Page 1437
1 Thursday, 13 November 2008
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 9.01 a.m.
5 JUDGE MOLOTO: Good morning to everybody in and around the
6 courtroom.
7 Madam Registrar, would you please call the case.
8 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning, Your Honours. Good morning
9 everyone in and around the courtroom. This is case number IT-04-81-T,
10 the Prosecutor versus Momcilo Perisic.
11 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
12 Could we have appearances for today, starting with the
13 Prosecution.
14 MR. SAXON: Good morning, Mr. Perisic. Good morning, Your
15 Honours. Dan Saxon for the Prosecution with Ms. Bronagh McKenna and
16 Ms. Carmela Javier.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
18 And for the Defence?
19 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honours, and
20 everybody else in these proceedings. Mr. Perisic will be represented
21 today by Tina Drolec, Milos Androvic, Mr. Gregor Guy-Smith, Daniela
22 Tasic, and Novak Lukic.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much, Mr. Lukic.
24 Yes, Mr. Saxon.
25 MR. SAXON: Your Honours, the Prosecution calls
Page 1438
1 Mr. Morten Torkildsen.
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
3 MR. SAXON: Your Honours, while we are waiting, early this
4 morning I noticed another mistake that I had made in converting Milosevic
5 65 ter numbers to Perisic 65 ter numbers, and it's simply that at
6 paragraph 66, page 23 of the report, there's a reference to 65 ter number
7 6550. It should say "65 ter number 6524."
8 [The witness entered court]
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you, Mr. Saxon.
10 Good morning, sir.
11 THE WITNESS: Good morning.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: May the witness please take the -- make the
13 declaration.
14 THE WITNESS: I solemnly declare that I will speak the truth, the
15 whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
16 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much, sir. You may now be seated.
17 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
18 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, Mr. Saxon.
19 MR. SAXON: Thank you.
20 WITNESS: MORTEN TORKILDSEN
21 Examination by Mr. Saxon:
22 Q. Sir, before we begin, both you and I speak the English language,
23 and we need just to be careful that we don't make life too difficult for
24 the interpreters, and so I'd ask you to please try to perhaps pause
25 between question and answer to give the interpreters a moment to catch up
Page 1439
1 with us. If we don't do that, they will inform us.
2 Is your name Morten Torkildsen?
3 A. That is correct, yes.
4 Q. And are you a citizen of Norway?
5 A. That is correct.
6 MR. SAXON: Could we please see 65 ter number 9188, which will be
7 the curriculum vitae of Mr. Torkildsen.
8 Your Honours, I'm not seeing any evidence on my screen. I don't
9 know if it's only my problem or it's -- here it comes. Thank you very
10 much.
11 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, this is a copy of your curriculum vitae.
12 MR. SAXON: Can we turn to the second page, please, and maybe if
13 we can make that a little bit bigger.
14 Q. Your education was first a bachelor of science in management
15 sciences at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and
16 Technology?
17 A. That is correct, yes.
18 Q. And subsequently did you receive a master's degree?
19 A. Yes, at the City University Business School
20 Q. And what was the focus of your master's degree?
21 A. Most of the focus of my master's degree was finance.
22 Q. Okay. Mr. Torkildsen, what is your profession?
23 A. I'm a financial investigator, or by education I'm educated with
24 two business degrees, but I've worked most of my working life as a
25 financial investigator. Today I'm a partner in a law firm, being in
Page 1440
1 charge of the financial investigations that we conduct.
2 Q. And briefly, what does a financial investigator do?
3 A. Basically he tries to identify the facts regarding certain
4 allegations, and I -- well, in financial investigation, it's got very
5 much to do with the documents, not as much as hearing witnesses. I would
6 say that financial cases and investigations of those are 95 per cent
7 based on what's contained within documents.
8 Q. And when you say that a financial investigator tries to identify
9 the facts regarding certain allegations, can you be a little bit more
10 specific? What kind of allegations do you work on?
11 A. Typically I work on allegations of fraud, corruption, and all
12 kinds of financial irregularities.
13 Q. And how long have you been doing this work?
14 A. I've been doing that for almost my whole working career, at least
15 for the last 15 years.
16 Q. Now, you've done this work in Norway
17 A. That is correct, but --
18 Q. Excuse me.
19 MR. SAXON: Can we turn to page 1 -- back to page 1 of the
20 curriculum, please.
21 Q. Just briefly, what kind of financial investigations have you done
22 within Norway
23 A. Well, it's not exactly like I conducted all of my investigations
24 within Norway
25 Q. No, I know that, I'm speaking about within Norway right now.
Page 1441
1 A. I've done a lot of investigation into allegations of corruption
2 and also a lot of kinds of fraud cases. I've been investigating
3 corruption within the oil sector, the public sector in general, and
4 typically also into the industry of building and construction.
5 Q. Now, have you only done this kind of work, financial
6 investigations, in Norway
7 A. No. Even most of my Norwegian cases had an international
8 dimension.
9 Q. Okay.
10 A. So one of the -- I'll give you one example, and that is one of
11 the investigations I had out from Norway
12 conducting investigations in about 15 countries, both in Europe and in
13 the US
14 Q. Okay. At some point in your career, did you work for the Office
15 of the Prosecutor of this Tribunal?
16 A. Yes, I did.
17 Q. And briefly can you describe when that was and what you did.
18 A. That was exactly from the 2nd of January, 2001, until sometime in
19 August 2003. I was a financial investigator, working for the Office of
20 the Prosecutor.
21 Q. Okay.
22 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, at this time I would seek to tender 65
23 ter 9188.
24 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, Mr. Lukic.
25 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I object to having this
Page 1442
1 CV of Mr. Torkildsen be admitted into evidence for one reason: This is
2 his present CV, whereas he compiled his report in 2002 and then he
3 attached the CV with that work of his which was linked to the period when
4 he did his work. So what's relevant for us is whether, when he did the
5 work, whether he had the necessary qualifications and not to assess his
6 qualifications as of today in this present.
7 Well, at least until I complete my cross-examination, I'd like
8 this to be introduced and marked for identification only, until I
9 complete my cross-examination, and then you can decide. Because attached
10 to his report, we have received a CV from the period when he wrote it,
11 when he did the work, which, in fact, was six years ago.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: I don't understand this last part, Mr. Lukic. You
13 said: "Because attached to his report we have received a CV from the
14 period when he wrote it, when he did the work, which, in fact, was six
15 years ago." What does that sentence mean?
16 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Yes, perhaps I wasn't precise enough.
17 The time that the paper was handed over, we received his CV as of then,
18 which was rounded off and concluded with 2002, incorporated activities he
19 was engaged in up until 2002 when he compiled the paper and did the work
20 on it. So we cannot asses his competency on the basis of the experience
21 he gained afterwards, post-2002, and that is provided in his present CV.
22 Now, if the Prosecutor wants to tender into evidence his CV, he
23 had a document -- he has a document attached to the paper dated 2002, his
24 2002 CV.
25 JUDGE MOLOTO: Sir, when you look at this document that is on the
Page 1443
1 screen now, which is the curriculum vitae of the witness, are you not
2 able to see from that document what his qualifications and experience
3 were as of 2002? Because, I mean, it gives his history from the time he
4 qualified to date. And if you want to know what his competencies were in
5 2002, all you have to do is you look at from birth to 2002 in the current
6 CV. He doesn't have to give you a CV of 2002.
7 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] But I think, Your Honour, that what
8 we need with respect to assessing his qualifications is the CV that he
9 gave then. That's the important one. I don't see why we should have a
10 new CV if we've already got one from the previous period, because that's
11 the relevant one.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: You do have that one? Okay.
13 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] We were provided it by the
14 Prosecution.
15 JUDGE MOLOTO: If you do have one, that one, is your objection
16 against the admission of the CV -- what are you asking for admission of?
17 MR. SAXON: I had asked for admission of the CV that you see on
18 your screen --
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
20 MR. SAXON: -- which is the most current curriculum vitae of the
21 witness, Your Honour.
22 [Trial Chamber confers]
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Lukic, I see that the report that -- okay. We
24 haven't been shown the report, but the report that has been handed over
25 to the Trial Chamber is dated the 10th of October, 2008 --
Page 1444
1 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I'm -- well, I'm sorry, I don't mean to
2 interrupt.
3 JUDGE MOLOTO: Say what you want to say, sir.
4 MR. SAXON: That is correct, Your Honour.
5 However, the 10th of October, 2008 report substantively is
6 exactly the same as the November 2002 report.
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: That's fine. Thank you very much. Thank you very
8 much for that.
9 What I'm trying to say to you, Mr. Lukic, is if you look at the
10 2002 CV that you have, which we don't have, is it -- up to -- is this CV
11 that's on the screen up to 2002, is it not the same as that one that you
12 have?
13 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] No, Your Honour. Let me just
14 explain. Yes, that's right, they are.
15 When you made your ruling on the adoption or calling
16 Mr. Torkildsen to come into court, let me remind you, when you made that
17 decision we had an objection with regard to some of his qualifications,
18 and then you were focusing on that CV of his which was attached to his
19 paper of 2002.
20 Now, what I'd like to say is this: That CV, with respect to his
21 activities up until 2002, in the period stipulated where he worked, what
22 he did, and so on, it stipulates that in that previous CV, whereas this
23 report we have the activities listed and not the periods. I think that
24 the previous CV is far more useful as far as we're concerned because this
25 present one incorporates details which we are not focusing on in the
Page 1445
1 examination of this witness here today.
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: I'm not quite sure whether that's a legal ground
3 for objection, Mr. Lukic, because what I hear you saying in that last
4 sentence is that you're now saying you want to give legal advice to the
5 Prosecution on how they must conduct their trial; that they must use the
6 2002 CV instead of the current CV. They've chosen to use the CV, and I
7 don't -- I don't think it is for the Trial Chamber to say, No, don't use
8 this one; use the 2002. In their own wisdom, they decided this is the CV
9 they want to use.
10 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Yes, certainly, it's up to them to
11 decide how they're going to present their case. So I'll leave all these
12 matters and have them cleared up during the cross-examination.
13 JUDGE MOLOTO: I think -- I was just going to suggest that,
14 because if you say there are discrepancies between the 2002 CV and this
15 CV, those are matters for cross-examination.
16 Do you have any response to the objection, sir?
17 MR. SAXON: No, Your Honour.
18 JUDGE MOLOTO: Then 65 ter 9188 is admitted into evidence. May
19 it please be given an exhibit number.
20 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P309, Your Honours.
21 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
22 Yes, Mr. Saxon.
23 MR. SAXON: If we could now please bring up 65 ter number 6520.01
24 on the screen, which will be the report of Mr. Torkildsen, with the date
25 of 10 October of this year.
Page 1446
1 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, this is the first page of your report.
2 MR. SAXON: Can we go to the next page, please.
3 Q. The next page, in Roman numeral I, it says: "Outline of Task."
4 Can you briefly describe to the Chamber, what were you asked to do?
5 A. Just to give a bit of background on that, and that is when I
6 arrived at the Office of the Prosecutor in January 2001, the OTP as such,
7 had collected documents for a period of close to eight years, and it was
8 an enormous amount of documents contained within the evidence system of
9 the OTP. And I was basically tasked to go through -- or actually, try to
10 identify documents contained within the electronic evidence system of the
11 OTP in order to try and determine whether there were any documents within
12 that collection that could say anything about how the Serb-controlled
13 districts in Croatia
14 controlled by Slobodan Milosevic.
15 Q. Okay. And then, as you progressed in that, at some point were
16 you given a task to do?
17 A. Yes. Again, as I said, my tasking was to try and identify the
18 relevant documents talking about finance, and this was, of course, a huge
19 task, so I used language personnel in order to assist me. And we did
20 searchs in the electronic evidence system --
21 Q. I'm sorry. Maybe my question wasn't clear because I think now
22 you're really going into your methodology.
23 Just with respect to this report, what were you asked to do?
24 What were you asked to produce?
25 A. I was asked to produce financial evidence, if any, on how the
Page 1447
1 Serb-controlled districts in Croatia
2 financed.
3 Q. Now, going back to methodology, which you describe briefly in
4 paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 of your report, you mentioned that you conducted
5 electronic searches.
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And how did you conduct those searches?
8 A. Typically we were searching on specific key words, like
9 "finance," "banking," "financial transfers," et cetera. And of course I
10 was also provided with hard copies of quite a few documents. I mean,
11 other members of the OTP had already been through parts of these large
12 collections and also identified documents that I had to consider whether
13 to be of relevance or not.
14 Q. Okay. And at some point did you begin to analyse these documents
15 in depth?
16 A. Yes. That was sort of the second stage of this. I was trying to
17 see whether there were any sort of pattern regarding how the financing
18 took place. And in order to determine that, you had to sort of look at
19 how documents relate to each other to be able to understand the broader
20 picture of this.
21 Q. Okay. And after you reviewed documents, either identified
22 through electronic searches or hard-copy documents, in the OTP's
23 possession, did you -- at some point did you select documents to use as
24 references in your report?
25 A. Yes, I did.
Page 1448
1 Q. And if I can just interrupt, how did you make this kind of
2 selection?
3 A. Well, I sort of selected the documents that I thought was the
4 most telling in terms of showing the pattern of the financial assistance
5 that took place.
6 Q. All right. I'd like to discuss a couple of translation issues,
7 if I may, Mr. Torkildsen.
8 MR. SAXON: Can we move, please, to page 22 of this report in the
9 English version and pages 20 -- page 20 in the B/C/S version.
10 Q. And if I can just go back to your methodology for a moment. The
11 documents that you selected, were they all strictly financial documents
12 or were there other kinds of documents as well?
13 A. No. They were typically -- well, most of them were official
14 documents, typically military documents, but contained those -- within
15 those military documents, there were information regarding finance.
16 Q. Okay.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: If I might just ask. Military documents of which
18 army?
19 THE WITNESS: Of various armies. It could be the documents
20 regarding the VRS. It was documents regarding the RSK army, documents
21 originating from units within the Territorial Defence. There were
22 documents --
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Territorial Defence of?
24 THE WITNESS: Of the Serb-controlled districts in Croatia.
25 JUDGE MOLOTO: Is that all?
Page 1449
1 THE WITNESS: No. Also, documents regarding the JNA and later
2 also the VJ.
3 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
4 MR. SAXON:
5 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, if you can turn your attention to paragraph 62 of
6 your report --
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. -- you see here you are referring to a document. It's
9 Prosecution 65 ter number 6530, a decision from the Government of the
10 Serbian Republic
11 you quote that document; is that right?
12 A. Yes, I do.
13 Q. And there's a quote that you see there. It's one sentence long.
14 And was that quote based on the English translation that you had
15 available at the time?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Okay.
18 MR. SAXON: Can we please call up 65 ter 6530, please.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: What do you want to do with 65 ter 20.01.
20 MR. SAXON: At this time could this report be marked for
21 identification.
22 JUDGE MOLOTO: 65 ter 6520.01 is marked for identification. May
23 it please be given an exhibit number.
24 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P310, marked for
25 identification, Your Honours.
Page 1450
1 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
2 What are you now calling, sir?
3 MR. SAXON: I'm calling up 65 ter 6530.
4 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
5 MR. SAXON: And in the B/C/S version, if we could please move two
6 pages further in, please, and the same with the English version.
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Lukic.
8 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I think that it's page 12 in the
9 B/C/S, at least I think it is.
10 MR. SAXON: There it is in the English. Yes, and if we could
11 turn to page 12 of the B/C/S. I'm grateful to Mr. Lukic.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you, Mr. Lukic.
13 MR. SAXON: There will be -- in the B/C/S there will be a number
14 187, as there is in the English version. Yes, that's now correct.
15 Q. And just focusing on the English version for now, it is a
16 decision published in the "Official Gazette of the Serbian People" on the
17 8th of June, 1992. Is this the document that you quoted, Mr. Torkildsen,
18 at paragraph 62?
19 A. That is correct.
20 Q. This decision?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And if you take a look at Article 1 --
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. -- the document is entitled "Decision on the Use of Funds from
25 Primary Issue." If you take a look at the first line of Article 1 --
Page 1451
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. -- and the very end of Article 2, you will notice that there are
3 slight changes in the word order in the English in this most recent
4 English translation.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Do these changes in any way affect your conclusions, the
7 conclusions of your report?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Okay, thank you.
10 MR. SAXON: We could leave that document now, please.
11 JUDGE MOLOTO: And you don't want to do anything with it?
12 MR. SAXON: Well, probably at this time, for the record, we
13 should MFI
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: May it be so MFIed and given an exhibit number.
15 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P311, MFI, marked for
16 identification, Your Honours.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
18 MR. SAXON: All right. And just one more translation issue. If
19 we could go back to Mr. Torkildsen's report, which is MFI 310, and if we
20 could turn to page 43 in the English version and page 41 of the B/C/S
21 version, we'll focus on paragraph 118. Thank you.
22 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, if you look at paragraph 118, you see that you
23 quote another document. Do you see that?
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. And the document that you refer to is 65 ter 530.
Page 1452
1 Mr. Torkildsen, at the time that you wrote your report and inserted these
2 quotations, did you believe that you were quoting from a verbatim English
3 translation of the original document?
4 A. Yes, I did.
5 Q. Two nights ago in my office, did you become aware that the
6 translation that you used was not a verbatim English translation of the
7 original?
8 A. That is correct, yes.
9 Q. Okay. And if we could just, focusing on the first quote, which
10 says: "From the beginning of the war, RS did not participate in
11 financing of professional army members."
12 MR. SAXON: If I could ask Ms. Taseva's assistance again, could
13 we please go to 65 ter 532, page 45 at the bottom.
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: You want 532 or 523?
15 MR. SAXON: 532, Your Honour. As I said yesterday, the reference
16 in the report to 523 was a typographical error by myself.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
18 MR. SAXON: Can we have the second English translation that is
19 attached to 65 ter 530, please, and if we could go to page 40 at the
20 bottom.
21 No. I'm very sorry, Ms. Taseva, I believe the original
22 translation that you selected was the correct one. We're looking for
23 0044 -- the ERN number 0044-7483, and I realise I'm breaking a rule by
24 quoting the ERN number. Oh, yes, this is the correct page. Thank you.
25 Can we focus on the bottom, please. I'm sorry, page 40, please, of the
Page 1453
1 English, and focus on the bottom, please.
2 Q. Here, Mr. Torkildsen --
3 JUDGE MOLOTO: Sorry, just before you ask the question, and I
4 notice Mr. Lukic, but -- just so that I follow you, you said at page 16,
5 line 9 that you were calling 65 ter 532. At line 16, you said 530. What
6 do we have here? Is it 530 or 532?
7 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I sincerely apologise. It is 65 -- it
8 should be 530.
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: It should be 530.
10 MR. SAXON: Wait. I'm sorry, Your Honour, it's 532, and that is
11 what we have on our screen.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
13 Mr. Lukic.
14 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I was waiting for Colleague Saxon to
15 find the page that he wished to find in English, but I can see that the
16 B/C/S page does not correspond to the English page. So could we also
17 find the relevant page in B/C/S on the screen prior to any questions
18 being put.
19 MR. SAXON: It should be page 33 in the B/C/S.
20 JUDGE MOLOTO: Is that it, Mr. Lukic? Thank you.
21 Okay, Mr. Saxon.
22 MR. SAXON:
23 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, you'll notice in the second to the last
24 paragraph, there is a sentence that says:
25 "Republika Srpska has not taken part in financing the
Page 1454
1 professional members of the army except for providing housing for several
2 commanding officers."
3 This --
4 JUDGE MOLOTO: Where are you reading?
5 MR. SAXON: The third sentence of the penultimate paragraph, Your
6 Honour.
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
8 MR. SAXON:
9 Q. So this is different from your first quotation at paragraph 118.
10 Do you agree, Mr. Torkildsen?
11 A. Yes, I agree.
12 Q. And does the verbatim translation change your conclusions in any
13 way?
14 A. No. The substance is the same.
15 Q. Okay.
16 MR. SAXON: Could we please move back again to marked for
17 identification 310.
18 JUDGE MOLOTO: And this 532, you are not doing anything with it,
19 the document on the screen now?
20 MR. SAXON: I don't think that's necessary. I'm simply doing
21 this for the basis of comparison.
22 JUDGE MOLOTO: I understand. But for purposes of the record, I
23 would like to know, is it being -- do you want it marked? Are you not
24 tendering it? What do you want to do?
25 MR. SAXON: Could we tender, then, page 40 of the English, Your
Page 1455
1 Honour, and page 33 of the B/C/S.
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: Page 40 and 33 of the B/C/S -- page 40 of the
3 English and 33 of the B/C/S of 65 ter 532 are admitted. And I say this
4 is 65 ter 532 in the Milosevic case. It's not on your exhibit list.
5 MR. SAXON: It is on our --
6 JUDGE MOLOTO: Does this have a 65 ter number in your exhibit
7 list?
8 MR. SAXON: Yes, Your Honour.
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: And is that 532.
10 MR. SAXON: Yes, Your Honour.
11 JUDGE MOLOTO: Oh, okay. Thank you.
12 May it then be given an exhibit number, please.
13 MR. SAXON: Before we move on, could the first page of the
14 document be included for context?
15 JUDGE MOLOTO: Indeed, Madam Registrar.
16 MR. SAXON: The title page.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Indeed, Madam Registrar, could they be included.
18 THE REGISTRAR: Page 1 and 30 of the English and page 1 and 33 of
19 the B/C/S of 65 ter 532 will be Exhibit P312, Your Honours.
20 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
21 MR. SAXON: And if we could move to page 37 -- excuse me, could
22 we move, please, to page 45 of the English and --
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Of what, now? We're back at the report?
24 MR. SAXON: All right. Well, if we're back at the report, could
25 we please go to page 43 of the English and page 41 of the B/C/S.
Page 1456
1 Q. Again, if you look at -- if you look at paragraph 118 again, your
2 second quote, Mr. Torkildsen, it talks about how:
3 "From 20 May 1992
4 salaries from the SRY budget. From August 1994 these people have only
5 been receiving allowance and no money has been paid to the pension fund.
6 This is a task of the governments of SRJ and RS."
7 MR. SAXON: Could we please turn back to 65 ter 532, the prior
8 translation that we were using, page 45 in the English version and page
9 37 in the B/C/S version. And if we could focus on the bottom of page 47.
10 Q. Five lines from the bottom we see the following sentence: "After
11 the departure of the former JNA, these persons, about 1700 of them, were
12 awarded the salaries of workers in our army --"
13 JUDGE MOLOTO: Sorry, the status of workers?
14 MR. SAXON: Excuse me. "... were awarded the status of workers
15 in our army according to which they are entitled to all statutory powers
16 and treatment according to other workers in the --"
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: "Accorded."
18 MR. SAXON: "... and treatment accorded to other workers in
19 Republika Srpska. From 20 May 1992
20 their salaries through the FRY budget, and after that date they ..." Can
21 we turn to the top of the next page, please. "... received only benefits
22 on which no contributions are paid. This is a problem which must be
23 resolved at the level of the FRY and RS governments."
24 Q. Have you been following me, Mr. Torkildsen?
25 A. Yes, I have.
Page 1457
1 Q. You see that there's a difference here between this translation
2 and what you quoted at paragraph 118?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Does the difference in translation change your conclusions in any
5 way?
6 A. No.
7 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, at this time if the first page of this
8 document and page 45 and 46 of the English and 37 and 38 of the B/C/S be
9 given an exhibit number.
10 JUDGE MOLOTO: And what is this document?
11 MR. SAXON: This, again, is 65 ter 532.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
13 MR. SAXON: I think Ms. Taseva prefers that I add these pages to
14 the previous exhibit, if that is all right with the Trial Chamber.
15 JUDGE MOLOTO: I think that would be preferable. May they be
16 added to P312, please.
17 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, Your Honour.
18 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
19 MR. SAXON: We can leave this exhibit now.
20 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, in normal times how are a country's expenses
21 normally financed?
22 A. Normally a country is financed by taxes and that means taxation
23 of its citizens, normal income tax. It would be taxes of businesses. It
24 would be value-added tax and all other kinds of taxes. That would be the
25 normal way of financing a country, at least in the long run. And of
Page 1458
1 course you also have in the short run, you can also borrow money, but you
2 can't rely on that forever.
3 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, up until the middle of 1991, how were the
4 entities of the former Yugoslavia
5 A. They were mostly financed by taxes, as any normal country or
6 normal entity, to put it like that.
7 Q. At some point in 1991, did this begin to change?
8 A. Yes, it did, and it was very dramatic. What happened in the
9 second half of 1991 was that the SFRY, as such, started to be financed
10 through the use of primary emissions --
11 Q. Okay, Mr. Torkildsen, I'm going to cut you off for a moment.
12 MR. SAXON: Can we please see 65 ter 6531. It's referred to in
13 paragraph 18 of the report.
14 We see this is a document called a "Proposal of Minimally Needed
15 Funds that Need to be Provided in the Budget of the Federation for the
16 Period July-September 1991." It's dated Belgrade, 21 July, 1991
17 turn to page 3 in both versions, please.
18 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, you cite to this document in paragraph 18 of your
19 report. Can you describe what we see on the third page?
20 A. Yes. This is a proposal, then, on how to finance the SFRY budget
21 in the period July to September 1991, and it is described here what kind
22 of income they're relying on.
23 As I previously stated, a normal country is financed by taxes,
24 and as we can see here, customs and import tax is responsible for 37.3
25 per cent of the total financing of this budget. And if you see further
Page 1459
1 down there, there's actually stated here "Original Income," 42.4 per
2 cent.
3 Q. What does that mean?
4 A. The term "original income" in this sense, and that's a term I've
5 also seen in other documents, and that basically means the real income of
6 a country, meaning its taxes. But what is interesting to note here is
7 that the term used below what is mentioned as original income, it is
8 stated "NBJ/Yugoslav People's Bank," and that is the same institution
9 that I have labeled and also that we can see from other documents as the
10 National Bank of Yugoslavia
11 52.3 per cent of the total income to this budget.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: If I may just interrupt you a little bit, sir. In
13 explaining what "original income" is, you said it's taxes.
14 THE WITNESS: Yes, it's basically taxes.
15 JUDGE MOLOTO: So that, in fact, we can quite safely say the 42.4
16 per cent of original taxes, together with the 37.3 per cent of customs
17 and import taxes, that's the same source of income. It all comes from
18 taxes. Therefore, taxes are contributing the sum of 42.4 and 37.3?
19 THE WITNESS: Almost, Your Honour.
20 For instance, it is also mentioned here, incomes and organs and
21 organisations, and that would, for example, be the income from
22 publicly-owned businesses and the profit from that.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes.
24 THE WITNESS: But to a large extent, Your Honour, it's from
25 taxes.
Page 1460
1 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, but my problem is, if taxes contribute the
2 sum of 37.3 and 42.4 --
3 THE WITNESS: Yes.
4 JUDGE MOLOTO: -- from 100 per cent, there's very little for you
5 left to have 52.3 per cent.
6 THE WITNESS: Yes, that is correct.
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: So that, in fact, are you -- are we saying, then,
8 that the total contribution is actually beyond -- the total income is not
9 100 per cent, it's 200 per cent, or whatever the figure is? And how does
10 that work?
11 THE WITNESS: No, Your Honour. It is actually also other types
12 of income, like I pointed out. But most of the original income of a
13 country would be from taxes.
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: But is it from -- from taxes for the current year,
15 or is it money brought forward from the previous year?
16 THE WITNESS: This is a proposal, so this is what they are
17 planning for. They are planning to receive taxes in the order of 37.3
18 per cent. That is what they are assuming that they will get in taxes for
19 this period.
20 JUDGE MOLOTO: I understand that. But then you also say,
21 original income is also taxes.
22 THE WITNESS: Yes, well --
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: And I am mindful -- I am mindful of the fact that
24 there is a line drawn after other incomes --
25 THE WITNESS: Yes.
Page 1461
1 JUDGE MOLOTO: -- and if you say this is a completely different
2 story from the one above the line, then I can follow you. But if it is
3 still the same thing, that line means nothing and original income is
4 defined as taxes, then I have the problem that I've just raised.
5 THE WITNESS: If I can comment on that. The thing is that the
6 original income which is stated here of 42.4 per cent, that is the sum of
7 what is mentioned above. So if you add up all what is listed above
8 there, you will reach the sum of 42.4 per cent.
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much. That explains it.
10 MR. SAXON:
11 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, you were mentioning you noted that 52.3 per cent
12 of the income came from the Yugoslav People's Bank, funds.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Can you describe really what type of income that was or funds
15 those were?
16 A. Is it possible to take this document to the next page?
17 Q. Please. And where do you want to focus, Mr. Torkildsen?
18 A. The last paragraph of that page where it is stated that:
19 "The missing amount would be covered from the funds of the
20 primary emission of the Yugoslav People's Bank and contributions by the
21 SR and SAP
22 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, what does the term "primary emission" mean?
23 A. That means printing of money. What is stated here is that the
24 deficit in the budget should be made off by the National Bank of
25 Yugoslavia
Page 1462
1 the lack of original income.
2 MR. SAXON: At this point, Your Honour, I'd seek to tender this
3 document.
4 JUDGE MOLOTO: The document is admitted into evidence. May it
5 please be given an exhibit number.
6 THE REGISTRAR: My mic is not working. That will be Exhibit
7 P313, Your Honour.
8 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
9 MR. SAXON:
10 Q. And in the course of your review of documents, Mr. Torkildsen,
11 beginning in 1992, did you become aware that the entities called the
12 Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbian Krajina were established?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And how were these new entities, if I can call them that,
15 financed?
16 A. They were very much financed by primary emissions provided to
17 them by the National Bank of Yugoslavia
18 Q. And just so that the record is clear, sometimes in your report
19 you use the phrase "primary issue." Are the two terms synonymous,
20 "primary issue" and "primary emission"?
21 A. That is the same. And also, sometimes in the budgets these are
22 described as credits coming from the National Bank of Yugoslavia.
23 Q. Okay. But when they talk about credits, they're talking about
24 these primary emissions, the printing of money.
25 A. Yes.
Page 1463
1 Q. When you say that the Republika Srpska and the Republic of
2 Serbian Krajina were financed very much by primary emissions from the
3 National Bank of Yugoslavia
4 record is clear, was part of -- was an institution of whom? What state?
5 A. It was an institution of the FRY.
6 Q. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia?
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. All right.
9 MR. SAXON: Can we please see 65 ter number 6531, please.
10 JUDGE MOLOTO: We have just given 6531 an exhibit number, P313.
11 MR. SAXON: I apologise, Your Honour. I misspoke. I was looking
12 at the wrong number. Can we please see MFI 311. And can we go to page
13 12 in the B/C/S version, and there we see the appropriate page in the
14 English version, and can we focus on the top half of the English version,
15 please, or enlarge the top half a bit. It's a part of the "Official
16 Gazette of the Serbian People in Bosnia and Herzegovina" from the 8th of
17 June, 1992, and it's a copy of a decision adopted on 14 May 1992 called
18 "The Decision on the Use of Funds from Primary Issue."
19 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, you refer to this document at paragraphs 16, 17,
20 62, and 73 of your report. What, if anything -- what do you take from
21 this document that was significant for your work?
22 A. Well, the important article here is Article 1, where it is
23 actually stated regarding the use of the funds. It is stated here that
24 the funds that the RS has received from the National Bank of Yugoslavia
25 the "primary issues, shall be used in accordance with the decision of the
Page 1464
1 National Bank of Yugoslavia
2 deciding how the RS should use the money, the primary issue that they
3 have received.
4 Q. All right.
5 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I would seek to tender this document,
6 please.
7 THE WITNESS: I would also like to, if I can please also comment
8 on Article 4.
9 MR. SAXON:
10 Q. Very well.
11 A. It is stated in this article that in the end here, "with a
12 negative balance to be settled once the National Bank of the Serbian
13 Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina is founded and starts operating." By this
14 you can read that this is just a temporary arrangement that's going to be
15 settled later on. But from other documents I have seen, this was not the
16 case. But that will be explained from other documents.
17 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I would seek to tender this document
18 into evidence.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: I thought this is MFI -- oh, you're now tendering
20 the document. I'm sorry. Exhibit 311, marked for identification, is now
21 being tendered for admission. It is admitted into evidence. It will be
22 given an exhibit number, P311. Is that it?
23 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, Your Honours.
24 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
25 MR. SAXON: May we please leave this document and bring up 65 ter
Page 1465
1 6539.
2 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, this is a document that you referred to at
3 paragraphs 25 and 76 of your report. It's a decision from the 8th of
4 July, 1992, by the Government of the Republika Srpska to take a loan from
5 the National Bank of the Republika Srpska. Do you see that in the
6 "Decision on Debiting of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina with
7 the National Bank of the Serbian Republic
8 Are you following me?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. What, if anything, did you take that was significant from this
11 document?
12 A. The significance here being, as it's stated in Article 1 here, it
13 is stated that due to the inadequate incoming assets that make up the
14 original revenues, and then we are back to the previous proposal that I
15 tried to explain. They are stating here that they do have inadequate
16 resources regarding original income --
17 Q. Can I interrupt you here. When you use the pronoun "they," who
18 is "they"?
19 A. That means Republika Srpska.
20 Q. Okay, continue.
21 A. That they do not have the original income. They do not have the
22 taxes to make up the revenue side of the budget. So instead they are
23 taking up a loan from the National Bank, here of Republika Srpska, in
24 order to finance their activities.
25 Q. And at this point, then, by July, then the National Bank of the
Page 1466
1 Serbian Republic
2 A. Well, whether it's functioning or not, that I can't state. But
3 at least it has been established. It was established in May 1992.
4 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I would seek to tender this document,
5 please.
6 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, Mr. Lukic.
7 THE WITNESS: Can I just make one more comment on this?
8 JUDGE MOLOTO: Sorry, do you want to wait for the comment,
9 Mr. Lukic? Thank you.
10 Yes, you may proceed.
11 THE WITNESS: And it is mentioned here that this is actually a
12 loan and that it shall be returned in ten equal annual installments, due
13 on 15/12 each year, and that it should be repaid, then, in full by 15
14 December 1998, so it is basically a loan.
15 But what happened in the Republika Srpska, the FRY and the RSK
16 at -- during this time period was that it was hyperinflation, meaning
17 that the nominal value of money at one point in time was not worth the
18 same in two years -- two years later, meaning that if you took up a loan
19 today and if you're going to repay it five years later, that means that
20 you actually had to use no real money in order to pay it back because of
21 the hyperinflation. You had hyperinflation at that time, particularly in
22 1993, of several thousand per cent during just one year, meaning that you
23 repaid virtually nothing.
24 MR. SAXON:
25 Q. There is also in the upper right-hand corner a note saying:
Page 1467
1 "Payments to be adjusted with the needs of the army." Did you take
2 anything of significance from that?
3 A. Because most of the budgets of the RS was actually going to cover
4 the needs of the VRS.
5 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I would still seek to tender this. I
6 believe my colleague has something to say about it.
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, Mr. Lukic.
8 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Well, at this point in time, Your
9 Honours, I challenge this and challenge the authenticity and the
10 relevance of this document, both. And I'd like to state my arguments
11 after the cross-examination of this witness, and could we have the MFI
12 marking of this document now. But for your information, this is a
13 document without a date, without a stamp, and without any signature, so
14 may it just be marked for identification at this stage. The date column
15 is empty and the second page of the original document is empty. With
16 respect to the date, there's a place for the signature. But I'd like to
17 leave those arguments for later, after I've conducted my
18 cross-examination.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Saxon, as you respond, maybe you might also
20 address the question of the handwritten markings on the B/C/S version
21 which are absent, or maybe they are typed on the English side, and if you
22 can sort of tell us what they mean.
23 MR. SAXON: They are -- this was the passage that I referred to a
24 few moments ago, Your Honour. Up at the top right-hand corner in
25 handwriting it says: "Minister Subotic. Payments to be adjusted with
Page 1468
1 the needs of the army."
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
3 MR. SAXON: And then we see a date there, and it's signed by
4 Minister Subotic.
5 JUDGE MOLOTO: All right. That's the handwritten thing.
6 Now, your colleague on the right side suggests that -- objects to
7 the admission of this document at this point and said it could be MFIed.
8 What's your response to that?
9 MR. SAXON: Well, Your Honour, I believe the document is
10 relevant -- on its face, the document is relevant, Your Honours, because
11 again it shows how now the Republika Srpska had to create its financing
12 in order to --
13 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, but that does not -- for relevance, yes.
14 MR. SAXON: I'll move on, Your Honour. Which is certainly
15 relevant to Mr. Torkildsen's work.
16 The handwritten note, Your Honour, at the top with the date, in
17 the Prosecution's submission --
18 JUDGE MOLOTO: You have explained that. Thank you so much. You
19 have explained the handwritten note. Your learned friend talks of lack
20 of date of the document, and I want to believe that you are saying that
21 the date that we see on the document is the date of the handwritten
22 remarks. But your friend says there's no date of the document, there's
23 no signature there for -- he's challenging authenticity of the document,
24 he will argue later. He suggests that the document be MFIed. What is
25 your response to that?
Page 1469
1 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, in the Trial Chamber's guidelines, the
2 Trial Chamber tells us that the lack of a signature and the lack of a
3 stamp or a seal does not by itself mandate the exclusion of a document.
4 JUDGE MOLOTO: Your learned friend doesn't ask for exclusion. He
5 says MFI
6 MR. SAXON: Well, I appreciate that, Your Honour. The
7 Prosecution is willing to have it MFIed if that is the proper --
8 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much. 6539 is -- may it please be
9 marked for identification and be given an exhibit number.
10 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P314, marked for
11 identification, Your Honours.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
13 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I see the time.
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes.
15 MR. SAXON: Shall we take the first break now?
16 JUDGE MOLOTO: If it is convenient for you.
17 MR. SAXON: Yes, Your Honour.
18 JUDGE MOLOTO: We'll take the break and come back at a quarter to
19 11.00. Court adjourned.
20 --- Recess taken at 10.14 a.m.
21 --- On resuming at 10.46 a.m.
22 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Saxon.
23 MR. SAXON: Thank you, Your Honour.
24 Can we please see Prosecution 65 ter number 6526. Can we go to
25 the next page in English, please.
Page 1470
1 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, you cite to this document several times in your
2 report, paragraphs 25, 35, 36, 39, 43 to 46, 50, 62, 73, and 87. It's
3 actually a series of documents, but we'll stick with the first one. This
4 is a report. It says: "National Bank of Yugoslavia, Strictly
5 Confidential." And it reads that:
6 "The management of the National Bank of Yugoslavia
7 the very first paragraph, " ... assigned Milivoj Miletic to analyse and
8 review the operations of the National Bank of Republika Srpska in terms
9 of the elements to implement the Monetary Policy Programme in the Federal
10 Republic of Yugoslavia
11 Krajina."
12 And then in the next paragraph it explains that Mr. Miletic
13 visited the National Bank of Republika Srpska between 4 and 8 April,
14 1994. And after analysing and reviewing the operations of the National
15 Bank of Republika Srpska, he submits this report."
16 MR. SAXON: If we can go to the next page, please, of the
17 exhibit, in both versions.
18 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, there is a large paragraph in the middle of this
19 page, beginning with the phrase "The first phase of the operations ..."
20 Do you see that?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. I'm going to direct you to this paragraph and more precisely to
23 the middle of the paragraph, it's actually starting at the second full
24 sentence:
25 "This was a time when certain institutions of Republika Srpska
Page 1471
1 were formed, including the National Bank. In such circumstances it was
2 normal to issue primary money on the basis of previous experience, coming
3 primarily from the National Bank of Yugoslavia
4 Is there anything that you take from this paragraph and what I've
5 just read to you that you find significant for your report?
6 A. Yes. This document corroborates what I have said and stated
7 previously regarding that the National Bank of Yugoslavia was printing
8 money in order to, as we have seen from the other documents, in order to
9 finance budget deficits.
10 JUDGE MOLOTO: As I understand it, this money was being printed
11 by the Bank of Yugoslavia for the benefit of the Bank of Republika
12 Srpska. It is being passed on to that bank.
13 THE WITNESS: That is correct, yes.
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you. What I'm trying to say is that at this
15 point -- you said it was to finance budget deficits. Thank you.
16 MR. SAXON: And if we could --
17 THE WITNESS: Excuse me, can I just -- since that is actually
18 stated in the last part of this paragraph, where it is stated that --
19 just let me read that out.
20 "About 14.3 per cent of these credits," the primary issues this
21 means, "or 11.1 billion dinars were given through the banks, while the
22 remaining 85.7 per cent or 67.7 billion dinars were given for the budget
23 of Republika Srpska."
24 So not all of the primary issues were given to the budget, but
25 most of it was given to the budget. Thank you.
Page 1472
1 MR. SAXON: And there is another document that is part of 65 ter
2 6526. If we could please go to page 13 in the English version and page
3 11 in the B/C/S version.
4 Q. This is an Official Note of a meeting between the governors of
5 the National Bank of Yugoslavia
6 Krajina, held on the premises of the National Bank of Yugoslavia
7 Belgrade
8 And if you can direct your attention, Mr. Torkildsen, to about
9 the middle of the page where it says: "It was concluded at the meeting
10 that ..." Do you see that?
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And if you could then direct your attention to number 6.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. It says: "The National Bank of Republika Srpska and the National
15 Bank of Republika Srpska Krajina operate as main branch offices of the
16 National Bank of Yugoslavia
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And then in the following subparagraph, 7:
19 "It is the National Bank of Yugoslavia that has exclusive
20 authority over the operating of the National Bank of Republika Srpska,
21 the National Bank of Republika Srpska Krajina, and the commercial banks
22 from Republika Srpska and Republika Srpska Krajina."
23 Is there anything in subparagraph 6 and 7 that you found
24 significant?
25 A. Well, actually, these two paragraphs speak for themselves. It
Page 1473
1 states that the National Bank of Yugoslavia
2 directs the operations of the National Bank of Republika Srpska and the
3 National Bank of Republika Srpska Krajina.
4 Q. And how do these two conclusions, if I may, fit or not with your
5 report and your conclusions?
6 A. They fit perfectly. This is -- this describes in a short way
7 what also the other documents point out.
8 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I would seek to tender as a single
9 exhibit pages 1 through 13 in the English version and page 1 through 12
10 of the B/C/S version.
11 JUDGE MOLOTO: Pages 1 to -- yes, Mr. Lukic.
12 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I have to stress once
13 again, or rather I want to object to a portion of this document. The
14 authenticity is what I'm objecting to. The first part of the document
15 regarding Mr. Miletic's report, I'm not challenging authenticity there.
16 But the second part of the document, which is the Official Note that
17 we've just been talking about and heard testimony about, I'm challenging
18 the authenticity of that for a number of reasons, one of which is the
19 document has no signature or stamp.
20 But what is more troubling, as far as I'm concerned and that
21 leads me to doubt the authenticity of this document is the following:
22 The fact that it is part of this report and attached to Mr. Miletic's
23 report and the date of the official report is after the report itself.
24 It's a later date. So you can see that the Official Note about that
25 particular meeting was compiled on the 12th of May, 1994, whereas
Page 1474
1 Mr. Miletic's report is dated -- well, the date is after the control,
2 from the period from the 6th to the 8th of April, 1994.
3 And I have to stress another point that is also troubling with
4 respect to this Official Note. It's another document, a 65 ter
5 Prosecution document, which -- this is 65 ter 6557, is the document
6 number. I don't know if Mr. Saxon wants to tender that document, too.
7 But anyway, it has the identical contents. Looking at the contents of
8 that document, of this Official Note, it's the same but written in quite
9 a different form, using different language. And I'm sure you know that
10 there was the Ljkavian and Ekavinan dialects on the territory of the
11 former Yugoslavia
12 signed.
13 If possible, at this stage, I'd like this to be given an MFI
14 number so that I can cross-examine the witness and you can determine the
15 authenticity of this document. But I have no objections to be made with
16 respect to Mr. Miletic's report being admitted into evidence.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Just before I ask Mr. Saxon to respond, if you can
18 just clear a sentence that you mention here at page 37, lines -- starting
19 from line 15. You say:
20 "So you can see that the Official Note of that particular meeting
21 was compiled on the 12th of May, 1994, whereas Mr. Miletic's report is
22 dated -- well, the date is after the control, from the period of the 6th
23 to the 8th of April, 1994
24 I'm not quite sure by what is meant "after the control," if that
25 is what you said, sir.
Page 1475
1 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] This 65 ter document has 40 pages,
2 Your Honour, the entire document. First of all, we have the report on
3 that control by Mr. Miletic. That's the first part of the document. And
4 then we have six attachments, supplements. And it's a 65 ter document.
5 One of those supplements is this Official Note, and the date at
6 which the meeting that the Official Note refers to is later than the
7 report itself, which leads me to doubt the authenticity of the document
8 and raises a number of questions in my mind, because logically if you are
9 providing a report, then you're providing supplementary documents
10 following the period before the report, before it's written, not the
11 subsequent period and after the report.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much, Mr. Lukic.
13 Mr. Saxon.
14 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, the Prosecution is not submitting
15 that -- if I can step back for a moment. Pages 1 through 13 of the
16 English -- excuse me, I believe 1 through -- the first document in 65 ter
17 6526 is the report of Mr. Miletic about the work that he did in April of
18 1994.
19 65 ter 6526 contains a series of documents, Your Honour, and it
20 is not the Prosecution's position that the following documents were part
21 of Mr. Miletic's report. Certainly there's no connection -- the
22 documents do not speak to each other. The Official Note of the meeting
23 between the governors of the National Banks, which is the document which
24 Mr. Lukic would like to have MFIed, it's describing a separate event.
25 Mr. Miletic is describing the work that he did and the analysis that he
Page 1476
1 made. This Official Note is simply a different event.
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. Let's see if you and your learned friend
3 can be brought onto the same wavelength.
4 Are you saying the note is not an attachment attached by
5 Mr. Miletic? It's an attachment attached by the Prosecution, just
6 collecting unrelated documents and putting them together perhaps because
7 they are talking about the same subject, maybe?
8 MR. SAXON: It was put together this way because this is how the
9 Prosecution received this particular -- this particular series of
10 documents. It received them together so we kept them together.
11 JUDGE MOLOTO: Let me repeat my question slightly differently
12 worded. Is the note -- does the note not form part of attachments of the
13 report by Mr. Miletic after his investigations? Because I suspect this
14 is the position that Mr. Lukic is taking, and I understand you to be
15 saying these documents are unrelated. Therefore, if they are unrelated,
16 it doesn't form part of Mr. Miletic's report.
17 MR. SAXON: I take your point, Your Honour. I'm simply saying
18 that the Prosecution simply does not know whether Mr. Miletic attached
19 the Official Note to his report or not.
20 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
21 MR. SAXON: I simply -- to be honest, I simply can't tell you
22 that.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. But the Prosecution is seeking to tender
24 Mr. Miletic's report with the note as an attachment?
25 MR. SAXON: No, Your Honour.
Page 1477
1 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. So you are not tendering the note.
2 MR. SAXON: I'm sorry, Your Honour. I'm very sorry.
3 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes.
4 MR. SAXON: This 65 ter number is 40 pages long, and obviously I
5 don't want to give the Chamber 40 additional pages to read.
6 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
7 MR. SAXON: It was these two pieces that the Prosecution felt
8 were --
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: Fine, fine, fine. Do the 40 pages of the document
10 you want to tender, include the note.
11 MR. SAXON: Yes. Yes, Your Honour.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. Mr. Lukic's objection is that tendering
13 them in that form, he is given the impression that all those documents
14 are part and parcel of the report by Mr. Miletic, and he says he finds
15 this strange because the report was drafted around April and now an
16 attachment to this report is dated May, 12th of May, long after the
17 report has been drawn. This is the basis on which he is objecting.
18 MR. SAXON: Yes, Your Honour.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: And unless you are able to say to us that the note
20 is not part of Mr. Miletic's report, then Mr. Lukic's objection has
21 substance.
22 MR. SAXON: I take your point, and I am not able -- I am not able
23 to say that the note is not part of the report.
24 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. He is then saying -- he suggests that we
25 MFI
Page 1478
1 MR. SAXON: No objection at this stage.
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
3 65 ter 6526, pages 1 to 13 in the English and I think 1 to 12 in
4 the B/C/S are marked for identification --
5 MR. SAXON: Oh, I'm very sorry, Your Honour. My learned
6 colleague did not object to the admission of Mr. Miletic's report. That
7 is what he told us. His only objection is to the admission of the
8 Official Note.
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: My apologies to you. Pages 1 to 13 of the 65 ter
10 6526, together with the note, I don't know how -- what is your 65 ter
11 number of the note? It is part of that whole thing?
12 MR. SAXON: Yes, Your Honour.
13 JUDGE MOLOTO: So you are now back-pedaling. You want an
14 admission to MFI
15 MR. SAXON: Absolutely not, Your Honour.
16 JUDGE MOLOTO: What do you want to be MFIed?
17 MR. SAXON: The report of Mr. Miletic --
18 JUDGE MOLOTO: Right. In its entirety?
19 MR. SAXON: -- which is the first ten pages in English and the
20 first nine pages in B/C/S.
21 JUDGE MOLOTO: That's what you're tendering?
22 MR. SAXON: Yes.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Not the note.
24 MR. SAXON: Correct.
25 [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]
Page 1479
1 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Saxon --
2 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, I'm sorry.
3 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, sir.
4 THE WITNESS: Since I have dealt with these documents in detail
5 and I've followed your arguments, and I know the answer to this question,
6 at least from --
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, but you see, at this point we're dealing with
8 an objection that is raised by the opposite side.
9 THE WITNESS: Sorry.
10 JUDGE MOLOTO: And unfortunately it keeps you out of the loop.
11 THE WITNESS: Yes.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: If there's anything, your lawyer should have taken
13 instructions on how those documents relate to one another. And if he
14 hasn't, the only solution is to mark them for identification, and once
15 you have given him proper instructions, he can come and give us an
16 explanation.
17 THE WITNESS: Sorry.
18 JUDGE MOLOTO: It's okay.
19 I just want to be clear what it is you are tendering at this
20 stage. You are tendering 65 ter 526, pages 1 to 10 in English.
21 MR. SAXON: Yes. 6526.
22 JUDGE MOLOTO: And what else?
23 MR. SAXON: And the same 65 ter number, pages 1 to 9 in B/C/S.
24 JUDGE MOLOTO: Right. That's all?
25 MR. SAXON: Correct.
Page 1480
1 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. That 65 ter 6526, pages 1 to 10 in English
2 and 1 to 9 in B/C/S are marked for identification. May they please be
3 given an exhibit number.
4 THE REGISTRAR: Those pages will be Exhibit P315, marked for
5 identification, Your Honours.
6 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
7 MR. SAXON: Can we please see 65 ter number 6528. Your Honour,
8 I'm not trying to aggravate you or your colleagues.
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: I'm not aggravated at all.
10 MR. SAXON: All right. It's simply this: Your order -- what you
11 did in your order was you marked for identification the pages from 6526
12 which Mr. Lukic does not object to their admission.
13 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you so much. I see that now. Thank you so
14 much. I see the point.
15 MR. SAXON: And can I perhaps simplify your work and Ms. Taseva's
16 work. This same Official Note that is the basis of the objection, as
17 Mr. Lukic pointed out, has a separate 65 ter number, because we've
18 actually received these documents from different sources.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
20 MR. SAXON: Just the note by itself is 65 ter 6557. Perhaps for
21 your organisational purposes, it would be simpler simply to mark for
22 identification.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: That explains the objection. That answers
24 Mr. Lukic's problem. Because he referred to 65 ter 6557 in his objection
25 and said now there are two documents exactly the same. So it is exactly
Page 1481
1 the same document, sir. This note does not form part of Mr. Miletic's
2 report, from that explanation. It comes completely independently. It is
3 just the convenience of the Prosecution that they put them together, as I
4 understand you now.
5 Okay. While you do that, on the point that you have raised with
6 the Bench, may Exhibit P315 please be admitted into evidence and not
7 marked for identification.
8 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, Your Honour. Exhibit P315, marked for
9 identification, will now get exhibit status.
10 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
11 That's where you thought you were giving us grief, and we were
12 giving you grief. It was my fault. Sorry about that.
13 MR. SAXON: That's no problem, Your Honour. I will move on now.
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: Move on.
15 MR. SAXON: Can we please see 65 ter 6528. It's there. Very
16 well.
17 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, you refer to this document at page 73 of your
18 report, and we see this is a "Decision on the Adoption of the Rebalance
19 of Republika Srpska Budget for 1993." Up at the top we see it was dated
20 25 March 1994
21 Article 1 tell us?
22 A. It actually states the total amount in the -- what has been
23 translated here as the budget of Republika Srpska, but I would like to
24 draw your attention to the -- to the data which is listed as 25 March
25 1994, talking here about the budget for 1993. So the way that I read
Page 1482
1 this, this is closer to being the final annual accounts of the Republika
2 Srpska for 1993.
3 Q. And --
4 JUDGE MOLOTO: And that's how we should understand the word
5 "rebalancing"?
6 THE WITNESS: Yes. That's at least how I interpret it.
7 MR. SAXON:
8 Q. Very well. If you look at Article 2, we see the same total
9 figure, the last line, and we see a figure for original income, and then
10 we see a much larger figure for credits. Can you explain what, if
11 anything, is significant, please.
12 A. The significance being here that, as explained earlier, original
13 income, which is mainly made up of taxes, accounts for almost nothing of
14 the total budget, while the credits, here meaning the primary emission,
15 accounts for almost the whole of the income side of this budget.
16 MR. SAXON: Can we turn to the next page in English, please, and
17 perhaps scroll down in B/C/S.
18 Q. If we look at the -- if we look at this list of amounts of money,
19 again, at the very bottom under "Total Expenses," we see the same total.
20 Is there anything in this list that you found significant?
21 A. Well, as you pointed out, you see the total expenses there. I'm
22 just looking for the figure here that specifically shows what is going
23 for the army, the VRS.
24 MR. SAXON: Can we scroll up a little bit, please.
25 THE WITNESS: I can see it in the B/C/S version, but I can't see
Page 1483
1 it in the translation here, because the B/C/S version shows the figure,
2 starting off 700 and something.
3 MR. SAXON: One moment, please, Your Honour.
4 THE WITNESS: It's still the wrong page of the English
5 translation.
6 MR. SAXON: I see. Can we go to the third page, please, in
7 English, and the following page in B/C/S. I apologise. Can we move back
8 one page in the English version, please, and if we can focus on the very
9 bottom of that list, we see Article 1, the full total, 732 billion
10 dinars.
11 Q. And at the bottom of the list on page 2, do you see an item
12 called "Current Expenses of the Army"?
13 A. Yes, I do. That's exactly the point. It shows that the expenses
14 of the army is close to taking up more or less the whole budget, and I
15 calculated that amount of 700 and something to account for 95 -- 95.6 per
16 cent of the total budget is actually used for the expenses of the army.
17 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I would seek to tender this document,
18 please.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes. Document 65 ter 6528 is admitted into
20 evidence. May it please be given an exhibit number.
21 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P316, Your Honours.
22 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you so much.
23 MR. SAXON:
24 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, at paragraphs 51 through 60 of your report, and
25 that's pages 19 through 21 of the English and pages 18 to 21 of the
Page 1484
1 B/C/S, you discuss something known as the Public Accounting Office, or
2 the SDK. What was this institution, and what did it do?
3 A. That was the institution responsible for making the transfers of
4 money between -- well, both within the FRY and also including the RS and
5 the RSK, meaning that this institution and -- basically, the SDK, that's
6 an institution making sure that the mechanism is working for transferring
7 money. It's also been translated as the Public Accounting Service, the
8 State Accounting Service, and other various translations. So that's
9 basically the two that the -- that the FRY and the RS and the RSK is
10 using to transfer money between them.
11 Just to make a moment of that as well, this is not a new
12 invention. This was something that also existed back in the days of the
13 SFRY, but then of course it also included the other republics.
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: And where is it located, headquartered?
15 THE WITNESS: That I do not remember anymore.
16 MR. SAXON:
17 Q. Are you aware whether there were, for lack of a better term,
18 branch offices of the SDK in different areas?
19 A. Yes. There were offices all over the -- both the FRY, the RS,
20 and the RSK.
21 Q. Okay.
22 MR. SAXON: Moving on, can we please see Prosecution P00149,
23 please, and if we could go to page 127 in the English and page 111 in the
24 B/C/S. And the English -- the English translation has doc ID 0060-7339.
25 Q. This document, the entire document, is an analysis of the combat
Page 1485
1 readiness of the VRS. It's dated April 1993. And the full title is
2 "Analysis of the Combat Readiness and Activities of the Army of Republika
3 Srpska in 1992."
4 Mr. Torkildsen, if we can focus on page 127, please, of the
5 English. First of all, you'll see there's a subheading: "Planning of
6 the Development and Financing of the VRS Army." That's at the top of the
7 page. We'll see in bullet points there are three different stages that
8 are discussed with three different time periods. And then in the next
9 full paragraph, there is a line beginning with "The Order of the Federal
10 Secretariat for National Defence."
11 Of what government, country, or institution did the Federal
12 Secretariat for National Defence belong to?
13 A. The FRY.
14 Q. Thank you.
15 MR. SAXON: If we can focus on the next paragraph, beginning with
16 "In the second stage ..." please, if we can zoom in on that a little bit.
17 Q. That paragraph begins:
18 "In the second stage, the Ministry of Defence, i.e., the
19 Government of Republika Srpska, took over the entire financing burden,
20 except for the personal expenditures (salaries and benefits) of officers,
21 non-commissioned officers, soldiers working under contract, and workers
22 who remained in or joined the Army of Republika Srpska from the former
23 JNA."
24 Did you take anything that was significant from this paragraph,
25 Mr. Torkildsen?
Page 1486
1 A. Yes, because the soldiers and also these other personnel
2 categories that are being mentioned here, they were financed through the
3 budget of Republika Srpska and that's -- that's the significance. And if
4 I also may add, this is part of a military document, and as I stated in
5 the beginning, this was a typical military document also containing
6 financial information, and that is why I reviewed it. And what comes out
7 later in this document, you will see how the money was actually spent.
8 Q. In this paragraph there's a phrase beginning with "Except
9 for ..." Do you see that phrase?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. So there are some categories of persons which would not fall
12 under the financing of the Government of Republika Srpska.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Then who would be financing those categories - officers,
15 non-commissioned officers, et cetera?
16 A. They would be financed from the FRY.
17 Q. Okay.
18 MR. SAXON: Can we turn to page 128 in the English, and it would
19 be 112 in the B/C/S, I hope. And can we focus on the very bottom of this
20 page, please.
21 Q. And we see a subheading, 7.1, "The Spending of the Army Budget,"
22 where we see at its sessions in July 1992 the Assembly of what was then
23 the Serbian Republic
24 financing the army in the July through December 1992 period. Do you see
25 that?
Page 1487
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. And then it gives the amount, more than 53 billion dinars.
3 JUDGE MOLOTO: Trillion, I think it is.
4 MR. SAXON: I don't mean to argue with you, Mr. President. I
5 thought it was in the billions, but I will defer to you. It even says in
6 the English translation, written out, "53 billion."
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: Sorry, you're right. My apologies.
8 MR. SAXON: And can we turn to the next page in the English,
9 please, 129, and can we focus in on the paragraph near the top, beginning
10 with "It is important ..."
11 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, that paragraph tells us, or the analysis tells us
12 that:
13 "It is important to mention that the salaries of officers,
14 non-commissioned officers, soldiers under contract and workers in the RS
15 Army, who until 19 May 1992
16 the responsibility of the FR Yugoslavia, so that these expenditures were
17 not debited from the budget of the Army of Republika Srpska."
18 Why, if at all, was this significant for you?
19 A. This paragraph clearly states out that the officers and also some
20 other personnel categories continued to be the responsibility of the FRY
21 Yugoslavia
22 financed from the FRY directly, in contrast to the ordinary soldiers who
23 were financed by the budget of Republika Srpska that again received the
24 money from the National Bank of Yugoslavia
25 financing, while the financing of the budget or through the budget is
Page 1488
1 actually an indirect financing. But the source of the money all
2 originates from Belgrade
3 MR. SAXON: Can we now focus our attention on the table at the
4 bottom of this page, please. In the English version it's at the bottom.
5 I don't -- yeah, we need to move to the next page in B/C/S. Thank you.
6 Q. This table, Mr. Torkildsen, says that it "shows the amounts spent
7 by individual support elements." And the first purpose, if we see in the
8 far left-hand column, says "Personnel Outlays." Was this significant for
9 you, that particular item?
10 A. I think it's interesting here to note that actually the salaries
11 of conscripts and ordinary soldiers accounts for as much as close to
12 60 per cent of the total budget for the army here, and as I noted from
13 another part of this document, is that the reasoning for this is that the
14 ordinary soldiers, on average, in the RS Army in 2002 has got an average
15 strength of 212.000 soldiers. So that probably explains the huge
16 percentage going to the ordinary soldiers.
17 Q. Thank you.
18 MR. SAXON: If we can leave this document now.
19 Q. And again, if we can -- just to tie this together. The money
20 that would have been allocated by the FRY to the Republika Srpska --
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. -- for the needs of the Army of the Republika Srpska, where would
23 that money originate from?
24 A. That would originate from the National Bank of Yugoslavia in
25 Belgrade
Page 1489
1 Q. And how was that money financed, if you know?
2 A. By -- well, it was basically by primary emissions, printing
3 money.
4 Q. Okay. How long did this financing of the VRS through the
5 issue -- through the use of primary emissions go on?
6 A. That went on until early 1994, most likely January 1994.
7 Q. Okay. And what happened at that time?
8 A. Well, this may get a bit complicated, but what happened at that
9 time is that a new governor was put in place in the National Bank of
10 Yugoslavia
11 Yugoslavia
12 that it was set at parity, again meaning that 1 Deutschemark was the
13 equivalent of 1 dinar, the purpose of this being to stop the enormous
14 inflation. And what they did at that time was that they stopped -- and I
15 mean "them," the National Bank of Yugoslavia stopped using primary
16 emission as a tool to covering the budget deficits. That was both the
17 budget deficits of the FRY as such and also the budget deficits of the RS
18 and the RSK.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: And how was the deficit financed at this stage
20 now, or was it because now the stronger dinar was able to reduce the
21 deficit?
22 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, that is a very good question, and I
23 don't have a complete answer to that, because I've not been able to
24 locate, for instance, the RS budgets for -- or annual accounts for 1994
25 or 1995. But I've seen a similar thing from the RSK budget for 1994, and
Page 1490
1 that actually shows that they got more money in from taxation and other
2 sources, meaning original income, than they had previously. But I've
3 also seen from other documents that the FRY, meaning the National Bank of
4 Yugoslavia
5 difference now was that the National Bank of Yugoslavia had asked the RS
6 and the RSK national banks to back up these demands with hard currency.
7 So they actually had to deposit hard currency, here I would assume mostly
8 meaning Deutschemarks, in order to receive new fresh dinars. So it was
9 no longer a gift by the FRY to cover the budgets.
10 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
11 MR. SAXON:
12 Q. If I can step back from this topic for a moment, Mr. Torkildsen.
13 When we were looking at the last document, and we saw that there was
14 financing from the FRY for certain members of the Army of Republika
15 Srpska, do you know from which institution or institutions that money
16 would have come from?
17 A. That would have come from the 30th Personnel Centre with the VJ.
18 Q. You mentioned, in answer to Judge Moloto's question, that the
19 money provided from the FRY to the RSK or the Republika Srpska, after
20 this change in 1994, was no longer a gift by the FRY to cover the budget.
21 Having said that, did the FRY continue to provide some kinds of financial
22 assistance to the Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbian Krajina
23 A. Yes. Yes, they did, in terms of -- I've seen several documents
24 showing that both the VRS and the RSK army requesting cash from the
25 National Bank of Yugoslavia
Page 1491
1 in analysing this is that from the period 1994 and onwards, there is a
2 lack of documentation compared to the previous period in order for me to
3 conclude how this was done. I can see that the VRS and the institutions
4 of the RS are requesting money, but I can't really see how this is done
5 in practice. So I just have to rely on a previous document stating that
6 they were actually planning at least for the institutions of the RS to
7 actually deposit foreign currency in order to receive new dinars. That's
8 all I can conclude. What actually happened, I do not know for sure after
9 January 1994.
10 MR. SAXON: Can we turn, please, to 65 ter 645.
11 JUDGE MOLOTO: Before we do so, what do we do with P00149?
12 MR. SAXON: That can be removed now, Your Honour.
13 JUDGE MOLOTO: You're not wanting to tender it.
14 MR. SAXON: It is already an exhibit.
15 JUDGE MOLOTO: This is already an exhibit.
16 MR. SAXON: Yes, Your Honour.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: I'm sorry. This number that you gave when you put
18 it on the screen, you said it was P00149.
19 MR. SAXON: Yes.
20 JUDGE MOLOTO: In short, are you saying this is Exhibit P149 in
21 this case?
22 MR. SAXON: Yes, Your Honour, and it's my understanding that the
23 entire document has been admitted into evidence.
24 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. Thank you so much. I wasn't aware of that.
25 Okay, you can call the -- what do you want now?
Page 1492
1 MR. SAXON: The next document would be 65 ter 645, Your Honours.
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
3 MR. SAXON:
4 Q. This is a document entitled "Aide Memoire for the Coordination of
5 Tasks at the VJ/Yugoslav Army/GS/General Staff on 17 December 1993."
6 MR. SAXON: Can we turn to the next page, please. The document
7 is dated December 1993.
8 Q. On this particular page we can see it's sent from the General
9 Staff of the Yugoslav Army to the Office of the Chief of the General
10 Staff, and it refers to the coordination of tasks between the VJ and the
11 SVK that will be attended by persons from the Main Staff of the SVK, and
12 then there are proposals below for matters of discussion. If we scroll
13 down to the bottom, we see that it's signed and stamped by the Chief of
14 the Office of the SVK Commander, Colonel Cedo Radovanovic.
15 MR. SAXON: Can we turn to the next page. Actually, it would be
16 page 13 in the English, and I am embarrassed because I'm not sure that I
17 have the B/C/S, but I might. It's page 10 in the B/C/S version. And if
18 we can focus on the last paragraph, please, the bottom of the page.
19 Q. We see a subparagraph (c), "New Requests." And then we are told:
20 "We have learned unofficially that of the above total balance of
21 requirements for 1994, the Federal Government will only be able to
22 provide USD 850 million for all three armed forces instead of USD 3.29
23 billion, i.e., 25.82 per cent of the stated requirements. For the SVK,
24 this would amount to USD 79.43 million instead of USD 307.30 million."
25 Did you take anything from this paragraph, Mr. Torkildsen, that
Page 1493
1 was relevant or significant for your report?
2 A. Yes. As we can see here, it is the FRY government who's actually
3 planning to fund all three armies in -- also in 1994, but they are
4 getting less than they originally had planned for. As I mentioned
5 previously, even if the financing through primary emissions stopped, at
6 least they were still planning to continue the financing in 1994, by then
7 a different method. But then again, as I pointed out, when it comes to
8 1994, there has been a lack of documents for me to review.
9 It's also notable here to see that at this point in time they are
10 talking about their requirements in US dollars and not in dinars anymore,
11 and that is, of course, because of the hyperinflation. These dinar
12 denominations didn't mean anything anymore because the value changed from
13 one day to the other.
14 MR. SAXON: I would seek to tender this document into evidence,
15 Your Honour.
16 JUDGE MOLOTO: The document is admitted into evidence. May it
17 please be given an exhibit number.
18 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P317, Your Honours.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
20 MR. SAXON: Can we please pull up 65 ter number 6548.
21 JUDGE MOLOTO: Can we help, Mr. Perisic? Are you okay?
22 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Yes, everything is okay. The accused
23 has his headsets on so he might have been a little loud in communicating
24 with me.
25 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
Page 1494
1 MR. SAXON: If we can enlarge the English. Yes, thank you very
2 much.
3 Q. This is a document dated the 5th of May, 1994, to the Sarajevo
4 Romanija Corps Command. We see it's signed -- or the accuracy of the
5 transcription is certified by Commander Dzoko Trifkovic. We also see the
6 name of Commander Major General Stanislav Galic to the left. And the
7 document, if you see -- well, at the top, the subject is "Conscript
8 Salaries for the Month of February," and it's an announcement.
9 In the first paragraph it describes how the authors have received
10 a letter, referring to a document from the Ministry of Defence of
11 Republika Srpska, dated the 4th of May, 1994, the previous day of this
12 document. And if you look at subparagraph 3, Mr. Torkildsen, it says:
13 "In our daily contacts with the National Bank of Yugoslavia
14 to enormous problems we have so far been unable to secure that cash.
15 They have promised us that they will secure the cash by 6 May 1994, so
16 that payment would commence on 9 May 1994 at the latest."
17 And you cited this document at paragraph 119 of your report.
18 What did you take from this document that was significant?
19 A. The document shows that one corps or unit within the VRS is still
20 requesting cash from the National Bank of Yugoslavia, and they point that
21 they have a problem receiving that cash and -- yeah.
22 MR. SAXON: Your Honours, I would seek to tender this document.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: It's admitted. May it please be given an exhibit
24 number.
25 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P318, Your Honours.
Page 1495
1 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you so much.
2 MR. SAXON: If we could now see 65 ter number 6521, please, which
3 is a document referred to at paragraph 98 of Mr. Torkildsen's report.
4 The document is called "Official Note from the Talks Between
5 Representatives of the RSK Government and President Slobodan Milosevic."
6 It's directed to the Ministry of the Republic of Serbia
7 of the bottom of the page, please.
8 The first paragraph talks about a meeting held on the 12th of
9 November, 1992, hosted by the president of the Republic of Serbia
10 there were representatives of the Republic of Serbian Krajina and the
11 Government of the Republic of Serbia
12 see, was there, prime Minister Radovan Bozovic, and also we see the
13 President of the Republic of Serbian
14 following the first paragraph, we see a sentence, or part of a sentence,
15 saying: "At the meeting the mode of financial assistance to the Krajina
16 until the end of the year was agreed."
17 And the following large paragraph -- well, the following
18 paragraph discusses defence, and an outline creating the RSK's army and
19 its financing was brought up. And then we see in the following
20 paragraph:
21 "The President, Mr. Milosevic, agreed to the concept of creating
22 a defence system of the Krajina which would be based on about 23.000
23 people in the police ..."
24 And later on in that paragraph -- actually, if we go to the next
25 paragraph, we see that:
Page 1496
1 "President Milosevic said that funds for maintaining equipment
2 should be planned via the Army of Yugoslavia and that he would help in
3 the implementation of this and that the Army of Yugoslavia should finance
4 the active officers and civilians who stayed behind in the Krajina."
5 Did you find anything significant about this passage?
6 A. Yes. It is stated here that the funds for maintaining the
7 equipment should be planned via the Army of Yugoslavia and that they
8 should invest in that direction, and further on, that the Army of
9 Yugoslavia
10 meaning the army officers in the RSK army.
11 MR. SAXON: And if we scroll further to the bottom of the
12 English, perhaps it's on the next page of the English, we see that the
13 document is from President of the Republic, Goran Hadzic. It was
14 received on the 24th of June, 1993.
15 Your Honour, I would seek to tender this document, please.
16 JUDGE MOLOTO: It is admitted. May it please be given an exhibit
17 number.
18 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P319, Your Honours.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
20 MR. SAXON: Your Honours, I just misspoke because I was looking
21 at a different document. The document that was just admitted was from
22 the Minister of defence, Stojan Spanovic.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
24 MR. SAXON: Can we please see 65 ter 6116, a document which
25 Mr. Torkildsen refers to at paragraph 102 of his report. And we see this
Page 1497
1 is a document from the Republika Srpska Krajina, Cabinet of the
2 President. It's sent from the President of the Republic, Goran Hadzic.
3 At the bottom we see it was processed -- it was received on the 24th of
4 June, 1993. And if we could focus, please, first on the paragraph that
5 begins with the line "We need help ..." It's the third full paragraph.
6 Q. In that paragraph, it says that:
7 "We need help in technical maintenance of weapons and acquisition
8 of ammunition, grease, and petrol. All weapons and ammunition we get
9 from the Yugoslav Army."
10 And then the last sentence, it says:
11 "We are not financially in position to make up for medium and
12 general service which may be done by the institutions of the Yugoslav
13 Army."
14 MR. SAXON: And if we could then focus, please, on the paragraph
15 lower down that begins with the word "Representatives ..."
16 Q. It says that:
17 "Representatives of the SAK Headquarters together with their
18 commandant presented these problems at the last meeting with the General
19 Staff of the Yugoslav Army on 24 May 1993."
20 JUDGE MOLOTO: Could we be reminded? What does "SAK" stand for?
21 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I'm not familiar with the acronym SAK.
22 Excuse me, Serbian Army of Krajina. It's at the top.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Oh, it's an English acronym.
24 MR. SAXON: Yes.
25 Q. And then there is a paragraph that says -- it's a request,
Page 1498
1 actually.
2 "We ask you to try to exercise your authority and influence the
3 realisation of our requests presented to the General Staff of the
4 Yugoslav Army as soon as possible."
5 Mr. Torkildsen, what, if anything, did you find significant in
6 this document?
7 A. This document corroborates all the documents that I have seen
8 that the RSK army didn't have their own financial resources, so they had
9 to request that from -- from the FRY. And here they are specifically
10 asking the then-President, Mr. Milosevic to use his influence over the VJ
11 army in order to get that financial assistance that they need.
12 MR. SAXON: I would seek to tender this document, Your Honour,
13 please.
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: It's admitted. May it please be given an exhibit
15 number.
16 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P320, Your Honours.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
18 Mr. Saxon, would you like an early one? You don't sound very
19 well.
20 MR. SAXON: I'm grateful, Your Honour, and I do see the time.
21 Thank you.
22 JUDGE MOLOTO: I'm just saying, in light of your condition.
23 MR. SAXON: Well, no, Your Honour -- no, normally we would break
24 at this time?
25 JUDGE MOLOTO: At 12.00.
Page 1499
1 MR. SAXON: Well, then, it's probably -- it probably makes sense
2 before I go on to the next document.
3 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. We'll take a break and come back at half
4 past 12.00. Court adjourned.
5 --- Recess taken at 11.59 a.m.
6 --- On resuming at 12.29 p.m.
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, Mr. Saxon.
8 MR. SAXON: Thank you, Your Honour.
9 Could we please see Prosecution 65 ter 6556.
10 Q. This is a request for a cash grant from the National Bank of
11 Republic of Serbian Krajina, dated 24 July 1995, and the request is
12 addressed to the National Bank of Yugoslavia
13 General Director Vojo Tomic.
14 Mr. Torkildsen --
15 MR. SAXON: Excuse me, could we scroll down towards the bottom of
16 this page.
17 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, the first paragraph says:
18 "Please authorise a new grant of cash, totaling 10 million dinars
19 for the requirements of the National Bank of the Republic of Serbian
20 Krajina."
21 And the next paragraph:
22 "Since we are nearing the end of July, and the deadline for
23 paying the army, police, pensions, et cetera, is approaching, our needs
24 are great."
25 And it says:
Page 1500
1 "In order for the National Bank of the Republic of Serbian
2 Krajina to provide the funds necessary to cover the requirements cited,
3 it needs a further 10 million dinars in addition to the cash in its own
4 treasury."
5 You cite to this request at paragraph 72 of your report. What
6 did you find significant about this document?
7 A. I think the most significant is that as late as in July 1995, the
8 RSK National Bank is still requesting cash from the National Bank of
9 Yugoslavia
10 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, I would seek to tender this document,
11 please.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: It's admitted. May it please be given an exhibit
13 number.
14 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P321, Your Honours.
15 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you so much.
16 MR. SAXON: Could we please see Prosecution 65 ter 6523.
17 Q. This is a document addressed to the investigating judge of the
18 district court in Belgrade
19 Slobodan Milosevic against the ruling to detain him. At the very
20 bottom -- at the end of the third page in English, Mr. Milosevic -- we
21 see Mr. Milosevic has signed it, and the date of this document is 2 April
22 2001.
23 Mr. Torkildsen --
24 MR. SAXON: Thank you, Ms. Taseva. Can we go back to the first
25 page, please. Actually, I misspoke. Ms. Taseva was correct. Can we go
Page 1501
1 back to the second page in English.
2 Q. And, Mr. Torkildsen, the second paragraph of the second page
3 begins with the word "As regards ..." Do you see that?
4 A. Yes, I do.
5 Q. And Mr. Milosevic writes:
6 "As regards the resources spent for weapons, ammunition, and
7 other needs of the Army of Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbian
8 Krajina, these expenditures constituted a state secret and because of
9 state interests could not be indicated in the Law on the Budget, which is
10 a public document."
11 And further down that paragraph, in the middle of the paragraph
12 four lines from the bottom, we see --
13 MR. SAXON: I'm sorry, could we scroll up in the English, please.
14 We're on the same paragraph.
15 Q. We see Mr. Milosevic says -- this is five lines from the bottom:
16 "... and this was not made public ..." he's talking about
17 expenditures, "... because it was a state secret, as was everything else
18 that was provided for the Army of Republika Srpska."
19 Mr. Torkildsen, what did you take from that document that is
20 significant for your report?
21 A. This statement signed by Mr. Milosevic corroborates exactly with
22 some of the other documents that I've been through this morning in terms
23 of pointing out the assistance that they gave to the Army of Republika
24 Srpska being a state secret and not clearly apparent from the budgets.
25 Because when we look at, for instance, the budget of the RS, there is no
Page 1502
1 mentioning there of the primary emissions coming from Belgrade. In order
2 to actually establish that, we have to look at all the other documents
3 and how they relate to each other and put it into a context, and then we
4 can see the pattern of how this was done.
5 JUDGE MOLOTO: Are you saying in the state documents there was no
6 mention of primary emissions in the funding of the RS?
7 THE WITNESS: Yes. No, I'm sorry, Your Honour. It was clearly a
8 mentioning of the primary issues, but there was no mentioning in the RS
9 budget that this originated from Belgrade
10 Miletic report that we looked at - that was the confidential and not the
11 public document, in the public domain - that explains that.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you so much.
13 MR. SAXON: For the record, this is referred to at paragraphs 15
14 and 99 of Mr. Torkildsen's report.
15 Your Honour, I would seek to tender this into evidence, please.
16 JUDGE MOLOTO: It's admitted. May it please be given an exhibit
17 number.
18 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P322, Your Honours.
19 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you so much.
20 Yes, Mr. Saxon.
21 MR. SAXON:
22 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, at paragraphs 5 to 15 of your report, you provide
23 your conclusions. Could you briefly describe the conclusions that you
24 reached based on the work that you performed.
25 A. Yes. My conclusion is that from the year -- from the end of 1991
Page 1503
1 and until early 1994, the main financing source of the RS was the primary
2 emissions that they received from the National Bank of Yugoslavia. And I
3 would also like to add that after that point in time I have not seen any
4 other sources of finance for either the RS or the RSK. Throughout the
5 whole period the main source of finance for these entities there, the
6 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and also the Republic of Serbia
7 Q. Just so that the record is clear, you said "throughout the whole
8 period."
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Can you give us the years that you're referring to now?
11 A. I'm referring to the period 1991 and including 1994, and also at
12 least certain periods of 1995 where they were still requesting cash, as
13 pointed out in the previous documents.
14 Q. Thank you.
15 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, if I may, can we call up 65 ter 6557,
16 please.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
18 While we're waiting for this 65 ter 557, Mr. Torkildsen, would
19 you make the caveat to that conclusion that you are reaching that as late
20 as 1995 there was still yet a requisition from the RSK for that 10
21 billion dinar to Serbia
22 THE WITNESS: Yes, to the FRY.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: So beyond 1994 there was at least that 10 billion
24 request.
25 THE WITNESS: Yes, Your Honour, they were still requesting cash.
Page 1504
1 Yes.
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: And you don't know whether that request was met?
3 THE WITNESS: I haven't seen any evidence to that, no.
4 MR. SAXON: Your Honour, not to beat a dead horse, the document
5 in front of you is a --
6 JUDGE MOLOTO: Official Note.
7 MR. SAXON: -- is an Official Note. It is a slightly different
8 version of the Official Note that we discussed earlier today that was
9 part of 65 ter 6526. I've discussed this with my colleague, Mr. Lukic,
10 and what I propose to do simply now is if this Official Note, 6557, could
11 be marked for identification at this time, and then Mr. Lukic, I believe,
12 will make his arguments about the admission of this document after
13 cross-examination.
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: But if you can clear me, you're saying something
15 slightly different from what you said earlier.
16 Earlier when we discussed Mr. Miletic's report, you indicated
17 that that attachment there, that Official Note in that report, is exactly
18 the same as this one, or at least Mr. Lukic said so.
19 MR. SAXON: And I was wrong, Your Honour.
20 JUDGE MOLOTO: And you were wrong.
21 MR. SAXON: Yes.
22 JUDGE MOLOTO: So there are two separate documents, slightly
23 different?
24 MR. SAXON: Yes, Your Honour.
25 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. Exhibit 6557 -- I beg your pardon. 65 ter
Page 1505
1 6557 is admitted -- is marked for identification. May it please be given
2 an exhibit number.
3 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit P323, marked for
4 identification, Your Honours.
5 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
6 MR. SAXON: Your Honours, that concludes my direct
7 examination. Thank you.
8 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much, Mr. Saxon.
9 Mr. Lukic.
10 Cross-examination by Mr. Lukic:
11 Q. [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Mr. Torkildsen. Let me
12 introduce myself. My name is Novak Lukic. I'm an attorney from
13 Belgrade
14 you a few questions now.
15 First of all, some introductory clarifications is what I'd like
16 to seek from you. Now, this report, the report that we're discussing
17 today, you compiled, first and foremost, for the requirements of the
18 Prosecution in the Slobodan Milosevic trial; right?
19 A. That is correct, yes.
20 Q. And in that same trial you appeared in court and testified with
21 respect to your expert report and answered questions during the
22 cross-examination conducted by Mr. Milosevic himself; right?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. This report of yours, with certain additions and amendments, in
25 fact, represented, if I can put it this way, the substance of your expert
Page 1506
1 finding before the International Court of Justice, pursuant to the
2 complaint made by Bosnia-Herzegovina and the lawsuit against the state
3 community of Serbia
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. You also, as far as I was able to see, for the needs and
6 requirements of the OTP, you compiled another report, expert report, in
7 the Milosevic trial which was called a supplemental report, or something
8 like that, and was linked to your analysis of the financing of the MUP of
9 the Republic of Serbia
10 via, if I can put it that way the companies that were established in
11 Cyprus
12 right?
13 A. That is right, yes.
14 Q. And that expert report was not admitted either in the Milosevic
15 trial or in the Milutinovic trial. It was tendered, but it was not
16 admitted as an exhibit; is that right?
17 A. I can only answer to the Milosevic trial. That's correct, it was
18 not admitted. The Milutinovic trial, I do not know anything about so ...
19 Q. I'd now like to ask you a few questions about your CV so that we
20 can clarify our discussion this morning and your morning testimony, and
21 for that I'm going to use what I have in front of me, which is Exhibit
22 P309, but I might be referring to your first expert report, the initial
23 one.
24 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Perhaps we could have that brought
25 up. It is 65 ter -- just a moment. Let me check the number. 6527 is
Page 1507
1 the number.
2 Q. Well, here it goes. You'll remember this first report, or,
3 rather, CV that you attached to your 2002 expert report, your curriculum
4 vitae.
5 JUDGE MOLOTO: Just for clarity's sake, Mr. Lukic, what we have
6 on the screen now is what you call 6527. What happened to P309, which
7 you were calling -- which you also called?
8 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Not for the time being.
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
10 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I might refer to -- I think I'm going
11 to focus on this particular CV for the moment.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
13 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. You studied at the University of Manchester
15 the field of management; right?
16 A. Yes, that is correct.
17 Q. I looked through the programme of that particular university, and
18 I'm interested in knowing what it was at the time, and I did not see that
19 there were any studies, any course, which would cover public finances and
20 macro-economic policy.
21 Now, at the time that you were there, was there any course or
22 subject taught from that particular area?
23 A. Actually, finance was a big part of this. There were both
24 courses in both macro-economics and micro-economics. Just to clarify,
25 because I think there have been some big changes with that University of
Page 1508
1 Manchester Institute of Science and Technology after I left. I now think
2 that a part of UMIST has merged with Manchester University
3 university in Manchester
4 back to what was actually taught. But that's an issue.
5 JUDGE MOLOTO: And what do we understand in the context of your
6 discussion to be macro-economics and micro-economics?
7 THE WITNESS: Macro-economics is exactly the issues we're dealing
8 with today regarding how, for instance, a country overall is being
9 financed, instead of the micro-economics of how it -- actually businesses
10 go about conducting their finances.
11 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
12 Q. Did you have any final paper to write? And if so, what was the
13 subject of that thesis or paper?
14 A. Are you thinking about my master's degree or my bachelor's
15 degree?
16 Q. I'm still at your studies in Manchester, but I'll ask you about
17 your post-graduate studies in due course. In Manchester, did you have
18 any final paper to write?
19 A. No.
20 Q. Then you attended post-graduate studies for one year in London
21 believe, and it says that this was in shipping, trade, and finance.
22 That's what it says in your CV.
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. Did you have any final paper to write there? And if so, what was
25 the subject?
Page 1509
1 A. Yes, I did have a final paper, and my final paper was "The
2 Attractiveness of Shipping Shares to the Institutional Investors on the
3 Oslo
4 Q. Yes, thank you. I don't think I could repeat that.
5 JUDGE MOLOTO: You can read it on the screen.
6 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. Tell me, please, in your post-graduate studies, within the
8 frameworks of the course you just mentioned, was there any specialisation
9 course with topics such as monetary unions, public finances, or
10 inflationary trends, or anything like that?
11 A. Well, I did a lot of -- well, it was focusing on -- the whole
12 study was focusing on financing, but it was not very much at the macro
13 level, mostly at the micro level.
14 Q. Mr. Torkildsen, I understand your CV in the global sense as
15 saying that professionally you focused on research work; that during your
16 career you were a researcher and investigator. So let me ask you: Did
17 you ever write a professional paper, and were those papers printed? I
18 don't see that in your CV, either in the first CV you provided or in this
19 latest CV either.
20 A. I've never written any professional papers regarding
21 macro-financing, no.
22 Q. So, in actual fact, would I be right in saying that your
23 professional work, first and foremost, was that for 13 years you dealt
24 with research and investigation and establishing some omissions or faults
25 in companies, but you dealt primarily with police research work, if I can
Page 1510
1 put it that way.
2 A. To a certain extent, you are right. But as a financial
3 investigator, a lot of the work that I carried out was analysis and
4 evaluating documents and trying to identify how they -- how the facts
5 related to each other.
6 Q. And the focus of your activity was largely -- well, I'd like to
7 focus on the period until 2002 principally. They were fraud, corruption,
8 bribery, in various institutions for which you -- which you were in
9 charge of investigating and monitoring. Would that be generally right?
10 A. It would be very much a matter of following the money trail. In
11 order to solve a financial crime, you would have to follow the money from
12 where it starts and to whose pockets it ends up in, which is very much
13 the same as in this case. It's just that in this case it's a much
14 broader scale, but the principles being the same.
15 Q. Yes, but before you became an investigator for the OTP, in your
16 investigations you did not look into public finances, did you?
17 A. Well, I did look into public financing in cases -- actually,
18 regards -- regarding defrauding the state. Unfortunately, there are a
19 lot of cases out there that involves people basically stealing public
20 money.
21 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] May we take a look at page 2 of this
22 document that we've just had on our screens. It says there -- well, I'm
23 sorry, but we have to go back to page 1, the bottom part of page 1, and
24 I'm interested in the period between 1994 up to 2000.
25 Q. I'm reading the B/C/S version, so it's a bit -- it says you were
Page 1511
1 special investigator for Norway
2 Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime. So
3 that's the period before you became an investigator in the Hague
4 Tribunal, or rather the OTP of the Tribunal. So for a series of years,
5 you worked for that Norwegian agency, and it has an acronym, I believe,
6 OKOKRIM, or something like that.
7 A. Correct.
8 Q. Now, I took a look at that. Would you agree with me when I say
9 that the report of the organisation called "Group of States Against
10 Corruption," that in 2002 they ascertained that Norway had the least
11 number of cases of corruption and embezzlement, and so on. Do you agree
12 with that conclusion?
13 A. It depends compared to, actually, which other countries?
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, Mr. Saxon.
15 MR. SAXON: I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt the response. I
16 can wait.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay.
18 Finish off your answer, Mr. Torkildsen.
19 THE WITNESS: Actually, Norway, unfortunately, is ranked as the
20 most corrupt country in the Nordic region, but it's very low on the
21 international scale. But we do have, unfortunately, quite a number of
22 corruption cases. Had.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: No longer?
24 THE WITNESS: Well, we still have some ongoing cases.
25 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Saxon.
Page 1512
1 MR. SAXON: Thank you.
2 Would it be possible for the Prosecution to receive a copy of the
3 report that Mr. Lukic mentioned?
4 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I don't have it with me, but
5 certainly I will provide it to the Prosecution. I hadn't prepared to
6 tender that into evidence. I just wanted to check out my information.
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much. We would love to have it
8 handed over.
9 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. There's something else that I read in that particular report, and
11 it's this: That from 1997 to 2000, this organisation, OKOKRIM, that you
12 worked for, launched two investigations for corruption, and that during
13 that period of time nobody was convicted of that crime. That's what I
14 read, so would that be right? Do you agree with that? Do you know
15 anything more about that? Because it was during the period that you
16 worked there, I believe.
17 A. What I remember from that period, I investigated one case that I
18 actually spent more than three years on. It was a big corruption case
19 involving a Norwegian National being employed by UNICEF. As I mentioned
20 this morning, it involved investigations in approximately 15 to 16
21 countries throughout Europe
22 what kept me busy at that time. And the person in question, he was found
23 guilty, and that must have been in 2001, because I remember I had to
24 leave the Tribunal in order to go to Oslo to testify.
25 Q. During that period while you were working in that Norwegian
Page 1513
1 agency, I assume that you worked in teams. Did you?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. And I also assume that the teams included professionals from
4 different professions, for example, economics; another example, law; then
5 various other specialties; forensic experts, and so on. I assume that
6 that's how your teamwork functioned.
7 A. Yes, that is correct.
8 Q. Now, in those teams of yours, were there public prosecutors
9 included and were you subordinate to the rules governing the public
10 prosecutor's office?
11 A. Yes. Each of the teams was led by a senior public prosecutor.
12 Q. And I also assume that it was the public prosecutor that set the
13 guidelines for you, that is to say, to steer you in one direction or
14 another and provide perhaps legal advice linked to what the prosecutor
15 was interested in for him to be able to take action should the need
16 arise.
17 A. That would be his job, yes.
18 Q. Did you also have to be informed about legal regulations during
19 that period of time that were in force and were important for your cases.
20 For example, if you were there supposed to establish whether a person in
21 a company was responsible for something and if they did hold a
22 responsible position in a company, you would have to know what their
23 legal responsibilities were.
24 A. I'm not sure I understand your question here.
25 Q. If you were investigating a case, corruption in a company, for
Page 1514
1 example, you had to know what laws applied to the functioning of that
2 company to see whether there were any irregularities or omissions in the
3 work of such a company.
4 A. Yes, that could be relevant. Yes.
5 Q. I'd now like to ask you a few questions linked to your work and
6 your methodology, and you told us something about that to a certain
7 extent in your introduction here today.
8 Paragraph 1, in particular, do you have your report in front of
9 you? I'd like you to be provided with a copy if you haven't got it,
10 because I'd like to refer to paragraph 1.
11 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] So Mr. Torkildsen be provided with a
12 hard copy, please.
13 JUDGE MOLOTO: Would you like to bring it up on the screen,
14 Mr. --
15 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I don't know. Yes, we can do that
16 too, yes.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Before we do that, what would you like to do that
18 with 6527?
19 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I would like to tender that document
20 into evidence as well, and I apologise for not doing so.
21 JUDGE MOLOTO: The document is admitted into evidence. May it
22 please be given an exhibit number.
23 THE REGISTRAR: That will be Exhibit D9, Your Honours.
24 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
25 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] May we put up paragraph 1, ERN
Page 1515
1 number -- let me just check that. It is Mr. Torkildsen's report.
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: What is the exhibit number?
3 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I think --
4 THE REGISTRAR: It is P310, marked for identification, Your
5 Honours.
6 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much.
7 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Paragraph 1, please. We'll just wait
8 to have it up in English. Yes, it's there.
9 Q. Anyway, this is what you say. You say that:
10 "The Office of the Prosecutor asked me to identify, review,
11 analyse and write a report on a large number of documents obtained from
12 the OTP."
13 And then you go on to say that the scope of your report was "to
14 determine what, if any, during the period of 1991 to 1995, financial
15 support was provided by organisations under the alleged de jure and de
16 facto control of Slobodan Milosevic ..." and then it goes on to mention
17 the areas that were called Republika Srpska Krajina and Republika Srpska.
18 That's a summary of paragraph 1. Mr. Torkildsen, can you tell us
19 how you, as an economist, understand the concept of de jure and de facto.
20 You must have had a position on that concept given your assignment.
21 A. The de jure control would be actually the control you have in
22 fact of your official position, but it doesn't exactly mean that you can
23 also influence on the control of other people, even if, according to your
24 official position, that is not the case. So there is a big difference
25 there. So it can be in terms of your personality, who you are connected
Page 1516
1 to, and so on.
2 Q. So that would be de facto control, what you just said.
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Somebody that doesn't have direct -- well, that's where you make
5 the distinction. Yes, I understand right.
6 Now, the person from the OTP who gave you this assignment and
7 stipulated it as set out in paragraph 1, did the Prosecutor who gave you
8 the assignment tell you what they, that is to say, the OTP, considers
9 were organisations under de jure control of Mr. Milosevic and what were
10 the de facto ones? Did they present their views in the matter?
11 A. Well, as it is stated here, "the alleged control," and then that,
12 again, means what was alleged by the Prosecution. Again, that means the
13 indictment of Mr. Slobodan Milosevic.
14 Q. For you to know who, according to the Prosecution, were the
15 organs under the de jure control of Slobodan Milosevic, you had to be
16 aware of the regulations giving that person his de jure remit, if I can
17 put it that way.
18 A. Well, I -- presumably at that time I did have some knowledge
19 about the regulations. It's okay that I only -- well, that I dealt
20 mainly with the financial documents, but of course I also read other
21 documents that were provided to me.
22 JUDGE MOLOTO: I also thought, Mr. Lukic, that the witness said
23 that the allegations of de jure and de facto were as made in the
24 indictment by the Prosecution. It was not a determination by him, but a
25 determination by the Prosecutor.
Page 1517
1 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Yes, I understood that, Your Honour,
2 but I wanted to ask the question nonetheless because I wanted to link
3 that up to his conclusions in paragraph 124, in order to be able to see
4 how he was able to establish and ascertain Milosevic's de jure and
5 de facto relationships.
6 Q. Did you, Mr. Torkildsen -- well, anyway, in the Milosevic trial,
7 you testified and said that you hadn't read the constitution when asked
8 by Mr. Milosevic on page 32 of the transcript of the 10th of April, 2003
9 Do you remember that? We can put it up on the screen if need be. But
10 anyway, Mr. Milosevic asked you whether you had read the constitution of
11 the Federal Republic
12 A. That is correct. I remember very well the time I had in court
13 with Mr. Milosevic.
14 Q. And did you read at that time the role on the Federal Executive
15 Council or, rather, the law on the Federal Executive Council, and the
16 National Bank of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which was
17 in force until 1992? Did you read those laws and regulations?
18 A. That I cannot remember.
19 Q. I have a number of questions relating to regulations. The law on
20 the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after the
21 constitution was enacted, did you read that? And I'm referring in 1992.
22 A. In general I can state that as of today, I cannot remember which
23 laws I read.
24 Q. Did you read the laws provided to you by someone from the
25 Prosecutor, or did you request the OTP to provide you with certain laws
Page 1518
1 and regulations that you considered would be necessary for you to be able
2 to carry out your work? Do you remember that in methodological terms,
3 I'm asking you now?
4 A. I can't remember which laws I requested or which laws were
5 provided me now, six years later. No, I'm sorry.
6 Q. I assume that you know that in the Federal Republic
7 Yugoslavia
8 who passed the budget.
9 A. Yeah, it would be the government who had proposed the budget, and
10 then it would be the Assembly would vote on the budget and pass the
11 budget as such.
12 Q. Do you happen to know -- did you read this in any of the
13 regulations or come across a document which indicates who within the
14 government proposed part of the budget earmarked for defence?
15 A. I can't remember now.
16 Q. If I told you that it was the Minister of Defence together with
17 the Minister of Finance, would that be logical?
18 A. That sounds very logical, yes.
19 Q. Do you know who was the beneficiary of the defence budget? To be
20 very specific, the budget of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia earmarked
21 for defence, who was the beneficiary of that particular segment of the
22 budget?
23 A. That would be the army, of course.
24 Q. Anybody else?
25 A. Well, if we're talking about the army, it would be the officers
Page 1519
1 employed in the army. It would be the soldiers, conscripts, all other
2 personnel that was attached to the army.
3 Q. But you claim that the part of the budget earmarked for defence
4 was earmarked specifically for the army and whatever was within the army.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. I have another couple of questions in regard of methodology.
7 Today, I understood that in preparing to compile this report, you made
8 use of a large number of documents that you were provided by the OTP, and
9 then you examined them or looked for the keyword, as you have described.
10 Having been provided some of these documents by the assistants, you used
11 these documents as a source for your own analysis.
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. I interpret this as classical analytical work. This was not
14 investigative work. This was an analytical work on the basis of sources
15 provided to you by someone else.
16 A. It was very much an analytical job, yes.
17 Q. This was at variance with what you had done before, where you
18 actually investigated documents and sought out documents yourself. In
19 this case you were offered these documents.
20 A. Yes. To a certain extent that is correct. But also, all my
21 previous jobs have been very much analytical, I mean, but the difference
22 being here that I didn't initially collect the documents myself firsthand
23 from the original source, that being the main difference.
24 Q. In my view there is a methodological difference here, and I'm
25 going to ask you whether I'm wrong. When you did your previous reports,
Page 1520
1 when you worked on your previous jobs, when you were an investigator of
2 these teams organised within the Norwegian bodies and some embezzlement
3 of this is reported to you, so you come to an institution and the
4 representatives of that institution provide you with some documents and
5 then you ask them for something else, or you go to other institutions to
6 find the solution which you're interested in; namely, you are not
7 confined to just those documents given to you by this first company, but
8 you also seek out some other sources yourself.
9 A. Yes, I did seek out sources myself as well, yes.
10 Q. In this report, when you prepared this paper, you worked
11 exclusively on the basis of what was provided to you by the OTP, am I
12 right?
13 A. Almost exclusively. Just to elaborate on that. For instance,
14 the budgets that we have presented here today, these were not budgets
15 that were entered into the evidence system of the OTP because -- so as
16 such were not part of the OTP collected evidence, but they were still
17 available in sort of the public domain of the OTP. But no one at the OTP
18 had thought about this being of relevance before. So I requested these
19 budgets to be presented to me and they were, and I reviewed them.
20 Q. Let's have no mysteries. Budgets and budget revisions and final
21 accounts are public documents in the public document -- in the public
22 domain, both in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in the Republic of
23 Serbian Krajina, and in Republika Srpska, and all of them had been
24 published in their respective Official Gazettes; right?
25 A. That is my understanding, yes.
Page 1521
1 Q. And you have confirmed for us today that in your analysis, in
2 1994, you only examined for the fiscal year 1994 the budget of the
3 Republic of Serbian Krajina; is that right?
4 A. That is correct. I asked the OTP to assist me in identifying the
5 RS budget for 1994 and 1994 -- 1995, but I haven't received it, and it
6 hasn't been identified.
7 Q. I found it only a couple of days ago myself, and it was quite
8 simple to find. Did you ask --
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Saxon.
10 MR. SAXON: I believe that last comment was really Mr. Lukic
11 providing evidence, rather than a question.
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Lukic.
13 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] My profound apologies.
14 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you very much. You may proceed.
15 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
16 Q. You knew, did you not, that those were public documents? Did you
17 go to your colleagues from the OTP with whom you're working and tell
18 them, I should like to be able to find all these budgets for Republika
19 Srpska, for the Serbian Krajina, and for the Federal Republic
20 Yugoslavia
21 This is what you certainly needed in your analysis, didn't you?
22 A. Yes, of course, it would have been helpful.
23 Q. But did you ask them to provide you with those documents?
24 A. Yes. I first asked them to identify them and -- yeah.
25 Q. And were you given such information? Could they identify them,
Page 1522
1 or did they tell you that they could not identify them?
2 A. As far as I remember, they looked for them but they couldn't
3 identify them.
4 Q. Had you been in your previous position, you would have had the
5 power to go to a certain institution and ask for a specific document
6 yourself. I mean when you were working as an investigator in the
7 Norwegian organisation.
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Did you know that in the Republic of Srpska
10 passed on the Social Accountancy Service or the -- actually, you talked
11 about the Public Accounting Service and the Public Auditing Service, but
12 the designations have been changed, but functionally and
13 operational-wise, they are the same organisation. Do you know that this
14 law was passed in Republika Srpska in May 1992?
15 A. I may have seen this law but I can't remember.
16 Q. If I tell you that under Article 8 of that law it has been
17 envisaged that all documents and books of the Public Accounting Service
18 of Republika Srpska are public documents, do you think that it would have
19 been of assistance to you if you had examined the books of the Public
20 Accounting Service of Republika Srpska in the period under review,
21 namely, in the period in which you were doing your own investigations?
22 A. That would have been of interest, yes.
23 Q. Did you propose to the OTP at any point during your investigative
24 and analytical work, namely, whilst examining all these documents, did
25 you propose to the OTP to ask for a specific document from, for instance,
Page 1523
1 the authorities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or in the Republika
2 Srpska or in Croatia
3 identify, a specific document, or did you not do so?
4 A. We had -- we had several requests to the authorities in Belgrade
5 and also, as far as I remember, other places. But I would just like to
6 add to this because the situation at the OTP, I was the only financial
7 investigator actually dealing with an enormous task, and if we were going
8 to follow all angles regarding this case, it would have required a huge
9 number of financial investigators or investigators with the right
10 competence to follow up all the possible leads.
11 Q. But do you agree with me when I say that -- no, let me first ask
12 you a layman's question from the legal aspect. Do you agree with me that
13 it is always easy to follow the trail of money because there is always a
14 trace left behind?
15 A. Yes. If it is recorded in proper records, it's always easy, and
16 those records are made available. But if you are talking about following
17 the trail of cash, that is not always easy.
18 Q. In your report you stated that financing of -- you claim that the
19 financing of the Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbian Krajina
20 functioned via the Social Accounting Service, in which period it was
21 actually derived from primary issue, that financing, that is.
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And you will agree with me that in such a situation if money is
24 being printed in one institution and that money is being distributed
25 somewhere via official state institutions, it is quite easy to follow the
Page 1524
1 trail of such money. I'm not talking about cash.
2 A. It should be at least, yes.
3 Q. Particularly so when these are public state institutions, the
4 operation of which is regulated under a law which is a public document
5 itself.
6 A. It depends, again, on whether the law is followed or not and
7 whether proper records are kept.
8 Q. Very well. Prior to the beginning of your testimony, we had
9 certain corrections in your paper which were conveyed to us by Colleague
10 Saxon. I believe it is in paragraph 19, a sentence in paragraph 19. You
11 said that --
12 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Saxon.
13 MR. SAXON: Perhaps if the page with this paragraph could be
14 called up on e-court so that Mr. Torkildsen could see it.
15 JUDGE MOLOTO: Mr. Lukic.
16 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Just one minute. It is page 19. It
17 is coming up.
18 Q. After the proofing notes compiled with you and the OTP in
19 preparing you to appear before this Chamber, it was said that after the
20 sentence "Slobodan Milosevic had no objections to money becoming
21 accessible via primary issue," this is the sentence which you consider
22 should be omitted from this report and should not be an integral part of
23 it. Is my conclusion correct? Do you agree with me that you decided to
24 change -- to change your report and this particular part after the
25 cross-examination by Slobodan Milosevic and the argumentation which he
Page 1525
1 adduced to you in connection with the discussions at that particular
2 session of the SFRY Presidency?
3 A. From what I can recollect from my previous testimony, it's that
4 Mr. Milosevic was arguing that he left at lunchtime during these
5 discussions and therefore could not object, as I have made a point of in
6 the report. So, yes, of course, if that was the case, I will have to go
7 back on that.
8 Q. But do you agree with me that at that particular session, he did
9 not advocate primary issue. He was not in favour of it.
10 A. What I'm stating here is that it's actually the result in the
11 end. By looking at what happened later on, you see the consequences of
12 the politics that was actually -- that was actually applied in the coming
13 years. But in this particular session, I agree with you that he did
14 not -- he did not say anything that he was specifically in favour of
15 primary -- the use of primary emissions.
16 Q. Am I correct when I say that now you have become more precise in
17 respect of a specific matter which is not so stated in your report.
18 This, again, emanates, in my view, from the examination in the Milosevic
19 case, and that is when on transcript page 19044 you confirmed that there
20 had been no primary emission any more as of January 1994.
21 MR. SAXON: Your Honour.
22 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, Mr. Saxon.
23 THE WITNESS: At least --
24 MR. SAXON: Simply a concern. I'm sorry to interrupt. In the
25 middle of that last question, again, my colleague said: "This, again,
Page 1526
1 emanates in my view from the examination in the Milosevic case ..." and
2 then the transcript page is mentioned. It just seems -- the record
3 appears to be unclear whether we're hearing -- whether the evidence is
4 Mr. Lukic's view or whether it's part of a question addressed to the
5 witness. That's my only concern.
6 JUDGE MOLOTO: Yes, Mr. Lukic.
7 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Sorry, I'll be more precise.
8 JUDGE MOLOTO: You'll be more precise. I have another question
9 before you ask the next question. My question would then also be
10 transcript page 19044, is this of the Milosevic trial? Do we have a copy
11 of that page for the witness to see?
12 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Yes.
13 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
14 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honours. We have inserted
15 it in e-court. That is page 1D001548. That is the document. It is
16 under that number that the document has been inserted into e-court.
17 JUDGE MOLOTO: Now, I was just going to say that shouldn't we
18 have disposed of P310, MFI
19 then I see that it has moved. Are you done with that previous document,
20 Exhibit P310, MFI
21 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I'm going to use P310, MFI. I am
22 going to use his work during my further interrogation.
23 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. Let's see the relevant transcript. That's
24 19004.
25 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] So 19044 is the official page of the
Page 1527
1 transcript.
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: This is 1900, not 044.
3 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] What I need is 044.
4 JUDGE MOLOTO: I'm sure the registrar is getting there.
5 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I apologise to the Registry for not
6 having called up the page properly, the way it should be done. It is the
7 twentieth line.
8 Q. There you say -- you can read it.
9 [In English] "Yes. I am aware that the inflation was stabilised
10 in January 1994 when Governor Avramovic of the National Bank of
11 Yugoslavia
12 [Interpretation] And then the next page, Milosevic's question,
13 and you respond in line 3:
14 [In English] "... to finance budget deficit."
15 MR. SAXON: We cannot see line 3, unfortunately.
16 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. My question is: Since in your work you never referred to when
18 the financing of Republika Srpska and the Republika Srpska Krajina from
19 the budget ended, you never say anything about that, do you agree with me
20 that after examination by Milosevic you realised that this was an
21 important matter which you should actually accentuate and also impress
22 upon this Trial Chamber?
23 A. Yes, I agree that if I had had the annual accounts or the budgets
24 of the RS available for 1994 and 1995, that could have been of relevance,
25 yes.
Page 1528
1 Q. Without that particular fact you maintain the position, not
2 having the budgets for 1994 and 1995, you maintain that the budget was no
3 longer financed from primary issue after the introduction of this
4 super-dinar, there was no more deficit financing, in other words.
5 A. At least it wasn't -- to a very large extent, it was something
6 like -- almost like 10 per cent a year. I have reviewed all the budgets
7 for the FRY and the RSK for that period, and I do assume that the budgets
8 of the RS would show the same picture for 1994 and 1995, as these other
9 budgets that I have reviewed.
10 JUDGE MOLOTO: I'm a little confused. You're saying,
11 Mr. Torkildsen, you have reviewed all the budgets for the FRY and the RSK
12 for that period, and you do assume that the budgets of the RS would show
13 the same picture for 1994 and 1995 as these other budgets that you have
14 reviewed.
15 I thought a little earlier you had indicated that -- it actually
16 was put to you that you didn't actually have access to the budgets for
17 1994 and 1995 for all these three entities.
18 THE WITNESS: I have never seen the budgets for Republika Srpska,
19 but I have seen some of the budgets for these other entities, yes.
20 JUDGE MOLOTO: Okay. And on what basis would you then assume
21 that the 1994/1995 budgets of the Republika Srpska which you didn't see
22 would have had a 10 per cent allocation as the others had?
23 THE WITNESS: I assume that on the basis -- because of the
24 previous year. The previous years showed the same pattern for all three
25 entities. Either we're talking about the FRY, the RS, and the SRK, the
Page 1529
1 method of financing was the same. So I then, as a result of that,
2 assumed that that would also be the case for the RS, both for 1994 and
3 for 1995.
4 JUDGE MOLOTO: You're not basing it on maybe having had sight of
5 the FRY budgets for 1994 and 1995 indicating a 10 per cent allocation
6 towards the RSK, even -- towards RS, even if you did not see the RS
7 budgets. You're not basing it on that?
8 THE WITNESS: No, I'm not.
9 JUDGE MOLOTO: Thank you.
10 You may proceed.
11 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
12 Q. Do you know what the hyperinflation, the rate was in percentages
13 when it was the highest, that is, towards the end of 1993, in the last
14 months of 1993, in the FRY?
15 A. I know that it was extremely high, and I also made a table of
16 that in the end of my report outlining this. We are talking here most
17 likely a thousand per cent a day, or it could even be higher.
18 Q. And just in a couple of sentences for the benefit of us in the
19 courtroom understanding, what happened in January 1994? Who prepared
20 this programme? And what was actually done at that particular moment?
21 What was the point of that programme, its objective?
22 A. Its objective was to stop the inflation, and it was carried out
23 under Governor Avramovic at the National Bank of Yugoslavia.
24 Q. Did you hear about him? I mean, have you formed a professional
25 opinion on him?
Page 1530
1 A. No.
2 Q. I don't know whether my question can stem from the response I've
3 just been given, but do you know that in January 1994 he was appointed
4 Governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia
5 upon this monetary reform of the monetary system in Yugoslavia?
6 A. Yes.
7 JUDGE MOLOTO: If I may just interject, is the monetary reform of
8 the monetary system of Yugoslavia
9 the previous question? I was going to ask you what is that programme
10 you're talking about in -- if you look at page 92, from line 19 to 22,
11 you're talking of a programme there, and you lost me. I'm not quite sure
12 what programme you're talking about.
13 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I wish to ask a few specific
14 questions about this programme which is called the programme of the
15 reconstruction of the monetary system and the financial stabilisation of
16 the SFRY. Maybe I'm paraphrasing, but through the documents we'll be
17 going back to that programme.
18 But, Your Honours, if it is time now, because I will have another
19 topic to broach.
20 JUDGE MOLOTO: It is, indeed, time. Thank you very much. You
21 have answered my question.
22 Mr. Torkildsen, we haven't finished with you. It's time to
23 adjourn for the day. You will have to come back tomorrow again at 9.00
24 in the morning. Let me just warn you that you may not talk to anybody
25 about --
Page 1531
1 [Trial Chamber and registrar confer]
2 JUDGE MOLOTO: Madam Registrar just reminded me that we don't sit
3 tomorrow. We will sit on Monday. So you have to come back on Monday.
4 Between now and then, you may not discuss this matter with anybody.
5 Court adjourned to Monday, at quarter past 2.00 in the afternoon.
6 Same courtroom at a quarter past 2.00. Court adjourned.
7 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.46 p.m.
8 to be reconvened on Monday, the 17th day of
9 November, 2008, at 9.00 a.m.
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