Page 22816
1 Thursday, 12 January 2012
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 [The witness takes the stand]
5 --- Upon commencing at 9.06 a.m.
6 JUDGE KWON: Yes. Good morning, everyone.
7 Yes, Mr. Tieger.
8 MR. TIEGER: Thank you, Mr. President. And good morning to you
9 and Your Honours. Two quick matters, Mr. President. The first concerns
10 a matter agreed upon between the Prosecution and the Defence that relates
11 to the Defence motion -- 67th motion regarding disclosure received by the
12 Prosecution yesterday --
13 JUDGE KWON: Just a second. I wanted to be sure that microphone
14 is working. Is everybody following Mr. Tieger's submission? Yes.
15 Please carry on.
16 MR. TIEGER: Thank you.
17 We immediately took a look at the motion and attempted to assess
18 the time and word limit required in light of previous motions dealing
19 with the same matter but with fewer witnesses. Our assessment is that we
20 would require 30 days from the date of receipt, that is, yesterday, and
21 an additional 17.000 words, given the number of witnesses implicated. As
22 I mentioned, I discussed this matter with Mr. Robinson and the Defence
23 agrees that this is appropriate and we would ask the Court to grant our
24 request accordingly.
25 JUDGE KWON: [Microphone not activated]
Page 22817
1 MR. ROBINSON: No, Mr. President.
2 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Tieger, that's granted.
3 MR. TIEGER: Thank you, Mr. President.
4 And the second matter is the Court kindly granted an extension of
5 time on the 22nd of December to address discrepancies between the
6 Registry's assessment of the time consumed and our own internal
7 calculations. That was extremely useful. We have met with the Registry.
8 Those discrepancies have been resolved. I imagine the Court doesn't need
9 any further information on that, but I -- so I wanted to alert the Court
10 accordingly and indicate that the matter had been resolved. Thank you,
11 Your Honours.
12 JUDGE KWON: Thank you for that information, Mr. Tieger. Yes.
13 Very well.
14 Mr. Karadzic, are you ready to start your cross-examination?
15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, Your Honour.
16 Good morning, Your Excellencies. Good morning to all.
17 WITNESS: JOSEPH KINGORI [Resumed]
18 Cross-examination by Mr. Karadzic:
19 Q. [Interpretation] Good morning, Mr. Kingori. First of all, are
20 you receiving the translation?
21 A. Yes, Your Honour, I'm receiving it.
22 Q. First of all I would like to thank you for meeting with the
23 Defence. I believe that that will be helpful. At the beginning I would
24 like to ask you, did the military observers of the United Nations have a
25 formulated assignment in writing and did they have any instructions for
Page 22818
1 their work?
2 A. Yes, Your Honour, they did.
3 Q. Are we able to get that paper?
4 A. You're able to get it, Your Honour, I think through the UN
5 system. But even in my possession I have a piece of paper that entailed
6 our mandate in former Sector East that I worked initially. But for the
7 Srebrenica, I did not take it with myself.
8 Q. Thank you. Are you trying to say that the assignment and the
9 extent of the work of the observers differed from one locality to the
10 next?
11 A. Your Honour, the general work of a military observer is the same
12 everywhere, but there were guide-lines on what to observe in different
13 areas because different areas had different things to look at. There
14 were different issues that were to be observed. Like, if I can give an
15 example, Sector East, where I was initially, there were no open
16 hostilities, especially involving heavy artillery, unlike Srebrenica
17 where there was heavy artillery, heavy machine-gun fire, all the time.
18 So they differed from place to place. There's some areas which were
19 considered to be slightly softer than others. So the issues to look at
20 in those areas differed a bit from the others.
21 Q. Thank you. But this common invariable standard for all military
22 observers was based, first of all, on monitoring and reporting about
23 violations of the cease-fire agreement. Would you agree, is that
24 correct?
25 A. That's correct, Your Honour.
Page 22819
1 Q. Now I would like to ask you to look at item B. I think that in
2 the English this is somewhere on the third page, UNMO duties. [In
3 English] General observer duties. [Interpretation] I wanted to ask you
4 something --
5 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic, do you have only in hard copy?
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes, Excellency. I converted this
7 to Word so that I could make electronic notes because we don't have the
8 full Adobe Acrobat. We only have the Acrobat Reader, so then it's easier
9 for me to convert this file into Word. This is another one of the
10 difficulties. If the demands of the proceedings are so tough in
11 technological terms as well as the pace and we don't have the
12 resources --
13 JUDGE KWON: I understood. I want to tell you to slow down when
14 you read it. Please carry on.
15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
16 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. Mr. Kingori, I would like to ask you to look at item D -- item B.
18 A is background, B is UNMO duties. What I wanted to ask you was this,
19 I'm a little bit confused because some things in the Sarajevo area that I
20 was close to seem different to me. Are you aware that in the Sarajevo
21 area observers could not cross the line of separation, but rather, some
22 were on the Serbian and some were on the Muslim side?
23 A. Your Honour, what I'm aware is that in the Sarajevo area there
24 was a bit of difference and not just Sarajevo. Even Sector East we had
25 observers on both sides, but Srebrenica we had observers from just inside
Page 22820
1 the enclave. So issues could differ from place to place.
2 Q. Thank you. You state here in the first sentence, reporting
3 violations to the cease-fire agreement, and then you go on to refer to
4 some activities that I was not aware of about other areas, such as
5 bringing the parties to the table, conducting meetings. Do you know this
6 or do you need to have your amalgamated statement in front of you?
7 A. Your Honour, I know this.
8 Q. Thank you. Were you tasked and was this noted down with bringing
9 the sides together, sitting down with them, and even negotiating about
10 permission to enter or exit the enclave? Are you able to explain this,
11 please, to us?
12 A. Your Honour, the aim of us sitting together with both sides of
13 the divide was to make sure that we bring their differences to a close,
14 we reduce their differences. We make sure that we understand why this
15 side is differing from this other side, why they would like to continue
16 with atrocities they were committing in different areas, and then bring
17 them together so that at least there could be peace in the enclave. The
18 aim -- a second aim was to make sure that -- and this is also given -- if
19 you look at my notes, you see somewhere I think is in the statement where
20 Colonel Vukovic was intending to meet Naser Oric and he sent us to tell
21 him that he would like to meet him at a place of his choice, meaning it
22 had reached -- it was now going towards a situation whereby the two
23 antagonists could come together and discuss issues.
24 Q. Thank you. I understand that this was something that you wanted
25 to do from the humanitarian perspective, but did you receive a task in
Page 22821
1 any UN document to mediate between the parties to the conflict?
2 A. Your Honour, any UN mission in such an area involves a lot of
3 mediation. Mediation was very important and it was there in writing, you
4 mediate between the two warring factions.
5 Q. Thank you. When you say "the UN mission," I can understand that.
6 But what did the military observers do specifically? Did you have your
7 own line of command and reporting that was different from the one for
8 UNPROFOR?
9 A. Yes, Your Honour, we had. Our line of reporting was very
10 different from the UNPROFOR one.
11 Q. And did you read instructions along that same line, instructions
12 and orders?
13 A. Yes, UNMOs had their own orders and instructions and a clear
14 mandate.
15 Q. And was mediation a part of that mandate, mediation and an active
16 relationship with the parties to the conflict, was that something that
17 was part of the MO's duties?
18 A. Let me bring you slightly closer to the issues which were at
19 hand. One, I said at the beginning that UN military observers had a pen
20 and a notebook to record whatever we were discussing and also to make
21 sure that the write-up we make is as strong as possible. The reason for
22 this was whenever you meet one side of the divide, you are to discuss
23 serious issues that they had. Later on you go to this other side, you
24 discuss serious issues that they had. And you are to bring these
25 together. You are to weigh what is making them far apart, stay far
Page 22822
1 apart, and bridge the gap between the two. You can -- you could have
2 done that through the normal chain of command. If it was an issue that
3 was slightly higher than you, you forward the same to the higher levels,
4 so that the mediation could be done at a higher level; or if it was at
5 the operational level, you could do it at your own level.
6 Q. Thank you. I don't really want to spend too much time on this
7 question, but it's important for your statement, the amalgamated
8 statement. Other than the human need to help, did you actually receive
9 such an assignment from the United Nations to actively interface with the
10 parties, to mediate between them, or was it your task just to observe and
11 to report back?
12 A. Your Honour, we were living within -- living and acting within
13 the UN mandate.
14 Q. And was mediation a part of that mandate as well as what you
15 described?
16 A. Your Honour, if you followed what I've gone through right now,
17 you'd see mediation was part of it.
18 Q. Thank you. And when the most observers were present, was the
19 number of you six at the most? I'm talking about the enclave. When
20 there was the greatest number of observers present was that number six?
21 A. Yes, Your Honour, the highest number we had was six.
22 Q. Thank you. I'm a little confused by the ambitious task placed
23 before the six of you. It says in the same section that:
24 "Another role was to negotiate for permission to leave or even
25 enter the enclave on behalf of other UN agencies and NGOs. Some
Page 22823
1 organisations like the UNHCR, IOM [In English] and all that, could not
2 get access sometimes unless there is an intervention by the UNMOs. Also
3 escort, give escort to some of those organisations so that they are not
4 harmed on the way."
5 [Interpretation] I am wondering that six unarmed people would
6 have such extensive and ambitious assignments, to negotiate about
7 permissions, to protect, to escort. I'm afraid that such a broadly
8 understood assignment had to have led to confusion. Were these tasks
9 that were given to you in keeping with the rules of service for military
10 observers?
11 A. Your Honour, one thing to know is that these were not daily
12 activities. They were not activities being done each and every day.
13 Like asking -- and furthermore it was -- there are things we knew so they
14 were preplanned. Like when there were crossings or food was being
15 brought into the enclave, we would get that report from our headquarters
16 or UNHCR or whichever organisation that needed clearance to get into the
17 enclave. And all we needed to do was to write a letter to the BSA or
18 make a call through Mr. Petar and then they will say whether they are
19 going to grant the permission or not. It was that easy. It didn't have
20 to take a whole day, it didn't have to take a whole week. So -- and also
21 if I go further to the escort bit that you mentioned. This could have
22 been coupled with our normal patrols. We could organise that because we
23 knew when the crossing was to take place and we just send one patrol to
24 go and escort this convoy or these people.
25 Q. An unarmed patrol; is that correct?
Page 22824
1 A. Unarmed in terms of guns, in terms of other weapons, but armed
2 with a pen and a book and a bit of intelligence and a bit of negotiation
3 skills that could enable us penetrate each and every area, even most of
4 the time the heavily guarded ones.
5 Q. Mr. Kingori, I am aware that the civilian affairs department
6 communicated with us, I'm aware of letters from them and information
7 which they sent to me, I have plenty of them as well as the Main Staff,
8 also the UNPROFOR. I am aware that the UNPROFOR also had an armed escort
9 for the convoys and that we would approve the convoys, the Main Staff as
10 well as the committee in charge of approving that would approve the
11 requests from those organisations, UN agencies, and we never received a
12 single request from the military observers that would refer to somebody
13 else other than military observers. Where did you send requests for
14 convoys to be approved, to whom did you send them?
15 A. Your Honour, we were sending them through the normal BSA
16 channels. We would write to the BSA through Major Nikolic. Whether it
17 ended up there, we did not know. All we know is we could get clearance
18 and we could be able to escort these people in to the enclave. Also,
19 there is the normal clearance that the convoy would ask through the BSA.
20 And at times they would be compelled to disclose what they were bringing
21 in and they write everything, whatever is inside there. But they also
22 copy the same to us and tell us, "Please come and escort us" from a
23 certain place, which we would readily do. At times they would request
24 the UNPROFOR, that is, the DutchBat in Srebrenica, to go and escort them.
25 So it could be either way, but for sure we used to provide these issues.
Page 22825
1 Q. Thank you. And what was the task of UNPROFOR in relation to
2 convoys if you did this?
3 A. Your Honour, I think that question would be better answered by
4 UNPROFOR, because they had their own mandate, their own roles.
5 Q. In paragraph 9 you say that DutchBat was not duty-bound to inform
6 you about anything. There was no system of exchange of information, but
7 from time to time you did exchange information. Isn't that right?
8 A. Yes, Your Honour, it is right.
9 Q. So you could only know what the six of you had seen and what
10 DutchBat wanted you to know; right?
11 A. That's not right. There are so many sources of information. If
12 you read the whole thing, you see we had so many sources of information.
13 And one of them being local information, that is, information from the
14 local people. We could get information from DutchBat officially. We
15 could also get information from their observation posts because we had a
16 free hand of going there to observe the situation from there. And we
17 could get a write-up, intelligence write-up, from our headquarters,
18 gathered and maybe sent to us for further verification. And we could
19 also get information through the BSA when we held meetings with them.
20 Q. Thank you. However, I would like to ask you kindly to focus on
21 what you say in paragraph 9.
22 [In English] "There was no system whereby they were or ought to
23 have told us about the military activities both inside and outside."
24 [Interpretation] This is what I'm interested in now. Did one
25 person go out on patrol or two or three?
Page 22826
1 A. Your Honour, it depended on the situation, in that at times we
2 could have more people in the enclave, at times and especially during the
3 onslaught on the enclave we had reduced personnel, we had only two, so
4 the number in a patrol would differ. But normally we were to have two
5 UNMOs and one interpreter in one patrol.
6 JUDGE KWON: By the way, Colonel, sir, do you have your
7 amalgamated statement with you now?
8 THE WITNESS: I cannot access it right now, sir.
9 JUDGE KWON: How about providing him a hard copy.
10 THE WITNESS: Thank you, Your Honour.
11 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Mr. Karadzic.
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
13 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. I'm putting these questions because I want to deal with your
15 position on the demilitarisation of Srebrenica and the military presence
16 there in the enclave as well as the presence of weaponry. Because your
17 views drastically differ from the views of other UN institutions, going
18 all the way up to the Secretary-General himself. Did you know that the
19 Secretary-General had said that protected areas are armed strongholds of
20 the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina?
21 A. I do not understand that, Your Honour. Maybe you can ask it
22 differently.
23 Q. Here comes the question. Do you have any explanation in view of
24 the following? How come you believe that there were no troops there, no
25 weapons, that there were no military operations undertaken by the
Page 22827
1 28th Division of the Muslim army, whereas everybody else in the UN is
2 saying something different? I'm not accusing the observers. I'm just
3 saying that perhaps they didn't inform you about this. Now, this is what
4 I'm interested in: Do you simply not know about this or do you assert
5 that no such thing happened there?
6 A. Your Honour, if you're talking about the military activities in
7 Srebrenica, one thing that is certain is that what was on the Muslim side
8 was minimal. Definitely there were small arms and we have reported about
9 them, there were some -- even some machine-guns and we reported seeing
10 people armed with machine-guns. Those reports are there. But obviously
11 you cannot compare that kind of weaponry with what was on the BSA side.
12 This is exactly what I mean by the statement you have referred to, in
13 that the -- the BSA side had heavy artillery. They had tanks. They had
14 other weapons like heavy machine-guns. They had rocket-launchers, which
15 we have all documented. They had all the heavy weapons that any army
16 has. They had everything. So it's in comparison with that, that is
17 where we are saying really there was nothing much that we could see from
18 the Muslim side. Because although they had those small arms, really they
19 could not be able to encounter the heavy weaponry that was with the other
20 side.
21 Secondly, the issue of demilitarisation. When we went in there,
22 when I personally went in there, I found it had already been concluded,
23 it was done a lot -- much earlier. But obviously there were some small
24 arms which were left. That is obvious. We -- I cannot deny that. But
25 then the issue of having a protected area by the UN was because those who
Page 22828
1 were inside there have already given up their arms and they need
2 protection of the UN from attacks by the armed groups that were around
3 them. That was the main aim of having a UN protected area, that those
4 who were inside, you don't have anything that can be able to attack these
5 other people outside. And so the people outside do not have a reason to
6 come and bombard you in your area. That was the main reason.
7 Q. Could you please focus on paragraph 15 of your statement, where
8 you say, I'm going to read it out in English.
9 [In English] "I was asked whether the cease-fire violations
10 included holding or keeping military units inside the enclave. The
11 violations to the cease-fire agreement were several. One of them was
12 that no one should be able to have arms inside the safe area, and that is
13 why all the Muslims were disarmed and all the heavy weapons and small
14 arms, machine-guns, and all that were taken to a safe place, that is, the
15 DutchBat compound. This was happening in all other demilitarised areas,
16 not just Srebrenica."
17 [Interpretation] Do you agree that there were six protected areas
18 that had been declared by the United Nations? Let me help you with this.
19 I'm going to enumerate them, Srebrenica, Zepa, Sarajevo, Maglaj or
20 Mostar, and then there is Bihac out there, and Tuzla. Right?
21 A. Yeah, but you've forgotten Gorazde.
22 Q. And Gorazde too. Are these protected areas? And what about
23 paragraph 15, does it not say that Srebrenica was demilitarised and
24 unarmed and that all the others were protected areas too?
25 A. Really what you are saying is what is written. I don't get your
Page 22829
1 question on the same.
2 Q. Are you trying to say that all six protected areas were
3 demilitarised and disarmed?
4 A. Your Honour, I would request that though we are going to --
5 though you are looking at all the other UN protected areas, we focus
6 mainly our attention on Srebrenica because that is the point at hand. So
7 the other areas we can just mention them in passing and say that they
8 were UNPAs, that is, UN protected areas, and they expected the same that
9 was happening in Srebrenica to be happening in those other areas.
10 Q. All right. But you mentioned that this pattern, namely,
11 demilitarisation, surrender of weapons, seizure of weapons was the same
12 in Srebrenica and in all other six -- no, five protected zones. So you
13 brought in the others; it wasn't me. That is why we have to clarify
14 whether that was actually the case.
15 A. Your Honour, I still stand by what I've said. Let's have a
16 reference on Srebrenica. The mention of these other areas was in that it
17 was expected to be the same all over, but obviously different areas it
18 differed. So as far as I know, Srebrenica was not in isolation as a UN
19 protected area, and I expected all the others to have been the same.
20 Q. Thank you for this clarification. So that was your wish and your
21 expectation. However, here it is presented like an assertion and you
22 have to understand the Defence, we have to see what reality was as
23 distinguished from your wishful thinking --
24 JUDGE KWON: Let's move on, Mr. Karadzic.
25 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
Page 22830
1 Q. All right. Then let us dwell on Srebrenica only.
2 Mr. Kingori, do you claim that Srebrenica was demilitarised and
3 that all the weapons there had been seized? That is what it seems to be
4 like on the basis of this paragraph, but today you said that there were
5 some side arms there and even machine-guns. Or did you say that they did
6 not have any machine-guns?
7 A. Your Honour, what I said is that demilitarisation had already
8 been done in the whole enclave. All the heavy weapons were put in
9 Bravo Company of DutchBat, and when I went in there I was shown where
10 those heavy weapons were. And most of the other small arms had been
11 collected and put in that same safe area. So as far as I was concerned,
12 demilitarisation had already been done. But I also added that you could
13 not miss a few small arms out there which had not been collected. That
14 is normal in any area. So that's exactly what I said and I still believe
15 that is what happened.
16 Q. If I say, Mr. Kingori, that the Muslims themselves left their
17 documents and that they had handed over only weapons that did not work
18 and if I say to you that you said somewhere, perhaps during the
19 interview, that you as observers did not check how usable the weapons
20 that had been handed over were, what would you say to that? I'm holding
21 Naser Oric's interview in my hands and he says:
22 "We handed over only weapons that were not in order and all the
23 rest we kept."
24 Did they deceive you successfully?
25 A. Your Honour, what I know for sure is that the weapons were handed
Page 22831
1 over and you could see them in the Bravo Company. But also, we were not
2 checking the serviceability state of those weapons. Anyone's -- any
3 other person's assertion that maybe only the unserviceable ones were
4 handed over really is their own -- they are the ones who said that, not
5 me. What I know is that it was done under the UN watch and those weapons
6 were given to DutchBat so that they could be able to take care of them
7 and also ensure that nobody goes in there to pick them.
8 In any war, for sure, propaganda, is very important. So somebody
9 can say, "We all have the important weapons." After all, in war you can
10 say you have the biggest army, the best army. That does not necessarily
11 have to translate to the actual truth. You could have a different
12 situation on ground.
13 Q. However, do we agree that Naser Oric was the commander of the
14 28th Division, the 28th Srebrenica Division, and that he was the number
15 one man of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Srebrenica?
16 A. Your Honour, as mentioned in my statement somewhere is that this
17 is a person I never met, Naser Oric, but we were told was the head of the
18 Muslim establishment in the enclave. But he's a person I never met.
19 He's a person we had scanty details about.
20 Q. When you said that in your view the demilitarisation of
21 Srebrenica had been carried out a lot before you arrived there, are you
22 trying to say that it took place in May or the summer of 1993 when the
23 agreement on demilitarisation had been reached?
24 A. Your Honour, I'm not trying to say that. I'm just trying to say
25 it was done much earlier before I arrived there. As to the dates, I
Page 22832
1 don't know, I can't remember.
2 JUDGE KWON: Colonel, sir, the -- can I ask the connotation of
3 the statement that demilitarisation had already been done before you
4 arrived there. Does it mean that the weapons had been taken before you
5 arrived and you didn't investigate into whether there are further weapons
6 inside the enclave yourself?
7 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, the demilitarisation of the whole of
8 former Yugoslavia was done much, much earlier, and especially I think --
9 I tend to think it was done during the peace agreement or immediately
10 after the peace agreement. I think that was somewhere in 1993. So
11 thereafter is when they had agreed -- after they had agreed that some
12 areas needed to be demilitarised so that they can be protected by the UN,
13 that's when the demilitarisation process was done. But as to the dates
14 when it was done, I'm not very sure.
15 JUDGE KWON: My point was whether the demilitarisation itself is
16 not something that should be done in a continuous or constant basis, not
17 at certain point of time.
18 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, demilitarisation was done at once.
19 But continuously, if later on you find that some people are still armed,
20 you could go in and remove those weapons from them. But that is not the
21 main demilitarisation.
22 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
23 Yes, Mr. Karadzic.
24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we briefly look at D1967.
25 Could we please have that in e-court.
Page 22833
1 [Microphone not activated]
2 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
3 Q. I beg your pardon. Could I please ask you to identify this.
4 Tell us, is this a report dated the 17th of February, 1995, about
5 received weapons at the command of the 8th Operations Group in
6 Srebrenica? Just look at the quantities involved, mortar shells,
7 explosives, bullets, and so on. Were you aware of that? Would you have
8 considered this to be demilitarisation?
9 A. Your Honour, I can see all this and for sure this does not mean
10 that demilitarisation had not been done. This can be called re-arming,
11 but at the same time you could see the kind of equipments which are said
12 to have been brought in. We are talking about small arms, cigarettes,
13 salt, yeah, some communication equipments, rocket-propelled guns, you
14 know, grenades, that is 7-2 rockets. And bring your attention to the
15 fact that, yes, I can see this. But you're just seeing the mortars which
16 are how many? I think they are 60-millimetre mortars, mortar shells.
17 And really you can see there these are 77.9-millimetre bullets or
18 these -- they may look much to somebody who does not know how an army
19 operates, they may look much, but seriously this is nothing to wage war
20 with. This is practically nothing. If you compare with what we know,
21 and I know you cannot bring that up here, that was in the hands of the
22 BSA, really this is peanuts. This is nothing. We are talking about,
23 what, two RPG rockets, 7.62 millimetres, that's small arms. So mortars
24 are how many, six? Six mortars are for a section -- no, not even a
25 company. It's a platoon. So this cannot be compared at all with what
Page 22834
1 the BSA had. Even if they had double this, this cannot be compared with
2 what the BSA had. It's nothing.
3 JUDGE BAIRD: But, Mr. Kingori, tell me, you described this as
4 re-arming, did you not?
5 THE WITNESS: I said it could not have been -- it does not mean
6 that demilitarisation had not been done. It only means that they had
7 requested for re-arming.
8 JUDGE BAIRD: All right.
9 THE WITNESS: Bringing in some more arms.
10 JUDGE BAIRD: But would you have been aware of this?
11 THE WITNESS: No, Your Honour, we were not aware.
12 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
13 Q. Do we agree, Mr. Kingori, that this had been submitted on the
14 17th of February and that that does not mean that that had not been there
15 already.
16 Could Mr. Kingori please be shown the second page, where we can
17 see that mortars are being requested, or rather, mortar shells for an
18 82-millimetre mortar. And also ammunition for tanks. If I were to tell
19 you that they had three tanks in this demilitarised protected zone, what
20 would you say to that?
21 A. I would say I did not know if they had the three tanks at all.
22 We were not aware of that.
23 Q. You see this here, that he's asking for 82-millimetre mortar
24 shells, 60-millimetre mortar shells, and 100-millimetre tank shells;
25 right?
Page 22835
1 A. Yes, I can see that, Your Honour.
2 Q. Thank you.
3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we now have a look at 1D04730.
4 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
5 Q. We have not agreed that you were aware of the existence of the
6 28th Division consisting of five brigades and a few independent
7 battalions in Srebrenica. Did you come to realise after our interview
8 that that was true after all? Had you known about that and had you
9 forgotten in the meantime?
10 A. Your Honour, I did not know of the existence of such a brigade,
11 such a heavy organisation, I was not aware about it at all.
12 Q. To the best of your knowledge, what did the Army of Bosnia and
13 Herzegovina have in the enclave? What kind of infrastructure, what kind
14 of structure, how many combatants, how many units? Not the brigade. I'm
15 talking about the division, the 28th Division, consisting of
16 five brigades, including one in Zepa. I'm asking you about what you knew
17 and about what -- and on the basis of what you drew conclusions about the
18 conduct of both sides.
19 To the best of your knowledge, what did the Army of Bosnia and
20 Herzegovina have in Srebrenica?
21 A. Your Honour, all we knew about the BiH was that they had --
22 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic, are you hearing the answer of the
23 witness?
24 THE WITNESS: -- is that they had some structures which we cannot
25 call organisations as such, because at least we knew there was a Chief of
Page 22836
1 Staff, who was Ramiz Becirovic, and that there was a military leader that
2 was called Naser Oric, who we never met during our stay in Srebrenica.
3 But about how they were organised, we did not know, because for sure a
4 division -- you cannot have somebody in charge of a division that could
5 not be seen. By that I mean the -- the 28th Division that is always
6 talked about could have been there in existence or on paper as a
7 division, but in reality you could not have had a division in such an
8 enclave as Srebrenica. You could not have had in any ordinary or
9 conventional military, you cannot have that.
10 And I will draw your attention, Your Honours, to the fact that a
11 division is broken down to various organisations in that in a military we
12 start with a section which is composed of nine people. That is a
13 section. It is the first fighting unit, the smallest fighting unit.
14 Three sections form a platoon. Three platoons form a company. And three
15 companies ordinarily form a unit. We are talking about a unit now has
16 got about 1.000 people. It's not just the personnel, but that is the
17 point I would like you to note. Sorry, Your Honour. It's not just the
18 personnel but the accompanying weaponry, in that a section just has small
19 arms. If you go to a platoon, they start getting a mortar, one mortar.
20 It goes on like that until you get heavy-support weapons. And that could
21 not be seen in the enclave. There was not such a structure.
22 Even if, as he says, there could have been a tank, two, or three,
23 that is actually to support what, a division? A division is supposed to
24 have two tank battalions. It's supposed to be supported by two tank
25 battalions. It was not there. You could not see that. Even if you are
Page 22837
1 talking about a whole division, a whole division is the next to an army,
2 it is not easy to hold such a big number of personnel in such a small
3 enclave. Secondly, hold those heavy weapons without being seen, all of
4 them in such an enclave, very small area. Your Honour, it's practically
5 impossible, practically impossible.
6 Thirdly, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that for
7 such a military to continue, there has got to be training, continuous
8 training, which is not evident anywhere. During our -- it was not
9 evident during our stay in Srebrenica, nor is it noted anywhere that I
10 know of the continuous training. It was not there.
11 So what I'm trying to drive at is the division could have been
12 there in writing, but in reality on ground there was nothing to show that
13 there was such a division in Srebrenica, and in fact it could not have
14 been there as a division with the personnel and the heavy weaponry. It's
15 not possible, Your Honour.
16 Q. Mr. Kingori, let us distinguish between two things. First you
17 said you didn't see it and you don't know it, and then you say it did not
18 exist. What exactly is your position, you didn't know about it, although
19 it may have existed, or it did not exist at all? Is it one or the other?
20 A. Your Honour, my answer remains the same, that the division -- we
21 did not see the division, though we knew there was a Chief of Staff to a
22 division. But in reality there was no division as such. Secondly, even
23 if it could have been there, there was no evidence to it being there on
24 ground. As a military person, really there was nothing to show for a
25 division in that place. And like what we had on the BSA side, you could
Page 22838
1 see the kind of weaponry they had. Their structures that they had is
2 quite different.
3 Q. Is this opinion of yours shared by the other five military
4 observers?
5 A. Your Honour, as a senior military officer, I knew that is how it
6 was and I believe the other observers that we had shared the same thing.
7 Q. Did the Dutch Battalion have the same view as the one you just
8 expressed? Did they share your position?
9 A. Your Honour, the view of DutchBat I may be unable to talk about
10 because they had their own way of operating. But one thing I know for
11 sure is that they could not see a division, a whole infantry division,
12 operating inside Srebrenica. They could not have seen that other than
13 maybe in words, somebody saying or whatever, but not an infantry division
14 in Srebrenica. I'm sure they could not have seen that.
15 Q. Could you then explain this to us. If you did not inform the
16 Secretary-General that Srebrenica is a military stronghold of the
17 BH army, if the Dutch Battalion did not do that or the Canadian Battalion
18 before them, then who deceived the Secretary-General and led him to
19 inform the Security Council that the protected areas --
20 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic --
21 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
22 Q. -- were strongholds of the BH army?
23 JUDGE KWON: -- it's not for the witness to answer that question.
24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right, then.
25 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
Page 22839
1 Q. Look at the document you see on the screen. Do you see this is
2 the 2nd of June, 1995, when you were there. Look at all the things that
3 have to be distributed in terms of military assets. Ammunition, 5500,
4 350 for an old rifle, grenades to the 280th Brigade, 281st, 282nd, 283rd,
5 284th, and 280th Mountain Battalion. The Zepa Brigade is not mentioned
6 here. Then on the next page you can see a staff unit, et cetera, a huge
7 amount of ammunition.
8 How come a brigade that does not exist uses so much ammunition?
9 And this is a request for June 1995. It's obvious that they had used up
10 what they had before. How does this tally with your reporting as a
11 military observer that there was nothing there?
12 A. Your Honour --
13 JUDGE KWON: Would you like to see the whole document?
14 THE WITNESS: Yes.
15 JUDGE KWON: Who issued it? It's on the next page.
16 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. This is a certification that this is authentic -- oh, yes, you
18 are right, you can see at the top, Semsudin Salihovic, Semso. In the
19 original there is a stamp, the command of the 28th Division.
20 A. Now, Your Honour -- yeah, I can see this. Maybe you can take me
21 back to the second page.
22 JUDGE KWON: Yes.
23 THE WITNESS: Yeah. Your Honour, you can see -- I can see all
24 this. I can see the type of weaponry being requested, or rather, they're
25 saying they have provided. And you can see some bullets,
Page 22840
1 7.62-millimetres, 60-millimetres, rocket-launchers. Yeah, I can see all
2 this. And I would draw your attention to the fact that this is what was
3 said to have been provided for the BiH in the enclave. If that is what
4 was provided, really I cannot deny that. All I know is that I did not
5 know about the existence of this or the supply of this kind of weaponry,
6 but also if you look at the kind of weaponry that is being provided,
7 really it's not much. The heaviest is a 60-millimetre hand-held
8 rocket-launcher, which are two. Yeah. There's another one, that makes
9 them three.
10 So if you look at all the others, about 80 per cent we are
11 talking about, the small arms bullets, that is 7.62, 7.9-millimetre
12 bullet, which are small arms. So we are talking about small -- a small
13 arms. Majority of this is for small arms. That is what can be seen.
14 But the only medium weapon is the 60-millimetre mortar, that is the only
15 thing that can be seen here.
16 One other thing to note is that there is no heavy weaponry.
17 There are no artillery shells. I cannot see any artillery shells. So in
18 essence, this is not for heavy weaponry. It's not for heavy artillery at
19 all. So this still confirms of what I had said earlier, that it could
20 have been said there was a division inside there, but as for the support
21 arms, really it's not there, even with all this. There's no evidence of
22 an infantry division in the enclave. It could have been there in
23 writing, it could have been there, even in a few -- a few personnel could
24 have been there. They could have called themselves whatever. But
25 really, there is no evidence of such an existence.
Page 22841
1 And obviously the point to note here is that this resupply, this
2 resupply, because I can call it resupply because they're being told, We
3 are sending you this, it essentially means they had reached a point
4 whereby they needed to support their people. I mean, this could have
5 been coming from outside the enclave. That's what I believe because
6 they're saying, We are sending you this. It could not have been coming
7 from inside the enclave. I don't believe it was coming from inside the
8 enclave, but if that is what happened I would say I was not privy to this
9 information but draw your attention to the fact that this is a resupply
10 to or of small arms, not of the heavy weaponry.
11 JUDGE KWON: Colonel, could you expand on what you said, i.e.,
12 this: "... they had reached a point whereby they needed to support their
13 people."
14 What did you mean, sir?
15 THE WITNESS: By this, Your Honour, I mean the logistics person
16 who has signed this, who is calling himself brigadier something, I saw it
17 at the signature block, really wanted to resupply or to rearm the people
18 inside the enclave. And to me what that means is that this could not
19 have been coming from inside the enclave.
20 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
21 Yes, Mr. Karadzic.
22 JUDGE BAIRD: One second.
23 Could it also mean, Colonel, that they would have had arms and
24 ammunition before and they're now seeking additional or a resupply of
25 those arms and ammunition?
Page 22842
1 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, what this means is that whoever is
2 sending this knows that whatever is inside there, meaning there must have
3 been something. And that is why, and it is in our reports, we could see
4 there was small arms fire from time to time, meaning they were expending
5 whatever they had. So they had to be resupplied. All this is in our
6 reports.
7 It's not that the whole place had no gun at all and I've said
8 that earlier. They had small arms. They were firing -- in fact, normal
9 firing in Srebrenica. It was a normal thing. If you stay for one night,
10 two nights without any small arms fire, you feel that there is something
11 which is not very right, in quotes. But what I mean here is whoever is
12 trying to send this feels that the people inside there do not have enough
13 and that is why they had to be supplied with this, meaning that the
14 supply is not coming from within, it's not coming from inside the
15 enclave. It's coming from somewhere outside.
16 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. Mr. Kingori, this says clearly that this comes from the staff of
18 the 28th Division. Semsudin Salihovic, on the authorisation of
19 Commander Oric, who is temporarily absent, ordered that these four
20 brigades and these battalions be given from the depot a replenishment of
21 combat sets for all these weapons. This came a long time ago illegally
22 to their depot and is being distributed from the depot. Doesn't this say
23 clearly that there are four brigades to which this ammunition is
24 allocated? And I would appreciate yes or no answers whenever possible
25 because we don't have enough time.
Page 22843
1 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic, the witness answered that question.
2 Let's move on.
3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.
4 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
5 Q. Mr. Kingori, can we agree that a demilitarised protected area
6 must not and should not contain any armed units except police with small
7 weapons, side arms.
8 A. Your Honour, a demilitarised area ideally should have no weaponry
9 at all, no weapons at all. But you find in this case - and we documented
10 that - we could see some people who were armed moving about in the
11 enclave, we could see that, and we could report on the same so that
12 something could be done about it. And at one time the DutchBat also
13 noted that and told a meeting that we had with the Chief of Staff,
14 Ramiz Becirovic, to make sure that the people hand over their weapons.
15 He asked them, "Why are your soldiers still moving about with weapons?"
16 Because ideally they're not supposed to be armed at all.
17 But I said and I may be forced to repeat this, that though they
18 were disarmed, the disarmament had already been done, demilitarisation
19 had already been done, you could find a few people with arms. That was
20 evident and we were reporting on the same. But that does not mean that
21 the whole enclave was militarised because obviously it could have
22 presented a very different scenario if the whole enclave was allowed to
23 have proper militarisation, the way it was before the demilitarisation
24 was done.
25 Q. Mr. Kingori, are you aware that the State Security Service of
Page 22844
1 Bosnia-Herzegovina reported on the 17th or 18th of July from Tuzla that
2 10.000 fighting men of the 28th Division made a breakout, a military
3 armed breakout, through the Serb territory?
4 JUDGE KWON: You would like to see the reference?
5 MS. WEST: Yes.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] We will show it after the break,
7 Your Excellency. I just want to know if Mr. Kingori was aware that in
8 addition to those captured and those dead, 10.000 fighting men made it
9 alive to Tuzla.
10 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
11 Q. Or you didn't know that?
12 A. Your Honour, I do not know -- I do not know how many made it to
13 Tuzla -- in fact, up to now I don't have that figure. And also hasten to
14 add when you say "fighting men," it may be ordinary people with arms not
15 necessarily soldiers. So maybe you can show us the qualification,
16 whether they were actually soldiers or just people carrying arms.
17 Q. What distinction do you make between a person carrying and using
18 a weapon and a soldier? Don't both kill equally?
19 A. Your Honour, we may not have dwell on this, but for sure anybody
20 with a gun can kill, anybody with a gun is dangerous, but obviously we
21 know there's more to handling a weapon than just holding it.
22 Q. Thank you. Were you informed, Mr. Kingori, that those people
23 whom you called armed non-soldiers had killed over 3.000 Serbs around
24 Srebrenica and that, day and night, all the time, they went out into Serb
25 territory and killed. And 2.000 of them got killed in Serb territory
Page 22845
1 before July 1995, not in Srebrenica but in Serb territory.
2 A. Your Honour, what I can say for sure is that when we used to hold
3 meetings with the BSA, we could hear some complaints about the Serb --
4 the Muslims having crossed through the Serb territory to and from Zepa to
5 bring goods. And at times they would be attacked, they would be injured.
6 We could also hear of some Muslims attacking some BSA, but we never heard
7 about any BSA having been killed by the Muslims at all. We were never
8 informed of any BSA soldiers who had been killed by the Muslims at all in
9 all the meetings that we held with the BSA. But on the other hand, we
10 could be told by the Muslims of several number of their people having
11 been killed by the BSA. So by that I mean there was killing of the
12 Muslims by the BSA and not vice versa. But of course, you cannot
13 discount one or two anywhere, but we never documented anything like that.
14 Q. Thank you. Excellent.
15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can this previous document be
16 admitted before I call another one before the break?
17 JUDGE KWON: Yes, we'll admit 1D4730.
18 THE REGISTRAR: As Exhibit D1993, Your Honours.
19 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
20 Q. During the interview, and I believe earlier today, you implied
21 that you were not aware of various military staffs and the military
22 infrastructure in Srebrenica itself. If the soldiers could have been
23 around the periphery and in their own homes and you were unable to see
24 them, do you still stand by your assertion there were no military staffs
25 in Srebrenica itself?
Page 22846
1 A. Your Honour, I still do in that.
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we see 1D4769. I believe this
3 should be 1994 because we had 1993 yesterday. The previous should have a
4 higher number, a higher exhibit number, 1994, but perhaps I'm mistaken.
5 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
6 Q. Have a look, Mr. Kingori. This is dated 22nd February 1995. The
7 National Defence Secretariat Tuzla, a branch of the Ministry of Defence,
8 replies enumerating all the assets they have. The command of the
9 8th Operations Group is located in the Lovac feature in old town,
10 Stari Grad. And they also have a total area of 198 square metres. The
11 old staff of the Territorial Defence of Srebrenica is used by the command
12 of the place. Total area, et cetera, et cetera. For every brigade,
13 280th Brigade is located in a family house of Meho Hrvacic. The 281st is
14 placed in a family house owned by Hajro Dautbasic -- no, that's all one
15 brigade. And then are listed 281st, 282nd, 283rd --
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we see the next page.
17 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
18 Q. -- 284th Brigade. They have all the command posts, they have
19 staff headquarters, they have staff units, they have an independent
20 7th Mountain Battalion. Srebrenica is crawling with troops and military
21 infrastructure and you are saying that was not so. And the
22 Dutch Battalion is aware of this, but the military observers are not.
23 A. Your Honour, I look at the whole of this list and draw you back
24 to what I said earlier, that you really cannot have a brigade being
25 housed in a house, in one house, the way you have seen house belonging to
Page 22847
1 a certain lady here that is holding a brigade. Really, a brigade
2 comprises of 3 -- minimum --
3 Q. Not brigade, sir --
4 A. Your Honour, I -- there is somewhere where a brigade headquarters
5 is given as a house. And for your information, a brigade cannot be
6 housed in such a place. It is difficult. It's impossible. A brigade
7 has got three infantry units, and a whole unit, actually, can occupy the
8 whole of Srebrenica in normal circumstances. In fact, Srebrenica was
9 just a village. That should have been actually for a company, not more
10 than a company. Then you look at the heavy weapons that support a
11 brigade. So even if we look at all this written down, it looks very
12 nice, house Podgaj used by - that is number 5 - by the 3rd LPC owned by
13 Ibrahim whoever. You can see even the area, 55 square metres. That is
14 very small area. It's not even for --
15 JUDGE KWON: That purpose was army kitchen, it says.
16 THE WITNESS: What, Your Honour?
17 JUDGE KWON: Does it not say that house was used as a kitchen,
18 number 5?
19 THE WITNESS: Yes, it's --
20 JUDGE KWON: It does not say that it holds a whole company or
21 unit.
22 THE WITNESS: Yes, but for 55 -- I'm looking at the 55 square
23 metres even for a kitchen for even a brigade or even a company. Later
24 on -- even if it is a platoon, a platoon cannot be -- you cannot have a
25 kitchen for a platoon in such a small area. The attention I'm trying to
Page 22848
1 bring in here is that it -- you can say that -- it can be said that this
2 is what they had. That is fine. But in reality, this is not easy to
3 hold. You cannot have a brigade -- a whole brigade, a whole division in
4 such a small area being scattered in these small, small houses. Where is
5 even the control and command?
6 In these small, small houses, if one is put here, the other one
7 is put there, the other one is put in another place, it cannot work. It
8 cannot work. Hence my earlier assertion that this could have just been
9 on paper or an assumption, fine. You could have had a few soldiers. I'm
10 not denying that. The soldiers were there, a few soldiers were there.
11 We had -- they even had the small arms, fine. But really, you cannot
12 have a whole division distributed like this in such a small enclave. It
13 really cannot work, and I don't believe it could have been the same even
14 on the BSA side.
15 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
16 Q. Mr. Kingori, please. You as a military observer were supposed to
17 determine that that army is not properly in barracks. The troops live at
18 home and when they are on the defence line then food is prepared for them
19 in the kitchen. This does not say that these houses were barracks for
20 the whole brigade or battalion. They were just staff headquarters
21 housing commanders and their staff. You see, for instance, the
22 282nd Brigade was in a hotel, hotel called Domavija and so on. So let's
23 not create a confusion.
24 If you draw your conclusions thinking of a professional army
25 living in barracks, then it's something different. But here we are
Page 22849
1 dealing with soldiers who live in their homes, not in barracks, and they
2 take shifts going to the front line or into various operations, carrying
3 out missions. Wasn't it your duty to know what kind of army you're
4 dealing with?
5 A. Your Honour, I knew the kind of army. I knew the kind of
6 military disposition that was in that area, and not just me, all the
7 military observers that were there. But for sure the kind of military
8 people that we had there, the BiH side really were not, and I still
9 maintain, an army that you could have called a conventional army. It
10 does not matter whether the army is staying -- is going for patrols and
11 coming back and just being cooked for in a certain house or whatever.
12 There are procedures even in war that are followed. There are ways that
13 you must -- you can show that here we have a military organisation and
14 you have seen that even in other wars. Even when we had the Afghanistan
15 issue, when we had the Iraq issue, we could see that this is a military
16 organisation in certain place. There are certain procedures, minimum
17 issues that have got to be observed. But when you look at the
18 dispensation that we are getting here, this is quite a disorganised
19 military, if it was a military at all.
20 JUDGE KWON: Thank you. We will --
21 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I tender this document.
22 JUDGE KWON: -- admit this document as Exhibit D1994. We will
23 take a break for half an hour after which I expect you to move on to your
24 next topic. We'll resume at five past --
25 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And I would like you just to
Page 22850
1 consider giving me more time because Mr. Kingori is giving quite detailed
2 answers which, of course, can be useful to us but it will leave many
3 topics uncovered.
4 JUDGE KWON: Just concentrate on important issues and be focused.
5 We'll resume at five past.
6 --- Recess taken at 10.36 a.m.
7 --- On resuming at 11.07 a.m.
8 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Ms. West.
9 MS. WEST: Thank you, Mr. President. May we go into private
10 session.
11 JUDGE KWON: Yes. Shall we move into private session briefly.
12 [Private session]
13 (redacted)
14 (redacted)
15 (redacted)
16 (redacted)
17 (redacted)
18 (redacted)
19 (redacted)
20 (redacted)
21 (redacted)
22 (redacted)
23 [Open session]
24 JUDGE KWON: Thank you for that information.
25 Yes, Mr. Karadzic.
Page 22851
1 THE ACCUSED: Please may I ask just for indulgence for a few
2 minutes -- few seconds.
3 [Defence counsel confer]
4 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
5 Q. Mr. Kingori, did you know how much of the humanitarian aid food
6 was going to the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Srebrenica, to the
7 28th Division?
8 A. Your Honour, I did not know of anything like that.
9 Q. It seems that this has not been uploaded into e-court, but it
10 does have a 1D number. Perhaps this can then wait for a little bit.
11 You were already asked about this, Mr. Kingori. Do you know that
12 the 28th Division intending to help the Muslim offensive in Sarajevo
13 which began on the 15th of June, 1995, that they conducted quite powerful
14 assault activities around Srebrenica in order to tie-up and prevent the
15 Serbian army from going to the aid of Sarajevo.
16 A. Your Honour, I'm not aware of that.
17 Q. Speaking about the things that you were able to do, you agreed
18 that you did not have access to an entire quadrant, an entire sector, of
19 the Srebrenica zone, the so-called Bandera Triangle. Is that correct?
20 A. That's correct.
21 Q. During the interview you described to us that you would be
22 stopped by armed men. Do you know that in the same way the armed
23 soldiers of DutchBat were stopped?
24 A. Yes, Your Honour, I'm aware of that and it is on record.
25 Q. If we're talking about tanks, then you don't know -- actually,
Page 22852
1 it's possible that they could have had three tanks in the
2 Bandera Triangle without you knowing that. Isn't that correct?
3 A. For sure. It was very easy for me to not know. But at the same
4 time, such information could have sort of filtered to our direction and
5 we could have known if the tanks were there. But for sure there is a
6 possibility they could have been there without our knowledge.
7 Q. Thank you. This is all that I would like to establish,
8 Mr. Kingori, whether there was something that you were not able to report
9 on because you didn't have access to the information or didn't know it.
10 This is what I would like to establish. This is what I would like to
11 establish.
12 And now the attacks from the enclave in the second half of June
13 were so intense so that the Serbs had a lot of casualties around
14 Srebrenica. For example, the Serbian village of Visnjica was burned and
15 civilians there were killed on the 26th of June.
16 A. Your Honour, if I start with the issue of us not getting access
17 to some information, for sure like Bandera Triangle we could not be able
18 to access, there was a restriction of movement, which we complained
19 about. And for the casualties you are talking about of Serbs, I may not
20 be aware of that. There is -- that of Serbian village of Visnjica,
21 so ...
22 Q. Thank you.
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we look at 1D04780.
24 JUDGE KWON: Just a second.
25 Did you complete your answer, Colonel? I noted that you were
Page 22853
1 waiting for the consultation between Mr. Karadzic and his legal advisor
2 be completed.
3 THE WITNESS: Yes, Your Honour, that is what I was waiting for.
4 But for sure I think the answer is complete. We can continue, sir.
5 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
7 Can we have 1D04780, please. There should be a translation.
8 Perhaps there isn't one.
9 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. In that case I will read the document to you. This is a document
11 from the General Staff of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the 27th
12 of June. If you can look at the section for 9.45, where it says:
13 "In the morning on the 26th of June, 1995, our forces from the
14 Srebrenica sector attacked and torched the village of Visnjica. The
15 Chetniks did have casualties among the civilian population."
16 And then for 9.48 it states:
17 "The Chetniks have information about the infiltration of a number
18 of our groups from Zepa moving towards Kladanj and are taking all
19 available measures for combat in such conditions, and all the units in
20 the -- in that sector have been alerted to the first degree of
21 combat-readiness."
22 So this is a little bit outside of your sector where a fierce war
23 is waging in which the Muslims are attacking and the Serbs are defending
24 their territory. This is on the evening of the 26th of June. Is that
25 correct, Mr. Kingori?
Page 22854
1 A. Your Honour, I can see -- I have listened to what you have said
2 and, for sure, this never appeared in any of the meetings that we held
3 with the BSA who could have, in normal circumstances, complained about
4 such an issue. So we were not -- it was not brought to our attention at
5 all.
6 Q. Thank you.
7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I would like to tender this. We
8 can mark it for identification and then we will ...
9 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. Mr. Kingori, did you know that David Harland reported about the
11 casualties among the civilians and that the UN and other organisations
12 were informed about it and they did have that information?
13 A. For sure we did not get this information and my worry is why even
14 on the BSA side there were no complaints lodged with us on this issue if
15 it ever happened, because normally they would tell us to complain to the
16 BiH that they did this and that. And on this occasion there was no such
17 a complaint from them.
18 JUDGE KWON: Ms. West, do you have any objection to the admission
19 of this document, separate from marking it for identification?
20 MS. WEST: I don't.
21 JUDGE KWON: We'll mark it for identification.
22 THE REGISTRAR: As MFI D1995, Your Honours.
23 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we now ask to have P2284,
24 please, and it would be paragraph 225. So this is a Prosecution exhibit,
25 2284, and in the document it would be paragraph 225. Paragraph 225 in
Page 22855
1 the document.
2 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
3 Q. This is a report by the UN Secretary-General; is that correct?
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we zoom in on paragraph 225,
5 please.
6 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. It states here, I don't have to read it:
8 [In English] "... a raiding party of Bosniaks under the
9 leadership of Zulfo Tursunovic attacked the Serb village of Visnjica,
10 5 kilometres west of the western edge of the Srebrenica enclave. During
11 the attack in the early morning of 26th of June, several houses were
12 burned, and either two people were killed, according to Bosniak sources,
13 or four, according to Serb sources. (Approximately 100 sheep were also
14 stolen and taken back to Srebrenica, where they were subsequently
15 eaten)."
16 [Interpretation] So the United Nations knew about that. And you
17 can look further down.
18 [In English] "... the attack, although relatively minor in
19 comparison to the Serb attacks which preceded it, led to strong Serb
20 condemnations. Serb army spokesman Milutinovic stated that it was the
21 job of UNPROFOR to prevent such operations, and that the attack therefore
22 demonstrated that 'the United Nations forces are aligning themselves with
23 the Muslim army.' General Mladic stated to UNPROFOR that Bosniak attacks
24 from Srebrenica 'brutally violate the status of the safe area of
25 Srebrenica. Due to that fact, I strongly protest and warn you that we
Page 22856
1 will not tolerate such cases in the future.' Mladic failed to mention
2 what UNPROFOR [sic] had reported to United Nations ..." and so on.
3 [Interpretation] When you speak about your information and when
4 you talk about protests from the Serbian side, did the Army of
5 Republika Srpska submit their protests to the observers or to UNPROFOR?
6 And this is where we come to the question of what exactly your mandate
7 was.
8 A. Your Honour, the protest could have gone to any of the
9 UN agencies there. In fact, the Bosnian Serbs should have complained to
10 us, but if they complained to UNPROFOR, that is, the DutchBat which was
11 there in that particular moment, there was nothing wrong with that, only
12 that it was not brought to our attention. But provided they have
13 complained to any UN agency, I don't think there was anything wrong with
14 that. And for us not knowing about it, there are also some things we
15 knew that UNPROFOR did not know. So these things used to happen.
16 JUDGE BAIRD: But, Colonel, what I am having a bit of problem in
17 grasping is this: You weren't aware of this situation at all, you say.
18 Did you not say so?
19 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, I was not aware about it.
20 JUDGE BAIRD: Now, here we have the report of the
21 Secretary-General referring to this situation. Are you in a position at
22 all to explain to us this severe disconnect between your -- you and the
23 Secretary-General, between UNMO and the S-G?
24 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, the UN systems have got different ways
25 of getting information. They have different ways. They could have
Page 22857
1 gotten information through us, that is, the UNMOs; they could have gotten
2 information through UNPROFOR; there were other aid agencies like UNHCR,
3 IOM, and other agencies who could have channelled such information
4 without necessarily referring to us. So the UN system had different ways
5 of getting information. So they could have gotten it through any other
6 channel.
7 JUDGE BAIRD: Yes, Dr. Karadzic.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
9 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. Mr. Kingori, this is what is causing my concern. In your
11 statement there are some assertions, even detailed descriptions of
12 certain situations, the position of the Army of Republika Srpska and so
13 on and so forth. However, all this was drafted with a major lack of
14 information on your part. There is confusion between how we viewed the
15 MOs and how you viewed them. I claim that the military observers were
16 not the party to whom we submitted our protests nor did we expect
17 six unarmed persons to intervene. According to our understanding, you
18 were passive observers who were reporting back to the United Nations,
19 nothing more than that. But you understood your role differently and
20 it's evident actually that a lot of information bypassed you. Isn't that
21 correct?
22 A. Your Honour, it's not correct at all. For one, the military
23 observers were the ears and eyes of the UN on the ground, and especially
24 on issues to do with military activities inside the enclave. But as I
25 said, the UN had different systems of getting information. Some of this
Page 22858
1 information could have been sent back again to us for verification or for
2 confirmation. But if not, definitely there were areas through which the
3 UN could get and verify such information.
4 As military observers our role was very distinct and we did it to
5 the best of our ability, given the circumstances. And you cannot
6 correctly say that us being six could have limited our capabilities,
7 could have diminished our capabilities. What I know is that six unarmed
8 military observers was a normal force deployed in any sector, in any
9 team. That was the normal composition in a team. And definitely you
10 don't want us to believe that the UN did not know what they were doing.
11 With six military observers, two who could form a patrol, we had at least
12 two operational patrols that could be sent out at any given time. Of
13 course the other two could be left manning the area and doing normal
14 domestics. But then with two patrols you could be able to penetrate each
15 and every area of the enclave as part of the plan that we had. It was
16 not every day that we had to patrol. There were scheduled meetings with
17 both sides, both the BSA and the BiH, which we had to go for. And this
18 is where we were exchanging information with either side. That is, like
19 this issue, the BSA should have brought it in one of the scheduled
20 meetings, which they did not bring up at that particular time.
21 So you cannot just say that the UN -- there was a disconnect
22 because the UN has written about the -- the UN Secretary-General has
23 written about this and General Mladic has written about it, but at the
24 same time failed to recognise that even the BSA -- the local BSA command
25 should have complained about it to us and they did not.
Page 22859
1 Q. Mr. Kingori, can -- well, we can agree that you were the ears and
2 the eyes of the United Nations. But you also have this idea that you
3 were also its legs and arms and that your task was action. However, the
4 Army of Republika Srpska did not receive nor did it send its protests to
5 you. They were sent to someone else.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we now please look at 1D04786.
7 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
8 Q. You can see that this was sent regularly but not to you. It was
9 addressed to the UNPROFOR. What I'm concerned about now is how to view
10 and what to do with your assertions stated in 200-plus paragraphs,
11 stating that you were denied a lot of information or that you were not
12 even supposed to have this information because of the nature of your
13 mandate.
14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] There should be a translation of
15 this.
16 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. Mr. Kingori, can you please look to the UNPROFOR in the enclave
18 Srebrenica. When you speak about the UN, I agree. But you're talking
19 from the position of a military observer, not from the position of the
20 United Nations. And you can see this protest by General Zivanovic of the
21 20th of March, 1995, about the behaviour of Muslim formations which could
22 not be tolerated. Did you know about this? You were there already at
23 the time.
24 A. Your Honour, I will start with the first question on why this was
25 sent to the UNPROFOR and reiterate that their mandate was slightly
Page 22860
1 different from ours and you know that and I've already said that before,
2 in that they were armed and they could enforce peace in that particular
3 area. We were not there to enforce peace but to observe. That is where
4 some of these issues like where he has said: "... we cannot tolerate
5 Muslim formations obstinately leaving the enclave and attacking areas out
6 of the enclave borders," and said that something should be done. Really,
7 the UNPROFOR had the arms to do that. We did not have the arms to do
8 that and we were not expected to do that because that was not part of our
9 mandate. Ours was to write about these incidents when they occurred and
10 send them to the UN headquarters through the normal channels. But for
11 this, obviously we were not expected to enforce.
12 Q. Sir, again we come to the question of the mandate, the
13 assignment. How was your task defined, in what document? Because here
14 the Army of Republika Srpska has intensive memorandums and contacts with
15 UNPROFOR. The observers are the eyes and ears and not the arms and legs.
16 It is not in their mandate, in the way we understand it, any
17 authorisation or was it their task to undertake any actions. Their task
18 was just to observe and to report. How is this different from the way in
19 which you understood your assignment?
20 A. Your Honour, I wish the same question could have been asked to
21 Major Nikolic or Colonel Vukovic, who knew what our roles were in that
22 enclave and who used us throughout our stay in the enclave in terms of
23 giving us information on what was happening and guiding -- telling us
24 what should be done by the UN and we were reporting on the same. And
25 also giving us a view of what they were intending to do because I wonder
Page 22861
1 why if the observers were not important in that area, why Colonel Vukovic
2 could tell us of what they were planning to do. Like when they were
3 planning to take over the enclave, he told us in his own record. Why
4 would he tell us that if he thought the UNMOs had no purpose in that
5 area?
6 Really, we had our own mission and we did it to the best of our
7 ability. But when it comes to armed issues, there was -- the UNPROFOR
8 could have -- maybe the BSA felt they were the ones who could deal with
9 it so they channelled it, according to them, to the right people who
10 could do that. But that does not mean we had no mandate -- we had no
11 clear mandate. We had ours, and we were doing it to the best of our
12 ability.
13 Q. I'm afraid that there's a lack of understanding here, but let us
14 leave this aside. We'll have to find a document of the United Nations
15 that defined your work. Mr. Kingori, as you said to us during the
16 interview, you met with local officers of the Serb army and you
17 socialised with them. Sometimes you would have a cup of coffee with them
18 or something else and you also had some meetings. Did anyone keep
19 minutes at these meetings when they informed you about what you told us?
20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can this be admitted, Excellency,
21 this document?
22 JUDGE KWON: Yes.
23 THE REGISTRAR: As Exhibit D1996, Your Honours.
24 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, the meetings that we had with
25 Major Nikolic or Colonel Vukovic were all minuted and we sent the minutes
Page 22862
1 of what we discussed to the UNMO headquarters any time we held meetings
2 with them.
3 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
4 Q. On your side who was it that kept the minutes of these meetings?
5 A. Your Honours, we are the ones, we were taking minutes.
6 Whoever -- the observer who was there, one of them could take the
7 minutes. And later on when we got to the -- to our headquarters write
8 them, refine them, and also -- and send them to the UNMO headquarters.
9 Q. Thank you. With all due respect to you personally and to
10 Major Nikolic and Colonel Vukovic, are you the appropriate level to
11 discuss these major strategic moves? What was it that you could decide
12 on in that respect and generally discuss, unless you just mean chatting
13 about this?
14 A. Your Honour, that question maybe could have gone directly to
15 Colonel Vukovic because he's the one who brought it up. Ours was to take
16 what he was telling us. I hasten to add that later on it proved to be
17 very true.
18 Q. Let us leave this aside, what ultimately turned out to be the
19 case, and let us leave analogies aside. What kind of group are the three
20 of you? That's what I'm interested in. What is it that you can decide
21 on? And how can you talk about such major issues -- but never mind, we
22 can ask them about that too.
23 In paragraph 20 of your amalgamated statement you say that
24 Muslims from Srebrenica went to Tuzla in order to get food. Do you know
25 how large the Serb territory is there and how many Serb defence lines
Page 22863
1 would have to be crossed on foot or on horseback in order to get to Tuzla
2 and obtain food there? Do you have any idea how far away Tuzla is from
3 Srebrenica?
4 A. Your Honour, Tuzla was not very far from Srebrenica. But
5 obviously it depends on what you mean by "far." What I know is that they
6 used to go there. They were -- there was an organised way of requesting
7 permission through the BSA. It was - and I've mentioned in my report - a
8 mafia-type of operation where they would pay their way out and back to
9 the enclave with the food and other items that they could buy from Tuzla.
10 And then they bring them back into the enclave for sale. The -- at times
11 when they did not honour this promise of payment, they would be ambushed
12 and it's in our reports. Certain ambushes were being done because they
13 had not delivered their bit of the promise. But for sure, whether it was
14 far or near, they used to go there and bring goods to the enclave and we
15 have evidence of that.
16 Q. I can believe that they brought food to the enclaves, but tell us
17 how often did that happen?
18 A. By the way, I need to correct something that was on the issue of
19 Tuzla. Here what I mean was not Tuzla but Zepa. You may have to correct
20 that. It is Zepa, not Tuzla.
21 Q. Aha. All right. Those 100 sheep that are mentioned in UN
22 documents, were they brought from Zepa or Tuzla or Visnjica? And every
23 time when they went out to the Serb villages to kill and torch, did they
24 always bring some food from there? We know that they did that, but did
25 you know?
Page 22864
1 A. Your Honour, as for the hundred sheep, I don't think that
2 question was asked in good faith because initially I had said I was not
3 aware of that issue. So asking me whether they were brought in, you
4 know, I don't know that. But anyway, it's okay. I was not aware of that
5 so I cannot correctly comment on that issue.
6 Q. Thank you. You mentioned that there was trade and food that they
7 brought in different ways when they left the enclave. Did you know that
8 we made offers to them to enable commercial traffic and transportation;
9 however, the black marketeers who profited from such exercises did not
10 allow that?
11 A. Your Honour, you would be the best person suited to tell us that.
12 But on the mafia issue, the issue of people paying to get out and come
13 back with goods, still remains.
14 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we now have document 1D4971 to
15 see what happened during May 1995 and how much humanitarian aid went to
16 the army.
17 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
18 Q. Do you know that the rural population around Srebrenica had their
19 own households, livestock, and that they produced food for their own
20 purposes at least and perhaps they had a bit of a surplus. Did you know
21 that they kept livestock?
22 A. Yes, Your Honour, I do.
23 Q. Thank you. Yes, there is a translation here. Please take a look
24 at this report, Suljo Hasanovic is reporting to the Army of Bosnia and
25 Herzegovina about the following. He says:
Page 22865
1 "We hereby submit a list of the quantities of food, materiel, and
2 technical equipment and fuel issued to our military units in our area for
3 the month of May 1995.
4 "25.900 kilogrammes of flour, 560 [as interpreted] kilogrammes of
5 sugar, 1.423 litres of cooking oil, 619 kilogrammes of salt,
6 5.000 kilogrammes of beans, 17.000 cold cuts ..." Then powdered milk,
7 fruit juice, and so on and so forth. And then further on it says:
8 "We wish to note that the above quantities have been separated
9 out of the humanitarian aid contingent which arrived in the area through
10 UNHCR, while some of this food was obtained from the Dutch Battalion."
11 So, sir, Mr. Kingori, if the Army of Republika Srpska is raising
12 questions as to what is all of this food for, for Srebrenica I mean, when
13 we know that the rural population has food of their own and we know that
14 enormous amounts of food are being brought in, then we are being accused
15 of discrimination, whereas we see here that an entire division was being
16 fed here even by the Dutch Battalion. Even the Dutch Battalion allocated
17 food for the army.
18 A. Your Honour, this is not an issue that I would comfortably
19 comment on because as for the UNHCR food, the normal UNHCR convoys were
20 bringing food to the enclave because the people did not have enough food.
21 They were mainly dependent on food from the UNHCR. That was the bottom
22 line. Then on DutchBat, if they were giving any food to anybody else
23 outside, I did not know. They never told us. They never recorded it
24 with us. And I don't think it was in their mandate to supply food to the
25 Muslim army. And UNHCR, if I go back to it, I would just say that there
Page 22866
1 were no provisions -- I don't think there were any provisions for food to
2 be given to the Muslim army.
3 But of course when food is brought to the enclave for the entire
4 population of the enclave, you could not miss maybe some food here and
5 there finding its way to the military, either directly or indirectly, in
6 that even some of the people who are enlisted and were also civilians in
7 another way could get the food and give that to their soldiers. So I'm
8 saying it is possible for the food to find its way to the military
9 people, but there was no organised way of bringing in food through UNHCR
10 to the Muslim army.
11 Q. Thank you, Mr. Kingori. I'm not accusing any one of the
12 UN agencies. I just wish to establish that accusations levelled against
13 the Army of Republika Srpska in terms of them being restrictive are
14 simply not true. These were months when the Army of Republika Srpska
15 purportedly imposed restrictions. But look at this, tonnes and tonnes of
16 food went to the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina that was attacking us,
17 killing us. And do you think that our intelligence people did not know
18 that there was enough food there and that there was no need to feed the
19 Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and therefore these restrictions were
20 justified? I'm not attacking anyone. I'm just saying that these
21 accusations were false and unjustified.
22 Do you agree that if in the month of May these hundreds of tonnes
23 were being given to the Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina, to the 28th Division,
24 somebody had to eat all of this, right? These tonnes of food, somebody
25 had to eat all of that?
Page 22867
1 JUDGE KWON: What question does he have to answer? One question
2 at a time.
3 But in any event, can you answer the question, Colonel? Is there
4 any question at all?
5 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, to me this looked like a statement
6 that he's giving, so -- in fact, there is no answer but I can just expand
7 on it and also seek to know if they -- there was food going to the
8 soldiers, does it mean actually that everybody in the enclave was a
9 soldier, so everybody got food. So in effect, having some food going to
10 these soldiers does not mean that the enclave is full of food. The
11 enclave was being fed by UNHCR. That is the way we knew. And even the
12 harvest they were making, even planting some of their foodstuff that they
13 were planting, was through assistance by UNHCR. And obviously there is
14 no single time that we knew that the enclave was self-sufficient on food,
15 never.
16 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. Please take a look at paragraph 34 of your statement. I'm trying
18 to put general questions and receive general answers because I do not
19 have enough time for 207 paragraphs. So paragraph 34 you say that the
20 situation in the enclave was serious and so on and so forth in respect of
21 food. Also you refer to weekly reports and so on and so forth. In the
22 meantime, in the month of May, out of the food that the
23 Army of Republika Srpska is allowing to pass in order to provide it to
24 the civilian population, this ultimately ends up with the
25 Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina that is waging war against us. Did you know
Page 22868
1 about that, and would this paragraph 34 have been different had you known
2 about that?
3 A. Your Honour, we were writing about how the situation was on
4 ground as far as we knew it. And even now, if I were in the same
5 circumstances, I would write the same because I knew for sure the enclave
6 was not self-sufficient on food and we could go to some villages which
7 had no food at all and we could write that in our reports. And the other
8 monitoring agency, which was UNHCR, was also writing on the same, hence
9 the request to send more food into the enclave. So the fact that you can
10 see this list here does not necessarily mean that there was
11 self-sufficiency of food in that enclave. In fact, there was a
12 deficiency almost throughout.
13 Q. Well, Mr. Kingori, there wasn't enough food because the civilian
14 population had been robbed. The food that was intended for the civilian
15 population was sent to the army, whereas we were accused of imposing
16 restrictions. Were we duty-bound to let the people feed the army --
17 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic, I think we heard the answer to that
18 question from the witness. Please move on.
19 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can this document be admitted?
20 JUDGE KWON: Yes.
21 THE REGISTRAR: Exhibit D1997, Your Honours.
22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] 1D4972, please.
23 Excellencies, I should be spending an equal amount of time in
24 dealing with each and every paragraph of this statement if I am to
25 challenge all of this.
Page 22869
1 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic --
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] The Trial Chamber has to decide on
3 all of this so I do need time.
4 JUDGE KWON: -- we never cut off you from your cross-examination
5 as long as you stick to relevant and important issues. Don't be
6 repetitive in putting your question. I'm still of the opinion that you
7 have sufficient time to cover all the issues. Please move on.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] This hasn't been translated yet,
9 but there is no denying that this is a bulletin of the Army of Bosnia and
10 Herzegovina and of the military security service at that. The date is
11 the 17th of July, 1995.
12 MS. WEST: Sorry to interrupt. There is a translation.
13 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
14 Shall we put it on the ELMO or you can -- yes -- publish -- yes,
15 let's put it on the ELMO.
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could the witness please be shown
17 the English version, the first and second paragraph specifically.
18 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
19 Q. Do you agree that what it says here that:
20 "Up until the 16th of July, 1995, in the early evening hours,
21 approximately 10.000 members of the 28th Division arrived in the free
22 territory as the main body of these forces were carrying out a
23 breakthrough. The breakthrough was assisted by units of the
24 24th Division," which was not in Srebrenica but in Tuzla, "which launched
25 a fierce counter-attack against the Chetnik lines in the Baljkovica
Page 22870
1 sector (the general sector of Memici - Nezuk) and linked up with the
2 units of the 28th Division ..."
3 And then they say what their casualties were. 200 soldiers in
4 one place, Konjevic Polje, and the Serbs had about 20 casualties and
5 six captured, and so on and so forth. So is this something --
6 JUDGE KWON: Just a second. Next page.
7 Mr. Karadzic referred to first two paragraphs. When you're done
8 with your reading, please let us know, Colonel.
9 THE WITNESS: Okay, Your Honour.
10 Okay.
11 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Mr. Karadzic, what is your question?
12 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
13 Q. Mr. Kingori, is it clear to you now that your conclusions suffer
14 from a lack of this particular information, that 10.000 managed to break
15 through. Some were killed, others managed to get through. Do you
16 realise now that your position that there were no troops there and that
17 the 28th Division was only on paper is not accurate due to the lack of
18 this particular information?
19 JUDGE KWON: Can we see the first page again.
20 Yes, Mr. Kingori.
21 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, is there a place where they've put
22 10.000?
23 JUDGE KWON: The first line --
24 THE WITNESS: The first line, "approximately 10.000 members of
25 the 28th Division ..."
Page 22871
1 Your Honour, this is something that one cannot confirm or deny.
2 But for sure, 10.000 soldiers is not a very small number. But who said
3 these were all soldiers, these were trained soldiers? These were
4 actually breaking out because they had been defeated and there were
5 10.000 armed soldiers. The reason why I'm saying this is that armed --
6 10.000 armed soldiers are not just people with small arms. 10.000, we
7 are talking about are close to a corps. If these cannot be able to break
8 through in such a line, it is impossible, it is very difficult, if they
9 are what we are calling armed. Armed, we are talking about they needed
10 to have support arms. They could not just be soldiers because they have
11 a gun. Soldiers are not soldiers just because they have a gun, no; they
12 have small arms, no. It is obligatory that if it is a division like the
13 one you are showing us here, 10.000 of them, that they have support arms.
14 Where are their tanks? Where is the artillery?
15 So in essence what I'm trying to say is these could be people
16 with guns and that is possible to have. Anybody can have a gun. Anybody
17 can pass through. He can also be called a soldier just because he has a
18 gun. But in real sense, this is not an armed force because they lack the
19 necessary capacity to be called an armed division.
20 Q. Mr. Kingori, that is what worried me, because you keep saying
21 this is logical, that is logical. However, we have to establish what
22 actually happened irrespective of logic. So you are not challenging that
23 this is a Muslim document that confirms that 10.000 soldiers left
24 fighting their way along. Regardless of what is logical, this is a
25 people's army. This is not a professional army. The Serb army and the
Page 22872
1 Muslim armies were people's armies, not professional armies. People
2 lived at home with their wives until they would leave. Are you
3 challenging this document and are you challenging that they say that
4 10.000 of their troops were on the move?
5 MS. WEST: Mr. President.
6 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Ms. West.
7 MS. WEST: Mr. President, I see at the end of several lines
8 there's a question, but this has continued on and on when there's a long,
9 long statement with a small question on the end. And I just ask that
10 Mr. Karadzic asks his questions simply to the witness and not make such
11 statements.
12 JUDGE KWON: By making such statements you are making the
13 probative value of the witness very low. So put your questions in a
14 simpler way. Put your questions one at a time.
15 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
16 Q. Mr. Kingori, please do not say how things should be; rather, give
17 us an answer. Are you disputing that 10.000 soldiers left, as stated by
18 this document of the Muslim secret service?
19 A. Your Honour, I'm not disputing that 10.000 people left and they
20 could have been having guns. But as for an organised division -- for a
21 division to have broken through this way, it's completely
22 incomprehensible. I don't believe it. But obviously in any war there
23 has got to be propaganda. You have got to show that your people are
24 many. That is common in any war. You have got to show that you are
25 better equipped, you are heavier, you are more than your adversary. That
Page 22873
1 is normal in any war. And you have got to give morale to your soldiers
2 that still they are there. But for obvious reasons you really cannot
3 have a division breaking through with, you know, 10.000 of them --
4 Q. Mr. Kingori, Mr. Kingori, I have to intervene. What you are
5 saying are logical inferences and I'm asking you about facts.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we see the next paragraph
7 which says that some army officers and the authorities evacuated their
8 families abroad [In English] SVB -- [Interpretation] That's the one that
9 begins with SVB of the 1st Corps and so on. Could we see the text a
10 little bit further below so you can see the preparations for the
11 liquidation of Serb civilians in case Zepa falls. Look below.
12 [In English] "SVB of the 1st Corps is privy to information that
13 after the fall of Srebrenica and the attack by the Chetniks on Zepa, a
14 group has allegedly been formed consisting of the citizens of Zepa whose
15 task is to select those Serbs who would be liquidated in case Zepa
16 falls."
17 [Interpretation] If we are talking logics, is it logical,
18 Mr. Kingori, that all of this is going on without the military observers
19 knowing?
20 A. Your Honour, this is intelligence report gotten from your people
21 and for in the military and especially an established military like the
22 BSA, they had to get such intelligence and use it, maybe not necessarily
23 directly, but indirectly. Maybe their plan was to eliminate those who
24 are to eliminate the BSA senior guy -- the Serb senior guys who are in
25 Zepa. So intelligence can be gotten through many ways, you had your own
Page 22874
1 ways of getting this intelligence and utilising it. And the intelligence
2 did not have to come to us.
3 Q. Your answer has one crucial deficiency. This is not an
4 Army of Republika Srpska document. This is a document of the BH army.
5 It's a Muslim document.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we see the first page in the
7 original. Although every page of the original bears the stamp of the
8 Bosnian army.
9 Can this document be admitted?
10 I would like to see the original. You see this says
11 Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It reports who arrived in Tuzla to Muslim
12 territory. In e-court you see the Serbian version --
13 JUDGE KWON: It's in the e-court. You have to switch to the
14 e-court from ELMO. It's already there.
15 We'll admit this.
16 THE REGISTRAR: As Exhibit D1998, Your Honours.
17 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
18 Q. Mr. Kingori, what did your service of military observers,
19 Sector BH North-East, report to Zagreb about this event, the breakout of
20 the Bosnian army, the losses of the Bosnian army during the breakout, the
21 number of people who made it through, do you know what was reported?
22 This was your direct command in Tuzla; right?
23 A. Your Honour, we reported on a possible route out for the Muslims,
24 which was actually towards Tuzla, that we knew that would be the most
25 possible route out. And we also talked about the fact that they had to
Page 22875
1 fight their way out, we reported on that. They had to fight their way
2 out because obviously they would not be given a safe route out to Tuzla.
3 So that is what we reported.
4 Q. That civilians would get a corridor or the 28th Division? Were
5 we obligated to make it possible for the 28th Division to leave our
6 territory peacefully, carrying weapons, and then from there attack us?
7 A. Your Honour, it was very clear from the onset that you are not
8 giving anybody a safe route out from the enclave because the BSA had
9 already started the heavy bombardment of Srebrenica. And it was very
10 clear from the onslaught -- onset that the aim was to clear the area of
11 the Muslims, as had been told to us by Colonel Vukovic. So everything
12 was evident, it was going as part of your plan. You had to clear the
13 whole enclave of Muslims, which you did successfully.
14 Q. Mr. Kingori, the Trial Chamber will decide that. I would kindly
15 ask you to stick to the facts. Did your service report to Zagreb about
16 this event and what did they say, how many combatants and how many people
17 made it out with what kind of losses? Do you know about the losses of
18 the 28th Division between Srebrenica and Tuzla?
19 A. No, Your Honour, I do not know.
20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we see 1D4 -- 04768.
21 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
22 Q. Is this a report from your north-east command in Zagreb, the UNMO
23 headquarters in Zagreb, 17 July 1995; correct?
24 A. Yes, Your Honour, I can see that.
25 Q. Thank you. Are these names familiar to you, who prepared this
Page 22876
1 document and sent it to Major Kouznetsov and Mr. Woodhouse. Do you know
2 these names?
3 A. Yes, I know Woodhouse.
4 Q. Please look at the document.
5 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Please scroll it down and when
6 Mr. Kingori finishes reading, we can move to the next page. At the
7 bottom it says:
8 "Team Srebrenica are holding meetings tonight with
9 representatives of the Serb side."
10 Can we see the next page? Next page, please.
11 [No interpretation]
12 JUDGE KWON: Just a second. I don't think we had the
13 interpretation of your last comment, but we all can see this passage.
14 What is your question, Mr. Karadzic?
15 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
16 Q. On 17 July did you have this meeting, were you there?
17 A. Yes, we had a meeting. I can't remember whether I was there or
18 not, but we had a meeting, yeah.
19 Q. Thank you. Do you see in the next paragraph that there are
20 covered mortars mounted on Muslim trucks and did you know that Muslim
21 troops were using mobile mortars to fire and then get away, hit and run
22 in other words?
23 A. Your Honour, I don't know what you are referring to because if it
24 is the report in front of me, starting para 4, BiH side, this is not from
25 Team Srebrenica.
Page 22877
1 Q. But did you know about the phenomenon itself, that mortars would
2 be placed on trucks, covered, they would fire from them, and then hide?
3 Did you know that that's the way they used to deceive the UN?
4 A. Your Honour, what I know is that when you are cornered you can do
5 anything, so it's possible to have done that. But obviously you cannot
6 cheat for a very long time without being discovered. But this is a
7 report from Team Srebrenik, not Srebrenica.
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we see the next page?
9 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. Item D below. We don't have time for the rest --
11 JUDGE KWON: No, I would like the witness to read the item --
12 yes, D, capital D, yes.
13 THE WITNESS: Yes, I can --
14 JUDGE KWON: And there's a further passage on the next page,
15 page 4.
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I agree. Thank you.
17 JUDGE KWON: Yes, what is your question, Mr. Karadzic?
18 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
19 Q. The claims you made in your statement, aren't they inconsistent
20 with what your command, the command of military observers, is reporting?
21 Did you know about this?
22 A. Your Honour, maybe I would like to know which claims, specific
23 claims, you are talking about.
24 Q. The UN is confirming that a large number of combatants made it
25 out of the area. Many got killed during the breakout, that Serb villages
Page 22878
1 were burned on the way. They emerged into the area of responsibility of
2 the 2nd Corps. Correct? This whole item D, is it reflected in your
3 statement? Does it make any impact on your statement? Is your statement
4 consistent with this report of the military observers?
5 MS. WEST: Mr. President, may we just go back to the first page
6 because I think that might be what we're talking about.
7 JUDGE KWON: Yes. This seems to be a report from the
8 UNMO Sector North-East.
9 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. These headquarters, these staff headquarters, was it your
11 command? Were you answerable to them, north-east?
12 A. Yes, Your Honour, it was.
13 Q. So with all due respect, Mr. Kingori, I would say that your
14 statement does not reflect and is not consistent with --
15 JUDGE KWON: No, just a -- oh, yes, is that your question?
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Yes.
17 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
18 Q. My question is: Why is your amalgamated statement so
19 dramatically different from the official reports of your headquarters?
20 A. Your Honour, I don't see any deviations from what has been
21 reported here in that the crossing of these people, you can see in the
22 report, is written they are armed with small arms, yeah, small arms.
23 That does not -- and I still insist does not signify the arming of a
24 division, anything above a section. So in essence what we are seeing,
25 these are people who are armed. They could have been soldiers. They
Page 22879
1 could have been just normal civilians who were armed. And as I said
2 earlier, it goes beyond normal carrying of a gun to become a soldier. So
3 it does not necessarily mean that all these were military people crossing
4 over to the other side.
5 However, the element of them burning the villages, because that
6 is the other issue that you raised about when they were crossing, they
7 have given the reasons why they were burning those villages, to get a
8 wider area through which to cross and that is different from the burning
9 of the village you talked about earlier. So it is not an inconsistency
10 on my side at all.
11 Q. You're talking about squads and little groups again. Do you know
12 that in the system of the former Yugoslavia each of these men had done
13 his military service, gone through training, and were then part of the
14 reserve force? All these men had regularly been called up to military
15 drills at regular intervals. That was the system. It was a popular
16 army, not a professional army. Did you take that into account?
17 A. Your Honour, for sure, all this information we had. We had all
18 this information, but we also know that some of them became soldiers by
19 default. Some of them became armed by default. Not because they were
20 trained but just because they happened to be of a good fighting age, just
21 because they happened to be strong young men, they could just take a gun.
22 That does not make one a soldier at all, just having a gun. Otherwise
23 everybody, even those who were normally armed and they're not soldiers,
24 would turn to soldiers.
25 So in essence, what I'm trying to let the Court know is that
Page 22880
1 10.000 men in a division or a brigade or whatever you may call it does
2 not go together hand in hand. You cannot have 10.000 men and say this is
3 a division. It is not just the men. It is the men together with the
4 equipment. And just small arms does not make someone a -- form a brigade
5 just because you have small arms, it does not at all in any army
6 whatever.
7 Q. Thank you. But you do not dispute that there were five brigades,
8 280th, 281st, 282nd, 283rd, 284th, and 285th, as well as several
9 independent battalions, regardless of how well-equipped they were? You
10 do not dispute that?
11 JUDGE KWON: Let's move from the issue of the strength of that
12 division or brigade. I think witness has answered the question.
13 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. Mr. Kingori, I'm looking through your paragraphs, paragraph 42
15 says there was no electricity. Did you know the Muslim side had
16 sabotaged the transmission lines and, from that time onwards, neither
17 Serbs nor Muslims had any electrical power?
18 A. Your Honour, we did not know what had happened to the
19 electricity. We just knew that it was not operating and we assumed it
20 was damaged during the initial phases of the war.
21 Q. Do you know how the protected areas were first established? On
22 my orders the Serbian army stopped in 1993 at the entrance to Srebrenica.
23 We accepted that Srebrenica become a protected area and there was no need
24 whatsoever for a military organisation and armaments to exist there. We
25 accepted all this and signed the agreement. When the weapons were taken
Page 22881
1 away for safe keeping, there was no further need for those weapons to be
2 there because the Serb side had accepted to have that area as a protected
3 area.
4 A. Your Honour, I'm aware of all that.
5 Q. Mr. Kingori, we'll discuss that after the break. Did you know
6 that the Serb side in almost all peace agreements accepted that Zepa,
7 Srebrenica, and many other areas in the Drina River Valley become
8 constituent parts of the Muslim entity?
9 A. What I knew is that Zepa was also a Muslim area, Srebrenica was a
10 Muslim area, so the eventual situation did not come to our attention,
11 whether it was to bring them together or whatever.
12 JUDGE KWON: Probably you can see the transcript, Mr. Kingori.
13 Just the previous answer, did you say you were aware of it or you were
14 not aware of it?
15 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, they had written well and changed. I
16 had said I'm aware of that.
17 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
18 I note the time, Mr. Karadzic. We'll take a break for an hour
19 and resume at 1.30. And we will admit that UNMO Zagreb report as
20 Exhibit D1999.
21 THE ACCUSED: Next is 2000.
22 JUDGE KWON: Yes.
23 --- Luncheon recess taken at 12.31 p.m.
24 --- On resuming at 1.33 p.m.
25 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Mr. Karadzic.
Page 22882
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
2 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
3 Q. Mr. Kingori, I have to dispute, and I need to dispute, something
4 in each of the paragraphs in the statement, sometimes entire paragraphs.
5 I don't know if I will have time to do that. I will have to skip things
6 now. Is it correct that you described your departure on the 13th of July
7 to Srebrenica itself to the hospital in order to evacuate the sick?
8 A. Your Honour, I don't get what you mean by if I described my
9 departure, but all I know is that I went back to Srebrenica to pick those
10 who were left in the hospital.
11 Q. Thank you. Can you look at your paragraph 183, for example,
12 where you say that you think that you left Potocari on the 13th of July,
13 and then you say that with a lady from the Medecins Sans Frontieres you
14 went and you say that you saw a crater there and you did not have time to
15 analyse it, this crater. However, at the beginning of the statement you
16 speak about how you did actually conduct a crater analysis. Is that
17 correct?
18 You deal with this in paragraph 16. And you say that you were
19 able to place equipment in the crater and to gauge the calibre and other
20 things. Are you able to tell us what kind of equipment this is?
21 A. Your Honour, these are several questions. I don't know how best
22 to approach them because there's one on 183, there's another one on
23 paragraph 16.
24 Q. Let's stay with paragraph 16. Did you carry out crater analyses
25 using equipment and can you tell us what sort of equipment it is that you
Page 22883
1 used?
2 A. Your Honour, the crater analysis that we used to do -- we had
3 some equipment that we could put on the hole that had been created, that
4 is, the crater itself. For one, when a shell lands on a certain place,
5 and especially if it is a hard point like on Tarmac or concrete, it forms
6 a definite pattern, which can show you from which side the shell came
7 from. You can see the way it has gone in and know this shell actually
8 came from this direction because of the pattern that it forms.
9 Secondly, we had some meters that we were using to put over the
10 crater and also measure the depth, that is, the depth going in and also
11 the width of the crater. With that we would be able to know the kind of
12 weapon. It would guide us into knowing the kind of weapon, but it would
13 be added -- we would have an added advantage of looking at the shrapnels,
14 the fragments, of the crater -- of the shell which can help us identify
15 the kind of weapon that has been used. After getting all these details,
16 we would go to a book that we held and it would guide us into knowing the
17 kind of weapon, the calibre, so that we could know the range. Because in
18 the book it was indicated this calibre of weapon, this type of weapon,
19 has got a range of this number of kilometres, 3 kilometres, 4 kilometres,
20 or whatever, and then from there we could go to the map and put -- and
21 get the estimate distance from the point of impact to where we thought
22 that -- the launch of that weaponry could have taken place. We would get
23 the grid reference of that particular point or grid square because
24 definitely we used to give a bigger area because you cannot be very sure
25 of the actual point where the weapon originated from. So that is how we
Page 22884
1 used to do it.
2 Q. My question just had to do with the equipment since it wasn't
3 clear to me what sort of equipment this was. Is it a meter or did you
4 have some other kind of equipment? What did you place into the crater?
5 A. Your Honour, we had meters and calipers and we had -- there's
6 another equipment that I cannot remember very well that -- I can't
7 remember the name that would give us the general direction but those are
8 the equipments we used to use. But I can hasten to add that when you get
9 this, it just gives you an estimate of where the hardware could have come
10 from. It gives you a general area, this is where it could have come
11 from, and then you give that and for confirmation you can use normal
12 patrols or inform the UN and they had their own ways of locating the
13 actual place.
14 Q. If you recall the equipment that you were not able to recall by
15 the end of your testimony, could you please tell us the name of it so
16 that we can find the characteristics of that equipment. What kinds of
17 shells are you talking about?
18 A. Your Honour, we are talking about mortar shells, artillery
19 shells, rockets, and also tanks.
20 Q. Thank you. How many analyses of mortar shells did you actually
21 carry out?
22 A. Your Honour, we did many.
23 Q. And what did you conclude and in what way? How did you determine
24 the calibre, the direction, and the distance?
25 A. Your Honour, I've just described that, but if you want me to go
Page 22885
1 through it again I will.
2 Q. We're just now talking about mortar shells; is that right? Would
3 you go ahead, please.
4 A. For the mortar shells it is the same thing. It used to have the
5 same thing. You could easily be able to locate where it has coming from.
6 It is the same thing. We used the same procedure, but of course there is
7 the element of error which you can get in any way because maybe they have
8 given a bigger charge or a lower charge depending on how far they want
9 the shell to go. But of course that difference would not have been much.
10 You would be able to get a grid -- a proper grid square of where the
11 equipment is.
12 Q. And how did you determine the calibre?
13 A. Your Honour, we had an EOD, explosive ordnance depot, personnel
14 from DutchBat who could help us do that. It was very easy because we
15 just needed to carry the fragments, give it to them, or at times they
16 could accompany us, and they could easily be able to tell us.
17 Q. Well, I'm surprised, Mr. Kingori, that you did not use the
18 simplest means and that would be the examination of the tail fin. That
19 would affect everything, would it not?
20 A. Your Honour, we used all that, even the tail fin, if it is there,
21 if it is not fragmented. We used everything available, but as for the
22 calibre, I've just told you the way we used it.
23 Q. Are you trying to say that sometimes the tail fin also gets
24 fragmented so that you are not able to establish on the basis of the
25 whole thing but on the basis of fragments what the calibre of the mortar
Page 22886
1 shell is?
2 A. Your Honour, at times even the tail fin was not easy to locate,
3 was not there.
4 Q. Thank you. How can we get any of your findings from those
5 investigations? Is there a way to get that from you? Did you submit
6 those findings in writing?
7 A. Yes, Your Honour, we used to submit them in writing to
8 UNMO headquarters.
9 Q. Thank you. We're going to ask the OTP to provide that for us
10 because you are their witness.
11 So you did have training in crater analysis for a few days; is
12 that correct?
13 A. Yes, Your Honour.
14 Q. Thank you. And you were able to determine the calibre, the
15 direction, and the distance; is that correct?
16 A. Yes, Your Honour, I've just said that.
17 Q. Experts here have told us, however, that it was not possible to
18 establish the distance in any event, especially when we're talking about
19 mortar shells, possibly the direction and the longest range but not the
20 distance and the co-ordinates. So could you please tell us how you
21 managed to do that. Perhaps you should reveal that for them to know as
22 well, and if you can, would you be able to do that?
23 A. Your Honour, I've already indicated how we used to do it. I've
24 even talked about how we could be able to determine the range, we just go
25 to the book and see the ranges of that particular kind of weapon. If it
Page 22887
1 is between 2 and 3 kilometres, or maybe 5 kilometres, or whatever, we
2 just go to the map, because we already know where we are and we already
3 know the general direction, locate that on the map, the 4 or whatever
4 kilometres, locate it on the map and get a grid square and that is what
5 we used to give as the possible location of the equipment that fired that
6 weapon. And I also added that when we give that to the UN, they had
7 their own way on getting further information on the same because they had
8 use of everything like satellites. But at least we have given them a
9 general idea of where the weaponry is.
10 Q. A shell can come in from a range of 1 to 7 kilometres. How did
11 you establish the range from which this -- the range of this incoming
12 shell?
13 A. Your Honour, I've just said the range is in the book that we were
14 using. The ranges of different weaponry which were used in former
15 Yugoslavia were already in a given book that we were using.
16 Q. Mr. Kingori, there is a scale to the range from 1 to
17 7 kilometres. How did you determine the distance from which the shell
18 came and establish the co-ordinates, also the grid for a particular
19 weapon? How did you establish that?
20 A. Your Honour, I don't get what you mean, the scale to the range
21 from 1 to 7 kilometres. We were using the longest ranges which are given
22 in the book, and you cannot have a range of between 1 and 7. You
23 obviously know if it can hit 7 kilometres it can also hit even
24 1 kilometre, but it would be not effective. That is for one. Secondly,
25 it would be of no use to the people who were firing it, so we were using
Page 22888
1 the longer ranges, and I don't think there is a range that is normally
2 given of 1 to 7. The effective ranges are the ones which are given and
3 that is what we use. Like even small arms, small arms like a rifle, you
4 would be told is between 5- and 600 metres. It does not mean it cannot
5 fire 50 metres, it can. But we're talking about the ranges, the longer
6 ranges, that will be effective.
7 Q. Thank you. And what is the shortest distance from which you
8 could fire an 82-millimetre mortar shell and what is the longest
9 distance? If you establish the direction, all right, very well, but what
10 is the closest and the farthest reach of that particular mortar so that
11 it would be able to hit that particular crater? It can be from
12 1500 metres or from 7.000 metres; is that correct?
13 A. Your Honour, you don't expect me to remember all the technical
14 details. For this one I cannot remember obviously.
15 Q. But any mortar operator would know that, that you can fire at
16 close range and at a long range. How did you determine the grid and how
17 did you decide, out of that range of several kilometres that are
18 possible, how did you zone in to a particular location or a distance?
19 A. Your Honour, I've already gone through this. I've explained how
20 we used to get it. I've also explained how we used to get the grid
21 square or the grid reference of the particular area that we thought the
22 weapon would be firing from. And I really don't see why you want me to
23 repeat the same again because I am not saying anything that I should add
24 on the same.
25 Q. Thank you. Were these Serbian shells that were dropping on
Page 22889
1 Srebrenica?
2 A. Your Honour, they were.
3 Q. And what was the calibre of those shells that were dropping on
4 Srebrenica?
5 A. Your Honour, there were various and we put them in our reports.
6 Some of them would be 105, 155, and even mortars, 60-millimetre mortars,
7 and all those kind of weaponry. We could analyse and get them and report
8 on the same.
9 Q. Thank you. And do we agree that there are 60-millimetre,
10 82-millimetre, and 120-millimetre mortars?
11 A. Your Honour, there were so many types, so many types, and it's
12 all in that book. Whatever was used to fire is what we used to analyse
13 and this is what we wrote on, not necessarily all the weaponry in the BSA
14 arsenal.
15 Q. But two armies, the two armies that you were observing, the
16 Army of Republika Srpska and the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had
17 identical weapons. Did they have any other mortars other than those of
18 these three calibres, 60, 82, and 120 millimetres?
19 A. Your Honour, what we were analysing was incoming, incoming
20 weapons, not outgoing. If there was any outgoing, that is the one that
21 could have come from the BiH, it could have been analysed by other
22 people, not us, because we were analysing what was coming into the
23 enclave.
24 Q. Very well. Incoming shells. What is the longest reach or range
25 of 60-millimetre mortars?
Page 22890
1 A. Your Honour, I don't have those details with me.
2 Q. And what was the distance? How far was the line of separation
3 from the centre of Srebrenica?
4 A. Now, Your Honour, that is a very difficult question in that --
5 unless you are specific because Srebrenica from Yellow Bridge is a
6 certain number of kilometres. Srebrenica from former OP Echo is
7 different from any other section of the enclave. So the cease-fire line
8 really had different distances from Srebrenica.
9 Q. What was the closest and what was its furthest point from
10 measuring from the centre of Srebrenica to the first Serb positions in
11 all directions, did you know that?
12 A. Your Honour, we had not kept those measurements.
13 Q. Would you agree that an incoming 60-millimetre mortar shell would
14 call for you to determine whether this had come in from Serb positions or
15 whether it was coming from Muslim territory?
16 A. Your Honour, there are two issues here. A 60-millimetre mortar
17 launched from the direction of OP Echo or thereabouts or anywhere at the
18 cease-fire line towards Srebrenica will hit Srebrenica, not necessarily
19 in the town but the enclave. It would hit the enclave, and you still go
20 there and analyse and get to know that it is a 60-millimetre mortar from
21 a certain distance outside the cease-fire line. But at the same time, we
22 were not aware that the Muslims could fire at themselves, so we could not
23 imagine the Muslim side firing at their Muslim brothers.
24 Q. Did you know how many killings there were in Srebrenica itself
25 and did you know that Srebrenica was led by a bandit leadership that
Page 22891
1 foreign observers and DutchBat soldiers described as a gang and
2 criminals, rapes, killings, prostitution, smuggling, all possible kinds
3 of criminal acts, did you know that?
4 MS. WEST: Objection, Your Honour.
5 JUDGE KWON: Yes.
6 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] All right. I'll skip that.
7 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
8 Q. I'm afraid, Mr. Kingori, that your seven-day training was not
9 enough. Would you agree? We've heard experts here who have dealt with
10 this their entire lives, crater analysis I mean, and nobody told us what
11 you are telling us now.
12 A. Your Honour, my seven-days' training was not a basic training.
13 It was training to senior officers, not just myself alone, to senior
14 officers who were -- who had experience in the military. So it's just
15 confirmation and reconfirmation of some issues. It's not basic training.
16 And I also said whatever we were getting were estimates and that is what
17 we would give, and that could give a proper assessment of the area from
18 where the firing would have come from and that proved very useful to the
19 UN because they didn't have to concentrate on the whole location where
20 the BSA were. We guided them into particular areas. Like the
21 rocket-launcher that was coming beyond Yellow Bridge, it was shelling
22 from, you know, beyond Yellow Bridge, we knew where it was and we say the
23 same. And even when we went to Potocari -- actually after the fall of
24 the enclave, the rocket-launcher actually came from the same direction.
25 So we could have been slightly not very accurate in terms of maybe
Page 22892
1 millimetres, metres, or whatever, but at least we give a general
2 direction which is what was required from our mandate.
3 Q. Thank you. Thus, at the critical time in July, the two of you,
4 because the third one was already in hospital, informed the
5 Dutch Battalion about the fire from the Serb side; correct?
6 A. Your Honour, we were aware of what was happening. We knew where
7 this fire could have come from, and we were correct as far as we knew.
8 Q. Thank you. Is it possible that you had too much trust in your
9 Muslim guides and interpreters who misinformed you?
10 A. Your Honour, that would be incorrect because we also had our
11 own -- we were -- we were intelligent also in a way, in that we were
12 hearing the shell -- the shells overflying or coming from whatever
13 direction and hitting certain areas, and the only time that we relied on
14 the interpreter was when we sent him to Srebrenica because it was no
15 longer safe for us to be there. That is the time we sent him and he was
16 able to give us where the shells were actually hitting. That does not
17 mean ourselves were not hearing them overflying where we were or even
18 hear them land. It's only that we could not get the actual location at
19 which we were guided into the actual location by the interpreter, so he
20 could not cheat us -- I mean, he could not lie to us on something that we
21 have also heard ourselves.
22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could we briefly look at P4152.
23 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
24 Q. While we're waiting, do you know that both the
25 Doctors Without Borders and UNPROFOR reported that Serbs were not hitting
Page 22893
1 buildings or features but they were firing around to prevent movement,
2 so-called barrage fire, to prevent movement? Do you know about that?
3 A. Your Honour, what I know is what we reported on. That is what I
4 knew. And the shelling was actually not aimed at certain areas and
5 leaving out others. Nobody can tell that that shelling was not directed
6 at buildings. The fact that it did not hit buildings does not mean it
7 was not directed at buildings. It could have just missed by good luck.
8 And as it was in our report, we were even surprised that the number of
9 casualties were so low, and especially knowing that even our building,
10 the PTT, was targeted and missed several times, that even the hospital
11 was targeted and missed several times. So when somebody says houses were
12 not aimed at, really I cannot understand. I cannot understand. I cannot
13 comprehend that. What I can say is they were missed, some of them were
14 missed, and that was just by good luck and I'm happy that they were
15 missed, otherwise the destruction, the suffering, the death could have
16 been astronomical.
17 JUDGE KWON: What would be your basis of conclusion that PTT
18 building as well as hospitals were targeted but missed?
19 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, when these artillery or weapons are
20 aimed at a certain place, there are different variations in that you aim
21 to get a certain point but you may miss that point because of where you
22 are launching the weapon from. Artillery weapons are normally launched
23 from behind a hill, where they are safer and they cannot be seen directly
24 by the enemy, and that is why they are called high trajectory. They go
25 up very high and then land somewhere. So -- and if that -- that weapon
Page 22894
1 is aimed at a certain building, you would definitely know in that it
2 would miss, either go on top, fly overhead, go to the side, one side or
3 the other side, and you would see some corrections because they normally
4 make corrections when you aim and do not get your target, because I
5 believe they had their own people on ground. You change the -- either
6 the charge or direction, you move it towards -- you correct the direction
7 a bit, and that is the time you would see if it was hitting to the left,
8 you see now it's hitting maybe slightly more to the right. If it was
9 hitting far much overhead, you see now it is hitting slightly lower. So
10 it was very easy to know a targeted place, very easy.
11 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
12 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
13 Q. Are you trying to say that tank produces indirect fire?
14 A. I didn't say that.
15 Q. But you did say, look here, that the tank 84 -- do you know at
16 the time it was the most powerful, the best tank that could hit and fire
17 unmistakably even when the tank was crossing dunes and going across
18 holes. You say here the Serb 84 tank was in position. Are you trying to
19 say that it missed by chance?
20 A. Your Honour, I kindly request you show me where I said a tank
21 produces indirect fire. I never mentioned that. I've never mentioned it
22 in my report, and what I have in my report is a tank produces direct
23 fire. And that is why when we saw tanks located some distance, about
24 2 kilometres from our PTT building, we decided to leave because it
25 produces direct fire. So what you are saying, I'm not aware, I've not
Page 22895
1 said anything about that.
2 Q. Mr. Kingori, here, on the 10th of July, you record the presence
3 of a tank, state-of-the-art tank at the time in the world, with
4 state-of-the-art firing devices, and you say that the Serbs were missing
5 their targets in a non-deliberate way. You are ascribing bad intentions
6 to Serbs, whereas you saw with your own eyes the T-84 tank that could hit
7 precisely any window that was targeted.
8 MS. WEST: May we have a paragraph number.
9 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic, did the witness say in his statement
10 that the tank actually targeted the building? I'm reading paragraph
11 102 --
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm now talking about the document
13 before us in e-court, it's a document from this service, their own
14 observer mission. It notes the presence of a tank on the 10th of July.
15 In the meantime, Mr. Kingori is saying that the Serbs were using heavy
16 artillery, shooting to hit, but they were missing because they were
17 shooting from beyond a hill by indirect fire. However, the Serbs had a
18 tank and they could see it. The tank was able to use direct fire
19 unmistakably, and I am disputing Mr. Kingori's allegation. I put it to
20 him that he was biassed against the Serbs in ascribing them ill
21 intentions --
22 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic, you are not making statements here.
23 You ask questions. Put your questions one at a time.
24 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
25 Q. Here is the question: You claim the Serbs were missing because
Page 22896
1 they were shooting with indirect fire from behind a hill. If they really
2 wanted to hit the target, why didn't they use the T-84 tank that could
3 hit with precision any window?
4 A. Your Honour, I think we are mixing two issues, that of the tank
5 and that of the high-trajectory artillery weapons, in that when I
6 mentioned about the high-trajectory artillery weapons, that's when I said
7 they were missing the target. But later on is when I brought in or we
8 brought in the issue of the tank, which could easily be seen from a
9 certain location, which I have indicated. So these are two different
10 things in two different areas.
11 Q. Thank you. Let's clear one thing up. Look at this document.
12 From whom did you receive this information? Are all of these your direct
13 observations or did you receive some reports from someone?
14 A. This report came from us, and if we have not said not confirmed
15 by us, it is us who had confirmed. So it is true it was like that.
16 Q. I'm asking you now if the Serbs' intention was to hit and they
17 were missing because fire was indirect, from behind a hill, why did they
18 continue, on the 10th of July, to fire from behind a hill when they could
19 have used the T-84 tank which certainly wouldn't have missed?
20 A. Your Honour, I think the tacticians are the ones who should be
21 asked that, the people from the BSA side. But all I know is that they
22 had almost finished their job. By the 10th, they were almost through
23 with their job so they did what they were doing. They had already
24 softened Srebrenica. They had already done enough damage. People had
25 already started getting scared. So everything was almost through. So in
Page 22897
1 fact, the use of the tank could not have been very essential because,
2 after all, if they were coming to reclaim the enclave, as they had said,
3 that is, the BSA, obviously they would not have wanted to destroy most of
4 the buildings that they were planning to come and use. So maybe they --
5 these were obvious tactical or tactical reasons of not damaging
6 everything.
7 Q. Sir, intentions are debatable. I kindly ask you to tell me first
8 who informed you about these events in Srebrenica which you were not
9 there to see for yourself? In paragraph -- first of all, who informed
10 you [In English] "the heavy shells probably" and so on --
11 [Interpretation] About this, the second part of the paragraph?
12 A. Your Honour, this information could have come from our yellow
13 card, that is, the interpreter; but at the same time we had the MSF
14 person who was in contact with some other people in the hospital and you
15 could be able to get some information from there. The point at hand is
16 of the shelling of the hospital which we could really get that it was
17 being targeted and missed by a few metres and there was no dispute to
18 that because even when I went back there later I confirmed that, that it
19 has been -- actually, it had been hit around the hospital and also in the
20 Bravo Company of DutchBat.
21 Q. Sir, Mr. Kingori, how could you possibly know that the
22 hospital -- how far is it -- you were in Potocari. How far are Potocari
23 from the hospital?
24 A. It was far. It was not that near, but we could be able to get
25 from the sources that I've already told you about. It was far, but the
Page 22898
1 shells we could hear. It is only that the actually landing area of the
2 shell we could not be able to get. But I've given you the source of
3 the -- that information on where the shells were landing.
4 Q. Look at paragraph 121 of your statement, did your interpreter
5 have one week's training or not even that? You were only two. The
6 hospital in Srebrenica is far from you. You get your information from a
7 Muslim who is partial. It is in his interest to blame the Serbs. He has
8 only one week's training and you accept him at his word. You take his
9 word for it that the Serbs were targeting the hospital.
10 A. Your Honour, the issue of the interpreter being trained for
11 one week does not arise. That interpreter had a lot of experience. We
12 found them there and they had worked there for over two years. So they
13 are people who were very experienced in identifying what was an incoming
14 shell and also where it was hitting. It was very easy for them to know.
15 They had very good experience of their work as interpreters. And also
16 having worked with UNMOs gave them an upper hand in knowing some of the
17 things which were happening in a war zone, like it was at that time.
18 I also said that immediately after that I left for Srebrenica and
19 I noticed that everything that we had been told had actually happened and
20 it's in my report. I found that the hospital had actually been targeted.
21 I also found that the areas around had been damaged. The road had been
22 cratered. The DutchBat Company -- the outside of the DutchBat Company
23 had also been cratered, you know, through heavy artillery weapons. So
24 all that we came to believe is actually what had happened and we had not
25 exaggerated anything at all.
Page 22899
1 As for him being a Muslim, I don't think we had issues to do with
2 his background at that particular moment. What we had was knowing what
3 was happening at that particular moment and reporting on the same. Of
4 course, as I said earlier, the UN had its own other systems of verifying
5 this information. And that is why they were even able to get the targets
6 which we had not been -- we had not given and used air power to actually
7 attack those targets. So I think that is the answer I can give to the
8 questions you have asked.
9 Q. Mr. Kingori, those other sources of information in the area of
10 Sarajevo established more than once that military observers were useless
11 and pointless. This incident happened at 11.26 and you are writing your
12 report based on information received from a man who is biased, who
13 belongs to one of the warring parties --
14 MS. WEST: Objection.
15 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
16 Q. -- and still you put his words in your report --
17 MS. WEST: Your Honour, the first sentence of this question is
18 not a question at all and has nothing to do with it, it's a statement.
19 And then he started -- I thought it was going to end in a question but
20 didn't. This has gone on several times today and I would ask the accused
21 to just ask simple questions and we can get through this.
22 JUDGE KWON: Yes, I totally agree.
23 JUDGE MORRISON: Dr. Karadzic, on my assessment, you're using
24 between one-third and half of your time today in making statements and it
25 sits ill with the complaint that you don't have enough time.
Page 22900
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Your Excellency, I am challenging
2 this way of thinking and making conclusions, which is groundless, in
3 order to help Mr. Kingori to realise his mistake and I want him to answer
4 what I'm asking, not what I'm not asking. But I'll narrow it down even
5 further.
6 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. When was this report sent? Isn't the time indicated as 11.26?
8 A. Your Honour, where is the time you are reading?
9 Q. Line 1, at the top of the document.
10 While we're waiting for the document, when did the incident
11 occur?
12 JUDGE KWON: We don't need the B/C/S.
13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I don't know why we lost the
14 English.
15 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
16 Q. Do you see it says the incident happened at 11.00 and you are
17 reporting at 11.26, based on information you received from the
18 interpreter; right?
19 A. Your Honour, I think you are putting the words in my mouth. I
20 didn't just say the interpreter. I mentioned other sources. And 11.26
21 is the time of transmission, I can see that.
22 Q. All right. Look at paragraph 121 of your statement now. You say
23 that you were informed that 155-millimetre artillery shells were hitting
24 the direct surrounding of the hospital. And in my previous question I
25 also referred to the environs of the hospital. For the record, you said
Page 22901
1 "yellow card." That means Emir; right?
2 A. Yes, it does.
3 Q. Thank you. Did you go to Srebrenica on the 10th or on the 13th?
4 A. I went on the 13th.
5 Q. So what you said before, that you first verified and then wrote
6 your report, is not true. You could not have done that by 11.26 on the
7 10th. You were in Srebrenica only on the 13th?
8 A. Your Honour, I said I verified that report that it was correct
9 when I went back to Srebrenica, and obviously that was not on the 10th.
10 I said I went on the 13th. But could I have gone back there and found
11 something different, I could have just written again and say I found a
12 different thing all together and that whatever we had sent earlier was
13 wrong.
14 Then, if you allow me, I can go back to the issue where you
15 talked about military observers being useless. That is actually
16 something that is not right to say because I don't believe the whole
17 UN system would be that -- will just, you know, appoint observers if they
18 don't know what they are doing. They would not appoint somewhere to go
19 somewhere, do something, and they know they are useless. I don't think
20 they can form such a system. Just because they don't fit what you would
21 like them to fit or do the way you would like them to do doesn't make
22 them useless at all. And that is why, due to the essence of these
23 observers, they are everywhere in every mission that you ever see.
24 Wherever there is a military issue, there must be military observers,
25 contributed by the countries which have contributed troops to that
Page 22902
1 particular theatre.
2 Q. Thank you. I did not say that you were useless, sir. It was the
3 highest commanders of the UNPROFOR who said that military observers were
4 useless. It was just an answer to your claims that you never made any
5 mistakes.
6 Look at paragraph 183. Who were you in the hospital with?
7 It's actually paragraphs 185 and 186, where you describe the
8 treatment three Serb soldiers gave to three ill women. Who were you with
9 there? Were you alone?
10 A. Your Honour, I was with an MSF lady, I think her name was
11 Christine or Christina.
12 Q. Anybody else?
13 A. Of course there were other people. We found some injured, some
14 people who were admitted. We've -- the list is there, we have indicated,
15 the sick, even the number of the sick that we found there, I have
16 indicated there, and there was some BSA soldiers around.
17 Q. Thank you. Please take a look at paragraph 184 and particularly
18 185, and also 106, how you smear Serbian soldiers. You say that they
19 threatened old women and you use a euphemism when you say "a bit
20 hostile," "that was a bit hostile." I wouldn't say that. I would say it
21 was drastic, drastically hostile. Actually, did that happen at all?
22 A. Your Honour, because I'm the one who was there, I said what I
23 saw, I said what I heard. So maybe you were in a different position all
24 together. You may -- I know you were not in that particular area so I
25 don't think it would be right for you to change what I saw or what I
Page 22903
1 heard because I didn't report from anybody else. I was there personally.
2 Q. Thank you.
3 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] 1D4970, can we have that without
4 having it broadcast, though. I think that it is under an embargo.
5 MS. WEST: Your Honour, may we go into private session?
6 JUDGE KWON: Yes.
7 [Private session] [Confidentiality lifted by order of the Chamber]
8 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Ms. West.
9 MS. WEST: Thank you. This is a -- thank you, Your Honour. This
10 is the document that I spoke of earlier, and even if we don't broadcast
11 it, I can't imagine we're going to have a discussion that isn't going to
12 reveal what type of a document it is. So I would ask that we stay in
13 private session.
14 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
15 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we have page 13.
16 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. The lady you mentioned is reporting and she's saying that she's
18 going with Franken, somebody from the Army of Republika Srpska, and a
19 UNMO to the hospital to see all the wounded.
20 [In English] "I have to close the Telex now ..." and so on.
21 [Interpretation] Can we have page 14 now. Could all the
22 participants take a look at this document.
23 JUDGE KWON: Is this in e-court or on Sanction?
24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] E-court.
25 [Trial Chamber and Registrar confer]
Page 22904
1 JUDGE KWON: Please continue, yes.
2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Could all please take a look at
3 this so that I don't read it.
4 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
5 Q. And let me ask you, sir, you so vilify the Serbs that no one else
6 who was in the same places as you were never wrote anything remotely
7 similar or said anything remotely similar. That is why I'm challenging
8 your entire statement. Why did this lady not describe these drastic
9 threats issued to old women, people saying that they would be killed?
10 A. Your Honour, I'm the one who heard that, I'm the one who was told
11 that, I wrote about it, and I still maintain that was correct as far as
12 the statement was made.
13 Secondly, the issue of me being against one side or the other
14 should not be raised at all because I had no reason to favour one side or
15 the other as a person or even as a Kenyan. We had no strategic
16 importance of that area as a country, nothing that would have swayed me
17 into saying something that is not true as far as I was concerned because
18 there was no reason for that. Kenya does not have any -- did not have
19 any strategic, you know, importance to any part of former Yugoslavia. So
20 really, I was saying what I was told, what I heard. Maybe others could
21 have heard other things, maybe they could have seen things differently or
22 maybe they were not exactly in the same location that I was told these
23 things.
24 And furthermore, this was not even the first time we were being
25 told about BSA killing the Muslims. Colonel Vukovic told us the same and
Page 22905
1 we reported on the same, that they were going to clear the enclave. So
2 it's not the first time that this is being heard from the BSA --
3 Q. We'll get to Vukovic, sir, we'll get to Vukovic, sir. This is
4 what I'm interested in now. This lady, who is not sparing the Serbs in
5 the least, she is saying they are robbing people, taking property --
6 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic, the witness has answered the question.
7 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you. Could these two pages
8 be admitted, please.
9 JUDGE KWON: What pages are you referring to?
10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] 13 and 14 in this document.
11 JUDGE KWON: Any objection?
12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Under seal, that will do.
13 JUDGE KWON: Ms. West?
14 MS. WEST: No objection.
15 JUDGE KWON: That will be admitted under seal.
16 THE REGISTRAR: As Exhibit D2000, under seal.
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Can we now move into open session.
18 JUDGE KWON: Yes.
19 [Open session]
20 JUDGE KWON: Yes, we are now in open session.
21 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
22 Q. In paragraph 186 you say that you physically helped her go. You
23 lifted her yourself. Did anyone else describe that in their daily
24 reports?
25 A. I don't know what others were writing in their daily reports.
Page 22906
1 Q. Did you report?
2 A. Yes, Your Honour, I did.
3 Q. Can we see your report of the 13th of July where you say that
4 Serbs mistreat old women who are sick, forcing them to evacuate from the
5 hospital? Show us this report of yours.
6 A. Your Honour, if you can look for the reports, situation reports,
7 and get them, well and good. But I don't think you have all the
8 situation reports. All I know is that we reported on the same.
9 [Trial Chamber and Registrar confer]
10 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
11 Q. Now we are going to go back to what it was that you discussed
12 with Major Nikolic and Colonel Vukovic. You said that there was
13 socialising involved as well and coffee and brandy. However, you say
14 that what they said to you was heard at official meetings where minutes
15 were being kept; right? You say that they said that they wanted all of
16 Srebrenica for themselves and that all the Muslims should be evacuated or
17 moved out; right?
18 A. Your Honour, what I said is that in one of the meetings that we
19 had held with Colonel Vukovic - and actually it's not the first one - he
20 told us that -- he asked us what the UN might do if the BSA attacked the
21 enclave. And he's recorded. He's in documents, he asked that.
22 Q. All right. But -- well, it's possible that he asked you that.
23 But why did you then say that he had said to you that he would free the
24 entire enclave of Muslims, that that was the Serb intention? Did you
25 report about that?
Page 22907
1 A. Yes, Your Honour, I did. I just mentioned, if you look at my
2 answer there, I just mentioned about one. That is just one of them.
3 There is another time that he said that they would clear the whole
4 enclave of the Muslims, and clearing, obviously they meant they would
5 kill everybody. He said that, he mentioned that, and I reported on the
6 same. And also, if I may add, he said if they want to leave the enclave,
7 he can provide a safe route out from the enclave. He offered that also.
8 Q. Did you include that in your daily report?
9 A. Yes, Your Honour, we did.
10 Q. Can you show that to us?
11 A. Your Honour, I don't have all the situation reports that we
12 generated at that time so I don't know where it could be.
13 Q. Mr. Kingori, as a soldier, do you make a distinction between
14 operative, tactical, and strategic levels? You, Major Nikolic, are you
15 the level that decides on such matters?
16 A. Your Honour, ours was not to make decisions on any matter. It
17 was to convey decisions made at higher levels in our own areas. On my
18 side, through the UN system all the way from the top, and on Major
19 Nikolic or Colonel Vukovic's side, all the way through the military
20 leadership up to the civilian leadership of the country, because for sure
21 it was not a military leadership. It was a civilian-led leadership. So
22 the decisions -- no, the -- what was being conveyed by Major Nikolic or
23 Colonel Vukovic obviously we expected to be coming from somewhere up.
24 Q. Well, sir, your expectation was wrong. Look at paragraph 31.
25 Vukovic said to you, [In English] "We should tell -- go and tell ..."
Page 22908
1 [Interpretation] It was the conditional, wasn't it? Paragraph 31.
2 [In English] "We should tell -- go and tell the Muslims to pack
3 up and leave Srebrenica."
4 [Interpretation] But what the problem with your statement is
5 analogies and conclusions in keeping --
6 MS. WEST: Objection --
7 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
8 Q. -- with your own wishes, wishful thinking. Do you know --
9 MS. WEST: Mr. President.
10 JUDGE KWON: Yes, Ms. West.
11 MS. WEST: He start -- he asked a question. He didn't wait for
12 the answer. Then he made another statement by saying: "But what the
13 problem with your statement is analogies and conclusions in keeping --"
14 he would just have continued again --
15 JUDGE KWON: Yes.
16 MS. WEST: -- with his statements unless stopped.
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, if I had enough time I would
18 deal with each and every paragraph, and I will ask for each and every
19 paragraph that I had not dealt with in cross-examination not to be taken
20 into account or that I be given enough time.
21 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
22 Q. As for you, Mr. Kingori, please look at paragraph 31, does it not
23 say this in the conditional, "we should ..." et cetera?
24 A. Your Honour, what is mentioned in paragraph 31 is very true.
25 That is what he told us and that is what he meant. And as I said
Page 22909
1 earlier, we went on to believe that he meant it because that is exactly
2 what was done by the BSA.
3 Q. And do you know, Mr. Kingori, that the United Nations and the
4 Muslim side already on the 10th knew that the Serbs do not have a
5 decision to the effect that they would enter Srebrenica. On the
6 10th of July the Serbs do not intend to go into Srebrenica yet and all
7 the intercepts and all the reports show that. The Serbs entered
8 Srebrenica because the 28th Division had left Srebrenica.
9 A. Your Honour, the aim of starting the war on Srebrenica had to
10 have -- I mean was there from the beginning and it's qualified by what
11 I've just quoted from Colonel Vukovic, and which I said was actually
12 conveying a message from a higher up. Secondly, the BSA really had to
13 get into the enclave. The fact that their conversations that they were
14 not going in or they were going in, or they were going, or whatever,
15 really does not arise because immediately after they softened the target,
16 immediately after they had hit the area so hard that it was very soft
17 now, they went in through the normal way, that is, with the infantry.
18 And I've quoted that in -- you know, somewhere in here. They had to
19 bring in the infantry to mop-up the place, to clear the place, and that's
20 exactly what they did. So the intention must have been there from the
21 beginning.
22 Q. How do you know what the intention of the Serb army was? How did
23 you get to that?
24 A. Your Honour, and I will say it again, it was conveyed to us by
25 Colonel Vukovic and also initially by Major Nikolic, and we went on to
Page 22910
1 believe it was true because that is exactly what happened. I think this
2 could be the third or fourth time I'm repeating it.
3 JUDGE KWON: Mr. -- just a second --
4 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I don't have time.
5 JUDGE KWON: Yes, your time is up.
6 But how much would you need for your re-examination, Ms. West?
7 MS. WEST: Mr. President, I'll only need five minutes.
8 JUDGE KWON: Just a second.
9 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I kindly ask for more time.
10 [Trial Chamber confers]
11 JUDGE KWON: How long would you need to wrap-up your
12 cross-examination, Mr. Karadzic?
13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Your Excellency, at least an
14 additional session. This kind of witness, with over 200 paragraphs, with
15 generalised statements, if the Chamber is going to take into account any
16 one of these statements, I ask for the opportunity to challenge them.
17 JUDGE KWON: Make your questions simpler and be focused in
18 putting your question. You'll have an hour tomorrow morning in addition
19 to today's session.
20 MS. WEST: Mr. President, may I be heard?
21 JUDGE KWON: Yes.
22 MS. WEST: Just one matter. As you're aware, tomorrow we have
23 two DutchBat witnesses who are testifying in Dutch, and so tomorrow the
24 Dutch interpreters have been ordered. I understand that their testimony
25 probably in total would be four hours. We have been rescheduling this a
Page 22911
1 few times because of the issue of the interpreters, so I wonder if you
2 could take that into account so that we don't have them go over.
3 JUDGE KWON: Do you mean that hearing the -- one of the DutchBat
4 officers next week is impossible? I was not informed of that.
5 MS. WEST: I think -- well, of course it's not -- anything is
6 possible, but I would wonder if perhaps tomorrow morning we could start
7 with the DutchBat officers because they've been rescheduled so many times
8 and we specifically have Dutch interpreters here tomorrow. I don't know,
9 I wonder if Mr. Kingori could then testify, and if it goes over, then he
10 goes over.
11 JUDGE KWON: I'll have to clarify with Mr. Kingori, whether he
12 has any problem staying over in the weekend until -- staying until next
13 Monday.
14 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, I would have some domestic problems
15 because I had not made some arrangements at home that I will stay longer
16 than eight days.
17 JUDGE KWON: We'll sort out after today's hearing is adjourned in
18 co-operation with the Registry.
19 Let's continue, Mr. Karadzic.
20 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Thank you.
21 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
22 Q. Please take a look at your paragraph 32 in your statement. First
23 of all, up here we have this conditional phrase and then in paragraph 32
24 you take this to be an official document and then you give your own
25 judgement. Just take a look at paragraph 32, isn't that the case?
Page 22912
1 A. Your Honour, this is -- actually, taken from what Colonel Vukovic
2 had said and I've just summarised and said it was not just a threat.
3 Initially we thought it was just a threat and we conveyed the same, even
4 to the Muslims, but later on it was actualised and that is exactly what
5 I've said here.
6 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic, by "conditional phrase," what did you
7 refer to in his amalgamated statement?
8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, in paragraph 31, Mr. Kingori
9 remembered that Colonel Vukovic said "we should say" and in our language
10 that would be the conditional, like it would allow for the possibility of
11 us sending them that message. It's like when someone says "I'd kill him"
12 and then no one kills anyone.
13 JUDGE KWON: Thank you. All right. Please continue.
14 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
15 Q. On the basis of what do you say -- actually, do you know how many
16 Serbs lived in Srebrenica before 1992? We can just have a yes or no
17 answer.
18 A. No, I didn't.
19 Q. Thank you. If I tell you that one-third of the population and at
20 least one-third of the villages were Serb and that none of that existed
21 any longer after May 1992 already, they were all killed or expelled, what
22 would you say to that?
23 A. Nothing.
24 Q. Thank you. Do you know that throughout Republika Srpska, then
25 and today, there were Muslims who lived in towns and villages with a Serb
Page 22913
1 majority population?
2 A. Your Honour, it's possible.
3 Q. Thank you. Your conclusion is that Serbs planned, said, asked
4 for Muslim civilians to be evacuated from the enclave, and this is what I
5 put to you. The Muslim government in Srebrenica and the Muslim
6 government in Sarajevo and your commands and the United Nations and the
7 envoy of the Secretary-General and Mr. Karremans, all of you were
8 planning for them to leave and only the Serb side was silent awaiting
9 what the Muslim side had to say?
10 A. Your Honour, what I know is that the UN did not have any such
11 plans. What I said or what I wrote was part of what was told to us by
12 Colonel Vukovic, a BSA officer, and Major Nikolic, also from BSA. So I
13 do not know what else to add on that because it was not coming from
14 myself as Colonel Kingori or from the UN system. It was coming from your
15 [Realtime transcript read in error "the"] officers.
16 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] 01883 would be the 65 ter number
17 that I'd like to have displayed now. I think it's been admitted recently
18 as a P document.
19 THE REGISTRAR: Exhibit P4150, Your Honours.
20 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, maybe before you start on that the
21 answer that I gave, the last part, I said it was coming from "your
22 officers" not from "the officers."
23 JUDGE KWON: Thank you, Mr. Kingori.
24 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
25 Q. Who else? Who were the other officers in addition to the ones
Page 22914
1 that you've already mentioned?
2 A. Your Honour, there are several other officers that we were
3 meeting with and the names are somewhere within the reports that we made.
4 Q. You said in this paragraph here and during your
5 examination-in-chief, I think, that in addition to these two there were
6 six high-ranking officers attending the meeting with you. Who are they?
7 A. Your Honour, I can't remember their names, but they were names
8 like Dricic [phoen] and several other officers. Right now I cannot
9 remember the names offhand. But we listed the names and we gave them
10 out.
11 Q. Today you said not only from the army. Tell us, who was there on
12 behalf of the government, the civilian authorities, who had these plans
13 and how were you assured of that?
14 A. Your Honour, what I knew at that time is that there was a
15 civilian government in place in Sarajevo for the whole of Bosnia that
16 was -- that had an army that we were calling the BSA which was led by
17 General Mladic and which had hierarchy all the way down, up to the lowest
18 level that we were operating with, that was Colonel Vukovic and
19 Major Nikolic, and the civilian leadership was in place.
20 Q. Today you implied that you had proof that it wasn't only these
21 two local officers, middle-ranking, that had this intention, but there
22 were others who shared that intention at higher levels too. Tell us, do
23 you have proof of that? Do you have names? And then we can move on.
24 A. Your Honour, if I said that, I cannot remember. What I know is
25 that these officers were conveying messages given to them, obviously,
Page 22915
1 from higher up in the hierarchy, in the leadership, all the way down to
2 that level. And even on our side we were giving information that we had
3 from up there and the opposite is also true, that whatever we got from
4 there, the officers we were calling middle-ranking officers, we had to
5 take it all the way up to the UN system. And that if there was anything
6 to be discussed at other higher levels, at the general level or at the
7 presidential level, it would be done at their own level, not at ours.
8 Q. You're speculating, Mr. Kingori. Do you have proof or are you
9 just speculating, drawing logical conclusions, or do you have proof in
10 actual fact?
11 A. Your Honour, this is not speculation. Your Honour, there is --
12 there was a special -- a proper chain of command all the way for the BSA.
13 There was a chain of command. All the way from the lowest to the highest
14 level --
15 Q. These are logical conclusions. Do you have any proof --
16 JUDGE KWON: Mr. --
17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, Your Excellency, he is
18 spending my time in dealing with general questions that I never put.
19 JUDGE KWON: You are just repeating your question on the topic to
20 which the witness has already answered.
21 It's time to adjourn for today --
22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] May I just introduce this document,
23 Excellency, the one that we've already seen? I hope that everybody saw
24 that. May I?
25 JUDGE KWON: I don't follow, Mr. Karadzic.
Page 22916
1 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Since we've had this document
2 called up, I would like to present it, introduce it, to show how these
3 Muslim structures --
4 JUDGE KWON: Oh, very well.
5 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] -- started with these requests for
6 having the population evacuated.
7 JUDGE KWON: Yes, you didn't ask a question about this. Please
8 carry on. What is your question? I take it the witness has read this
9 part.
10 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
11 Q. Mr. Kingori, in this text by Mr. Akashi it says that it was the
12 initiative of the Muslim government - and this was written on the 11th in
13 the morning - to organise discussions with the Serbian side in order to
14 evacuate civilians from Srebrenica. And before that, on the 9th July,
15 the same initiative is expressed by the Muslim authorities of Srebrenica.
16 They request from the Serbian side to open a corridor so that the
17 population can leave for the nearest free territory. And already on the
18 11th Akashi --
19 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Karadzic --
20 MR. KARADZIC: [Interpretation]
21 Q. -- describes all that.
22 JUDGE KWON: -- are you asking a question about Mr. Akashi's
23 report or on this document?
24 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] No. I am going to introduce
25 Akashi's report, not today but tomorrow. I'm asking if Mr. Kingori knows
Page 22917
1 that this initiative of the 9th came from the Muslim authorities of
2 Srebrenica, that the population be evacuated.
3 JUDGE KWON: Yes, I think that's the question, whether you knew
4 that --
5 THE WITNESS: About the evacuation?
6 JUDGE KWON: The initiative of the 9th came from Muslim
7 authorities of Srebrenica, that the population be evacuated.
8 THE WITNESS: Your Honour, I can see that report here, that
9 request, but this cannot be dealt with in isolation because the
10 activities which were going on there meant the Muslims had to get out of
11 Srebrenica. It reached a point where they were taken all the way to
12 Potocari, living in very bad conditions, and so we had also even
13 requested that they be evacuated. So the evacuation, even if it
14 originated or there was a letter to that effect, I'm sure the BSA maybe
15 did not know about it at that particular moment. But they went ahead and
16 evacuated or removed the Muslims from there using their own buses, as we
17 have already seen and as it is in my statement.
18 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
19 Could the Court Deputy approach the bench.
20 [Trial Chamber and Registrar confer]
21 JUDGE KWON: I just had a word with the Court Deputy and was
22 confirmed that we can continue with Mr. Kingori's evidence tomorrow
23 morning. We'll adjourn for today and resume at 9.00 -- but before that,
24 yes, Ms. West.
25 MS. WEST: Apologies, Mr. President. I just wanted to alert you
Page 22918
1 that last time with the Dutch interpreters in December, we had difficulty
2 getting them for another day, and I just wondered if perhaps tomorrow we
3 might consider going long if there was an issue.
4 [Trial Chamber and Registrar confer]
5 JUDGE KWON: I was informed that they will be available on Monday
6 as well.
7 Just one quick matter. I appreciate the indulgence of the staff
8 members, but I was informed that Defence filed a motion to exclude some
9 part of evidence from Mr. Tucker's statement which was filed today and I
10 wonder whether we can have your response by the end of tomorrow.
11 MR. TIEGER: Yes, Mr. President, I believe so.
12 JUDGE KWON: Thank you.
13 The hearing is now adjourned.
14 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 3.07 p.m.,
15 to be reconvened on Friday, the 13th day of
16 January, 2012, at 9.00 a.m.
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