1 Tuesday, 2 December 2003

2 [Open session]

3 [The accused entered court]

4 --- Upon commencing at 9.02 a.m.

5 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] [Microphone not activated]

6 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please, Your Honour.

7 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] [Microphone not activated]

8 THE REGISTRAR: Case number IT-01-47-T, the Prosecutor versus

9 Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kubura.

10 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] [Microphone not activated]

11 I should like to ask the Prosecution to introduce itself, please.

12 MR. WITHOPF: Good morning, Your Honours. Good morning, Counsel.

13 For the Prosecution appear Mr. David Re on my far right-hand side,

14 Mr. Daryl Mundis behind me, the case manager is Mrs. Kimberly Fleming,

15 and my name is Mr. Ekkehard Withopf.

16 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you. Let me now ask the

17 Defence to introduce themselves.

18 MS. RESIDOVIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Mr. President.

19 Good morning, Your Honours. My name is Edina Residovic, Defence counsel

20 for General Enver Hadzihasanovic. My co-counsel is Stephane Bourgon,

21 attorney from Montreal. And with us is our legal assistant, Mirna

22 Milanovic.

23 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you. Let us continue.

24 MR. IBRISIMOVIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honours. On

25 behalf of Mr. Kubura, Fahrudin Ibrisimovic, Mr. Rodney Dixon, and

1 Mr. Nermin Mulalic.

2 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. Could the

3 accused stand, please. I wish to ask Mr. Hadzihasanovic to introduce

4 himself, to tell us his first and last name and date of birth.

5 THE ACCUSED HADZIHASANOVIC: [Interpretation] Good morning,

6 Mr. President. Good morning, Your Honours. My name is Enver

7 Hadzihasanovic. I was born on the 7th of July, 1950 in Zvornik. I am

8 living in Sarajevo, Trampina Street number 6. I am a general of the army

9 of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, retired as of 2000.

10 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you.

11 Mr. Kubura.

12 THE ACCUSED KUBURA: [Interpretation] Good morning, Mr.

13 President. Good morning, Your Honours. My name is Amir Kubura, born on

14 the 4th of March, 1964, municipality of Kakanj in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

15 I am an officer of the army of the Federation. I am living in Sarajevo,

16 Topalosmana Street, number 22.

17 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you. You may be seated.

18 Let me first address the two accused before giving the floor to

19 the Prosecutor. Regarding the accused, I am going to tell you'll that

20 there will be an opening statement presented by the Prosecutor. If you

21 wish, you may make a statement after that. That statement will not be

22 subject to any questions. In continuation of the proceedings, regarding

23 the production of evidence by the Prosecution, the Prosecution will be

24 presenting its evidence principally through witnesses. The witnesses

25 will be examined first by the Prosecutor, who will be conducting the

1 examination-in-chief, and then the Defence may engage in a

2 cross-examination. If necessary, the Prosecutor may re-examine the

3 witness.

4 The cross-examination will be under the control of the Judges of

5 this Chamber. The cross-examination must be limited to the subjects

6 covered by the examination-in-chief to questions that may affect the

7 credibility of the witness, and questions that have to be relevant in

8 relation to the evidence of the party that is cross-examining, and it is

9 only with the permission of the Judges that other questions may possibly

10 be put.

11 When the Prosecutor has completed the presentation of its

12 evidence - and we believe that that will be around the month of June next

13 year - the accused may, if they so wish, file a motion of acquittal.

14 This is envisaged by Rule 88 bis of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence.

15 I beg correction -- 98 bis. In that case, the Chamber, if it so

16 considers that there is sufficient evidence to rule acquittal, it may do

17 so. Otherwise, it will then be the case, the turn of the Defence to

18 present its evidence. And within that framework, you will be able to

19 make an opening statement if you so wish. You may call witnesses to

20 testify, and you may present other forms of evidence. You may also, if

21 you wish, appear as witnesses within the framework of your own defence.

22 All the witnesses called by the Defence - and yourself, if you

23 wish to testify - will then be cross-examined by the Prosecution. After

24 this stage, we will come to the rebuttal evidence. The Prosecutor may

25 call witnesses to testify to rebut the evidence presented by the Defence.

1 The accused may also be authorised to call its own witnesses in response.

2 Also, the Chamber may call witnesses if it considers that to be

3 necessary.

4 So after this stage, we will come to the pleadings, and in

5 accordance with the Rules of Evidence they will submit their briefs and

6 the Judges of the Chamber will hear the arguments and pleas of the

7 Prosecution and of the Defence, upon which the Judges will deliberate and

8 pronounce judgement in a public hearing on a date that will be decided by

9 the Judges.

10 The procedure that I have now summarised is envisaged by the

11 Rules of Procedure and Evidence, in Rules 84 onwards. You have the Rules

12 at your disposal, and you were able to consult the relevant articles and

13 rules dealing with the proceedings themselves.

14 I shall now give the floor to the Prosecutor to make his opening

15 statement, having noted that last Friday the Chamber invited the parties

16 to get in touch in order to make progress regarding the points of law and

17 fact on which they agree or disagree, and I believe that today or

18 tomorrow we will have a written document reflecting the outcome of the

19 meetings that you held yesterday.

20 I shall now give the floor to the Prosecution to make its opening

21 statement.

22 [Prosecution Opening Statement]

23 MR. WITHOPF: Your Honours, this is a case about command

24 responsibility. It is a case about the criminal liability of the two

25 accused, Enver Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kubura, General Hadzihasanovic and

1 Colonel Kubura for failing to prevent and failing to punish crimes, war

2 crimes committed by their subordinates. It is the first pure command

3 responsibility case in the history of this Tribunal. It is the first

4 trial of military commanders for criminal responsibility purely based on

5 their subordinates' conduct. And it is a case that shows the flip side

6 to a number of cases that have been tried by this Tribunal. The most

7 prominent are the cases the Prosecutor versus Blaskic and the Prosecutor

8 versus Kordic and Cerkez. As such, this trial against Enver

9 Hadzihasanovic and Amir Kubura demonstrates - demonstrates - that all

10 sides to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, although in different

11 areas and different in scale, committed the serious violations of

12 international humanitarian law that fall under the jurisdiction of this

13 Tribunal.

14 On 3 March 2000, Your Honours, the Tribunal's then-President,

15 Judge Jorda, foreshadowed this in delivering the judgement in the Blaskic

16 case. He stated that - and I'm quoting - "The Trial Chamber has taken

17 note of the possibility that crimes were committed by Muslim forces."

18 And he went on to say, "The Trial Chamber considers -- considers that it

19 has received evidence of atrocities committed against Croatian civilians

20 and that the then-perpetrators of those crimes must be prosecuted. This

21 is the trial of the commanders whose soldiers, whose subordinates,

22 committed some of those atrocities.

23 This trial will contribute to our understanding of what happened

24 in Central Bosnia in 1993. The evidence will show that the other side of

25 the war crimes prosecuted in the Blaskic, Kordic and Cerkez, and

1 Kupreskic cases, it will show that war crimes were being committed --

2 were committed by both sides of the conflict in Central Bosnia. This

3 trial will give the world a more complete picture of the war in Bosnia.

4 I will now very briefly turn to the military and political

5 situation in Central Bosnia that resulted in the conflict between the

6 army of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the ABiH, and the

7 Croatian Defence Council, the HVO. The background against which this

8 conflict started, the reasons for it, the military and the political

9 developments in the course of this conflict, have been the subject

10 matter -- have been the subject matter of a number of trials before this

11 Tribunal.

12 Accordingly these facts have been repeatedly - repeatedly have

13 been addressed in Tribunal's judgements. They are well known and they

14 merit only a brief summary.

15 The former Yugoslavia was comprised of six republics and two

16 autonomous regions. In the late 1980s and in the early 1990s, social and

17 political events culminated within the disintegration of that state.

18 Four of the republics - namely, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia,

19 and Macedonia - declared their independence. In the wake of such

20 declarations of independence, terrible and horrible wars, bloody wars

21 ensued, particularly in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

22 Focussing on the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the parties to

23 the conflict were generally -- were generally, although not exclusively,

24 divided amongst ethnic lines. The Bosnian Serbs, supported by the

25 Yugoslav army, the JNA, attempted to create an independent -- an

1 independent entity known as the Republika Srpska. They were opposed by

2 the Bosnian Muslims and the Bosnian Croats, both groups, the Bosnian

3 Muslims and the Bosnian Croats were initially under the direction of the

4 central government in Sarajevo. Whilst the Bosnian Serbs made

5 significant -- significant territorial gains and seized control over

6 large parts of the country, the original alliance between the Bosnian

7 Croats and the Bosnian Muslims against the Serbian offensive fell apart.

8 It fell apart in Central Bosnia. A war within a war, the Muslim-Croat

9 war erupted. As a result, between January 1993 and March 1994, the ABiH

10 on the one side and the HVO, supported by the army of the Republic of

11 Croatia, the HV, on the other side, engaged in an armed conflict in

12 Central Bosnia. This armed conflict continued -- continued throughout

13 the time relevant to this indictment. That were and the war crimes

14 committed by troops of the ABiH subordinated to the two accused are the

15 subject of the indictment.

16 I will now turn to the command structure within the ABiH 3rd

17 Corps. In order to assist the Trial Chamber, we will show a number of

18 maps that will give an impression of the geographical locations where the

19 crimes -- where the crimes by the subordinates of the two accused were

20 committed. By a presidential decree of 18 August 1992, the ABiH was

21 divided into five military areas of responsibility known as corps. The

22 areas -- the five areas of responsibility are detailed on the first map

23 we are about to show you now. You have the 3rd Corps, covering

24 substantial periods -- substantial portions, as you can see on the map,

25 of Central Bosnia, the 3rd Corps located between the 5th Corps in the

1 west and the 2nd Corps in the east, covering areas of Central Bosnia

2 located to the north of Sarajevo.

3 Due to the fact that the Bosnian Serbs had occupied substantial

4 portions of its geographical area, in particular to the north, as one can

5 see from the confrontation line, which is detailed on the map, the 3rd

6 Corps temporary headquarter was based in Zenica. It was based in Zenica

7 throughout the indictment period. The 3rd Corps area under the control

8 of the ABiH covered, as can also be seen from the map - from the next

9 map; it's map number 3 - covered a number of municipalities, including

10 the ones in which subordinates of the accused committed the crimes. Such

11 municipalities include the municipality of Bugojno, the municipality of

12 Travnik, Zenica, Kakanj, and Vares. Such municipalities, these

13 municipalities are detailed on the map, Your Honours, you have in front

14 of you.

15 From 14th November 1992, the accused Hadzihasanovic,

16 General Hadzihasanovic, commanded the 3rd Corps. At the time he took

17 over command, he had already served for more than 20 years in the JNA.

18 Having completed the Belgrade land forces military academy and

19 subsequently the staff officers college in Belgrade, and having been

20 assigned to a number of different command positions within the JNA, the

21 accused Hadzihasanovic in 1993, he was an experienced military commander.

22 And we already wish to now -- we already now wish to draw your attention

23 to the fact that the accused Hadzihasanovic, as a long-serving JNA

24 military police officer, had gained substantial - substantial -

25 experience in respect to prevent and to punish crimes, inclusive crimes

1 of such nature, which are the subject matter of this indictment.

2 Turning to the accused Kubura. From 1 April 1993, the accused

3 Kubura, first as acting commander until 20 July 1993, and from 21st July

4 1993 onwards as its appointed commander, commanded the 7th Muslim

5 Mountain Brigade. Like the accused Hadzihasanovic, also the accused

6 Kubura at the time he took over command, was an experienced -- an

7 experienced professional military officer within the JNA.

8 In 1992, he had already been assigned command positions within

9 the ABiH, first as a deputy commander of a detachment in Kakanj, and

10 subsequently as the commander of a mountain battalion in the same area.

11 When he took over -- when the accused Kubura took over his command

12 position as acting commander of the 7th Muslim Brigade, Your Honours,

13 this brigade was already well known to him. It was well known to him

14 because already on 11th December 1992 he was assigned as its assistant

15 chief of staff for operations and instruction matters. Only a few weeks

16 later, on 1st January 1993, he was appointed chief of staff, a position

17 he held until he was appointed the acting commander of the 7th Muslim

18 Mountain Brigade.

19 The Prosecution's military expert, Dr. Reinhardt, a retired NATO

20 general, who also served as a commander of KFOR in Kosovo has examined

21 hundreds of orders, literally hundreds of orders, communications, and

22 reports from within the 3rd Corps during the indictment period. His

23 expert opinion -- his expert opinion is that clear and effective lines of

24 subordination existed in the 3rd Corps between the corps commander and

25 the subordinate commanders, such as Kubura. His opinion, his expert

1 opinion is that the accused Hadzihasanovic exercised effective control

2 over his subordinates, including the accused Kubura, and that the accused

3 Kubura exercised effective control over his subordinates in the 7th

4 Muslim Mountain Brigade.

5 I will now turn to the indictment itself. Between January 1993

6 and January 1994, soldiers of the ABiH 3rd Corps committed numerous -

7 numerous - violations of laws and customs of war, including breaches of

8 Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The indictment

9 contains seven counts; all concern violations of the laws or customs of

10 war. The underlying crimes, Your Honours, the underlying crimes - and

11 there are more than 20 - include murder, cruel treatment, wanton

12 destruction of cities, towns, and villages not justified by military

13 necessity, plunder and destruction or willful damage done to institutions

14 dedicated to religion. Victims of these crimes -- victims were mainly

15 Bosnian Croats, both HVO soldiers and civilians. Bosnian Serbs were to a

16 minor extent also victims.

17 The count on willful damage done to institutions dedicated to

18 religion is charged only against the accused Hadzihasanovic. Moreover,

19 there are some alleged crimes in specific locations, such as those

20 aspects of Count 1, relating to Dusina that apply only to the accused

21 Hadzihasanovic. The war crimes alleged include three incidents -- three

22 incidents of execution and massacre-type of murders, crimes, cruel

23 treatment, and again murders committed in 12 detention facilities in four

24 municipalities, crimes of plunder and wanton destruction of six towns and

25 villages in three municipalities, and the willful damage of two churches

1 - the monastery in Guca Gora and one church in Travnik.

2 The next map, Your Honours, we are about to show you now shows

3 the locations, the locations where all these crimes were committed. As

4 can be seen from this map, subordinates of both accused committed crimes

5 in various -- in various areas in the 3rd Corps area of responsibility.

6 Most prominent is the area of the Bila Valley [phoen] between the towns

7 of Travnik in the west and Zenica in the east. This area is located to

8 the north-west of Zenica. Several -- several of the names of the

9 villages, as detailed on this map, Your Honours, Maline, Bikosi,

10 Mehurici, Miletici and Orosac, in the areas just mentioned, and Dusina in

11 the south-west of Zenica, became synonyms -- became synonyms for brutal

12 crimes. Brutal crimes committed by the ABiH, brutal crimes committed by

13 the ABiH 3rd Corps soldiers, soldiers subordinated to both accused.

14 ABiH 3rd Corps troops also committed crimes in the bigger towns,

15 in the bigger towns in Bugojno, in the municipality of Kakanj, in Vares.

16 As you can see on the map, it's in the eastern areas of the 3rd Corps

17 area of command. And also, and in particular, in Zenica. In Zenica, the

18 location of the two accused's headquarters, literally under their own

19 eyes.

20 Your Honours, I will now detail the executions and massacres

21 committed by the subordinates of the two accused. We will show you a

22 further map. It shows the locations where the crimes were committed.

23 You have Dusina in the south of Zenica and you have, as already

24 mentioned, Miletici to the north-west of Zenica, as Maline and Bikosi.

25 From this map, Your Honours, you can also see the distances from the

1 crime scenes to Zenica, to Zenica, the town where both accused were

2 based. And the distances were small distances; 11 kilometres between

3 Zenica and Dusina, 15 kilometres between Zenica and Miletici; and not

4 much more, 16 kilometres, between Maline and Bikosi.

5 The first crime, the first crime, Your Honours, concerns the

6 execution of a Bosnian Serb civilian and five surrendered HVO soldiers on

7 26 January 1993 in Dusina and the killing of a further surrendered HVO

8 soldier on the very same day in the same area. For the ease of reference

9 and for better understanding, we will now show you the first two

10 photographs. The first photograph, Your Honours, shows the hamlet, the

11 few houses of which the hamlet of Dusina is comprised. At the lower side

12 of this photograph, you see a house, a white house, some sort of a white

13 house with a garage. In the front of this house -- in front of this

14 house the victims were murdered.

15 What happened? ABiH 3rd Corps troops, subordinated to the

16 accused Hadzihasanovic, lined up eight men on the road and shot six of

17 the eight. In the early morning hours of 26 January 1993, acting on

18 orders of the accused Hadzihasanovic, 3rd Corps soldiers attacked a

19 number of villagers in the Lasva Valley area, including Dusina. HVO

20 soldiers, under the command of the local HVO commander, Zvonko Rajic,

21 soon surrendered to the attacking 3rd Corps forces. They were detained

22 for a while. At about 1500 hours, 3.00 p.m. in the afternoon the same

23 day, hours after their surrender, 3rd Corps soldiers ordered eight --

24 eight of them out and lined them up on the road in spot of the house with

25 the garage. The next photograph, which is already on the screen, Your

1 Honours, shows you the spot of the execution.

2 3rd Corps soldiers then shot six -- six of the eight, one by one

3 murdering Vojislav Stanisic, Niko Kegelj, Stipo Kegelj, Vinko Kegelj,

4 Pero Ljubicic, and Augustin Rados. Your Honours, you will hear one of

5 the two survivors. His testimony will describe the details of the crime,

6 details which leave you with no other -- no other conclusions that these

7 murders can only be described as an execution, brutal, brutal, and

8 cynical.

9 These were not the only murders, not the only murders of

10 subordinates of the accused Hadzihasanovic on that day. The evidence,

11 Your Honours, will also show that Sheriff Petkovic, Sheriff Petkovic, the

12 commander of the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade 2nd Battalion and as such

13 subordinated to the accused Hadzihasanovic killed the surrendered local

14 HVO commander, Zvonko Rajic, by firing several shots with an automatic

15 weapon from close range, from very close range. You will hear witnesses,

16 Your Honours -- you will hear witnesses in this courtroom describing the

17 terrible circumstances of this murder, a further murder at least as

18 brutal and cynical as the execution of the six.

19 The victims of the murders were brought to the morgue in Zenica.

20 We will now show a number of stills from a video - there are nine

21 stills - showing the victims of the murders and showing the terrible

22 wounds, the terrible gunshot wounds and other wounds inflicted by the

23 subordinates of the accused.

24 The photographs show the six killed: Vojislav Stanisic, Niko

25 Kegelj, Stipo Kegelj, Pero Ljubicic, and Augustin Rados. And Your

1 Honours, you can see on a number of such photographs the gunshot wounds

2 which caused the death of the accused.

3 The second crime, Your Honours, the second crime concerns

4 killing, the killing of four surrendered HVO soldiers on 29 April 1993 in

5 Miletici. Between the evening hours of 24 April 1993 and the morning

6 hours of the following day, 3rd Corps soldiers subordinated to both

7 accused singled out four captured HVO soldiers, first mutilated, and then

8 brutally murdered four of them. Again, for illustration we will show a

9 few photographs; first, an aerial photograph showing the village of

10 Miletici.

11 On 24 April 1993, during evening hours, soldiers of the 7th

12 Muslim Mountain Brigade arrived in that village in Miletici. They found

13 the villagers gathering in two houses, gathering for protection. From

14 one of the houses, an HVO soldier shot one 3rd Corps soldier.

15 Consequently, the subordinates of the accused attacked the house, took

16 the villagers out, and tied their hands and walked them to the village of

17 Mehurici, some 2 kilometres away from Miletici. The 3rd Corps soldiers

18 selected four Croat men from this group, from the group, namely Franjo

19 Pavlovic, Tihomir Pavlovic, Vlado Pavlovic, and Anto Petrovic, and they

20 kept them behind. You will hear villagers, Your Honours, villagers who

21 came back during the night and in the early morning hours of the next

22 morning. They will describe the horrible scene, the horrible scene they

23 were confronted with. They found the four Croats -- young Croats

24 murdered in one of the houses, murdered by the subordinates of the

25 accused, both accused; not only murdered but obviously mutilated. The

1 bodies displayed wounds to the heart and throat.

2 The photograph which you have on your screen, Your Honours, shows

3 the house where the victims were murdered. The following photograph

4 shows the house where the victims were found. And the following

5 photographs show the four victims. And again, you can see the wounds of

6 the murdered four young Croats, Franjo Pavlovic, Tihomir Pavlovic, Vlado

7 Pavlovic and Anto Petrovic.

8 The third crime of murder concerns a massacre of about 30 Bosnian

9 Croats, both civilians and surrendered HVO soldiers, on 08/02/1993 in the

10 vicinity of the hamlet of Bikosi, close to the village of Maline. On

11 08/02/1993, 3rd Corps soldiers attacked Maline. After the surrender of

12 the villagers and the defending HVO soldiers, they made them, the 3rd

13 Corps soldiers, made them -- several hundred Bosnian Croats -- march to

14 Mehurici. On the way, 3rd Corps soldiers selected a smaller group and

15 directed them towards Bikosi. Soon they were joined by another group of

16 wounded Croats. Under the escort of 3rd Corps soldiers, this new group

17 continued walking, continued moving towards Mehurici. Near the hamlet of

18 Bikosi, one of the prisoners started screaming. 3rd Corps soldiers --

19 again, 3rd Corps soldiers, subordinated to both accused - Hadzihasanovic

20 and Kubura - then shot -- shot at the group with automatic rifles at

21 close range, executing at least 24 Croat civilians and soldiers. The

22 names are listed in the indictment. Four victims, Your Honours, managed

23 to escape -- managed to escape after they had been seriously wounded.

24 Their wounding amounts to cruel treatment as a violation of the laws and

25 customs of war.

1 The next photograph, Your Honours, shows the site of the massacre

2 which is on the left side of the road in the photograph.

3 Your Honours, subordinates to the both accused committed further

4 crimes, and I'm now turning to the crimes committed by them in detention

5 facilities. The ABiH 3rd Corps, throughout the indictment period,

6 operated a large number of detention facilities within its area of

7 responsibility. There were smaller ones, smaller ones and bigger ones

8 dispersed over the area of the 3rd Corps. It was not a huge area at the

9 time; it was a rather small area.

10 The next map, Your Honours, details the locations of the 12

11 detention facilities where the crimes charged in the indictment have been

12 committed. The map shows Bugojno in the very west, where six out of the

13 12 detention facilities were located; then we have Kakanj in the

14 south-east of Zenica, the headquarters of the two accused; and then we

15 have the area between Travnik and Zenica, again the area I already

16 addressed; it's Mehurici, it's Orasac, and that there were detention

17 facilities in the municipality of Travnik and there was a detention

18 facility in Zenica. The distances are also shown on this map. And

19 again, Your Honours, the distances were very small. We are talking about

20 a range between 13 kilometres and 40 kilometres, most of them between 13

21 kilometres and about 20 kilometres.

22 And in respect to the detention facility in Zenica, namely the

23 Zenica Music School, Your Honours, the crimes were committed close to the

24 front gates of the headquarters of the -- of the commanders of the

25 perpetrators; namely, the two accused.

1 In Zenica, Your Honours, the ABiH 3rd Corps 7th Muslim Mountain

2 Brigade was using the Zenica Music School, not far away from the 7th

3 Muslim Brigade's headquarters and situated very close, very close to the

4 3rd Corps headquarters as its military police headquarters. The next

5 map, Your Honours, we prepared to assist you, will show that the Zenica

6 Music School was only 1 kilometre separated between General

7 Hadzihasanovic's 3rd Corps headquarters, and it will also show that the

8 headquarters of the accused Kubura was only about 2 kilometres away from

9 the Zenica Music School -- music school. The Zenica Music School itself,

10 Your Honours, we will show on the next two photographs.

11 The first photographs show the Zenica Music School, the building

12 of the Zenica Music School. It shows it from outside obviously. It's a

13 building, Your Honours -- the Zenica Music School is a building situated

14 in one of the main streets in Zenica -- of Zenica, right in the heart of

15 the town.

16 The second photograph, Your Honours, shows the cell, the cell in

17 the Zenica Music School, the room in which the detainees were imprisoned,

18 some of them for days; others for weeks, if not months. The living

19 conditions in the Zenica Music School were poor. They were very poor.

20 Up to 50 prisoners had to use a bucket as their toilet and they were not

21 allowed to wash themselves. The food the detainees were provided with

22 were starvation rations. Your Honours, you will hear a victim testifying

23 in this courtroom, testifying that he lost 22 kilograms in 50 days, and

24 you will hear another victim testifying that he lost 31 kilograms within

25 58 days. But worse, Your Honours, much worse is that in this building,

1 the Zenica Music School, in this room you've seen just now and in other

2 rooms of the very same building subordinates to both accused

3 systematically -- systematically abused prisoners by regular and brutally

4 beating them with a wide variety of weaponry. The implements of their

5 brutality included rifle butts, wooden sticks and handles, truncheons,

6 knuckle-dusters, staves, boots, and telephone cables. The beatings, Your

7 Honours, the beatings were daily. They were daily and brutal.

8 You will hear victims, former detainees, testifying that every

9 night, literally every night, the guards took out prisoners for what they

10 called singing lessons. Singing lessons, a very cynical description of

11 what was nothing else but brutal beatings. The sounds of the beatings

12 and the distressed cries for help could be heard in the centre of Zenica

13 each and every night. You will hear a victim describing how he was

14 beaten with sticks, chair legs, and truncheons for several hours before

15 being locked in a small courtroom crammed with 48 other prisoners.

16 Another victim, Your Honours, will detail how he was hit with

17 rubber truncheons while his hands were handcuffed behind his back. And

18 you will hear yet another victim telling how he was beaten with shovel

19 handles and kicked on the chest until he lost consciousness. You will

20 hear another one detailing how he was beaten with truncheons, wooden

21 handles, and knuckle-dusters until he was unconscious. He was then

22 ordered to catch the blood that was dripping off his head and threatened

23 with death if any blood fell on the floor. And, Your Honours, you will

24 hear a victim describing being beaten on his face, the shoulders, and the

25 back of his head with police rubber sticks. When he begged for water,

1 the guard took him to the communal tap. While trying to drink, the guard

2 struck his head on the back and the witness hit his face on the tap and

3 cut his face under his left eye and nose. As he lost consciousness, the

4 guards poured water over him and kicked him while he was laying on the

5 floor.

6 The ongoing -- the ongoing and systematic mistreatment of

7 prisoners in the Zenica Music School made it inevitable that at least one

8 would succumb to his injuries. The victim was Jozo Maracic, a wounded

9 HVO soldier. On 08/02/1993 he died after repeated severe beatings by

10 subordinates of the two accused. On that day, in the early morning hours

11 or in the early evening, guards took him out of the basement, the room

12 that we showed you on the photograph. The remaining prisoners heard the

13 terrible sounds of another brutal beating. When the guards brought him

14 back, he was no longer breathing. He was dead.

15 The Zenica Music School, Your Honours, was not the only detention

16 facility in which subordinates of the two accused mistreated --

17 systematically mistreated detainees. There were many more. Several were

18 in the municipality of Travnik. In the municipality of Travnik, the 17th

19 Krajina Mountain Brigade used the former JNA barracks. The 306th Brigade

20 use both the Mehurici Elementary School and the blacksmith shop.

21 Mujahedin -- Mujahedin within the ABiH 3rd Corps Group Bosanska Krajina

22 used the Orasac camp in Orasac. Again, we prepared a number of

23 photographs to assist Your Honours. The first photograph will show the

24 former JNA barracks in Travnik. This is obviously a huge military

25 barracks located in the town of Travnik, used as headquarters for the 3rd

1 Corps operational group, the OG Bosanska Krajina.

2 Several of its cells are shown on the next photograph, Your

3 Honours. Small cells - you can see the entrance door to one of the cells

4 right now, small cells, and you will see on the next photograph a sample

5 of such a cell -- small cells, close, as witnesses will testify, to the

6 office -- to the office of Mehmed Alagic, the OG commander at the time

7 subordinated to the accused Hadzihasanovic. In and outside these cells,

8 subordinates to the accused Hadzihasanovic, beat detainees, beat them

9 systematically and on a regular basis. They were beaten with shovel

10 handles. They were beaten with pick axe handles. And they were beaten

11 with wet knotted towels. You will hear, Your Honours, you will hear

12 victims testifying that they were beaten to a point where they were

13 immobile and unconscious. Another victim will tell you that he was

14 forced to strip naked before being beaten with fists, police truncheons,

15 a metal bar, and a chair until he passed out.

16 In all, as in all detention facilities, Your Honours, detainees

17 in the former JNA barracks were beaten upon their arrival. They were

18 beaten during the day and they were beaten during the night. They were

19 beaten during interrogation. They were beaten for many reasons. They

20 were beaten to intimidate, and they were beaten to humiliate them. And

21 sometimes they were beaten for no reason. And as in the Zenica Music

22 School, the systematic and brutal beatings resulted in the death, the

23 death of at least one prisoner. This time the victim was a young Bosnian

24 Croat detainee, an unnamed victim of the systematic -- the systematic and

25 brutal mistreatment by the subordinates of the accused Hadzihasanovic.

1 He was beaten to death in May 1993.

2 During the night, guards took the victim out for another brutal

3 beating. They brought him back to the detention cell very badly beaten.

4 Prisoners called the guards to attend to the prisoners; they didn't. The

5 next morning - the next morning - the prisoner was dead.

6 Not far from Travnik, Your Honours, in Mehurici, the ABiH 3rd

7 Corps operated further detention facilities. One of them was the

8 Mehurici Elementary School. The next photograph shows its gymnasium hall

9 where the detainees were held. The detainees were several hundred

10 Bosnian Croats from Maline, mostly civilians. They were detained in this

11 detention facility. They were kept in cramped and overcrowded conditions

12 with inadequate food and inadequate water. The washing and hygiene

13 facilities were poor. The prisoners -- again, several hundred

14 prisoners -- were allowed access to only one toilet. One pot of warm

15 water between them had to suffice for a day, had to suffice to wash the

16 babies and to dress the wounds. And detainees were given little food,

17 very little food.

18 You will hear a victim, a female, a female testifying that she

19 weighed only 30 kilogrammes after her release. Beatings were also not

20 unusual in the Mehurici Elementary School. You will hear victims

21 testifying that men whom the guards considered HVO members were selected,

22 were singled out for interrogation and beatings.

23 Another detention facility the 3rd Corps operated in Mehurici was

24 the blacksmith shop, only a few hundred metres away from the Mehurici

25 Elementary School. The next photograph shows you the blacksmith shop

1 from outside and inside and the photographs show you the cramped

2 conditions of confinement. The photograph you have now on the screen,

3 Your Honours, shows the blacksmith shop from outside, and the next

4 photograph gives you a very good impression of the cramped conditions

5 inside.

6 You will hear victims describing -- describing that subordinates

7 to the accused Hadzihasanovic kept up to 13, 13 prisoners in the three

8 windowless garages measuring around 3 square metres. You will hear

9 victims who will tell that they had to sleep on the concrete floor and

10 that they were given a small plastic bucket to use as a toilet. But

11 worse, as in all other detention facilities, beatings, brutal beatings,

12 mostly with wooden sticks, were the daily routine, the daily routine. A

13 witness will describe, Your Honours, how a soldier entered the garage,

14 kicked him in the face, which resulted in him losing several teeth.

15 The next two photographs, Your Honours, will show you -- the

16 first one, the area; and then the second one, the building of the Orasac

17 camp. The photograph which is now on your screen, Your Honours, shows

18 the area of Orasac, the little hamlet in the background, and the two

19 houses in the front: You have the white house on the more left-hand

20 side, and this, Your Honours, was the Orasac camp. The Orasac camp was

21 run by Mujahedin, Mujahedin who were known -- who were very, very well

22 known for their brutality. And they were brutal.

23 In October 1993, the Mujahedin regularly abducted Bosnian Croat

24 civilians from Travnik, covered their bodies, bundled them into vehicles,

25 and took them to Orasac, where they were beaten daily. They were beaten

1 for hours. You will hear victims describing such systematic beatings.

2 They will describe, Your Honours, that prisoners, when using the toilet,

3 had to run a gauntlet of the soldiers, who hit them. You will hear yet

4 another victim describing that a guard heated up a metal rod and made one

5 prisoner to hold it, and you will hear further witnesses describing all

6 sorts of further mistreatment, both physical and psychological.

7 Not surprisingly, Your Honours, as in the Zenica Music School, as

8 in the former JNA barracks in Travnik, the systematic brutality in the

9 Orasac camp resulted in the death of at least one prisoner. This time,

10 Your Honours, the death was not the result of a beating. This time the

11 death of the victim was the result of a beheading, a beheading that can

12 only -- that can only be described as a ritual beheading.

13 You will hear witnesses -- witnesses who had to observe the

14 terrible murder, who will detail that on 20th of October, 1993 Mujahedin

15 -- Mujahedin subordinated to the accused Hadzihasanovic took Dragan

16 Popovic, Dragan Popovic, a Bosnian Croat civilian, together with other

17 prisoners out of his cell and lined them up in front of a freshly dug

18 hole. A Mujahedin took Dragan Popovic to the other side of the hole and

19 slit his throat. Another Mujahedin severed his head from the body. The

20 commander of the Mujahedin made the other prisoners kiss -- made them

21 kiss the forehead and the lips of Dragan Popovic's head after his

22 beheading. Finally, Your Honours - finally - two prisoners were forced

23 to bury the dead body in the prepared -- in the prepared grave.

24 The municipality of Kakanj is another scene of crimes committed

25 by 3rd Corps soldiers in 3rd Corps detention facilities. In Kakanj, the

1 3rd Battalion of the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade, a unit subordinated to

2 both accused, used the Motel Sretno. The Motel Sretno, as you will see

3 on the next photograph, Your Honours, the Motel Sretno, is a prominent --

4 a very prominent building located between the highway and Zenica. We

5 prepared for your assistance, Your Honours, two buildings showing the

6 Motel Sretno from outside. In its basement there were a number of cells,

7 small cells, in which the prisoners were confined.

8 In the Motel Sretno, systematic, brutal, and daily beatings were

9 the daily occurrence. You will hear again victims who will describe such

10 beatings with batons, sticks, a metal hook and rifle butts. Another

11 victim will describe, Your Honours, how the prisoners were forced to beat

12 each other. You will hear a further victim telling how he was beaten

13 with wooden broom handles until he was unconscious. When he woke up,

14 soldiers were urinating on him. And you will hear a victim who was hit

15 -- was hit on his right kidney with a police truncheon after telling the

16 guards that he had kidney problems. This witness, after his release, had

17 two displaced kidneys, six broken ribs, and a badly damaged vertebrae.

18 ABiH soldiers -- ABiH 3rd Corps soldiers did not only run

19 detention facilities in the municipalities of Zenica, Travnik, and

20 Kakanj, they also established a number of detention facilities in the

21 small town of Bugojno to confine hundreds - hundreds - of mainly Bosnian

22 prisoners of war and civilians. In 1993, the ABiH 3rd Corps operational

23 group, the OG Zapad military police and soldiers of the ABiH 3rd Corp OG

24 Zapad 307th Brigade used the Gimnazija school building, the convent

25 building, the Slavonija Furniture Salon, the FC Iskra Stadium, the Vojin

1 Paleksic Elementary School, and the Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina

2 building as temporary detention facilities. These six detention

3 facilities were operated within a small area, a very small area.

4 The next map, Your Honours, shows you the town of Bugojno, ask

5 you can see, as marked on the map, that the detention facilities were

6 very close to each other. They were sometimes only situated within an

7 area of a few hundred metres.

8 The 3rd Corps transferred its prisoners between its various

9 detention facilities, moving them from the one detention facility to the

10 next one. We will now show a few photographs showing the Gimnazija

11 school building. The first photograph shows it from outside. The

12 following three photographs show the cells -- the cells, the very small

13 cells in its basement. There were three cells next to each other, all of

14 the same size and all small, all very small. And the fifth photograph,

15 Your Honours, shows you its gymnasium hall.

16 The Gimnazija school building was a particularly brutal

17 detention facility in which soldiers subordinated to the accused

18 Hadzihasanovic detained both civilians and HVO soldiers. Your Honours,

19 you've seen the three cells on the photographs. Each of the cells were

20 extremely small. They were dark, and they were poorly ventilated and

21 they contained no sanitation facilities. You will hear a victim, Your

22 Honours, detailing that within days one of these cells was packed --

23 within one day, one of the cells was packed with some 45 Croat prisoners.

24 These prisoners, as the others who arrived later, were also the object of

25 systematic brutal beatings by the 3rd Corps guards.

1 In the Gimnazija school building, the beatings were also part of

2 the daily routine. Every night the guards took out prisoners outside and

3 beat them. A victim will describe a particularly severe beating during

4 which his hands were handcuffed behind his back, he was kicked to the

5 feet and kidney and was beaten with an electric cable for an hour before

6 losing consciousness. The same -- the same victim lost 50 kilogrammes in

7 weight during his incarceration. Not only he, but other detainees

8 suffered from the starvation rations of food, often some lentils in water

9 and bread just once a day.

10 Another form of cruel treatment, Your Honours, prisoners of the

11 Gimnazija school building were also forced to give blood. Prisoners were

12 taken outside, taken out for forced labour assignments, a very common

13 feature of all detention facilities or most of the detention facilities

14 in Bugojno. 3rd Corps soldiers who were doing so seriously endangered

15 the lives of the detainees by forcing them to dig trenches at the front

16 lines.

17 Another detention facility forming part of the system of the 3rd

18 Corps detention facilities in Bugojno was the convent building. We will

19 first show you six photographs. These photographs, Your Honours, will

20 show you the convent building. The one you have on the screen shows you

21 the convent building, also known as the Marxist centre, from outside.

22 Then you will see on the next photograph one of the cells from outside,

23 and the next three photographs will illustrate the cramped conditions of

24 the two cells in the inside of the convent building. Small cells in the

25 basement of the building, two small cells; and the last photograph, Your

1 Honours, the last photograph which we will show you in a few seconds,

2 gives you an impression of the view the prisoners had from inside this

3 detention facility. And you can see this detention facility was not

4 somewhere; it was in the town of Bugojno itself.

5 The prisoners of the convent building suffered mistreatment of a

6 similar nature as those in the Gimnazija school building. Guards

7 subordinated to the accused Hadzihasanovic kept the detainees in confined

8 unsanitary conditions. They were not properly fed. And again, in a

9 systematic manner, they beat the HVO prisoners. And as it was normal in

10 all detention facilities in Bugojno, prisoners of the convent building

11 were also taken out, taken out for forced labour. They were taken out

12 daily to collect bodies at the front line and to dig graves.

13 As in the Zenica Music School, as in the former JNA Travnik

14 barracks, and as in the Orasac camp, Your Honours, a prisoner was

15 murdered, murdered by the subordinates of the accused Hadzihasanovic.

16 You will hear a victim -- a witness -- you will hear a witness testifying

17 about the brutal murder of Mario Zrno. Mario Zrno, an HVO prisoner

18 whilst taking out for forced labour assignments and weakened from the

19 lack of food and the physical labour, he collapsed. 3rd Corps soldiers

20 then beat him into unconsciousness. He was taken back to the convent

21 building in Bugojno. The report of the Zenica MUP state security station

22 listed Mario Zrno as a prisoner of war, beaten black and blue, and

23 tortured -- and tortured until he died.

24 Not far -- not far from the convent building, the 3rd Corps used

25 the Slavonija Furniture Salon as another temporary detention centre. The

1 next photograph shows you the Slavonija Furniture Salon from outside a

2 building, a rather huge building in the town centre of Bugojno. And we

3 have prepared another photograph that shows you its cell, its cell in the

4 basement from inside. This room, Your Honours, this room you have in

5 front of you on the screen was possibly -- was possibly the worst

6 detention facility in Bugojno. 3rd Corps soldiers subordinated to the

7 accused Hadzihasanovic kept the prisoners in its basement. It was small

8 -- it was small, and it was dark, and it was covered with about 10 to 15

9 centimetres water on the floor.

10 The daily beatings were brutal. They commenced on the first day

11 after the arrival of the prisoners. They were called out -- they were

12 called out one by one and beaten one after the other, and the beatings

13 didn't stop until their release.

14 You will hear a victim describing that he was made to lie on his

15 stomach and beaten -- beaten simultaneously by four or five soldiers. He

16 was kicked and he was hit with a rubber baton. He was tramped on his

17 fingers with their boots. And you will hear the same witness -- the same

18 victim detailing a beating with a metal pipe, a metal bar and a wooden

19 bat for over half an hour, having a rifle placed next to his head with

20 the threat of death. In the Slavonija Furniture Salon, detainees were

21 also taken out for work assignments. They were taken out to dig graves.

22 They were beaten on the way, and they were forced -- they were forced to

23 beat each other. On one occasion, while digging graves, guards threw

24 large rocks at the prisoners, smashing one prisoner in the head and

25 injuring another. And again, also -- again, also in the Slavonija

1 Furniture Salon, at least one prisoner died. He died as a result -- as

2 the result of the brutal beatings by the accused Hadzihasanovic's

3 subordinates.

4 On 5 August 1993, the guards called the prisoner upstairs. The

5 prisoners were brutally beaten, one at a time, by four or five soldiers

6 with metal pipes, with bars, with wooden bats. One of the HVO prisoners,

7 Your Honours, Mladen Havranek, did not survive the brutal beating. You

8 will hear witnesses describing him having collapsed when he returned

9 downstairs. He had been beaten into unconsciousness. He had no pulse.

10 He was no longer breathing. Other prisoners took his body upstairs and

11 left the body with the guards.

12 The same document that detailed Mario Zrno's death describes

13 Mladen Havranek as a prisoner for -- called out of a group of prisoners,

14 beaten black and blue, and died in the arms of prisoners on the way to

15 the hospital.

16 There were other detention facilities in Bugojno. Another

17 detention facility as large as it was notorious was the FC Iskra Stadium.

18 The FC Iskra Stadium, a football stadium of a significant size, can be

19 seen on the next sequence of photographs. The first two ones which will

20 appear on your screens, Your Honours, now show the FC Iskra Stadium, a

21 football stadium, at the south-east entrance of Bugojno from outside.

22 And the following photographs show you its changing rooms, the changing-

23 rooms of the FC Iskra Stadium football stadium from inside, and you can

24 see that these changing rooms, which were the actual cells of the

25 detention facility, were small ones.

1 The FC Iskra Stadium was a well-known detention facility.

2 Several hundred of Croat HVO detainees went through it, but also a number

3 of Bosnian Croat civilians, and amongst the detainees there were also

4 Serbs from Bugojno. 3rd Corps soldiers -- 3rd Corps guards, subordinated

5 to the accused Hadzihasanovic, subjected the detainees in the FC Iskra

6 Stadium to the same systematic cruel treatment as in the other detention

7 facilities in Bugojno. The same systematic mistreatment means beatings,

8 threats, and forced labour on the front lines digging trenches. You will

9 hear victims, a representative sample, a sample only of the hundreds of

10 detainees of the FC Iskra Stadium describing the systematic beatings.

11 Your Honours have seen the photographs of the changing rooms.

12 You will hear victims, former detainees, describing that more than 140

13 prisoners were detained in such small cells measuring about 11 to 6

14 metres. Another witness will tell you that about 300 prisoners were

15 crammed into two changing rooms, a small hall, and a hallway. And you

16 will hear former detainees detailing the little food they received, very

17 little; 13 pieces of bread and 20 litres of watery soup for 300 detainees

18 every day and for weeks.

19 There are further photographs, Your Honours, we have prepared;

20 the next two ones show you the Vojin Paleksic elementary school. The

21 first one shows it from the outside, and the second one shows the

22 gymnasium hall where the prisoners -- the detainees were held. The Vojin

23 Paleksic elementary school was just another prison forming part of the

24 3rd Corps system of detainees in Bugojno. The very same -- the very

25 same systematic pattern of mistreatment of detainees was repeated in this

1 detention facility. Subordinates to the accused Hadzihasanovic crammed

2 about 300 prisoners into the gymnasium hall, which was about the size of

3 a basketball court. Detainees were beaten, they were beaten brutally,

4 and they were beaten regularly. They were beaten with truncheons. You

5 will hear a victim describing such a beaten by six soldiers resulting in

6 the unconsciousness of the detainee, and as it was typical for the

7 detention facilities in Bugojno, prisoners, detainees from the Vojin

8 Paleksic elementary school were also taken out for work digging trenches

9 on the front side -- on the front side against the Serbs, thus exposing

10 them to constant enemy fire.

11 The last two photographs, Your Honours, illustrate the Bank of

12 Bosnia and Herzegovina building. Again, first a view from outside; the

13 second photograph, showing a cell from its inside gives an impression,

14 gives a pretty good impression of the conditions in this detention

15 facility. As in the Slavonija Furniture Salon, also in the Bank of

16 Bosnia and Herzegovina building the floor was covered with water, several

17 centimetres of water. Bosnian Croat prisoners were packed into the few

18 small cells. You will hear a victim, Your Honours, describing how four

19 prisoners were detained in such a cell, measuring about 1.5 to 2 metres

20 in size.

21 In the Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina building, subordinates to

22 the accused Enver Hadzihasanovic also systematically beat and mistreated

23 the prisoners. You will hear a victim detailing the brutal beatings,

24 brutal to the extent that some of the prisoners lost consciousness.

25 These are the underlying crimes, Your Honours, for Counts 3 and 4

1 of the indictment, murders and cruel treatment.

2 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] [Microphone not activated

3 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please, Your Honour.

4 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] I think we should adjourn for

5 technical reasons. Let's take a 20-minute break and we'll resume at

6 10.50.

7 --- Recess taken at 10.31 a.m.

8 --- On resuming at 10.55 a.m.

9 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] The hearing continues. May we

10 have the accused brought in, please.

11 You may be seated.

12 Mr. Prosecutor, you may resume.

13 MR. WITHOPF: Your Honours, subordinates of the two accused did

14 not only commit the crimes I was detailing before this break;

15 subordinates of the two accused committed further crimes. In the course

16 of -- after having finished their combat activities, ABiH 3rd Corps

17 soldiers repeatedly -- repeatedly either plundered or plundered and

18 destroyed without any military justification Bosnian Croat and Bosnian

19 Serb homes, buildings, and personal property. Throughout the indictment

20 period, 3rd Corps soldiers subordinated to the accused plundered and

21 destroyed such property and they regularly plundered and destroyed it.

22 This occurred in different geographical areas of the 3rd Corps.

23 3rd Corps attacks were frequently followed by the rampant looting

24 and burning of Croat and Serb civilian property. It became a common

25 feature -- a very common feature following attacks of 3rd Corps troops.

1 The next map, Your Honours, we will show shows you the respective

2 areas. Again -- again, as can be seen from the map, the accuseds'

3 subordinates plundered and burnt down houses not somewhere far away but

4 close to the own -- their own headquarters, that is, virtually under

5 their own eyes. Subordinates to both accused during and/or after the

6 attack on Miletici broke into houses of villagers and stole their

7 belongings and livestock. During the series of heavy attacks of ABiH 3rd

8 Corps troops in June 1993 in Central Bosnia, they plundered and burnt

9 down houses in Guca Gora, in Maline, in Cukle, in the municipality of

10 Travnik, and in the area of Susanj, Ovnak, Brajkovici, and Grahovcici.

11 As you can see on the map, Your Honours, the latter ones form part of the

12 municipality of Zenica.

13 The Prosecution witnesses, villagers, and 3rd Corps soldiers

14 alike will testify that 3rd Corps soldiers treated as their own personal

15 property cars, trucks, tractors, furniture, kitchen equipment,

16 televisions, video recorders, radio, fridges, stuffs, and washing

17 machines belonging to the residents forced to flee the fighting.

18 In Cukle, soldiers were even instructed by a loudspeaker to get

19 everything out -- to get everything out before burning the houses in the

20 village. And in the very same village, soldiers subordinated to the

21 accused forced -- forced the villagers to give away their valuables and

22 money.

23 The most brazen looting, plundering, and burning occurred --

24 occurred before the eyes of the Swedish peacekeepers in Vares in November

25 1993. After soldiers of the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade, subordinates to

1 the accused Kubura, had participated in taking Vares from HVO control,

2 they walked through the streets firing at windows and smashing cars. In

3 this wild rampage, which was also witnessed by the international media,

4 they looted and burnt houses, including the town's buildings and

5 businesses. They took cars -- buses -- cars, buses, and trucks of food,

6 leaving behind a devastated -- a devastated town.

7 3rd Corps soldiers also didn't spare the religious sites

8 protected as cultural and religious monuments by the Geneva Conventions.

9 During the early June 1993 attacks, 3rd Corps soldiers seriously -

10 seriously - damaged both the monastery in Guca Gora and the church of St.

11 John the Baptist in Travnik. In Guca Gora, a prominent -- a very

12 prominent symbol of the Catholic faith in Central Bosnia, subordinates of

13 the accused Hadzihasanovic smeared feces on the walls and pews, broke

14 stained glass windows, graffitised the walls and tried to smash a large

15 fresco of the wall behind the altar. Subordinates of the accused

16 Hadzihasanovic also damaged the church of St. John the Baptist in Travnik

17 by vandalising sculptures, paintings and their organ, and damaging the

18 windows. As in Guca Gora, walls were covered with graffiti; stalls and

19 frescos were smeared with paint.

20 Your Honours, these are the crimes that form the basis for the

21 indictment.

22 Subordinates of the accused, not the accused themselves,

23 committed the crimes. Both accused are, however -- they are, however,

24 criminally liable under Article 7(3) of the Tribunal's Statute, command

25 responsibility, because they did not prevent these crimes from being

1 committed and they did not punish the perpetrators of these crimes. A

2 number of issues will arise during trial. Crucial -- crucial will be

3 those related to criminal liability under Article 7(3) of the Tribunal's

4 Statute. In that respect, Your Honours, the Prosecution will prove that

5 a superior-subordinate relationship existed between the accused and the

6 alleged criminal perpetrators. The Prosecution will prove that the

7 accused knew or had reason to know that the perpetrators were about to

8 commit the criminal acts, or had done so; in plain language, that the

9 accused were put on notice of such crimes. And the Prosecution will also

10 prove - and this will go to the very heart of this case - that the

11 accused failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent

12 the criminal acts or to punish the perpetrators.

13 Your Honours, the accused, General Hadzihasanovic and Colonel

14 Amir Kubura, they were the superiors of the alleged perpetrators. The

15 two accused had effective control over their subordinates committing the

16 crimes. Both accused had the material ability to prevent offences or to

17 punish the criminal -- the principal offenders. The two accused -- both

18 accused demonstrated de jure and de facto authority.

19 General Hadzihasanovic, from 14 November 1992, commanded the ABiH

20 3rd Corps. He remained in this position until he was appointed chief of

21 the Supreme Command staff of the ABiH on 1st of November, 1993. As the

22 3rd Corps Commander, he had subordinated to him a number of OGs -

23 operative groups - brigades, and other units. These units included the

24 units, Your Honours, whose members committed the crimes as detailed in

25 the indictment; namely, the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade, the 303rd

1 Mountain Brigade, the 306th Mountain Brigade, the 314th Mountain Brigade,

2 the 17th Krajina Mountain Brigade, the 307th Brigade, and the Military

3 Police of the Operative Group Zapad. The accused Hadzihasanovic was both

4 their de jure and de facto commander.

5 Numerous orders issued by the accused Hadzihasanovic to his

6 subordinates, who committed the crimes alleged, and the implementation

7 and reporting back demonstrates the control he exercised. These

8 documents will show, Your Honours, that the accused Hadzihasanovic did

9 everything -- he did everything what a military commander in his position

10 as a corps commander was required to do.

11 We will show that the accused Hadzihasanovic decided on the

12 organisational structures of the 3rd Corps, including the formation of

13 operative groups, the OGs, the subordinate units under such OGs, and the

14 appointment, promotion, and relief of subordinate commanders. We will

15 also tender into evidence many orders, instructions, and directives of

16 the accused Hadzihasanovic deploying troops and planning the preparation

17 -- the preparation and implementing of military operations.

18 Colonel Kubura -- Colonel Kubura became the acting commander of

19 the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade on 1st April 1993, from when he assumed

20 de jure and de facto control of this brigade. On 21st July 1993 he was

21 appointed the brigade's commander, a position he held until 16 March 1994

22 when he was assigned command of the 1st Corps, 1st Muslim Mountain

23 Brigade. We will present -- the Prosecution will present military

24 documents, ABiH documents of the same nature as those related to the

25 accused Hadzihasanovic that will prove the accused Kubura de jure and de

1 facto authority.

2 Like General Hadzihasanovic, Colonel Kubura issued orders,

3 instructions, and directives preparing for armed combat in the field,

4 planning and conducting military operations, transmitting decisions of

5 superior to subordinate commands, and controlling their implementation.

6 I am now going to address Your Honours a specific aspect in

7 respect to the subordination. I'm going to address the issue of the

8 subordination of the Mujahedin. Who were the Mujahedin? The Mujahedin

9 are foreign Muslim fighters, foreign Muslim fighters principally from

10 Islamic countries. They subordinated to the 3rd Corps command and also

11 deployed within the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade, committed numerous

12 crimes, numerous crimes against the civilian population and prisoners of

13 war throughout the indictment period and including crimes that form part

14 of this indictment.

15 We will present evidence, both witness testimony and documents,

16 showing - showing - that the Mujahedin upon their arrival from mid-1992

17 onwards were used by the 3rd Corps command to assist 3rd Corps units in

18 attacks on the enemy and, in particular, to lead such attacks and to

19 undertake the more difficult military combat operations.

20 Your Honours, you will hear witnesses -- you will hear witnesses

21 in this courtroom describing the Mujahedin as shock troops. Other

22 witnesses, witnesses from within the 3rd Corps, will demonstrate that

23 they were used to spearhead military operations, military operations of

24 the 3rd Corps.

25 The Prosecution's evidence will also show that the Mujahedin were

1 in particular involved in combat operations conducted by the 7th Muslim

2 Mountain Brigade. Finally, on 13th August of 1993, after the accused

3 Hadzihasanovic had requested the ABiH Supreme Command to do so, the

4 Mujahedin within the 3rd Corps area were deployed in a separate

5 detachment -- a separate detachment called El Mujahed directly

6 subordinated to him.

7 The Prosecution's evidence will prove that the Mujahedin upon

8 their arrival were incorporated into the 3rd Corps military structure,

9 including the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade. The evidence we will present

10 will prove that both accused, General Hadzihasanovic and Colonel Amir

11 Kubura, both accused exercised effective control over the Mujahedin, both

12 accused had the material ability to prevent offences and/or to punish

13 crimes that Mujahedin committed.

14 Your Honour, both accused knew or they had reason to know that

15 the perpetrators were about to commit the crimes or had done so. We will

16 present evidence, again both witness testimony and documentary evidence,

17 that proves that the accused, both accused, had actual knowledge in

18 respect to a substantial number of the crimes alleged in the indictment.

19 In particular, the accused had actual knowledge about the murders, the

20 execution, and the massacres. The murders were common public knowledge

21 within a few days after they were committed. They were known in

22 detail -- they were known in detail, including the fact that the

23 subordinates to the accused had committed them and, without doubt -

24 without doubt - the accused got to know about them.

25 The Prosecution's evidence will show that the accuseds on

1 numerous occasions were informed by the HVO, they were informed by ECMM

2 representatives, and they were informed by UNPROFOR. In addition, they

3 were informed by their own superiors, their own superiors requesting

4 information. Documents such as orders of the accused and their reports

5 up the chain of command will reveal - will reveal - their actual

6 knowledge. More concrete, in respect to the execution in Dusina, the

7 accused Hadzihasanovic very shortly after the incident - and we are

8 talking about hours; we are talking about hours only - had direct

9 knowledge of allegations of serious criminality against soldiers

10 subordinated to him. We will tender -- we will tender into evidence a

11 press release, a 3rd Corps press release, stating that Zvonko Rajic - now

12 a quote - "A well-known extremist and six of his most loyal soldiers were

13 killed in this conflict."

14 We will tender into evidence a report of the accused

15 Hadzihasanovic dated 27th of January, 1993, the day after the attack,

16 reporting to the ABiH Supreme Command about a meeting on 26 January 1993,

17 the day of the murders, between his deputy - Hadzihasanovic's deputy,

18 Dzemo Merdan - Colonel Blaskic, the HVO operational SO and Central

19 Bosnian commander; and UNPROFOR in which Colonel Blaskic had proposed --

20 had a proposed breaking of negotiations because of the death of seven HVO

21 members. And we will tender into evidence another report of the accused

22 Hadzihasanovic to the ABiH Supreme Command on allegations aired on the

23 Croatian radio and television stating - and that's now a quote - "We

24 checked all lies spread by the HTV about the alleged massacres of the

25 Croatian population, as well as the lie about the alleged killings of

1 seven unarmed HVO soldiers."

2 Your Honours, what does this mean? That means that the accused

3 Hadzihasanovic knew, he knew that on 26 January 1993 his subordinates had

4 captured HVO soldiers. He knew that six or seven HVO soldiers, including

5 the local HVO commander, were killed in Dusina on that day. And he knew

6 that the Croats were alleging the ABiH had killed them after their

7 surrender.

8 The accused Hadzihasanovic had also direct knowledge of the

9 murders in Miletici. We will present evidence that the day after the

10 execution on 25th April 1993, Merdan, the accused Hadzihasanovic's

11 deputy, and an ECMM officer travelled to Miletici to investigate - to

12 investigate - the reports of a massacre. Following this visit, the ECMM

13 wrote a report confirming the torture and the murder of four Croat

14 victims.

15 Another document, Your Honours, another document will prove that

16 on 6 May 1993, the 306 Mountain Brigade reported to the 3rd Corps command

17 organ for morale, information, propaganda, and religious matters about

18 Miletici, stating that in response to the wounding of an Arab, the

19 Mujahedin - the Mujahedin - had killed five Croat citizens. And a day

20 later, on 7th May 1993, the HVO Central Bosnia information office wrote

21 to ECMM, to ICRC, to UNPROFOR, and to the 3rd Corps command providing

22 specific information, specific information about the murders in Miletici.

23 The murders in Miletici also achieved international publicity.

24 On 15th May 1993, the United Nations special rapporteur reported to the

25 Security Council. He reported to the Security Council the following:

1 "Field staff visited the village of Miletici north of Vitez and gathered

2 testimony, testimony which alleges how on around 16th April members of

3 government forces from neighbouring villages and Mujahedin encircled the

4 village and selected five young Croat men. Some of them then tortured

5 before they were executed."

6 We will use this to prove that the accused Hadzihasanovic, within

7 a short period of time - within a short period of time - had received

8 from several sources detailed information that his subordinates had

9 murdered the surrendered HVO soldiers.

10 In respect to the accused's Kubura, Your Honours, we will show a

11 series of documents, ABiH documents that will demonstrate that he, prior

12 to the murders in Miletici, was well aware of the criminal conduct of his

13 subordinate soldiers. It was the accused Kubura himself who on 8 April

14 1993 and following a complaint from the command of the 306 Mountain

15 Brigade reported about the, what he describes, "unacceptable behaviour of

16 some brigade members."

17 Turning to the massacre in Maline and Bikosi and the direct

18 knowledge the accused had about this massacre. The massacre in Maline

19 and Bikosi, not at all a small event in Central Bosnia, taking into

20 account that 24 Croats were killed, it was not a small event and it was

21 not a small event in the area of the 3rd Corps. Accordingly, it was

22 publicly known shortly - shortly - after it was committed. And not

23 surprisingly it became known -- became also known to the ABiH Supreme

24 Command Staff.

25 Your Honours, we will present evidence, evidence that on 20th

1 June 1993, following up the respective information, the ABiH deputy

2 commander, Siba [phoen], visited the accused Hadzihasanovic in Zenica and

3 asked him, asked him whether he knew about the execution of 35 people in

4 Bikosi. The Defence are not contesting that on 9th August 1993 the

5 accused Hadzihasanovic's deputy, Dzemo Merdan, together with an ECMM

6 representative, visited Bikosi examining three grave sites. Dzemo

7 Merdan, as the accused Hadzihasanovic's deputy, could not have

8 participated without the accused Hadzihasanovic's knowledge.

9 Like the Miletici murders, the massacre in Maline/Bikosi also

10 attracted international attention. Following inquiries by the United

11 Nations special rapporteur, the ABiH Supreme Command Delic, on behalf of

12 the president of the Presidency, Izetbegovic, wrote a letter -- wrote a

13 letter to the accused Hadzihasanovic requesting information about an

14 alleged massacre in Maline on 8 July 1993. All this, Your Honours, all

15 this provided specific notice to the accused Hadzihasanovic of the crimes

16 alleged.

17 Also the accused Kubura was on notice of his subordinates'

18 actions. We will tender -- the Prosecution will tender a document into

19 evidence that shows that on 20 June 1993 the accused Kubura issued an

20 order to his subordinate commanders to prevent negative occurrences.

21 Moreover, this order continues ordering the accused Kubura's subordinates

22 to treat prisoners of war, especially the wounded, in the spirit of the

23 Geneva Conventions. This order, issued only -- only several days after

24 the massacre, seen together with the public knowledge of the crime as

25 detailed, leads to the only -- the only available inference that the

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1 accused Hadzihasanovic, like the accused -- the accused Kubura, sorry --

2 the accused Kubura, like the accused Hadzihasanovic, had positive

3 knowledge about the massacre. Both accused in many instances also knew

4 about their subordinates' crimes committed in the detention facilities.

5 Some of the detention facilities - for example, the Zenica Music

6 School and the FC Iskra Stadium in Bugojno, were particularly notorious:

7 Notorious in the sense that the detainees were subjected to inhumane

8 treatment, notorious in the sense the detainees were brutally beaten, and

9 notorious in the sense that superiors of the accused expressed their

10 concern towards the accused and ordered them to ensure -- to ensure the

11 prisoners are treated in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva

12 Conventions. The mistreatment of prisoners held at the Zenica Music

13 School was particularly notorious in the sense that it was the subject of

14 many -- many complaints, not only of international organisations such as

15 the ECMM and the ICRC but also to the 3rd Corps command, complaints to

16 the 3rd Corps command and the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade.

17 We will present a report showing that on 7th May 1993 the HVO

18 information office informed -- informed the 3rd Corps command of the

19 extreme maltreatment subjected on prisoners held in the Zenica Music

20 School. Another document will show that the accused Hadzihasanovic met

21 -- met with ECMM representatives on the same day in order to discuss the

22 situation in the Zenica Music School. And we will present a witness, at

23 the time a judge of the Zenica district military court and currently

24 appointed to the state court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who on 13 June

25 1993 informed the accused Hadzihasanovic about complaints about

1 mistreatment and beating of prisoners.

2 The accused Hadzihasanovic replied. He replied to the effect

3 that he had heard of it but had checked it and, as he said, "And it was

4 okay." It wasn't okay, Your Honours; it wasn't okay at all. Five days

5 after that meeting, Jozo Maracic died. He died after being beaten to

6 death by the subordinates of the accused Hadzihasanovic. He was killed

7 just 1 kilometre away from the accused Hadzihasanovic's headquarters. He

8 was killed just 2 kilometres away from the accused Kubura's headquarters,

9 murdered by the accused Kubura's direct subordinates.

10 The accused Kubura did not have only actual knowledge of the

11 mistreatment of prisoners in the Zenica Music School; he also knew about

12 the brutal beatings in the Motel Sretno. He knew about it because a

13 victim told him. You will hear, Your Honours, you will hear this former

14 detainee. This detainee will describe -- will describe how he, after his

15 release, was taken by HVO soldiers to a meeting between the HVO and the

16 ABiH, monitored by UNPROFOR. The accused Kubura was the senior ABiH

17 representative at this meeting. At this meeting, the victim informed the

18 participants, including the accused Kubura, about the injuries inflicted

19 on him by 3rd Corps guards at the Motel Sretno. These injuries were six

20 broken ribs, a badly damaged vertebrae, and two displaced kidneys, caused

21 by brutal beatings with a police truncheon.

22 The accused Hadzihasanovic also had positive knowledge, positive

23 knowledge of the crimes committed by his subordinates in the Motel

24 Sretno. He, the accused Hadzihasanovic, at the time lived in Kakanj. He

25 lived in Kakanj only several hundred metres away from the Motel Sretno.

1 He lived there knowing about the cruel treatment, knowing about the cruel

2 treatment because he was informed about it. We will tender documents

3 into evidence that show that he was informed by the HVO about the

4 maltreatment of prisoners in Kakanj, in Kakanj in the Motel Sretno. This

5 knowledge came from at least -- from at least two sources: First, on

6 21st May 1993, by way of a protest letter; and again, on 21st June 1993,

7 on the occasion of a meeting at BritBat headquarters.

8 In respect to other detention facilities, the accused

9 Hadzihasanovic was provided with inquiry notice. He was provided with

10 information to the extent necessary to require further information. The

11 detention facilities in the municipalities of Travnik and Bugojno formed

12 part of the organised structure of detention facilities within the area

13 of the 3rd Corps. Prisoners were moved from one detention facility to

14 the other, in some instances crossing borders of municipalities and areas

15 of responsibility of military units. Such organised movements required

16 planning. They required logistics, and they required manpower. And they

17 required approval, approval by the accused Hadzihasanovic.

18 Finally, as can be seen from the map, the distances -- the map

19 that will show up at your screen right now -- the distances between the

20 detention facilities and the accused Hadzihasanovic's headquarters were

21 small; in several instances, less than 20 kilometres. The accused knew

22 his area of responsibility and he knew it very well. Quite often he was

23 in the field visiting -- visiting the areas where the detention

24 facilities were located. People used to talk about the crimes, both the

25 civilians and soldiers on both sides, and the accused Hadzihasanovic

1 talked to people.

2 The accused Hadzihasanovic positively knew about the cruel

3 treatment of detainees in the Zenica Music School. He positively knew

4 about the cruel treatment of detainees in the Motel Sretno. He

5 positively knew about the existence of the other detention facilities.

6 Being aware -- being aware of the crimes in the Zenica Music School and

7 the Motel Sretno, he had reason to know -- the accused Hadzihasanovic had

8 reason to know about the cruel treatment in the other detention

9 facilities.

10 Your Honours, both accused also knew about the plunder, and they

11 also knew about the wanton destruction. You will hear a witness, a

12 command-staff member of a unit subordinated to the accused

13 Hadzihasanovic, stating that looting by 3rd Corps members and the burning

14 of Croat and Serb property was endemic, was endemic in the 3rd Corps zone

15 of responsibility throughout the indictment period. It was common;

16 plundering and destroying was common to the extent that the accused

17 Hadzihasanovic, well aware of this, repeatedly ordered his subordinate

18 commanders to prevent ABiH soldiers from stealing, looting, and burning

19 property.

20 We will present evidence detailing that he even knew which of his

21 subordinates' units were - and that's a quote - "The most active in this

22 illegal behaviour." And he knew about specific incidents, specific

23 incidents of looting and destruction, such as in Guca Gora after the

24 attack on 8 June 1993. A few days later -- a few days later, only on 16

25 June 1993, he sent an order -- he sent an order to the 306 Brigade

1 command specifically referring to what had happened. The document we

2 will tender into evidence, Your Honours, reads as follows: "During and

3 after the combat activities in your zone of responsibility, large-scale

4 looting and burning of facilities to Croatian population has occurred."

5 Not only did the accused Hadzihasanovic know about this and other

6 specific incidents of looting and burning down of houses. The accused

7 Kubura knew about such incidents as well. We will present a document, an

8 order of the accused Kubura to his subordinates of 20 June 1993, stating

9 that there have been incidents of illegal arrest of civilians, looting of

10 their property and houses.

11 In particular, the accused Kubura had knowledge about the looting

12 and the burning down of houses by his subordinates in Vares. A document

13 we will tender into evidence is an order of the command of the 6th Corps

14 OG Visoko for November 1993 requesting to cease all unauthorised acts and

15 withdrawal of the army saying that it was a personal order from the

16 Supreme Commander to be implemented by the commander of the 7th Muslim

17 Mountain Brigade. And the commander of the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade

18 was the accused Kubura. Accordingly, the accused Kubura on 5th November

19 1993 ordered all members of the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade out of Vares

20 immediately and prohibited their staying there without his approval.

21 But it goes further. A member of the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade

22 who participated in the looting in Vares will testify. He will testify

23 that there was no intervention by the 3rd Corps Commanders in regards to

24 this looting because they had helped themselves to the war booty.

25 Destruction and willful damage to institutions dedicated to

1 religion were committed by the subordinates of the accused

2 Hadzihasanovic. He had positive knowledge about the damage done to the

3 monastery in Guca Gora. He had also positive knowledge about the damage

4 to the church of St. John the Baptist in Travnik. Not without reason on

5 10 June 1993, two days after the main ABiH attack on Guca Gora, he issued

6 an order stating, stating that the damaging and destroying religious

7 sites was prohibited. This was not purely coincidental.

8 One week later, on 17 June 1993, the accused attended -- the

9 accused Hadzihasanovic attended a meeting with Stjepan Siber, the ABiH

10 deputy commander, and Archbishop Puljic. You will hear, Your Honour, you

11 will hear a witness describing that the archbishop informed him, informed

12 the accused Hadzihasanovic that the interior of the Travnik church had

13 been destroyed and that the accused Hadzihasanovic replied that he - and

14 that's a quote - "had sensed trouble in the region."

15 Your Honours, both accused failed to take the necessary and

16 reasonable measures to prevent the criminal acts or to punish the

17 perpetrators. What were the necessary reasonable measures both accused

18 were required to take? The measures to take to prevent the crimes are

19 stated in the Geneva Conventions and its additional Protocol I, well

20 known at the time to the accused, both accused. Such measures include

21 instructing the subordinate commanders and soldiers in their duties under

22 international law; ordering that subordinates observe international

23 humanitarian law and that any violation be punished; imposing sufficient

24 discipline to enforce compliance with international humanitarian law;

25 monitoring subordinate command areas and ensuring that all necessary

1 measures to observe and implement international humanitarian law are

2 taken; disciplining commanders who do not implement all necessary

3 measures to observe and implement international humanitarian law,

4 including the removal of such commanders from their posts. There are

5 other measures, such as ordering that any violations of international

6 humanitarian law by subordinates cease immediately, such as reporting the

7 violation of -- violations of international law to superiors, initiating

8 criminal prosecution of supervisors who cover breaches of international

9 lw, and initiate criminal prosecution of subordinates who breach

10 international humanitarian law.

11 Your Honours, our military expert, the Prosecution's military

12 expert witness, will show that both accused, General Hadzihasanovic and

13 Colonel Kubura, could have taken such measures under the conditions at

14 the time. The measures both accused were required to take to punish the

15 crimes by their subordinates included immediately initiating an

16 investigation to establish whether or not criminal breaches of

17 international humanitarian law had in fact occurred and, if so, the

18 circumstances of the crime, relevant witnesses, and other evidence, and

19 the identity of the perpetrators. If the perpetrators had been

20 identified, to detain the perpetrators and hand the perpetrators over to

21 a competent authority; obtaining a report about the results of the

22 investigation into the crime and any disciplinary measures taken by

23 subordinate commanders. There are other measures, such as determining

24 whether the seriousness of the crime requires disciplinary action or

25 criminal prosecution. If the seriousness of the crime was granted,

1 disciplinary action immediately takes steps to establish responsibility

2 for breaches of discipline or pronounced disciplinary measures. And if

3 the seriousness of the crimes were granted criminal prosecution to

4 personally -- to personally and immediately initiate all measures

5 necessary for the transfer of the case to the prosecuting agency and the

6 initiation of criminal prosecution.

7 The accused, both accused, could have taken these measures in

8 accordance with a functional military disciplinary system which was

9 established by the end of 1992. Its legal instruments included the order

10 on enforcement of rules of military law in the Armed Forces of the

11 Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The legal instruments included the

12 rules of operation for the military security service; they included the

13 rules of service for the military police and the legal instruments

14 available to the accused included the manual "Unmilitary Discipline".

15 Regulations and decrees were enacted to establish three separate

16 courts, each with defined jurisdiction; namely, the special military

17 courts, the military disciplinary courts, and most relevant to this

18 indictment, the district military courts. The 3rd Corps had a complete

19 -- had a complete and functioning military prosecution system, a

20 functioning prosecution military system throughout the indictment period.

21 The accused Hadzihasanovic, as the corps commander, established a corps

22 military disciplinary court in early 1993. He requested and he arranged

23 the statutory appointment of its judges, its prosecutor, and its

24 secretary. Many soldiers were disciplined in the 3rd Corps military

25 disciplinary court throughout the indictment period.

1 The 3rd Corps had a functioning legal department which advised

2 the accused Hadzihasanovic on military and legal matters. District

3 military courts and district military prosecutors' offices were also

4 functioning throughout the indictment period. Judges and prosecutors of

5 those courts will testify that the courts were functioning throughout the

6 indictment period and, indeed, prosecuted many 3rd Corps soldiers for

7 criminal offences. They will testify that the court needed a criminal

8 report before it could investigate and prosecute crimes allegedly

9 committed by 3rd Corps soldiers. And they will testify, Your Honours,

10 that the courts investigated criminal offences committed by 3rd Corps

11 soldiers when it received a criminal report from the 3rd Corps command

12 and its units. However, they will testify that they did not prosecute

13 any 3rd Corps soldiers for crimes classified as war crimes against the

14 civilian population or prisoners of war.

15 We will prove, Your Honours, that this system of criminal

16 investigation and prosecution was working. It was working when the 3rd

17 Corps command had chosen to utilise it. The accused made it work -- they

18 made it work against HVO soldiers. The accused made it also work against

19 ABiH soldiers if and when their subordinates' units' safety was

20 jeopardised. And the accused made it even work in cases of minor

21 disciplinary offences if and when the combat readiness of units under

22 their command and control was jeopardised. The accused failed, however,

23 they failed to make it work for the investigation and the punishment of

24 any of the perpetrators who had committed the crimes as detailed in the

25 indictment. The accused failed to take the necessary and reasonable

1 measures to prevent the criminal acts or to punish the perpetrators.

2 Your Honours, we will present evidence, evidence that allowed the

3 military expert to draw the conclusion that both accused had the means

4 available to comply with their legal duties. The accused had the means

5 available to investigate. They had the means available to provide the

6 district military-prosecutor officers with criminal -- criminal reports

7 to enable them to prosecute the perpetrators. The accused Hadzihasanovic

8 had the duty to order an investigation into allegations of criminality by

9 his subordinates, as had the accused Kubura. They also had the means to

10 do so. The 3rd Corps had a Military Police Battalion subordinated to the

11 accused Hadzihasanovic's chief of staff, a military police battalion

12 comprised of about 250 to 300 soldiers based nearby at the Zenica KP Dom.

13 Every 3rd Corps brigade, including, of course, the 7th Muslim Mountain

14 Brigade, had its own military police.

15 We will ask the Court to call a witness -- to call as a witness

16 the 3rd Corps chief of security, the most senior person within the

17 military security service in the 3rd Corps at the time. He will testify

18 that every brigade commander had a duty under international and domestic

19 law to have investigated criminal matters of which he had notice or

20 reason to suspect that his subordinates had committed crimes. This

21 included the duty to forward criminal reports to the district military

22 prosecutor's offices. The corps commander could sign military reports to

23 the district military court prosecutor. This witness, the then-3rd Corps

24 chief of security, he will testify that he can't remember whether the

25 accused Hadzihasanovic signed any criminal reports for referral to the

1 district military prosecutor's offices. And this witness, Your Honours,

2 he will also testify that he would have known had any brigade commanders

3 been punished, demoted, or relieved of command for failing to punish or

4 prevent the criminal activities of their subordinates. He does not know

5 of any brigade commanders been punished, demoted, or relieved of their

6 position for this reason while he was the chief of security.

7 Like the accused Hadzihasanovic, the accused Kubura did not use

8 the means available to him to investigate the crimes of his subordinates.

9 And like the accused Hadzihasanovic, he did not use the military police

10 assigned to the 7th Muslim Mountain Brigade, the brigade under his

11 command and effective control. Both accused failed to punish the crimes

12 as detailed in the indictment. And in doing so and not using the other

13 means as described earlier on, both accused also failed to prevent the

14 crimes as detailed in the indictment.

15 Your Honours, I will now briefly address the Prosecution's

16 evidence. The Prosecution's case will be proven through the testimony of

17 dozens of witnesses and, in addition, through several hundreds of

18 documents. We will also tender further evidence such as photographs and

19 video footage. The witnesses testifying about the crimes committed by

20 the subordinates of the accused will be eyewitnesses to the killings,

21 victims of the crimes committed in the detention facilities, and

22 eyewitnesses to the other crimes detailed in the indictment.

23 The witnesses testifying to the elements of the accuseds' command

24 responsibility will mostly be international witnesses, such as the former

25 ECMM and UNPROFOR members. The Prosecution will also call former

1 military prosecutors, judges, and members of the 3rd Corps legal staff.

2 We will call the former deputy commander of the ABiH, who told the

3 accused Hadzihasanovic of the crimes of his subordinates, a number of

4 so-called insider-type of witnesses, 3rd Corps soldiers, will complete

5 the Prosecution's witness list.

6 The documents the Prosecution will introduce as exhibits in their

7 majority stem from the ABiH -- the ABiH main archive. Many of them are

8 signed by the accused.

9 In conclusion, the Prosecution evidence will prove the guilt of

10 the accused, both accused. Your Honours, this concludes our opening

11 statement. Thank you.

12 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you to the Prosecutor.

13 Pursuant to Article 84 of the Rules of Evidence and procedure,

14 the parties - the Defence, that is - can, if it so desire, make an

15 opening statement. So I'm now going to ask the Defence of Mr.

16 Hadzihasanovic whether they indeed do wish to make an opening statement.

17 MS. RESIDOVIC: [Interpretation] Mr. President, as we've already

18 informed you, the Defence of General Hadzihasanovic will be making its

19 opening statement before it starts the Defence case, so that we shan't

20 been making an opening statement today.

21 I should also like to confirm that I consulted my client with

22 regard to your question, and he stands by his position not to avail

23 himself of the right provided to him under Rule 84. Thank you. -- 84

24 bis.

25 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you. How about the

1 Kubura Defence team?

2 MR. IBRISIMOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, the Defence of

3 Mr. Kubura take it is identical position as does the Hadzihasanovic

4 Defence team with respect to an opening statement and also with respect

5 to Mr. Kubura's statement, statement of the accused under Rule 84 bis;

6 that is to say, the accused will not be making a statement today.

7 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. So the

8 Chamber takes note of this, that the parties will not be making opening

9 statements at this juncture, and that the accused renounce their right

10 under Rule 84 bis to make a statement themselves.

11 That being the fact, we can go on to the presentation of evidence

12 and the Prosecution case. The Prosecution will have a first witness, I

13 believe; is that right?

14 MR. WITHOPF: That's right, Your Honour; the Prosecution,

15 however, suggests to have a break. Before the break, however, I wish to

16 introduce and to take the opportunity to introduce the members of the

17 trial team.

18 Apart from myself, the Prosecution trial team consists of three

19 experienced, very experienced lawyers: Mr. David Re, an attorney from

20 Australia; Mr. Daryl Mundis, an attorney from the United States. And the

21 Prosecution trial team will be completed within the next future -- within

22 the near future by Mr. Chester Stamp, an experienced attorney from

23 Jamaica.

24 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you very much to the

25 Prosecution for introducing us to the Prosecution team. It's almost

1 noon, so I think it would be preferable to adjourn, to take a short

2 break, and from 11.55 to 12.25. So we're going to take up the

3 proceedings with our first witness and going on to the end of the session

4 without making any further breaks or adjournments. Thank you.

5 --- Recess taken at 11.56 a.m.

6 --- On resuming at 12.26 p.m.

7 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] [Microphone not activated]

8 THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, Your Honour, please. We can't hear

9 you.

10 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] I would like to ask the accused

11 if they can hear the simultaneous translation. Can you hear the

12 simultaneous translation?

13 THE ACCUSED HADZIHASANOVIC: [Interpretation] Yes, yes, we can.

14 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Fine. So we shall start on the

15 presentation of the Prosecution witnesses. It is now 12.30, and we are

16 going to be having this hearing until quarter to 2.00. And the

17 Prosecution can start its examination-in-chief until quarter to 2.00. We

18 will then proceed with the cross-examination tomorrow, as this witness is

19 going to be with us for two days; is that correct?

20 MR. MUNDIS: Mr. President, the Prosecution does in fact

21 anticipate that this witness will be here for two days. That's correct.

22 The Prosecution calls Zeljko Cvijanovic.

23 Mr. President, if I may, while the witness is being brought into

24 the courtroom, and for the benefit of the Trial Chamber, this witness

25 will be testifying primarily with respect to the alleged murder of Zvonko

1 Rajic in Dusina.

2 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] That's fine.

3 [The witness entered court]

4 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Witness, can you hear

5 something?

6 Could you give us your name, surname, and date of birth, please.

7 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] My name is Zeljko Cvijanovic. I

8 was born on the 28th of July, 1967.

9 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] And where do you currently

10 reside?

11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I am living in Busovaca.

12 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] And what is your current job?

13 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] By occupation, I'm a driver. And

14 currently I am disabled, so that I am 80 per cent invalid and I am not

15 working.

16 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Fine. So I would like to ask

17 you to read the solemn declaration, which the usher is about to show you.

18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I solemnly declare that I will

19 speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

20

21 WITNESS: ZELJKO CVIJANOVIC

22 [Witness answered through interpreter]

23 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you very much. You may

24 sit down.

25 I shall now give the floor to the Prosecution so that they can

1 proceed with the examination-in-chief.

2 MR. MUNDIS: Thank you, Your Honour.

3 Examined by Mr. Mundis:

4 Q. Witness, you've told us that your current job is a driver,

5 although you are disabled. Prior to the war, what was your occupation?

6 A. The same. Before the war, I was a driver. I worked as a driver.

7 I had a privately owned truck of my own, which still stands in front of

8 my house, burnt down -- the remains of it, rather, were burnt when I

9 left.

10 Q. Witness, prior to the war in Central Bosnia, did you do

11 compulsory service in the JNA?

12 A. Yes, I did.

13 Q. Can you please tell us when, where, and what your military duties

14 encompassed?

15 A. I served in the Yugoslav People's Army in Bitola. I was

16 recruited as an infantry man, commander of an RBR detachment. After

17 completing training, I worked in Bitola in the medical centre as head of

18 the medical platoon, so in the same town in which I had been serving up

19 until then.

20 Q. In what years did you serve in the Yugoslav People's Army?

21 A. 1977.

22 Q. Witness, can you please tell the Trial Chamber where you were

23 living as of January 1992.

24 A. I was living in Lasva, where I was born, until we were captured

25 and expelled from there, that is where I lived. This applies to me and

1 my family.

2 THE INTERPRETER: Interpreter's correction: We believe the

3 witness said '87 instead of '77.

4 MR. MUNDIS:

5 Q. Witness, in what municipality or municipalities is the village of

6 Lasva?

7 A. The village of Lasva, where my house is and where I lived,

8 belonged to Zenica municipality. However, this is at the meeting point.

9 There are -- the meeting point between the municipalities of Kakanj,

10 Zenica, and Busovaca. My house where I lived was actually in the

11 territory of Zenica municipality.

12 Q. Can you briefly describe for the Trial Chamber the conditions in

13 the village of Lasva in 1992 with respect to the ethnicity of that town.

14 A. Regarding the Croats, there were about 56 family homes or

15 households. As for Serbs, there were a little more. But the majority

16 population was Muslim.

17 Q. Which ethnic group do you consider yourself a member of?

18 A. My father is a Serb, and my mother is a Croat, so I'd rather not

19 declare myself to be either. I respect both my parents, and it is thanks

20 to them that I am alive.

21 Q. Did there come a time during 1992 when ethnic tensions in Lasva

22 intensified?

23 A. Yes. It became very tense. Initially it was the people of Serb

24 ethnicity that were mistreated in Lasva, and they sought assistance from

25 the Croats, and there were tensions immediately between the Croat and

1 Muslim ethnicity and also in relation to the Serbs, because there were

2 front lines already established where Serbs were waging war against

3 Muslims.

4 Q. Did there come a time, Witness, in 1992 when you joined a

5 military organisation?

6 A. Yes. As I was a military conscript, it was my duty by law that

7 applied in the former Yugoslavia that I had to respond to the draft and

8 fulfil my civil duties. I could choose at the time, because there was

9 the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina or the Croatian Defence Council.

10 There were two legal armed forces, and you could opt for either of your

11 own free will. Of course, I opted for the Croatian Defence Council.

12 Q. The Croatian Defence Council goes by the acronym HVO; is that

13 correct?

14 A. Yes, correct.

15 Q. Do you recall the approximate month in 1992 when you joined the

16 HVO?

17 A. I think it was around the beginning of April.

18 Q. Can you please describe for the Trial Chamber the interaction

19 between the HVO and the army of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Lasva and the

20 surrounding areas in 1992.

21 A. Well, the relationship between the BH army and the HVO at the

22 time, at the beginning, appeared to be normal. There was heightened

23 tension and the population was in fear in the evening. There were

24 patrols consisting of two soldiers of the HVO and two soldiers of the

25 Territorial Defence, as it was called in those days, but they were

1 Muslim. So two Croats and two Muslims. And that is how it functioned at

2 the beginning.

3 Q. Witness, you've told us that there was heightened tension and the

4 population was in fear in the evening. What was the population afraid of

5 at this point in time?

6 A. Yes. As I was saying, front lines already existed against the

7 Serb side, so that the Serbs, the inhabitants who were Serbs, were

8 mistreated, expelled, killed, beaten up, and of course those who survived

9 the Golgotha came to seek aid and they addressed the commander at the

10 time, Zvonko Rajic, who headed this platoon or the small number of us

11 that were there, and normally this appeared as support of them, and that

12 is when tensions increased, so that cooperation between the Croats and

13 the Muslims became more and more difficult.

14 Q. Witness, you mentioned Zvonko Rajic as being the head of a

15 platoon. Can you tell us what unit Zvonko Rajic headed or was in command

16 of.

17 A. Zvonko Rajic headed a group of locals from Lasva. It was an

18 independent unit. They had simply organised themselves, the inhabitants

19 of Lasva, as they were in the minority, and he was mobilised to the HVO.

20 The main command was in Busovaca. And Mr. Zvonko was in command of the

21 militarily able-bodied men in Lasva.

22 Q. Was this unit that he commanded exclusively an HVO unit?

23 A. Yes, exclusively an HVO unit. Nothing more than that.

24 Q. Did there come a time when fighting broke out in Lasva?

25 A. I don't understand the question. Could you repeat it, please.

1 Q. Did there come a time when fighting broke out in the village or

2 area around Lasva?

3 A. You mean between the Muslim and Croat populations?

4 Q. Yes, between the Muslim and Croat populations in Lasva.

5 A. Yes. This happened on the 26th of January, in the morning, at

6 5.30 a.m., roughly.

7 Q. In January of what year, witness?

8 A. 1993.

9 Q. And do you recall where you were in the morning, early morning

10 hours of 26 January 1993?

11 A. Yes. I was in bed sleeping.

12 Q. How were you awoken on that morning?

13 A. I was woken up by my mother. She had panicked hearing the

14 shooting around the house.

15 Q. And what did you do after waking up or after being awakened by

16 your mother?

17 A. I got up. I went outside. And from the surrounding hills there

18 were bursts of fire on the house and the holes can still be seen on the

19 building that were made then. And we all panicked. We didn't know what

20 to do. My mother and father were in the house, my family. So we

21 wondered what we should do.

22 Q. Did you go anywhere that morning, Witness, early -- in the early

23 morning hours?

24 A. Yes. A couple of minutes later a relative arrived who was coming

25 from Zvonko Rajic and he said that we had been attacked, that we should

1 all gather at the billiard room at Srecko Kristo's in the immediate

2 neighbourhood where we used to get together anyway.

3 Q. Was the billiard room also known as a coffee bar or a place where

4 you could gather for coffee?

5 A. Yes. All the locals knew of it. It's an ordinary village pub.

6 We used to gather there. A neighbour of ours ran it, and everyone knew

7 of it.

8 Q. Did you -- when you arrived at this billiard room or coffee bar,

9 were there other people already present there?

10 A. Yes. When I arrived there, together with my brother, we found

11 our neighbours and friends who had already arrived who were also in a

12 panic and full of fear.

13 Q. Were these neighbours and friends all members of the HVO, the

14 local HVO unit?

15 A. Yes, they were. Just then when I arrived, yes.

16 Q. Do you recall what you were wearing and whether you were armed at

17 this time?

18 A. Yes. I was wearing what I had at home. Actually, I put on a

19 camouflage pants and camouflage shirt and a civilian jacket that I wore

20 at the time, and I had been issued a Kalashnikov because we received

21 order from Zvonko that we should all rally there.

22 Q. Were the other HVO soldiers who were present that morning

23 similarly dressed and similarly armed?

24 A. Yes, depending on what each person had been issued with, he

25 brought it with him.

1 Q. Was Zvonko Rajic present when you arrived?

2 A. When I arrived, he wasn't, but a couple of minutes later he

3 appeared.

4 Q. Witness, do you recall approximately what time you arrived at the

5 billiard room or coffee bar?

6 A. It was about fifteen or ten to 6.00, around 6.00 in the morning.

7 Q. What did the group of soldiers who were in the coffee bar that

8 morning then do? What did you do that morning?

9 A. We were surprised. We were in a state of panic. And there was

10 an atmosphere of uncertainty as to what should be done. Zvonko tried to

11 get in touch with Busovaca. He had a Motorola, a radio station, but it

12 was difficult to make connection.

13 Q. Did Zvonko Rajic order the soldiers in that billiard room or

14 coffee bar to go anywhere that morning?

15 A. Yes. He received a report that the shooting we had heard was

16 from the fighting on Dusina hill and that there were quite a number of

17 dead and wounded, and he required of us that we find two volunteers who

18 would go up there to see what was going on.

19 Q. Witness, can you please describe for the Trial Chamber the

20 geographic reference or the distance between Lasva and Dusina.

21 A. Lasva, or where our houses are, is close to the station. It's a

22 valley. And the Dusina -- Dusina and the hill is an elevation, so it's

23 -- if you were watching from a tower, you would see us at the bottom.

24 And the distance is about 3 kilometres between Dusina and Lasva.

25 Q. Is the 3 kilometres going via the road, or would that be

1 cross-country or in a straight line?

2 A. Yes, along the road. The distance by road is up to 3 kilometres.

3 But as the crow flies, it's much closer. You can see the houses. You

4 can even see the people walking in front of their houses.

5 Q. What is the approximate distance between Lasva and Dusina as the

6 crow flies?

7 A. I'm afraid I couldn't tell you exactly what the distance is in a

8 straight line, but as I was saying, you could see easily people working

9 in their fields in front of their houses. I could see them from my

10 house, a part of it actually.

11 Q. Witness, you've told us that Zvonko Rajic requested two

12 volunteers to go to Dusina to see what was going on. In fact, did two

13 individuals volunteer to go to Dusina that morning?

14 A. That is true, yes. Zvonko was looking for volunteers. However,

15 people were panicking and were fearful, and while we hesitated no one had

16 the courage to say, "I'll go," and then simply "we'll all go and we'll

17 suffer the same fate for better or for worse." In the meantime, while we

18 were discussing this, we decided to go. And as we tried to leave the

19 coffee bar, fire was opened, so we turned back. We went back inside.

20 And we were horrified and didn't know what to do. Zvonko said that we

21 had to get out somehow. Then we tried getting out again; again fire was

22 opened at us. And then we saw two soldiers who were fully armed, in

23 combat gear, and they were shooting at them as well as at us, so we had

24 to go back in again.

25 Q. Witness, let me stop you there. You told us that you saw two

1 soldiers who were fully armed in combat gear. Were those soldiers that

2 were fully armed and in combat gear also members of the HVO?

3 A. No. They were members of the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

4 One gentleman was from Visoko, and he was of Muslim faith; and the other

5 gentleman was from Nemila, also of Muslim faith. They had camouflage

6 uniform on them. They were armed especially well, and they had green

7 ribbons across their foreheads with Arab letters on them, and the other

8 one had such a ribbon on his right shoulder.

9 Q. Witness, the soldiers who were firing at your unit, your HVO

10 unit, were they from the ABiH?

11 A. Yes, they were. They were on the surrounding hills around our

12 houses, because as I was saying, we're in a valley, so our houses were

13 lined -- formed a line. They were standing one next to the other, the

14 houses inhabited by Croats.

15 Q. When you saw these two armed Muslim soldiers approaching on the

16 road, did you or anyone from your unit fire at them?

17 A. No. We called them inside, and they came inside with us, in the

18 coffee bar, where we were. And when they entered -- again, armed to the

19 teeth -- the people were terrified because we had markings of the HVO on

20 our uniforms, so we realised that they were -- belonged to a different

21 army. They had somehow lost their way amongst us.

22 Q. Witness, do you know why your unit did not open fire on these two

23 Muslim soldiers?

24 A. There was no reason to. These boys were going along the road,

25 and we were quite confused. We didn't know what was happening. We knew

1 that a day earlier fighting had started around Busovaca between Muslim

2 and Croat forces, but we were neutral. We didn't interfere in that at

3 all. That was Zvonko's order. He wouldn't allow the slightest excess.

4 So there was no reason. These guys, these soldiers, were also confused

5 and they came inside to seek shelter. They were in shock too. There was

6 no point in shooting at them.

7 Q. Witness, did you see any specific markings other than the Arab

8 script that you've talked about, any unit patches or any markings on

9 their uniforms?

10 A. These two soldiers who were there, on them I didn't. The only

11 thing I could see was these green ribbons around their heads with Arabic

12 script. And we sat there together and spoke to them in this coffee bar.

13 Q. What did you talk to them about?

14 A. Out of fear and curiosity we were asking what was going on. They

15 didn't seem to know. They were confused, because we were soldiers whom

16 they were supposed to attack, and they were confused. At first they

17 didn't believe anything, because they too were shocked. They had

18 expected us to resist, that a conflict would break out or that we would

19 mistreat them or something. That was their initial impression. They

20 were under stress.

21 After a certain amount of time, when we started talking and when

22 we asked them what was going on, these guys couldn't understand. They

23 asked us how many inhabitants we were, where we were living, how, and so

24 on. When we told them how many of us were living there, they simply

25 couldn't believe it. They had been told that we were some sort of a

1 major force, that we had tanks, that we had special detachments, special

2 units, and things that didn't make any sense at all.

3 Q. Did they give you, during the course of this conversation, did

4 they give you any indication as to the size of their force?

5 A. Yes. They asked themselves why they had to have so many soldiers

6 there against the 50 or 60 households that you numbered. They were in

7 shock too. They just couldn't believe it themselves. They just couldn't

8 believe that things were happening as they were.

9 Q. Do you recall approximately how many soldiers they spoke about

10 when they were talking amongst themselves, how many soldiers they had?

11 A. Well, they didn't give an exact figure and say exactly how many

12 soldiers they were, but they did mention units, what did so many units of

13 the brigade -- what were they there for, because it was all beyond

14 belief. That's the kind of thing they said.

15 Q. Do you recall them indicating or saying which brigade or brigades

16 were involved?

17 A. Yes, they did. They mentioned the 303rd Mountain Brigade and

18 some Visoko Brigade too, the 7th Muslim was mentioned, the Territorial

19 Defence, the local one, then the Patriotic League, and the regular army

20 of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

21 Q. The units that you just named, are those all units of the army of

22 Bosnia-Herzegovina?

23 A. Yes. They did belong -- well, actually, whether they were

24 special units or some other kinds of units, they did come under the

25 supervision of the BH army; of course, as they fought together with them.

1 That would be natural.

2 Q. Witness, did there come a time when the HVO unit then left the

3 coffee bar on the morning of 26 January 1993?

4 A. Yes.

5 Q. Do you recall approximately what time the unit left and where the

6 unit went?

7 A. After that conversation - I don't know how much time they spent

8 on that - but anyway, we started out. There were some ten soldiers, ten

9 of us, roughly speaking, and we went towards Vranjaca, passing by our

10 houses. And we climbed up there towards the village of Brdo.

11 Q. Where in relation to Dusina is the village of Brdo?

12 A. It's a part of Dusina, in actual fact. Before you get to Dusina,

13 there's a hamlet, and that's where there were several Croatian

14 households. The rest, 99 per cent of them, were Muslims.

15 Q. Can you describe the movements of your units toward the village

16 of Brdo. What happened as you were climbing towards Brdo?

17 A. When we started off moving alongside our houses and up the hill -

18 this was mostly Croatian land - and in between the houses they opened

19 fire at us from the surrounding hills, so that there was Krvaca [phoen],

20 Gornja Visnjica. Those were the hills and villages and that's where they

21 shot at us from. So we had to move from one house to the next and to a

22 small thicket and reach the relay up on the hill, relay station.

23 Q. When you say "they opened fire at us," do you know who it was

24 that opened fire at you, which military force?

25 A. The army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Territorial Defence.

1 They were in those surrounding parts, not us.

2 Q. Can you please proceed to tell us what happened when you reached

3 the relay station, the transmitter relay station.

4 A. When we reached the transmitter relay station, it was situated in

5 a large valley, open space all around. You could see it from Dusina and

6 from the surrounding hills. And they opened fire on us from that area

7 using heavy weaponry and light weaponry as well. And we had to take

8 cover under a small hill and had to crawl and make our way to the village

9 of Brdo itself, above Radakove Kuce.

10 Q. Witness, do you know a person by the name of Drago Rados?

11 A. Yes.

12 Q. Who -- who is Drago Rados and where did he live?

13 A. Drago Rados lived at Brdo, up on the hill, and he was the

14 commander of the department in Dusina of a squadron and -- of the

15 military squad, the military-able men there.

16 Q. So he was the HVO squadron commander in Dusina; is that correct?

17 A. Yes.

18 Q. Do you know if there was any communication between Zvonko Rajic

19 and Drago Rados on the morning of 26 January 1993?

20 A. I think there was, because he heard Zvonko. He had a radio

21 station, and he said that they had been attacked and that there were some

22 people who had been killed and were dead, and also some people wounded.

23 And he asked for help. He asked Zvonko to send help and asked him what

24 to do.

25 Q. Did the HVO unit under Zvonko Rajic's command that you were a

1 part of proceed to the house of Drago Rados in Brdo?

2 A. Yes, that's right. And we got there, above his house. There's a

3 plum -- there's some plum trees. And Perica Rados's house is right next

4 door. He's a family member, Perica Rados. So these were family houses.

5 And there was -- there were some plum trees behind. But we couldn't pass

6 because they opened fire at us. And across the road there were some

7 Muslim houses, and that's where the BH army positions were from where

8 they opened fire on us.

9 Q. Did you reach Drago Rados on that morning? Was your unit able to

10 physically reach Drago Rados that morning?

11 A. Yes. We started off upwards, and as soon as we did they shot at

12 us, so we had to go back. There was a sort of little hill. And we stood

13 behind the plum orchard, in actual fact, took cover there. We weren't

14 able to approach any further. We were struck by panic, didn't know what

15 to do, because it was all very surprising to us, and we were wondering

16 what to do next. Zvonko tried to get in touch with the command in

17 Busovaca. He used his Motorola, but it was very difficult to establish a

18 connection, to get through.

19 Q. Did there come a time on that morning when Drago Rados was united

20 with your unit?

21 A. Yes. The next time we set off, we decided to open fire and shoot

22 at them this time and to try and reach Perica Rados's house, to help them

23 to get out of there and to see what was going on generally. And we

24 succeeded in doing that, and then Mijo Ljubicic turned up, as well as

25 Perica Rados and Drago Rados.

1 Q. Do you recall approximately what time it was when you saw Drago

2 Rados on that morning?

3 A. It was morning, early. I couldn't give you an exact time. We

4 didn't bother to look at our watches. But it might have been sometime

5 around 8.00 or 9.00 in the morning.

6 Q. Later that day, Witness, did you see a column of civilian people

7 from where you were located on Brdo?

8 A. Yes. Drago Rados arrived and the other man, Perica, but they

9 were lost, and Mijo Ljubicic said that his father had -- "My father had

10 been killed and lay in front of the house dead," and he also said that he

11 saw an old man by the name of Rados too - we didn't know his surname

12 referred to him as Cica - that he lay there dead on the spot where he had

13 been killed, and Mijo Ljubicic told us that.

14 Q. Witness, let me just clarify one of your answers. When Mijo

15 Ljubicic mentioned his father -- mentioned a father being killed, was

16 that his father, Mijo Ljubicic's father, or was that your father?

17 A. His father, because they were in the house together. And when

18 the shooting started, his father ran out of the house and that's where he

19 was killed. And Mr. Mijo Ljubicic jumped out of the window and he left

20 him there and ran to Perica's house -- Rados's house.

21 Q. Can you please describe for the Trial Chamber this group of

22 civilians that you saw that morning from Brdo.

23 A. When we talked and were wondering what to do, Zvonko tried to get

24 a connection to somebody but we were afraid, generally speaking, and at

25 one point in time from the village of Dusina we were looking across the

1 valley and we saw a group of people, civilians, coming along, led by

2 soldiers with weapons.

3 Q. Was this group walking along a road?

4 A. No. The road went in the opposite direction. They were moving

5 towards our positions, where we were, and going across the meadow, the

6 ordinary meadows and fields, that kind of thing.

7 Q. Do you recall approximately how many people were in this group,

8 how many civilian people were in this group?

9 A. Yes. There were members of our family, women, children and

10 elderly persons who had survived the Golgotha that happened at Dusina.

11 Q. Where were those people coming from? What village or villages

12 were these people coming from?

13 A. They were coming from -- actually, they were our neighbours. And

14 in the evening, out of fear they grouped together in a house, because

15 they thought that they'd be safer and they went to Marko Rajic's house,

16 and that was at Dusina. They were in his cellar, in actual fact, and

17 they grouped together, safety in numbers sort of thing. They thought if

18 they were all together nothing would happen to them.

19 Q. So they were coming from the direction of Dusina towards the

20 position that you were at and your unit was at on Brdo; is that correct?

21 A. Yes, that's right.

22 Q. Can you give us an approximate number of civilians in this group?

23 A. Well, roughly speaking, I would say there were about 20 of them,

24 20 to 25.

25 Q. Approximately how far were these people from the position that

1 your HVO unit was at? How far away were they?

2 A. Well, perhaps 150 to 200 metres. In an open space. They were

3 out in a meadow, in actual fact. And the armed soldiers were there and

4 went behind them.

5 Q. What happened to this group of people as they approached your

6 position on Brdo?

7 A. They stopped behind an old house. There's a small plum orchard

8 there. I think the man's name was Pasko. He was a local of Brdo. And

9 they stood behind that house. And then Mr. Edin Hakanovic addressed

10 them.

11 Q. Who is Edin Hakanovic? And did you know him from before the war?

12 A. Yes. He is a gentleman who lived at Brdo. He was from Lasva

13 originally. I know him we grew up together. And before the war, he was

14 a policeman. He worked in Visoko as a policeman. He attended some sort

15 of course. He was a civil engineer and then underwent some training and

16 found employment as a policeman.

17 Q. From the position that you were at on Brdo, could you hear what

18 Edin Hakanovic was saying to the group of civilians?

19 A. I don't understand the question. Could you repeat it, please.

20 Q. You told us a few moments ago that the group of people, the

21 civilians, stopped in a plum orchard and that Edin Hakanovic addressed

22 them. From your position on Brdo, could you hear what he was saying to

23 them?

24 A. You didn't understand. He didn't address the civilians,

25 actually. He was calling to Zvonko.

1 Q. Okay. So Edin Hakanovic was addressing Zvonko Rajic, who was

2 with you and the HVO unit on Brdo; is that right?

3 A. Yes, that's right. We were lying down next to each other.

4 Q. What did Edin Hakanovic say to Zvonko Rajic?

5 A. He said that he should come out and that they should give

6 themselves up and that then they would stop shooting and that we ought to

7 negotiate. That's what he asked Zvonko to do.

8 Q. How far away was Edin Hakanovic was he was saying this to Zvonko

9 Rajic?

10 A. Well, perhaps 100 metres. If you spoke up, you could hear what

11 the other man was saying.

12 Q. At that point in time, did Zvonko Rajic enter into negotiations

13 with Edin Hakanovic?

14 A. Yes. That's right. Zvonko did try to negotiate and ask Edin

15 what was happening, what they were doing, and Mr. Hakanovic said that he

16 would send Drago Rados's wife to explain to us so he didn't have to shout

17 it out.

18 Q. In fact, did Drago Rados's wife then approach your HVO unit?

19 A. Yes. They let her cross the field and reach our positions. They

20 stopped shooting. Nobody shot at us then while this was going on. So

21 she came up to us and the woman was in shock. She was completely beside

22 herself. And the first words she said, "They'll kill us all." And she

23 said that massacres had started at Dusina and that they had killed all

24 the civilians and military-able men, that they had taken people out from

25 Marko Rajic's cellar and had shot them. And she also said that if --

1 unless Zvonko surrenders, they would all be killed too.

2 Q. At that point in time, did Zvonko Rajic in fact surrender?

3 A. No. She had to go back. And we were still there, lost, didn't

4 know what to do next. And Zvonko didn't want to decide anything on his

5 own. He once again tried to reach the main command in Busovaca on his

6 Motorola. And in one of those attempts he was successful and did get a

7 line through to the command, and the commanding officer ordered Zvonko to

8 negotiate and to do everything possible to see that people weren't killed

9 and that he should do that at any price and that they would do their best

10 to send UN observers to provide us with some degree of safety.

11 Q. What did Zvonko Rajic do after receiving this order from his

12 commander in Busovaca?

13 A. Zvonko was at a loss what to do. It was minus 5 degrees and yet

14 he was sweating. He couldn't speak. And he asked me to call Edin up

15 again. And that's what I did, of course. And Edin responded to my call.

16 Zvonko asked him to give guarantees that he wouldn't harm anyone and that

17 they should all go to the schoolhouse, the school building, and the local

18 community in Lasva, where meetings were usually held and where they would

19 communicate, and that they should go and have some negotiations. That's

20 what Edin asked them to do.

21 Q. What did Zvonko Rajic do after Edin Hakanovic told him this?

22 A. Edin Hakanovic did issue guarantees. He said there'd be no

23 problems for him to come and that he could start out quite safely across

24 the field and meadow to where he was, to where Zvonko was. And Zvonko

25 asked us whether any of us would volunteer to go with him so as not to go

1 alone. We all kept quiet. We were all silent. Of course, everybody was

2 afraid after what we had just heard from Drago's wife as to what had

3 happened and what was going on generally, so nobody had the courage to

4 come forward and go along with him. Then Ivica Filipovic said, "Zvonko

5 can't go on his own. One of us has to go." And then Franjo Batinic got

6 up and volunteered to go with him. So hid Perica Rados, he said he would

7 accompany him too. And Drago Rados stood up too, as well as Kristo Jozo

8 and Srecko Kristo. They all volunteered to go with him, as well as

9 Viktor Kristo, who was Zvonko's brother. So they all volunteered to go

10 with him, with Zvonko. I was next to Zvonko and Velimir Kristo too, and

11 he asked the two of us to go with him as well. I refused. I didn't dare

12 go, because I said I didn't believe them, that I thought they'd kill us

13 all anyway.

14 Then Zvonko got up and told Edin that he was on his way. Once

15 they all got up and walked across the field, Edin said that they should

16 take the bullets out of the barrel - because, of course, they all had

17 rifles - and that he guaranteed that nothing would happen to them. And

18 that's what they did, and started off towards them.

19 Q. Witness, after this group of six or seven individuals followed

20 Zvonko Rajic, you told us that you remained on the hill. How many other

21 HVO soldiers remained with you on the hill, as the others went down

22 towards Edin Hakanovic?

23 A. Seven of eight of us -- seven or eight of us. And Zvonko said,

24 when he set off, "If you notice anything, we'll kill them and not let

25 them be taken alive."

1 Q. When you say "we'll kill them," who was he referring to?

2 A. To Zvonko and the other guys that went with him.

3 Q. Just so I understand, witness, are you telling us that Zvonko

4 told you and the remaining men on the hill to shoot them, to shoot at

5 Zvonko and the other HVO soldiers if it appeared that they were going to

6 be taken away?

7 A. No, not to be taken away. If they harmed them at all, that we

8 should kill them. That's what Zvonko asked us to do. I and Velo Kristo

9 stayed on, Kresimir Kristo stayed too, Ivica Kristo, and several others,

10 Zdeno Kristo. There were about eight of us. I can't remember all their

11 names, because there was general panic.

12 Q. Witness, at this point in time, the group of civilians that you

13 had seen, did they remain in the meadow down by the plum orchard, or did

14 they go somewhere else?

15 A. No, they stayed on in the meadow right up until they reached Edin

16 and the road leading that way to Edin.

17 Q. And where did they go once they reached the road and Edin

18 Hakanovic? Where did the civilians go?

19 A. When Zvonko and the six other soldiers who were with him, when

20 they reached Edin Hakanovic, it was the road above Drago Rados's house,

21 that's where they stopped. And when, from the surrounding houses members

22 of the BH army came out who were there - they were armed - and they

23 disarmed Zvonko and the six soldiers. After that, the civilians were

24 taken down the meadow, the field, they were taken to the road -- the main

25 road leading towards Lasva.

1 Q. What happened to the group that went with Zvonko Rajic to

2 negotiate with Edin Hakanovic?

3 A. When they got a couple of metres from Edin, the soldiers came

4 behind their backs, surrounded them, disarmed them, took their weapons

5 from them, forced them to raise their heads behind -- hands behind their

6 heads. They took Zvonko's bag, radio station. I think he had a pistol

7 on him; they took that too.

8 Q. Approximately how long did they remain there?

9 A. Not for long, a couple of minutes. They took them along the road

10 then, downhill towards Lasva. We were watching from above and not

11 knowing what to do. We panicked and we were following to see where they

12 would take them. Close to Edin's house there's a road leading towards

13 the relay. They stopped there for a moment. We could hear arguments and

14 shouts, and they took them along that road. Then we heard a shot, again

15 some shouting and arguing, and this took a couple of minutes roughly,

16 maybe 15 or 20 minutes. After that, we saw them again coming back.

17 Q. Let me interrupt you there, witness. After 15 or 20 minutes, you

18 then saw them coming back up the hill from Lasva?

19 A. No. They hadn't left the village of Brdo really. They had just

20 moved away from the water a couple of hundred metres away. Some

21 quarreling started there, shouting. We heard a shot. They stayed there

22 for 15 or 20 minutes, and then they turned back from -- to the same

23 position where they had started from.

24 Q. And when you say "the same position that they had started from,"

25 that's the same position where Zvonko Rajic initially went down to

1 discuss issues with Edin Hakanovic; is that right?

2 A. Yes, near the trough where they kept them, where they had held

3 them.

4 MS. RESIDOVIC: [Interpretation] Objection, Your Honour. We feel

5 that these are leading questions for the witness; that the Prosecution is

6 leading.

7 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Yes, Mr. Prosecutor. Rephrase

8 your question so it is less leading, please.

9 MR. MUNDIS:

10 Q. Witness, where was Zvonko Rajic at the time you say that he

11 returned?

12 A. Zvonko didn't return. They were carrying him. He had been

13 wounded in the thigh. I think it was of his right leg. He was being

14 carried by Franjo Batinic, his brother Drago, and Perica Rados. This was

15 after this shot and after the argument, when they were coming back.

16 Zvonko wasn't walking; he was being carried, because he had been wounded

17 in his thigh.

18 Q. Where were you at the time when you saw this, witness?

19 A. I was -- I and the other members with me were in the same spot.

20 We hadn't moved, where we had been negotiating, in the meadow, a very

21 specific spot. It's an elevation, so we could see everything that was

22 happening below us. Below us was a kind of valley, along which went the

23 road and the stream flowing past these houses.

24 Q. Approximately how far were you at that point from Zvonko Rajic

25 and the other group?

1 A. I can't say exactly, but in a straight line maybe 50 to 70 metres

2 away, not more. We could clearly see one another and recognise one

3 another. I told you a moment ago if you spoke loudly, you could hear the

4 conversation.

5 Q. At the point in time when you saw Zvonko Rajic having been

6 injured could you hear any conversations?

7 A. Yes, we could hear moans, saying that he was in pain. He asked

8 Edin whether -- "Is this your guarantee? What's going on?" We heard all

9 that. And after that they reached this trough and they put Zvonko into

10 this mud, into this water; that is, the soldiers who were with him were

11 forced to place their hands behind their heads and to look into the

12 ground, look down in front of Zvonko.

13 Q. Approximately how many ABiH soldiers were with Edin Hakanovic at

14 this point in time?

15 A. There were quite a number of them around them, about ten or so.

16 And then we saw a group of five or six soldiers coming from one side.

17 Q. Were these -- were these ABiH soldiers or HVO soldiers that you

18 saw coming from one side?

19 A. They were members of the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A

20 gentleman was among them who had flak jackets and boys were with him

21 wearing green camouflage uniforms and black vests and they had ribbons

22 around their heads, as I described a moment ago.

23 Q. Do you know who any of these ABiH soldiers that you saw

24 approaching from the side, do you know the identity of any of those

25 individuals?

1 A. Just then I didn't know, but we could hear what was being said.

2 We were watching all this. Zvonko was lying there wounded, and he was

3 bleeding profusely and he recognised among the approaching soldiers a

4 gentleman, and he asked him to give him first aid, to take him to see a

5 doctor. However, they started laughing and ridiculing him, and then the

6 mistreatment started.

7 Q. Can you be more specific with respect to the mistreatment that

8 you mentioned. Can you tell us what type of mistreatment?

9 A. Yes. There was mistreatment. Zvonko was on the ground. He was

10 being kicked. Then this man who had come with this group, he took out

11 his Skorpion pistol, an automatic pistol, he turned towards Zvonko and

12 said that he would give him first aid and he shot him in the head, a

13 burst of fire, and then he turned around. Right next to Zvonko was Drago

14 Rados. When he had fired the bullets at Zvonko, he pointed the pistol at

15 Drago's forehead and fired. There were no more bullets left. He said,

16 "It is Allah's will," and those around him were saying, "Tekbir" and

17 "Allah-u-ekber."

18 Q. Witness, when Zvonko Rajic was shot, how far away were you at

19 that point in time?

20 A. I was in the same spot, and not just I, in the same position

21 where Zvonko used to be, where we were negotiating from. We didn't move

22 from that spot. And this was about, as I said, 50 to 70 metres away in a

23 straight line. We were watching this; as I was saying, we were on a

24 slightly higher level, so we could see everything below. And the

25 gentlemen, the guys who were with Zvonko, thanks to God, are all six of

1 them alive. They were watching this. And after that, their hands were

2 tied behind their backs and they were taken away towards the canyon, that

3 is, along the edge of the wood, in the opposite direction than Lasva.

4 Q. Witness --

5 A. Zvonko -- Mr. Zvonko remained lying there in the mud.

6 Q. What happened, as you witnessed this -- can you describe for the

7 Chamber what happened to Zvonko Rajic as he was shot?

8 A. Yes. He remained there lying dead, and after that we were still

9 standing up there. We didn't know what to do. He was still lying there.

10 They scattered. They went searching the houses to see whether there was

11 anyone left behind. We were in the bushes in the meadow. Just then we

12 panicked. We didn't know what to do. And Dragan Kristo appeared, who

13 came up to us and he conveyed to us that we had to go down to the school

14 to surrender all of us, that he had met civilians and that all the people

15 at Dusina had been killed and unless all of us go there, that they would

16 kill all the rest of them.

17 Q. Witness, if I could just interrupt you. Do you know -- to return

18 briefly to the incident involving Zvonko Rajic. The person who shot

19 Zvonko Rajic, do you know his identity?

20 A. Yes. His name is Serif Patkovic.

21 Q. Did you know Serif Patkovic from prior to the war, or had you

22 ever seen him before the 26th of January, 1993?

23 A. I didn't know the gentleman personally, but he had negotiated

24 with Zvonko, so I knew who he was, and I knew that he was a member of the

25 7th Muslim Brigade -- or rather, that he was in command of that unit; we

1 learnt that. And before, when these incidents had occurred, numerous

2 problems related to Zvonko, I wasn't close to the man but I knew what he

3 looked like and who he was. After this, after it was all over in Dusina,

4 when Dragan reached us, this same gentleman came to the school and called

5 out our names, the man who had killed Zvonko. And he introduced himself,

6 in fact.

7 Q. Witness, do you recall approximately how far Serif Patkovic was

8 standing from Zvonko Rajic when he shot him?

9 A. He was just above his head. In fact, he was pressing his wound

10 with his leg and then he emptied his pistol into his head.

11 Q. Now, witness, you mentioned a few moments ago being in a school.

12 Did you in fact go to a school on the 26th of January, 1993 after

13 witnessing Zvonko Rajic being murdered?

14 A. Yes. We didn't go to the school straight away. The soldiers who

15 were there, when Dragan arrived, we went down along the same path we had

16 taken coming there. We went back to the coffee bar, the billiard, where

17 these two soldiers were that we had left behind belonging to the BH army,

18 and also our elderly men who had sought shelter there and the guys who

19 had stayed behind in the village, who were in their houses and hadn't

20 come to join us and who later arrived at the coffee bar.

21 MR. MUNDIS: Your Honour, I note the time. Obviously I'm not

22 going to finish this witness today. I anticipate having approximately 15

23 minutes of questioning for tomorrow morning.

24 JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] [Microphone not activated] So,

25 witness, you shall return tomorrow and we shall begin the hearing at 9.00

1 tomorrow morning and you will be cross-examined for a quarter of an hour

2 and we will ask you to contact neither the Defence nor the Prosecution

3 teams when you have finished and once you've left the courtroom today.

4 It is now quarter to 2.00. This hearing is now adjourned and

5 shall resume tomorrow morning at 9.00.

6 --- Whereupon the proceedings adjourned at

7 1.46 p.m., to be resumed on Wednesday, the 3rd day

8 of December, 2003, at 9.00 a.m.

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