 that OP4 was taking cover in the shelter at that time because of shelling
11 at the time of the incident.
12 How did you get that information?
13 THE WITNESS: That I got by radio contact to the team, by calling
14 them in. I don't remember at the moment, but I am sure I would never have
15 been writing anything in the report if it was not a fact. So -- to make
16 the investigation -- to finish the investigation, it was important for us
17 to clarify if anyone else had seen something similar.
18 And as I write in the report, a FreBat soldier -- the UNMO
19 reported to us that a FreBat soldier was close to him in the parking lot.
20 We were not able to find him and, therefore, didn't get in the further
21 information from him. So I don't remember this part of the report. But
22 I'm sure now when seeing it that I would never have been writing it
23 without having taking contact with the team in OP4.
24 JUDGE ROBINSON: And was the radio contact made by you personally
25 or by somebody else and then the information passed on to you.
Page 4361
1 THE WITNESS: When I say "radio contact," I'm quite sure that we
2 would not have been talking about something like this on radio. So I
3 would have probably called in the team to the OP room and have been
4 talking personally to the people about this case. But I don't remember,
5 so it could have been on radio. So it's most unlikely that we have been
6 making this on radio, so probably it would had been called in.
7 [Trial Chamber confers]
8 JUDGE HARHOFF: Thank you, Captain.
9 When would you have been able to see someone from OP4 in your
10 office? Would that be later that same day, or would it be the day after?
11 THE WITNESS: It would probably have been the same day. I'm quite
12 sure it had been the same day.
13 The reason for, when I'm asked if it's most unlikely that other
14 people, why they hadn't seen it. At the time, there was outgoing shelling
15 from the BiH side and there was a lot of incoming shelling from the --
16 from the other side. So that was -- that was the reason for people, of
17 course, to take cover in shelters and could have been the reason why there
18 wasn't any other witnesses.
19 MR. WHITING: Thank you, Your Honour.
20 Q. If the information from OP4 was in fact the air bomb had been
21 observed, the air bomb that hit the TV tower had been observed that day,
22 would you accept that your report could be inaccurate, could be mistaken?
23 A. I don't remember that part of it, as I told earlier. So if could
24 you bring in an UNMO that now can tell that he has been observing at the
25 time, it would be most -- I would be very surprised about that, because
Page 4362
1 I'm sure about all the reports I have been writing from the mission that I
2 would never been writing anything without being 100 per cent sure.
3 That is what I was teaching the UNMOs, that we should never report
4 anything that we were not 100 per cent sure about. So when writing that
5 they were in shelter, I'm sure that someone from OP4 had been reporting to
6 me that they were in shelter at that time.
7 Q. But none of that information is included in the report, is it?
8 A. What? What --
9 Q. None of the information about how you spoke to, when you spoke to,
10 how you spoke to them, none of that is in the report, is it?
11 A. That is correct, because we didn't put names in the reports.
12 Q. Is there any information that is in this report dated the 29th of
13 June that was not included, that you didn't know on the 28th of June that
14 would have -- in other words, what is new about this report and what is
15 the reason for writing it, if you knew all of this information on the 28th
16 of June?
17 A. I have no idea why it's written on the 29th. It's probably
18 because I have been questioned to write a new report about this, because I
19 knew that this information was sent on the -- as I remember the situation,
20 when I reported this, I sent it by secure means by CapSat. It was sent to
21 Sector Sarajevo, the headquarter for the whole UN troops. It was sent for
22 the headquarter for the Bosnia UN, and it was sent for UN Zagreb.
23 About 20 minutes after I sent this report, I was called on
24 telephone and I was told to forget about this report. I was told that I
25 couldn't forget it because I had sent it already by secure means to the
Page 4363
1 three officers that I was supposed to send it. And after another 20
2 minutes, I was then called again and was told that I should just forget
3 about this report and everything has been settled.
4 JUDGE ROBINSON: Are you going to follow this up, Mr. Whiting?
5 MR. WHITING: I was going to, yes.
6 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, go ahead.
7 MR. WHITING:
8 Q. Did you just remember this, what you just told us?
9 A. No.
10 Q. Is this something that you just remembered?
11 A. No, have I remembered it all the time since it happened.
12 Q. Twenty minutes after you sent the report on the 29th of June or
13 the report on the 28th of June?
14 A. I'm quite sure it was on the 28th I was told not to do anything
15 more about this and not to -- to give the information to anyone else.
16 Q. Sir, were you interviewed by an ICTY investigator in this case, if
17 I can find your interview, on the 8th or 9th of September -- the 8th and
18 9th of September, 1995?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Did you say anything about what you have just told us about being
21 told 20 minutes after you sent the report to forget about the report?
22 A. No.
23 THE INTERPRETER: Could you please speak a little by the closer to
24 the microphone because we can't here you.
25 THE WITNESS: Yes.
Page 4364
1 MR. WHITING:
2 Q. I'm going to ask --
3 [Prosecution counsel confer]
4 MR. WHITING: Could we look at 65 ter 3087, please, and if we
5 could look at --
6 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, if I may, it's D72.
7 This is Exhibit D72. It's already been given a number.
8 MR. WHITING: Thank you. I'm grateful.
9 Q. Sir, you don't have it in front of you -- or you might, you might.
10 I'm not sure if I have it or not, but it's on the screen now.
11 And if you could look at page 3 there, in the middle of the page,
12 it says: "I investigated among all the other shellings also an impact on
13 the TV building."
14 Now, first of all, you told us earlier that you had not
15 investigated it.
16 A. That's correct.
17 Q. So why did you say in this statement that you did investigate it?
18 A. I might have been using the wrong words about it.
19 Q. Well, in the next paragraph, you say: "At that time, we could not
20 find any fragments or parts of the projectile that hit the building."
21 So that indicates that you participated in the investigation or
22 were aware of it, doesn't it?
23 A. I have to see. That's correct.
24 Q. It doesn't say anything -- you speak about the UNMO, but it didn't
25 say anything about this information that you have now provided today, that
Page 4365
1 you were told 20 minutes -- it doesn't say anything about being told 20
2 minutes after filing a report to forget about this. There is nothing
3 about that in here, is there?
4 A. I was not asked about it.
5 Q. Well, don't you think that was important information? If you were
6 told 20 minutes after writing a report to forget about it, don't you think
7 that was something important that should have been told?
8 A. I was still in the UN mission so I didn't think about it as
9 important information for those investigations at that time.
10 Q. In your recent conversations with Barry Hogan, the investigator
11 from the OTP, you also did not mention this information, did you?
12 A. That's correct.
13 Q. Why not?
14 A. I was not asked about it, and I didn't see it as important
15 information for him.
16 Q. Captain, are you just making up answers as you go along here
17 today?
18 A. No.
19 Q. Are you sure?
20 A. Yes.
21 MR. WHITING: Could we look, please, as a series of reports, and I
22 think you probably have them in front of you, but I have copies. It's
23 R 0025651 to 5663, and this is 65 ter 3088.
24 Q. Captain, you have had an opportunity to read over these reports,
25 correct?
Page 4366
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. And do they accurately set out the details of the conflict that
3 you had with the ABiH liaison office on that day?
4 A. It does, yeah.
5 Q. Could you turn to the page that is marked -- has the last four
6 digits 5654 on the top. It's dated the 28th of June, 1995. It's a patrol
7 report. Was that report written by you?
8 A. That's written by me, yeah.
9 Q. Could you look, sort of -- the sixth paragraph you say, it starts
10 off: "When I came back from the investigation."
11 Doesn't that again suggest that you were present or involved in
12 the investigation in the TV tower?
13 A. It says that I came back from a patrol that was supposed to be an
14 investigation. We called everything as we drove out as either an
15 observation or an investigation And I was supposed to go out for an
16 investigation.
17 Q. Now, Captain, is it fair to say that when after you received the
18 information from the UNMO, you went to the ABiH liaison office and is it
19 fair to say that Captain Nermin there believed that you said that the ABiH
20 had fired the air bomb or fired the bomb on the TV tower that's what he
21 thought you said, right?
22 A. That's right .
23 Q. And you deny saying that?
24 A. Yes. And I still recall what I said when I went to his office.
25 Q. But, in fact, when you went to his office that is exactly what you
Page 4367
1 believed that is correct the ABiH had fired the bomb, right?
2 A. Yes. But I have been learned myself and thought the other UNMOs
3 to be impartial, so when I went to the office and asked them to stop
4 firing for one hour. That has happened very often in the past that we
5 succeeded in that. I asked him to stop the fire and he said that we
6 should ask the -- the Serbian side, the Bosnian Serb side to stop the
7 firing.
8 And I said, "You were firing from both side, and you will have to
9 stop the fire or we will ask to you stop the fire." And in this case with
10 the TV building, he misunderstood me when going down there and he asked me
11 if I believed that there had been firing themselves. And I said I have no
12 reason to believe anything before we have carried the out the
13 investigation.
14 Q. So let me just get it clear here. You went in there believing
15 that the ABiH had fired the bomb. He believes that that is what you said,
16 but you still deny that you said anything like that?
17 A. I didn't use that -- I didn't use those words.
18 Q. And in your report here that you wrote on the 28th of June, 1995,
19 there's no mention of this unnamed UNMO and what he reported to you, is
20 there?
21 A. No.
22 MR. WHITING: Could these documents be admitted into evidence,
23 please, Your Honour.
24 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes.
25 MR. WHITING: I just have a couple of more questions. Sir, are
Page 4368
1 you aware -- oh I'm sorry.
2 THE REGISTRAR: Just to be clear, this is 65 ter, 03088. This
3 will be Exhibit P519.
4 [Trial Chamber confers]
5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Well, just before you leave that issue, would you
6 tell us, Captain, who was it that told you 20 minutes after you wrote the
7 report that you should forget about it?
8 THE WITNESS: I don't remember his name or rank or function. But
9 I was called from someone in the headquarters for the UNMOs in Zagreb, the
10 overall headquarters for the UNMOs, that I should forget about this
11 report.
12 JUDGE ROBINSON: All right.
13 THE WITNESS: I told this person that I, of course, couldn't
14 forget about the report because it was already sent to three different
15 offices; and then after another 20 minutes - I remember it as 20 minutes -
16 but a short period, I was called again --
17 JUDGE HARHOFF: By the same person.
18 THE WITNESS: I believe it was the same person, and I have no
19 reason not to believe it. And, of course, I knew the person, so I knew
20 when he was calling me that, that was what I had to do. It was an order
21 and, as I said, after another 20 minutes, I was called again and said that
22 the case has been settled, and we should just forget about this report.
23 JUDGE ROBINSON: The person calling you, you say you don't
24 remember his name, but what about his rank?
25 THE WITNESS: No. It was for sure been a superior to me in the
Page 4369
1 way that maybe not in rank, because when working as an UNMO the rank
2 doesn't matter. You can have a high function as a captain or you can have
3 a high rank and has a -- be working as a team member. So, he was for sure
4 one of my superiors or one of those people working in headquarters to whom
5 I have to -- to listen to when --
6 JUDGE ROBINSON: And you -- you understood this to be an order.
7 THE WITNESS: I understand that to be an order, yes, sir.
8 JUDGE HARHOFF: Thanks, Captain.
9 Now, this took place -- the two phone calls that you did receive
10 from Zagreb, they took place on the 28th of June, if I understand you
11 correctly.
12 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I'm quite sure it was on the 28th,
13 because it was a short time after all this happened.
14 JUDGE HARHOFF: Now the day after, on the 29th, you did proceed to
15 file a report. That was the report that we saw just a while ago.
16 THE WITNESS: Yeah, that was a detailed report but it has to be in
17 the report on the 28th as well. You -- if you find my reports on the 28th
18 or from the OP room, from Sector Sarajevo, you will for sure find details
19 as well about this incident.
20 JUDGE HARHOFF: Yes. We did have -- we do have your report of the
21 28th of June, and we also have seen your report from the following day on
22 the 29th. And my question is: If you were told to forget about the whole
23 thing on the 28th, then why didn't you just forget about the whole thing?
24 I mean, the difficulty I have is that did you not forget about the whole
25 thing. You actually did proceed, and on the following day you did file
Page 4370
1 your final report.
2 THE WITNESS: It's a long time ago, so I might forget the timings
3 of this. So when I received this order about forgetting it, it might have
4 been after reporting this special report. But what I'm saying is that
5 there would for sure would be details about the incident in the report
6 from the 28th. So it might have been that the timing of this.
7 What has happened is that I was ordered to forget about the case
8 on the 29th; but as all those things happened, things they happened very
9 fast. I'm quite sure that there must be a report, a similar report like
10 this on the 28th that has been filed; and after that report, I have been
11 told to forget about it. Because on the 29th, for me it would have been
12 too late.
13 I still remember when all this happened, the rumours about the
14 incident run around in PTT building, the headquarters, Sector Sarajevo.
15 It was running around; and a short time after the incident, people came to
16 the office and asked if this was correct that an UNMO had seen a
17 projectile fired from the BiH side.
18 JUDGE HARHOFF: Just to clarify, we do have both of your reports;
19 the one from the 28th and also the one from the 29th.
20 THE WITNESS: Of course.
21 JUDGE HARHOFF: And it's in our files. So what you're saying now
22 is that --
23 MR. WHITING: Your Honour, I really hate to interrupt, but I'm not
24 sure that the report from the 28th is the type of report that he is
25 referring to. I think the report from the 28th pertains to a specific
Page 4371
1 matter and is not a daily situation report or a daily report. I'm not
2 aware that we have the report from the 28th that he is referring to.
3 JUDGE HARHOFF: Okay. Well, this clarifies one of the matters.
4 May I just have one last question put to you, Captain Hansen, and
5 that is that on the reports, your special report. You say that an UNMO
6 coming into the PTT building, parking his car on the lower parking place
7 observed the following. My question relates to the word "the lower
8 parking place," because from the picture that we saw just a while ago, I
9 think it was Exhibit P518, it seemed to me that that picture was taken
10 from the top of the parking place --
11 THE WITNESS: Yeah.
12 JUDGE HARHOFF: -- where obviously your view would have been much
13 better than had you parked your car on the lower.
14 THE WITNESS: Yeah. I'm sure when writing the report I have to
15 stick to the report that I have been writing; and when we at the time had
16 been writing on the lower parking place, then for sure he has been coming
17 into the lower parking place and parked his car there.
18 Now, when the Prosecutor showed me the picture from the -- the
19 upper parking place, that was then was what was in my mind. But by
20 reading the report, I'm 100 percent sure that the UNMO has been coming
21 into the lower parking place, and that is the place from where he has seen
22 the projectile being fired.
23 JUDGE HARHOFF: But can I just ask you again: You said that you
24 went with him back to the parking place --
25 THE WITNESS: Yes.
Page 4372
1 JUDGE HARHOFF: -- for him to show you what he had seen.
2 THE WITNESS: Yes.
3 JUDGE HARHOFF: And do you remember whether, when you went with
4 him --
5 THE WITNESS: I did.
6 JUDGE HARHOFF: -- did you go to the lower parking place or the
7 top one.
8 THE WITNESS: We went to his car because his car was still parked
9 outside. He came into the building, parked his car. For some reason, he
10 had something to do in the building. I don't know if it was to visit me
11 or to do other business in the building. So when he came to report this,
12 we immediately went down to his car to observe from his car, and he could
13 point out from the direction from where this was fired.
14 JUDGE HARHOFF: And could you see the presumed origin of fire from
15 the lower parking place?
16 THE WITNESS: I could see the place he was pointing at.
17 JUDGE HARHOFF: Thank you.
18 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] Captain, please, I have another
19 question, and I'd like to come back to your attitude because I don't
20 understand it from well. What you did after you got from the phone call
21 you got from Zagreb.
22 You said that as an UNMO you were determined to report only on
23 what had you seen yourself and not what on which you had been told about,
24 which is fine. But when you wrote your first report on June 28, one of
25 your superior in Zagreb, that had not seen anything because he was in
Page 4373
1 Zagreb, told you to drop the whole thing, and you want to only do and see
2 what -- only report on what you have seen on the terrain. So on June 29,
3 you rewrote your report maintaining what you had stated the day before.
4 But what is really striking here is when the ICTY investigators
5 interviewed you on June 8 and 9, a few months later, you do not mention
6 this phone call from Zagreb, which I believe is totally contrary to what
7 an UNMO should do, because normally an UNMO in his conscience should
8 report what he had seen. So how can you explain the fact that you had
9 been so silent about this phone call up until now? Is it because you were
10 afraid of your superiors, or because you believe that your report was
11 wrong?
12 THE WITNESS: I have no reason to believe that my report is wrong.
13 When I say that UNMOs are to report what they see and the facts they see,
14 it is also means that when you are the operation officer, you have to
15 believe notice UNMOs that is working as UNMOs. So whatever they report to
16 you, you'll have to write and believe in it.
17 About not telling about those phone calls to the investigators,
18 that was not a question that was coming up when they questioned me and I
19 was still working in the UN mission, so I was not thinking about to report
20 it or to inform them about those phone calls.
21 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] Was it -- did it happen often that
22 a superior would ask you to modify reports that had been the written by
23 you, taking into account what you had seen on the field?
24 THE WITNESS: Never.
25 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] So this incident with your
Page 4374
1 superior, that was something really serious. Don't you think that you
2 should have notified it to the authorities to make sure that the UN was
3 running properly?
4 THE WITNESS: I still remember the situation, and I was, of
5 course, shocked. I believe from the beginning when I started in the UN
6 mission that the -- as the UN to be the highest authority. And I did my
7 best in the whole mission and I was later on serving in Kashmir for one
8 year, also as an operation officer and also had high postings.
9 I was, of course, shocked when this happened, and I still remember
10 that all the UNMOs we were sure about that now that it was an UNMO
11 observed that it was fired from the BiH side. And a day after the UN
12 spokesman, Gary Coward, I went down to the press conference that he made,
13 he was informing the press that this was -- this incident was done by the
14 Bosnian Serb side, although the UNMOs had reported different.
15 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] Thank you, Witness.
16 MR. WHITING: I just have a few more questions.
17 Q. Captain, are you aware that -- did you know who General Meille was
18 at the time?
19 A. No, sir.
20 Q. You didn't know that he was the acting sector commander of
21 UNPROFOR in Sarajevo?
22 A. General Meille?
23 Q. Meille, M-E-I-L-L-E, Frenchman.
24 A. Yes, I knew him.
25 Q. Are you aware that on the 30th of June he sent a letter to the
Page 4375
1 accused in this case, the commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps,
2 protesting the firing of the air bomb by the Bosnian Serb side that hit
3 the TV tower? In other words, he concluded that it was fired from the
4 Serb side; did you know that?
5 A. No.
6 Q. Did you ever learn on the 30th of June --
7 MR. WHITING: That's Exhibit P103, Your Honours.
8 MR. WHITING:
9 Q. Did you know that on the 30th of June, 1995, the accused in this
10 case, the commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps at the time, sent a
11 report in which he said that the Bosnian Serb forces had hit the TV
12 building on the 28th of June, 1995? Did you ever hear that?
13 A. I heard that from one of your assistants when calling me.
14 Q. Did you hear it at the time?
15 A. No.
16 Q. Does that information cause you to think that perhaps the UNMO
17 that provided you this information had been mistaken, since the commander
18 of the SRK himself was saying on the 30th of June that they had hit the TV
19 tower?
20 A. When I got the information, when you called me, I believe it was
21 one of your assistants that called me in Denmark, that, of course, caused
22 me to think if there should be anything wrong in the report. But when
23 writing the report, when questioning the UNMO, and at that time, still
24 I -- I believe that what we were writing in the report was fully correct.
25 We were aware that it -- it could have -- as I said earlier, it could have
Page 4376
1 a big impact on the situation if this was known, but still we had all
2 reasons to believe that the report was correct and the UNMO what he saw
3 was correct.
4 Q. You've -- my final question: You have suggested -- you have
5 indicated there was lot of discussion about this in the days that followed
6 about this rumour, about this information that it had been fired from the
7 BiH side. Did you ever learn, hear of anyone else who says that he or she
8 saw it fired from that location?
9 A. You mean this particular one?
10 Q. Right. Did you ever learn of anyone else who said, Yes, I also
11 saw it fired from that location, or I saw a launcher truck at that
12 location? Did you ever hear of anyone else --
13 A. If I had ever heard anything like that, I would have reported it.
14 Q. Did you report it?
15 A. No. I didn't hear from anyone that they have seen this missile,
16 rocket was fired.
17 Q. Okay.
18 MR. WHITING: I have no further questions. Thank you.
19 One matter. I'm not sure if the original report which we have
20 been talking about, which is 65 ter 536, I don't know if that is in
21 evidence under a different number. If it is not, I think it certainly
22 should be in evidence. The report of the 29th of June.
23 JUDGE ROBINSON: I will ask the court deputy if he can help us.
24 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, it's D103, and we
25 also have the drawing in D103. We have an additional piece of paper which
Page 4377
1 is the drawing made by the UNMO.
2 Now, for the 65 ter list 536, we have an additional piece of paper
3 that is the drawing.
4 MR. WHITING: That's fine. If it is already in evidence, then
5 there is no need to move it into evidence.
6 JUDGE ROBINSON: We'll take the break now.
7 --- Recess taken at 10.32 a.m.
8 --- On resuming at 10.57 a.m.
9 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Whiting.
10 MR. WHITING: Your Honour, I'm finished, but I do have an
11 administrative matter which I have already mentioned to the Defence.
12 D72 is the statement of the witness. For some reasons that
13 version is in evidence is unsigned. We have a signed version and the
14 parties both agree to substitute the signed version for the unsigned
15 version.
16 JUDGE ROBINSON: Very well.
17 MR. WHITING: We'll arrange with the registrar to do that.
18 JUDGE ROBINSON: Ms. Isailovic.
19 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honour.
20 I just have a question of a technical nature. Could we increase
21 the temperature in the courtroom because I'm beginning to get very cold.
22 JUDGE ROBINSON: I will ask the court deputy to look into that
23 Cross-examination by Ms. Isailovic:
24 Q. [Interpretation] Good morning, witness. My name is Branislava
25 Isailovic. I am defending the Dragomir Milosevic, and I'm a lawyer
Page 4378
1 working for the Paris Bar Association.
2 I'm going to put you a few questions regarding some of the matters
3 that were addressed by the Prosecutor this morning.
4 Now, to begin with, I would like to ask you a few questions
5 about the reporting procedure which is established by UNMO and according
6 to certain rules. Could you tell the Chamber, and could you tell us all,
7 what is the purpose of these observation posts, like OP4 that you
8 mentioned? What role do they play?
9 A. The observation post was supposed to report about shelling
10 incidents, movements from troops on both sides, and report what they saw
11 and not what they believed.
12 Q. If I have understood you correctly, all the observation posts were
13 staffed by several UNMOs; is that correct?
14 A. I don't understand the word "staffed."
15 Q. There were several people that were members of a team that was at
16 the observation post; is that how things happened?
17 A. That's correct. The observation post, as it's called here, was
18 not only observation post, it was a team site. From one of the teams, as
19 you could see in the picture, it's on top of one of the mountains, and it
20 was then as well a good observation post to look into the city of
21 Sarajevo, or part of it, and from there to report what they could see.
22 Your question about several UNMOs, in every UNMO team, which this
23 was an UNMO team, there was always several UNMOs in -- in a team that
24 could be in the UN mission in the former Yugoslavia. It could be all from
25 three UNMOs and up to 18, 20 UNMOs in a team. In this particular team, I
Page 4379
1 believe, as I remember, there was six, seven UNMOs, but some of them would
2 then be on leave. That meant that at all times there would be five, six
3 UNMOs. Some could then be on patrol. They could be somewhere else. I
4 believe that at all times, because it was a good observation post as well,
5 there would always be at least be two UNMOs present at the team site.
6 Q. And if I understand you correctly, the other members, with the
7 exception of these two UNMOs that remained at all times on the observation
8 post, were part of the teams that were conducting the investigations in
9 Sarajevo and around Sarajevo. Is that correct?
10 A. It's correct that the UNMOs they were taking or carrying out
11 investigation, or it could also be liaison to the parts. When the team
12 was placed on the BiH side, then liaison would be the BiH; or if it is a
13 team on the Bosnian Serb side, then it would be liaison to that side.
14 They were to carry out investigation, observations as well, in the
15 way that they were to observe if there were any troop movements, if the
16 confrontation line was moving - the cease-fire line, was the correct
17 name - if there were any movements in that one, there could be reports
18 from either the Bosnian Serb side or the BiH side. But now the other part
19 had moved the confrontation line, or they had on this line that was agreed
20 to keep this line, that one of the parts had gone on further, that they
21 were supposed to be.
22 As far I remember, I believe that there always two observers at
23 the team site because it was a good place for observation. But you must
24 not understand me the way that -- that I'm 100 per cent sure that there
25 was always two UNMOs present at the team site. And as I'm writing in the
Page 4380
1 report, it's -- we took contact -- I have all reason to believe that we
2 took contact to the UNMOs present at the team site. And as I have
3 reported, they were taking shelter at the time when the incident happened.
4 Q. Mr. Hansen, I'm asking you these questions -- to begin with, these
5 are questions of a general nature. I would like to know what your job was
6 all about. What was your exact position in Sarajevo?
7 A. You mean my own position or the UNMO position?
8 Q. I'm talking about you specifically, your job.
9 A. My specific job was to be the operation officer. There was 80
10 military observers, UN Military Observers in Sector Sarajevo. Above me,
11 there was the -- the sector chief for the UNMOs and there was a deputy,
12 and then I was the operation officer. I was -- I was the one to -- to
13 make the planning for who was to make which investigations, or the overall
14 planning for the UNMOs; and then in the team, there would be a team leader
15 that then would delegate the -- sorry.
16 Q. Can you tell me what was the name of your superior at the UNMO
17 headquarters in Sarajevo, please? Was it perhaps Major Sundquest?
18 A. No. He was the deputy for the -- for the UNMO for the whole of
19 Bosnia. There was -- the organisation of the UNMOs was that there was a
20 headquarters for the overall former Yugoslavia and that headquarters was
21 placed in Zagreb; then there was -- there was the headquarters for the
22 UNMOs in overall Bosnia, and that was Major Sundquest. He was the deputy
23 in command of the overall for Bosnia; and then in Bosnia, you have
24 different sectors, and one of the sectors was Sarajevo. The only thing is
25 that Major Sundquest, he was then -- the overall headquarters for Bosnian
Page 4381
1 was placed in Sarajevo as well, but we were two different headquarters.
2 Q. And what about you? You were part of the Sarajevo headquarters;
3 is that right?
4 A. Sector Sarajevo.
5 Q. Was your superior Tarik Alam [phoen] perhaps?
6 A. I don't remember at the time. I know that -- if you mean -- in
7 report here, I can see that Colonel Alam was the DSMO. He was the deputy
8 sector military observer. And so I believe at the time of the report, the
9 SMO, the sector military observer, he was not present, the senior -- he
10 was not present, so the Lieutenant-Colonel Alam, as far as I remember, he
11 was from Bangladesh. He was working as the sector senior and my superior.
12 Q. Now, how did the reporting procedure work? Now, to conduct
13 investigations, you always used the reports which were filed by the UNMOs,
14 and these were sent to the headquarters in Sarajevo and then the Sarajevo
15 headquarters reported back to Zagreb. Is that how the reporting procedure
16 worked?
17 A. That's correct.
18 Q. And, for instance, people that were posted at OP4 Vikovac, we
19 mentioned this observation post, now, according to the regular procedure,
20 did things happen this way? In the event that somebody saw something, the
21 people there drafted a report or called you up via radio, and they called
22 you up in the headquarters in Sarajevo; is that how things worked?
23 A. It worked the way if it was normal observations. If it was
24 incoming or outgoing shells, they would just report by radio. That was
25 the normal way of reporting it, if they saw something. It was only when
Page 4382
1 they made investigations they made a report, a written report which they
2 brought into -- to my office; and then from that report, we would report
3 further on to headquarters Zagreb.
4 Q. When you mentioned incoming and outgoing shots, who wrote down
5 what was heard on the radio? Was this written down somewhere at the
6 headquarters and at the PTT building?
7 A. At the operation office, we had four operation officers that was
8 monitoring the radio at all times from the UNMO, and they writing down the
9 report. So by the end of the day, we had a full report of what was
10 happening in the sector, and that was the report that I was then to
11 finalise and send to Zagreb.
12 Q. So your report, let's call it your final report, the one which was
13 drafted at the end of the day, was this a half daily report or a daily
14 report which was sent off to Zagreb?
15 A. That was a report by the end of the day, it was to be sent at 1800
16 hours and then we continued. It was 24 hours duty at the OP room; and by
17 2400 hours, we sent the final report for the day or the update of the
18 report. Most of the things they had until 1800 hours.
19 Q. Therefore, there was just a single report that described
20 everything that had happened during the day, the previous day, and the
21 report focussed on everything that had occurred from the day before at
22 1800 hours until the day when it was sent at 1200 hours?
23 A. No. The report that was sent at 1800 hours reported about things
24 that happened from 000 hours, from midnight, until 1800 hours, and then a
25 update of a report was sent by midnight from what happened from 1800 hours
Page 4383
1 to 2400 hours.
2 Q. In other words, you always had two reports which bore the same
3 date; is that right?
4 A. That's correct.
5 Q. Now, anything that had been reported over the radio was -- had
6 been written down somewhere by these operators that were operating in the
7 OP room 24 hours a day; is that right?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. And after that, you drafted your report on the basis of the
10 information or the data that had been written down over a particular
11 period by these operators; is that right?
12 A. That's correct. They were writing it down immediately, and they
13 started that there was a continuously report going on. So it meant by the
14 end of the day, by 1800 hours, as operation officer, I only had to
15 finalise this report. They had started on it. So what they were
16 reporting was, for example, the incoming shell, they were counting that
17 now there had been -- from this grid reference there had been outgoing
18 shells, and some other UNMOs they could then report that approximately the
19 tame time there had been incoming -- incoming rounds.
20 And that was reported by the operation officers that was taking
21 care of the radio room. They were putting that into a report that had to
22 be finalised by me at 1800 hours.
23 Q. Mr. Hansen, what relationship was there between UNMO and UNPROFOR
24 at the time, I mean the UNPROFOR battalions? What kind of reporting
25 procedures was between the two?
Page 4384
1 A. The relation was extremely good in the way that the -- the Sector
2 Sarajevo for the UNPROFOR, the headquarter was -- or the operation room
3 was next to the operation room from the UNMOs. So it meant that whenever
4 things happened we went to the office from each other so we could inform
5 what was going on, and they also received the report that I filed. And I
6 was -- when I was present at the PTT building, I was always present when
7 the -- when there was an operation report from the Sector Sarajevo
8 UNPROFOR.
9 Q. What kind of relationship did you have to the local police. I'm
10 going to ask you a number of questions here. We addressed a report
11 introduced by the Prosecutor relating to the incident that occurred on the
12 28th of June. You were shown -- I don't have if you have this before you,
13 but we can show it to you. This is Exhibit P134.
14 Do you remember ever having written a -- or mentioned or looked
15 into a report which had been drafted by the Bosnian police?
16 A. I don't remember to have seen that before.
17 Q. But you would agree that the Bosnian police says that you took
18 part, or rather, you were present when the investigation took place. Can
19 you see that?
20 A. As I said earlier, I agree that I was present at the -- at the--
21 the scene, at the TV building, but I was not present when any
22 investigation was carried out.
23 Q. And, in fact, you knew nothing about it. They did it on their own
24 bat and didn't keep you informed about anything; is that right?
25 A. No. It's not correct in that way. It happened sometimes that we
Page 4385
1 carried out the investigations from the UNMO, and from the BiH that they
2 were carried out at the same time. But very often it could happen that
3 it -- that we arrived to the scene maybe later than the BiH and,
4 therefore, we didn't do the investigations together.
5 And I didn't expect to do the investigation in this case, together
6 with the BiH because that would not be normal, but because it would be two
7 different investigation teams. The UNMO's report would never rely on the
8 observations from the BiH investigation team and the other way around.
9 The BiH would not agree on -- or agree is not the correct word. But
10 every team was doing their own investigation.
11 Q. My question was somewhat different, but you did provide an answer.
12 Now, let's get back here to this particular report where your name
13 has been mentioned, Captain Thomas. Was this you, Captain Idriz? These
14 are your first names, aren't they?
15 A. This is my first name, and that's because it is common in Denmark
16 that we use the first name. For some of the other observers, it could be
17 the last name, the family name, but I don't know. For sure it is me that
18 is being referred to in the report.
19 Q. How did they know your name? The policeman who was writing this
20 report, did you introduce yourself? Had you worked together perhaps
21 beforehand? How did he get to know your name?
22 A. When arriving to a crime scene, when the BiH was present, we would
23 always request who was present at the time. So that was normal procedure
24 from the BiH side that they would have the names of the people present.
25 And as I informed the Court about earlier, I was present there for, I
Page 4386
1 believe, two hours, but was not allowed to carry out any investigation, so
2 that can be the reason why they include my name in the report.
3 Q. And all these people, there are 12 people in total, did they
4 introduce themselves to you, these policemen?
5 A. No.
6 Q. But you knew that these were policemen, did you?
7 A. When, as I informed earlier - informed earlier, when I came to the
8 crime scene, we went to the place where there was damages from the bomb.
9 We were then taken to what they meant to be a secure place, and that was
10 the reason for them to keep us away from the scene. I believe for sure I
11 would have been introduced to maybe one or two of those people that were
12 present, but we didn't see -- or I myself didn't see the investigation
13 team from the BiH side.
14 But for sure they would have been carrying out an investigation.
15 So I believe the reason for me being in the report and all of the other
16 names that was the normal procedure from the BiH side. I don't find
17 anything strange in -- in the way that have been doing, except I was not
18 present during their investigation.
19 Q. But you did not co-sign this report, did you?
20 A. No.
21 Q. Now, Mr. Hansen, I would like to address the issue of the
22 relationship between UNMO, you yourself, and the other UNMOs and the ABiH
23 army. So there were liaison officers who were in the same building as
24 you; in other words, the PTT building. Is that right?
25 A. That's correct.
Page 4387
1 Q. And there is was this captain of the -- Nermin Silajdzic, captain
2 of the ABiH army; do you remember him?
3 A. Yeah.
4 Q. Also Captain Goro?
5 A. I'm not sure.
6 Q. There were several of them. There were several liaison officers;
7 is that right? Which of these officers threatened you on the 28th of
8 June, 1995?
9 A. I wouldn't call it a threat, but it was Captain Nermin that wanted
10 me to leave the office.
11 Q. You weren't armed, were you?
12 A. No.
13 Q. But Captain Nermin was, wasn't he?
14 A. No. I don't remember the liaison officer to be armed, but
15 probably they were armed. But as a military observer, you are not armed
16 and I don't remember him as being armed or not being armed.
17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Just a minute, please.
18 [Trial Chamber confers]
19 JUDGE ROBINSON: Please proceed.
20 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation]
21 Q. When you reached the site where an incident had occurred, you were
22 not armed and you were there together with local police. Were there other
23 soldiers of the ABiH army, for instance, who came to those sites where you
24 were conducting your investigations?
25 A. If I remember, there were soldiers. But as the situation in
Page 4388
1 Sarajevo at that time was really tense and it was -- the real war going on
2 at that moment, so for sure there had been some soldiers around.
3 Q. Mr. Hansen, you were somebody doing your job in the midst of a
4 war, and you were doing injure job at the time when there was a lot of
5 armed people around you. What were your feelings about this? You were
6 doing your job. How did you feel about feeling secure and area job and
7 not being armed?
8 A. To be honest, I find it a little bit irrelevant, but that is
9 because all the UNMOs are unarmed. And the reason for that is that if we
10 carry a pistol or a gun or anything, that would not secure us in being in
11 those situations. By being unarmed, both parties, the BiH and Bosnian
12 Serbs, then you and everyone knew that the UNMOs were unarmed. So if
13 anything should happen to us, to be armed would never help us. So I
14 didn't feel unsecure about that.
15 Q. But members of UNPROFOR, FreBat, and the other battalions, for
16 instance, were armed and quite heavily armed, if one can say so?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Were you ever together with UNPROFOR soldiers, were you ever
19 together with the Bosnian police on the same investigation site with
20 UNPROFOR people?
21 A. That is two questions. Of course, we were together with the
22 UNPROFOR soldiers, as we were in the same building and I was taking part
23 in -- in reporting together with the UNPROFOR soldiers and the battalions.
24 Second question about it, if I was ever together with Bosnian
25 police on the same investigation side, with UNPROFOR people, there might
Page 4389
1 be UNPROFOR soldiers present at a scene, but that was not likely.
2 Normally, the UNPROFOR troops didn't have any -- anything to do with
3 investigations. Investigations was always carried out by UNMOs.
4 Q. But have you heard about the FreBat who was investigating sniping
5 incidents or shelling?
6 A. When you called it "investigating," it was not investigating in
7 the way that the UNMOs were supposed to investigate. When the FreBat or
8 any of the other battalions, because it was other battalions than the
9 FreBat present in the Sector Sarajevo, they were carrying out the
10 investigations in order to -- to stop, for example, the sniping. We were
11 only supposed to make the investigations to report about it, to have it as
12 an evidence.
13 Q. Now, you have a document in front of you. I don't know how to
14 identify it. It's -- it starts with "Confidential," and it's about the
15 incident that occurred between the liaison officer and Captain Hansen. It
16 is something that was given to you by the Prosecutor. Do you see this
17 document? It's got several pages. I believe everyone has it, but maybe
18 we could call it. It's document P519.
19 A number of questions were asked to you by the Prosecutor, as well
20 as by the learned Judges. So I looked into the structure of this report.
21 This is a report that has several appendixes. Do you agree with me on
22 that?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. So the report was written on July 5, 1995, sent to your HQ in
25 Zagreb, to give information on this incident, but not on the air bomb that
Page 4390
1 had been -- that would have been launched, but on the incident that
2 occurred after this bomb was launched. Right?
3 A. Correct.
4 Q. And the Prosecutor underlined one thing, and I would like to
5 repeat it. On page 4 of this bundle, it is said the following: "Patrol
6 report," and this is the not the report on the bomb itself. The liaison
7 officer, Mr. Nermin Silajdzic, reported the incident he had with you to
8 his senior officer, I guess, the incident that occurred on June 28th in
9 the evening. And you also wrote everything that happened during this
10 encounter with this liaison officer; is that it?
11 A. That's correct.
12 Q. And there is another report, let's call it the normal report, that
13 had been sent at 1800 hours, dated June 28, where there the incident
14 regarding the bomb is reported to your HQ in Zagreb?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. So already at that moment you had the information you got from
17 Captain Idriz from Kenya. He is the one who actually saw the bomb being
18 launched, right?
19 A. I'm not 100 per cent that he was the one, but I was from that
20 site. I was given a list of UNMOs present at the -- in the sector at the
21 moment; and by looking at the names, Captain Idriz was the name that came
22 up in my mind as being the one that had seen this rocket or whatever it
23 was that was launched.
24 As I informed -- I'm sure that this UNMO was one present on the
25 BiH side. He was from religion. He was Muslim and that was one of the
Page 4391
1 things that he was mentioning at the first when he came to my office, that
2 even though he was a Muslim himself, he had to report because he believe
3 in the UN and only reporting on what you see. And, you know, even though
4 he was a Muslim, he then had to file this report or to inform me about
5 what has happened.
6 Q. Now, to your opinion, and it may be just an assumption on my side,
7 but when you saw Captain Nermin Silajdzic, and I read in your report on
8 page 4 of this document, where you actually giving report on the actual
9 timing of what you did, and then there is a very long paragraph in this
10 report where you say: "[In English] At that time there was a reported
11 more than 50 outgoing rounds from heavy weapons outside the PTT building."
12 [Interpretation] And then you continue saying that you walked into
13 Captain Nermin Silajdzic's office. So this was quite a long period of
14 time since then, of course. But do you think that he knew from seeing you
15 that you had guessed what the truth was? That you had guessed that the
16 bomb had come from the BiH side, that you hat found that out?
17 MR. WHITING: Excuse me, Your Honours. I'm not sure how he would
18 be able to know that of the.
19 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes, I uphold that. He can't answer that, but
20 ask another question.
21 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, I'd like to get his
22 feeling because a great number of questions of like this were asked of
23 this witness, and this is why I ask this question because when you read
24 the report something actually happened, obviously. Something quite
25 striking, bizarre, I don't know what you want to call it. And I'm asking
Page 4392
1 the witness whether he remembers a different reaction --
2 JUDGE ROBINSON: Well, you can ask him about the reaction of the
3 person. You can ask him about how he reacted, but he can only testify as
4 to what he knows or what he sees.
5 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation]
6 Q. So this person's reaction, when you walked into his office, was it
7 bizarre compared to the reactions he usually had on other days? Did he
8 react differently?
9 A. I don't think he reacted different in comparison with other days
10 where the fighting was going on like it was on that day. When there is
11 fighting going on, people are stressed; myself, I believe, as well.
12 And the reason for his reaction is probably, as I mentioned
13 earlier, that when I asked him to stop fire, that was a common thing for
14 us to do as military observers. That when there were casualties, when
15 there were incidents where it could have an a reason to ask the both
16 parties to stop firing for half an hour or something for medical treatment
17 to get in and out, that was common for to us go down and ask for.
18 When I asked him to stop firing, as a I mentioned in my report, he
19 said, What firing? And the BiH they had just outside the PTT building,
20 they had weapons and everyone of us could hear and see from the building
21 that they were firing towards the Bosnian Serb side. That was natural
22 because the fighting was going on from both sides, but his reaction was
23 that he said to me, What fire?
24 Then when I told him there was these weapons placed outside, this
25 misunderstanding, I believe, came up where he asked me, Do you believe
Page 4393
1 that we have fired against ourselves. When I was questioning about the
2 PTT -- no, sorry. When I questioned about stopping the fire because of
3 the incident at the TV building, my answer to him was that we had no
4 reason to believe where the fire came from. When we had carried out the
5 investigation, I would tell him where we believed the fire would have come
6 from.
7 And that is the part where I believe that maybe between the lines
8 understood. Because I must be honest to say as well that by knowing this
9 report from the UNMO, I maybe have difficulties to express myself or to --
10 to show impartiality, if that is the correct word.
11 Q. Well, let's go back to your report and not the report that was
12 given by the Prosecutor, but document D103, because that is the one that
13 has the additional sketch attached it.
14 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Can we please call that up on the
15 screen, so it's D103 plus the drawing.
16 Q. I see that you have that drawing in hand, do you?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. So let's be very clear: This drawing was made by the person that
19 might be Captain Idriz. That's 90 per cent sure that it might be Captain
20 Idriz. And this was the person that saw the projectile launched and
21 impacting the roof of the TV building.
22 A. That's correct.
23 Q. One last question. You already explained, but this is for the
24 transcript. You said that normally in reports you report on behalf of an
25 UNMO but you don't give the name of the person that provided the
Page 4394
1 information that helped draft the daily report.
2 A. That's correct. That when we sent this report or in the report we
3 sent for -- for the UNMO headquarters in Zagreb there would only be the
4 name on the reporting officer from our headquarter and not from the UNMO
5 that had been doing the observation or investigation, because that would
6 be filed somewhere else, if there would be a written report about it.
7 Q. Thank you, Witness.
8 Questioned by the Court:
9 JUDGE HARHOFF: Thank you, Captain.
10 I have just a few final questions.
11 One question relates to the kind of fire that you heard outside
12 the PTT building when you were speaking to the BiH liaison officer. Was
13 that just ordinary rifle fire or was it machine-guns or any major weaponry
14 involved in that exchange of fire from the BiH side?
15 THE WITNESS: That was all kind of weapons at that time, including
16 mortar and firing of grenades.
17 JUDGE HARHOFF: Tell me, if you can, how close to the PTT building
18 did the BiH employ heavy weaponry, like mortars?
19 THE WITNESS: Within 100 metres at times.
20 JUDGE HARHOFF: So you had seen this occurring frequently.
21 THE WITNESS: Yes.
22 JUDGE HARHOFF: Thank you.
23 Another question, or my last question to you, relates to the
24 information given to you by this UNMO, and I would like the registrar to
25 bring us back the picture taken from the top of the building? I believe
Page 4395
1 it was Exhibit number P518. And also if we could have split up on the
2 screen at the same time the previous Exhibit number P517 which was map
3 with the spots. Could we have those brought up together?
4 And while we are waiting for the pictures to come up, Captain, my
5 question to you relates to what you could have seen from the parking place
6 below the terrace where we are now on the picture to your left. I
7 understand that the place where the car was parked was underneath this
8 parking place shown on the picture. Is that correct?
9 THE WITNESS: That is correct.
10 JUDGE HARHOFF: And the direction from the grid reference to the
11 TV building, if the fire came from behind that industrial building that we
12 see in the yellow frame, the direction of the fire would then have been --
13 that the fire would have been shot somewhere behind that building and then
14 had had its trajectory towards the right, if I compare this with the map
15 next to it. Is that correct?
16 THE WITNESS: Yes.
17 JUDGE HARHOFF: Do you remember what you could actually see when
18 you were standing on the lower parking place at the time? You told us,
19 when I asked you this question before, that he showed you the place from
20 which you -- from which he said the shot had been fired.
21 But what could you actually see from down there? Can you be very
22 precise and tell me, could you see, for instance, the ground? Was it
23 possible to see from the level below this the actual ground from where the
24 launcher might have stood, or was behind of industrial building?
25 THE WITNESS: As far as I could remember, you could see into
Page 4396
1 ground on some places between the buildings. And I said earlier, the new
2 building with grey, blue, red was not built at the time, as far as I
3 remember. So it was -- for me, it was good reasons to believe that he
4 could -- as he reported, that he could see the projectile all the way from
5 where it was fired and to the impact on the building. I had no reason not
6 to believe that this could not have happened, that he had seen that.
7 JUDGE HARHOFF: No. But you could see with your own eyes the
8 ground, and you would have a clear view towards the east from there.
9 THE WITNESS: Yes. To the TV building, yes.
10 JUDGE HARHOFF: Thank you.
11 JUDGE ROBINSON: Captain --
12 MR. WHITING: I'm a little concerned about one thing on where
13 there have been a misunderstanding in terms of where the lower parking lot
14 is located in the relation to the upper parking lot, just based on our own
15 observations. And I don't know -- I'm not sure it ultimately has import,
16 but I'm a little concerned about the record being left with what may be a
17 misunderstanding based on the witness's understanding of the question.
18 JUDGE HARHOFF: I suggest we ask the witness about it, but my --
19 the reason why I'm asking this, of course, is that from the upper
20 platform, where we were, you would have a very good view. And my
21 recollection was when we were at the site that if you would have gone
22 down, you would have been able to see less. So this is why I'm asking the
23 captain what could he actually see, because depending on where exactly the
24 car was parked underneath, he might have had a good view. And I
25 understand the witness as saying that, yes, he did have a quite good view
Page 4397
1 from downstairs.
2 MR. WHITING: I don't dispute that, and I think the evidence is
3 clear on that. It's just that I think that the lower parking lot is not
4 underneath the upper parking lot; it's next to it but lower. That's all.
5 JUDGE HARHOFF: That could well be, but the answer offered by the
6 witness is the important thing; namely, that he was able to see the ground
7 and the possible trajectory.
8 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honour, if I may, I was part
9 of the visit. So it's not next to it, but I believe this -- it's in the
10 prolongation. It's an extension of this little wall. That's where we
11 could have the parking.
12 JUDGE ROBINSON: Why don't you put the question to the witness.
13 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. Yes, Witness, please, could you look at the picture again, the
15 picture that is on the screen.
16 According to your recollection, could you tell us what was the
17 position of what you called the upper parking and the lower parking lot on
18 this photograph. Could you tell us where the upper parking lot would be
19 and the lower parking lot would be?
20 A. I find it difficult from this picture to -- to recall the scene.
21 But as far as I remember from standing at his car where we went down to,
22 there is a lower parking place, lower than this one.
23 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you. May I ask you, Captain, at the time
24 of this incident how old were you?
25 THE WITNESS: I have to calculate. I'm born in 1962, so I must
Page 4398
1 have been 33.
2 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thirty-three. And how many years service in the
3 army had you had at that time?
4 THE WITNESS: I only had two years of services in the Danish army
5 at that time. I was an officer of the reserve and the infantry. And in
6 the Danish army, we have the tradition that we have an officer of the
7 reserve and then you have to serve a certain number of days, weeks, months
8 every year. So you are called in and retrained, and you can only graduate
9 in rank by going through different courses.
10 JUDGE ROBINSON: May I ask you: How long were you in the company
11 of the UNMO officer who made the report to you on that day.
12 THE WITNESS: I don't fully understand your question. If you mean
13 how long I have been in the mission --
14 JUDGE ROBINSON: No, no. I'm talking about the UNMO officer.
15 THE WITNESS: Yes.
16 JUDGE ROBINSON: Is it Captain Idriz? You're 90 per cent that it
17 is Captain Idriz? He made the report to you.
18 THE WITNESS: Yes.
19 JUDGE ROBINSON: And was he in your company for some time after
20 that; and if so, for how long? How long did you see him on that day?
21 THE WITNESS: If it was Captain Idriz I, can see from the report
22 that he went to the PTT building together with me, so he had probably been
23 together with me for three, four hours that day. But it was not common
24 for to us be four hours together with the UNMOs being in the teams, and
25 I'm being present at the operation rooming. I was visiting the teams.
Page 4399
1 JUDGE ROBINSON: So he was with you for about three, four hours.
2 During that time did you speak with him?
3 THE WITNESS: Yes.
4 JUDGE ROBINSON: And were you able to form an impression of his
5 character, of his intelligence?
6 THE WITNESS: From the whole period serving together in Sector
7 Sarajevo, together with him, I have no reason not to -- to see him as a
8 proper and good working UNMO.
9 JUDGE ROBINSON: So you had in fact known him before then.
10 THE WITNESS: Yes. But, sir, not personally in any way, because
11 with -- I came from another sector, Sector East, where have I been serving
12 for six months. And at the time of this incident, I have been in Sector
13 Sarajevo for, I believe, five months. And with 80 observers and at the
14 time of situation was tense, we didn't have near -- we didn't know each
15 other personally, only a few of the observers knew. Because myself
16 working in the PTT building as an operation officer, that was 16, 18 hours
17 a day and by reporting and going around and doing investigations.
18 So you don't have that personal contact to many of the UNMOs.
19 That is probably the reason why I don't recall his name because he was not
20 one that I had -- had any reason to -- to pay more attention to than other
21 UNMOs before this incident.
22 JUDGE ROBINSON: He was a captain, too?
23 THE WITNESS: Yes. If he was the one, he was a captain. But I
24 recall him as a young UNMO. When I recall the picture, when he came into
25 the office, I recall him as a young officer; and by "young" that means
Page 4400
1 probably captain. And by going through the list of the UNMOs present at
2 the time in Sector Sarajevo, excluding people being on the Bosnian Serb
3 side, being in the teams and so on, I believe this is the UNMO.
4 JUDGE ROBINSON: You were 33 at the time?
5 THE WITNESS: Yes.
6 JUDGE ROBINSON: Would he have been younger than that age, in your
7 estimation?
8 THE WITNESS: That is difficult to see on people when coming from
9 different nationalities and so on. I believe he was of my age.
10 JUDGE ROBINSON: Now, on the basis of the knowledge that you had
11 of him, in particular the three or four hours that he was in your company
12 on that day, would you have any reason to believe that he was confused in
13 giving this report?
14 THE WITNESS: No.
15 [Trial Chamber confers]
16 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] Captain, I have one last question
17 for you.
18 When I look at your report of June 28, you write about two UNMOs.
19 The first one says that the projectile left from grid BP 866587 on BiH
20 territory; and the second UNMO says that the projectile, which looks more
21 like a rocket, was launched from the north-west.
22 So according to you, is it the same direction, or did the
23 observers make a mistake?
24 THE WITNESS: Where do we say that it says he reports seeing it
25 coming from the west?
Page 4401
1 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] On the second page, third
2 paragraph.
3 THE WITNESS: Correct, I see it.
4 When the UNMO has been reporting, so I have been writing it in my
5 report and nothing else.
6 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] But my question is you, as their --
7 the officer in charge of operations, do you think that these two reports
8 converge or diverge?
9 At your level, you heard those two people, did you think what they
10 were saying corresponded or did not match.
11 THE WITNESS: I'm sure I had been thinking about it at that time,
12 but you must know that at the time the fighting was going on from both
13 sides. So there was not only this one projectile in the air at this time.
14 There could have been others.
15 If you want me to answer your question, if I think there is
16 something strange or different in the way that they are reporting, I need
17 time to think about it, because I -- I know that when reporting that at
18 the time when filing the report, this is what I believed and this is what
19 the UNMOs they informed me. And they way of reporting, as an UNMO, we
20 were not to make any conclusions in our report.
21 We were only to report what the UNMOs that came in reported to us,
22 although it might be of different -- I mean, that it wouldn't draw one
23 conclusion. We were only to send the report and then it was for other
24 people, like you now, to make conclusions if this is an important or not.
25 So at the time I reported this because this is what the UNMO
Page 4402
1 informed me; and by looking at it right now, I can't conclude myself if
2 this is a different thing that they are reporting or if it's the same.
3 JUDGE MINDUA: [Interpretation] Thank you, Witness.
4 [Trial Chamber confers]
5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Now, Captain, do you remember when I asked you
6 about the superior officer from Zagreb who told you to forget about the
7 report of this incident? You indicated that he called a second time and
8 he told you, I believe, that the matter had been settled. Did he say
9 anything else? What is your understanding as to what he meant by the
10 matter had been settled? Did he provide any further information on what
11 had happened to settle the matter?
12 THE WITNESS: I have no opinion about why he was calling me, only
13 that when I have reported this I was not supposed to take any other
14 matters on the affair.
15 There's also one thing that I also mentioned for -- I don't
16 remember your name on that side.
17 JUDGE ROBINSON: Prosecutor is enough.
18 THE WITNESS: Sorry. I mentioned when they called me or one
19 assistant called me was that I was asked about the grid reference that we
20 reported in the report. This report went, as I said earlier, to the
21 headquarter for the whole sector for the whole of Bosnia, and they were
22 carrying out an investigation. They sent some special troops. I believe
23 it was SAS people to the grid reference.
24 Later on that afternoon or the day after, they told me that
25 because we had near contact, a good cooperation sometimes where we could
Page 4403
1 not carry out an investigation, they could have possibilities to look into
2 the areas. And they told me that they had been on the grid reference and
3 carried out investigation, and there was -- they couldn't find any
4 evidence of anything fired from the place.
5 But from the grid reference where they have been was not the same
6 that we had given in the report, so there must have been a
7 misunderstanding somewhere, because they had not been on this place where
8 the grid reference is.
9 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Whiting --
10 JUDGE HARHOFF: How narrow is a grid point? Is it ten square
11 metres?
12 THE WITNESS: No. This grid given here is within 100 metres. So
13 it's for -- for you, sirs, the first two numbers is the grid reference.
14 If you have a grid on the map, then it's one square kilometre, a square
15 kilometer. And for the certain number in the grid reference is 100
16 metres, then you can give a fourth one and it would be within ten metres.
17 So the UNMO gave a grid reference; and from where he pointed out
18 we gave reference with 100 metre. But the grid reference, as far as I
19 recall it, it was SAS troops that had been sent to the grid reference.
20 They didn't refer to the same grid reference. I think that was 5, 600
21 metres from the grid reference we have given.
22 JUDGE HARHOFF: But tell me one thing: The grid reference we see
23 on the map, 866587, is that one kilometre on each side, one square
24 kilometre?
25 THE WITNESS: That is one square kilometre. I believe that is one
Page 4404
1 kilometre. It's normal that you have one kilometre in the grids.
2 JUDGE HARHOFF: But can you recall, looking at the map, what is
3 the distance between the PTT building and the grid reference, the red spot
4 on the map, and the TV building.
5 THE WITNESS: It's 4, 500 metres as I see it.
6 JUDGE HARHOFF: From which point?
7 THE WITNESS: From the PTT building, it is around 4, 500 metres.
8 JUDGE HARHOFF: And to the TV building?
9 THE WITNESS: From the grid reference to the TV building, it will
10 be around 7, 800 metres.
11 JUDGE HARHOFF: So the grid reference, the red spot, what does
12 that actually signify? Because if the grid reference refers to an area
13 which is one kilometre by one kilometre --
14 THE WITNESS: No, sorry. The grid reference refers to a square
15 100 metre.
16 JUDGE HARHOFF: You mean the one shown on the map?
17 THE WITNESS: Yes.
18 JUDGE HARHOFF: Okay, well, then I understand better okay. Thank
19 you.
20 MR. WHITING: Your Honour, I have one question arising out of
21 Judge Mindua' questions, if I may.
22 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes.
23 Further Re-examination by Mr. Whiting:
24 MR. WHITING: We have Exhibit 518 on the screen, if we could focus
25 on that.
Page 4405
1 Q. And, Captain Hansen, I am going to go back to the notation of the
2 29th of June in your report in which Judge Mindua asked you about, in
3 which you say that another UNMO, who was in the parking lot at the PTT,
4 believed the sound of the rocket was from the north-west. Now, just
5 looking at the map here, the grid reference that you have identified in
6 your report is to the north, north-east of the PTT building, right?
7 A. Right.
8 Q. So if the UNMO believed that the sound came from the north-west,
9 from the PTT building, then that would be something different from it
10 being launched from the grid reference that have you identified. That
11 would be a different place?
12 A. That would be a different place.
13 Q. Okay.
14 A. But my report also says that he looked, and I only reported what
15 he told me. He looked in the direction where he heard or believed to have
16 heard something, and he didn't see anything. There is a lot of buildings,
17 so there would be echo from the buildings.
18 Q. Well, the -- according to the report, he looked after the sound of
19 the impact, right?
20 A. Yeah.
21 Q. So it's not surprising that if he looked -- after the bomb landed,
22 if looked towards the direction where he heard it was coming from, he
23 would not see anything. That's not surprising, is it?
24 A. No, no.
25 Q. Okay.
Page 4406
1 MR. WHITING: Thank you, Your Honours.
2 JUDGE ROBINSON: Ms. Isailovic.
3 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Question, one last question.
4 Further cross-examination by Ms. Isailovic.
5 Q. [Interpretation] So Mr. Hansen, it seems when you look at the
6 second part of your report, it seems that this person thought that he had
7 heard the sound and then looked in that direction the sound came from and
8 saw nothing. Is that accurate?
9 A. That's accurate.
10 Q. Thank you.
11 JUDGE ROBINSON: Captain Hansen, that concludes your testimony.
12 We thank you for coming to the Tribunal to give it, and you may now leave.
13 [The witness withdrew]
14 [Trial Chamber confers]
15 [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]
16 JUDGE ROBINSON: We'll take a relatively extended break to allow
17 for the voice distortion and the other technical facilities to be set up
18 for the next witness.
19 We're adjourned until quarter to 1.00.
20 --- Recess taken at 12.13 p.m.
21 --- On resuming at 12.56 p.m.
22 JUDGE ROBINSON: Let the witness make the declaration.
23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I hereby declare that I will speak
24 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
25 WITNESS: WITNESS W-95
Page 4407
1 [Witness answered through interpreter]
2 [Witness testified via videolink]
3 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes. Mr. Sachdeva, you may begin.
4 MR. SACHDEVA: Thank you, Mr. President. Good afternoon to you
5 and to Your Honours.
6 Examination by Mr. Sachdeva:
7 Q. Witness, good afternoon to you.
8 A. Good afternoon.
9 Q. I just want to check that you can hear me in a language that you
10 understand and that you can also see me. Is that right?
11 A. Yes, I can understand and I can see.
12 Q. And I also want to --
13 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Sachdeva, perhaps I should have clarified at
14 the outset, for the benefit of the record, that this witness is giving
15 evidence by video conference link.
16 Please proceed.
17 MR. SACHDEVA:
18 Q. I also want to confirm to you, Witness, that the Court has granted
19 you protective measures and therefore I will be referring to you as
20 Witness 95, and you should take care not to say anything that would
21 identify you. Do you understand that?
22 A. Yes, I do.
23 MR. SACHDEVA: Mr. President, may we go into private session so I
24 can elicit the personal details, please?
25 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes.
Page 4408
1 [Private session]
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 [Open session]
22 THE REGISTRAR: We're back in open session, Your Honours.
23 MR. SACHDEVA:
24 Q. Now, Witness 95, do you remember giving a statement to persons
25 from the Tribunal on the 8th of July, 2006? That is, last year.
Page 4409
1 A. Yes, I do.
2 Q. And do you remember that the statement you gave referred to an
3 incident in Bunicki Potok, on the 1st of July, 1995?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Now, did members of the Tribunal visit your house yesterday, that
6 is Sunday, and read through the statement that you gave in a language that
7 you understand?
8 A. Yes. Yes, they did.
9 Q. And after they read through the statement, are you now able to
10 confirm that what is contained in that statement is accurate and true, to
11 the best of your knowledge and recollection?
12 A. Everything is correct. There are no mistakes at all.
13 MR. SACHDEVA: Mr. President, could I ask that 65 ter 03065 be
14 shown to the witness and also brought up on e-court, and that it's not
15 broadcast, please.
16 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes.
17 MR. SACHDEVA:
18 Q. Witness W-95, you will be shown a statement in a moment by the
19 court officer down there in Sarajevo. If you can just confirm for me when
20 have you that in front of you.
21 MR. SACHDEVA: Mr. President, I apologise. I actually -- it's
22 actually 03067, the ter number. Excuse me for that.
23 Q. Witness W-95, do you have that statement in front of you?
24 A. I do.
25 Q. And at the bottom of the first page, if you could look at the
Page 4410
1 bottom of the first page, do you see your thumb print there on that
2 statement?
3 A. I see it there, yes. Here it is.
4 MR. SACHDEVA: Mr. President, I would ask that that statement be
5 enter into evidence under seal.
6 JUDGE ROBINSON: Yes.
7 THE REGISTRAR: Your Honours, this becomes P520 under seal.
8 MR. SACHDEVA:
9 Q. Witness W-95, I have just one question for you, so I'm not going
10 to take too much of your time. But on that incident on the 1st of July in
11 1995, were you injured by the shell that landed?
12 A. Yes, I was. It was not a shell; it was something larger than a
13 shell. It was like an air bomb. It was not a shell.
14 Q. And what happened to you? What injuries did you sustain?
15 A. I sustained injuries in my left shoulder. I have two pieces of
16 shrapnel, which they couldn't take out, and they're still there.
17 Q. And did you as a result of those injuries have to -- were you
18 admitted to hospital as a result of those injuries?
19 A. Yes, I was. They took me to hospital right away. I was in the
20 hospital until 2.00. They tried and tried to take it out and they
21 couldn't. There were many wounded in the hospital. It was overcrowded.
22 They spent me back home. So I was at home and I would drift in and out of
23 consciousness. They took me to a private clinic. The doctor helped me,
24 then they took me to the month military hospital to get an X-ray. I
25 couldn't get up.
Page 4411
1 I would try to raise my head, and then I would begin to lose
2 consciousness; and then they took my back home, and ten days later I went
3 again for them try and take the pieces of shrapnel out. And the doctor
4 said it's not worth slitting the throat of an ox just to get two kilograms
5 of meat out of it. They said if we were to take out these pieces of
6 shrapnel, we would have to amputate your arm. There's no other way to do.
7 And so to this very day I'm having problems all over my left side.
8 Q. Witness W-95, thank you very much for your answers.
9 MR. SACHDEVA: Mr. President, that concludes the
10 examination-in-chief.
11 JUDGE ROBINSON: Thank you.
12 Ms. Isailovic. Ms. Isailovic.
13 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Thank you, Your Honour.
14 Cross-examination by Ms. Isailovic:
15 Q. [Interpretation] Good morning, Witness. I'm Branislava Isailovic.
16 I'm a lawyer with the Paris Bar, and I defend the accused in these
17 proceedings, General Dragomir Milosevic.
18 I'm going to ask you a few questions regarding your statement
19 which you just dealt with the Prosecutor.
20 First question: You did not sign this signature with your
21 handwriting, is that true?
22 A. No. I'm illiterate. I did put my thumb print there. It's the
23 same as a signature.
24 Q. Thank you.
25 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation] Now, I would like my case manager
Page 4412
1 to call up a document that should not be broadcast. 65 ter document 3068.
2 Q. And could the court officer in Sarajevo show this document to the
3 witness.
4 A. Yes, I made that statement. I agree.
5 Q. Witness, please, this is your statement dated October 7, 1995.
6 Could you please look at the end of the statement. You -- there is your
7 signature at the very bottom of this document?
8 A. There is a signature there.
9 Q. Is it your signature?
10 A. They came and they put questions to me. I couldn't sign and then
11 maybe somebody else signed, but I was not aware. I was not conscious.
12 I'm not literate. Somebody else might have signed. I'm not afraid of
13 anything. I will only speak the truth and nothing but the truth.
14 Q. Witness, maybe you remember who signed in your place.
15 A. I don't know. I have nothing to do with it. I was not myself. I
16 was in the hospital. The hospital staff could have signed. There were
17 foreign organisations there asking questions. I was not myself. Who
18 signed this? Well, I can't tell you.
19 Q. Witness, on October 7, 1995, you were still in the hospital after
20 your injury? This was a few months later, and there statement is dated
21 October 7, 1995.
22 A. No, I wasn't in the hospital. I wasn't in hospital. But I was
23 always seeing doctors, and I'm still under medical supervision to this
24 day. I was under the supervision of doctors a lot, and I still am.
25 Q. But my question is the following: You made the statement that we
Page 4413
1 have just seen, and it was a statement that you made in front of police
2 officers.
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. There is the signature of a policeman. So could you tell us if a
5 policeman was actually there to take your statement?
6 A. I don't remember. It was a long time ago, 12 years ago. I don't
7 remember who was there, let me tell you.
8 Q. Witness, in your statement, you say that you were in the apartment
9 or the house of your daughter-in-law -- somebody from the family. So you
10 were not in your own house at the time. Is that true?
11 A. We were expelled from our house. We arrived there as refugees.
12 Q. So you were in the house of this relative because you were a
13 refugee.
14 A. She was not my daughter-in-law but my sister-in-law.
15 Q. And at the time did you know Hrasnica well?
16 A. Yes, of course, I did because it wasn't far from my village.
17 THE INTERPRETER: Could you repeat your question, please,
18 Ms. Isailovic.
19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It's at the foot of Igman.
20 MS. ISAILOVIC: [Interpretation]
21 I'm sorry, Witness. I was asked to repeat my question. But the
22 witness did answer my question. So for the transcript, this was my
23 question.
24 Was it close to Mount Igman; and then in line 11 the witness
25 answered my question. This wasn't intended for you. This was a mere
Page 4414
1 technical issue.
2 The question I'd like to put to you now runs as follows: At the
3 time, did you know about Igman road?
4 A. No. The road -- I knew the road. I knew some roads and pathways
5 but not those.
6 Q. In Hrasnica, at that time, were there a lot of soldiers passing
7 through the village, soldiers on their way to Mount Igman? Do you
8 remember this?
9 A. There were no soldiers there at all. There were only civilians
10 there. There was nothing military there at all. There were only
11 civilians there.
12 Q. And precisely what is a civilian person?
13 A. A civilian, for example, are women, elderly men, children. That's
14 what I call civilians. People who were not carrying a rifle were
15 civilians. People who were not able to carry a rifle were civilians in my
16 view.
17 Q. So in Hrasnica, you actually -- during this period when the war
18 was on, you never saw any male carrying any weapons?
19 A. I didn't. The soldiers were up there on Mount Igman. People knew
20 where the lines were. The soldiers didn't come down to Hrasnica, not at
21 all.
22 Q. Do you perhaps know how these people got to Igman?
23 A. Who, the soldiers?
24 Q. Yes.
25 A. The soldiers went up to Igman. The lines were set. They kept the
Page 4415
1 lines, and there was something called UNPROFOR between the lines. The
2 Serbs were there in Trnovo and Vejsici, and our soldiers were up there on
3 Igman. That's how it was.
4 Q. Thank you, Witness. I have no further questions.
5 JUDGE ROBINSON: Mr. Sachdeva, any re-examination.
6 MR. SACHDEVA: No re-examination, Mr. President.
7 JUDGE ROBINSON: Witness, that concludes your evidence. We thank
8 you for giving it, and you may now leave.
9 [The witness's testimony via videolink concluded]
10 JUDGE ROBINSON: We'll wait now for the next witness.
11 MR. WHITING: Your Honour, unfortunately, we don't have another
12 witness for today. We tried as we might to schedule two witnesses for
13 today and we just had difficulties doing it, and we couldn't schedule a
14 second witness for today. This is the only witness for today. I
15 apologise for the loss of time, approximately 25 minutes. We are
16 confident that we can fit the witnesses into the three remaining days.
17 [Trial Chamber confers]
18 JUDGE ROBINSON: We'll adjourn until tomorrow.
19 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.20 p.m.,
20 to be reconvened on Tuesday, the 3rd day of April,
21 2007, at 9.00 a.m.
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