1Friday, 14th January, 2000
2 [Judgement]
3 [Open session]
4 [The accused entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 9.05 a.m.
6 THE REGISTRAR: Case number IT-95-16-T, the
7 Prosecutor against Zoran Kupreskic, Mirjan Kupreskic,
8 Vlatko Kupreskic, Drago Josipovic, Dragan Papic, and
9 Vladimir Santic.
10 JUDGE CASSESE: Thank you. Good morning.
11 May I have the appearances for the
12 Prosecution and Defence, please.
13 MR. TERRIER: Good morning, Your Honours.
14 The Prosecution is represented by Michael Blaxill,
15 Nicola Hamilton, Manuel Bouwknecht, and myself, Franck
16 Terrier.
17 JUDGE CASSESE: Thank you.
18 MR. RADOVIC: Good morning. I'm Ranko
19 Radovic and I appear as lead counsel for Zoran
20 Kupreskic.
21 MS. SLOKOVIC-GLUMAC: Good morning. For
22 Mirjan Kupreskic, Jadranka Slokovic-Glumac and Desenka
23 Vranjan as co-counsel.
24 MR. KRAJINA: Good morning, Your Honours.
25 For the accused Vlatko Kupreskic, Borislav Krajina,
1attorney at law from Sarajevo, and my co-counsel, my
2 colleague, Mr. Zelimir Par. Thank you.
3 MR. SUSAK: Good morning, Your Honours. I'm
4 Luka Susak, Defence counsel for Drago Josipovic, and my
5 co-counsel is Garanka Merljevic.
6 MR. PULISELIC: Good morning, Your Honours.
7 Dragan Papic is defended by Petar Puliselic and Nika
8 Pinter, attorneys at law from Zagreb.
9 MR. PAVKOVIC: Good morning, Your Honours.
10 I'm Petar Pavkovic, attorney at law, and my client is
11 Dragan Papic. Mr. Vrdoljak is my co-counsel.
12 JUDGE CASSESE: Thank you. Can the accused
13 hear me? In Croatian, of course. Thank you.
14 This morning the Trial Chamber delivers its
15 judgement in the case of the Prosecutor versus Zoran
16 Kupreskic and others.
17 In the course of this trial, the Trial
18 Chamber has had to assess the involvement, if any, of
19 the six accused and their potential culpability within
20 a tragic episode of the armed conflict that raged in
21 Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1992 and 1994.
22 On the 16th of April, 1993, in a matter of a
23 few hours, some 116 inhabitants, including women and
24 children, of Ahmici, a small village in Central Bosnia,
25 were killed and about 24 were wounded; 169 houses and
1two mosques were destroyed. The victims were Muslim
2 civilians. The Trial Chamber is satisfied, on the
3 evidence before it in this case, that this was not a
4 combat operation. Rather, it was a well-planned and
5 well-organised killing of civilian members of an ethnic
6 group, the Muslims, by the military of another ethnic
7 group, the Croats. The primary purpose of the massacre
8 was to expel the Muslims from the village by killing
9 many of them, by burning their houses, slaughtering
10 their livestock, and by illegally detaining and
11 deporting the survivors to another area. The ultimate
12 goal of these acts was to spread terror among the
13 population so as to deter the members of that
14 particular ethnic group from ever returning to their
15 homes.
16 This tragedy carried out in a small village
17 reflects in a microcosm the much wider tensions,
18 conflicts, and hatreds which have, since 1991, plagued
19 the former Yugoslavia and caused so much suffering and
20 bloodshed. In a matter of a few months, persons
21 belonging to different ethnic groups who used to enjoy
22 good neighbourly relations and who previously lived
23 side by side in a peaceful manner, and who once
24 respected one another's different religious habits,
25 customs, and traditions were transformed into enemies.
1Nationalist propaganda gradually fuelled a change in
2 the perception and self-identification of members of
3 the various ethnic groups. Gradually, the "others,"
4 that is, the members of other ethnic groups, originally
5 perceived merely as "diverse," came instead to be
6 perceived as "alien" and then as "enemy," as potential
7 threats to the identity and prosperity of one's group.
8 What was earlier friendly, neighbourly coexistence
9 turned into persecution of those "others".
10 The six accused are charged with most serious
11 crimes, in particular, murder and cruel treatment as
12 war crimes under Article 3 of the Statute of our
13 International Criminal Tribunal and murder, inhumane
14 acts, and persecution as crimes against humanity under
15 Article 5 of our Statute.
16 Persecution is one of the most vicious of all
17 crimes against humanity. It nourishes its roots in the
18 negation of the principle of the equality of all human
19 beings. Persecution is grounded in discrimination. It
20 is based upon the notion that people who share ethnic,
21 racial, or religious bonds different to those of a
22 dominant group are to be treated as inferior to that
23 dominant group. In the crime of persecution, this
24 discriminatory intent is aggressively achieved by
25 grossly and systematically trampling upon the
1fundamental human rights of the victim group.
2 Persecution is only one step away from genocide -- the
3 most abhorrent crime against
4 humanity -- for in genocide the intent is pushed to its
5 utmost limits through the pursuit of the physical
6 annihilation of the group or of the members of the
7 group. In the crime of genocide, the criminal intent
8 is to destroy the group or its members; in the crime of
9 persecution, the criminal intent is instead to forcibly
10 discriminate against a group or members thereof by
11 grossly and systematically violating their fundamental
12 human rights. In the present case, according to the
13 Prosecution -- and this is a point on which the Trial
14 Chamber agrees with the Prosecution -- the killing of
15 Muslim civilians was primarily aimed at expelling the
16 group from the village, not at destroying the Muslim
17 group as such. This is, therefore, a case of
18 persecution, not of genocide.
19 The fact that in this area of
20 Bosnia-Herzegovina the armed conflict frequently took
21 the form of persecution is vividly depicted in the
22 words of one Muslim woman mentioned by one of the
23 witnesses in this trial. "I do not fear the shells and
24 bombs that may fall on my house," she said. "They do
25 not ask for my name. I fear the foot soldiers who
1break into my house and kill and wound in a very
2 personal way and commit atrocities in front of my
3 children." The main target of these attacks was the
4 very identity, the very humanity, of the victim.
5 The "personal violence" most feared by this
6 Muslim woman is that which is carried out against other
7 human beings solely upon the basis of their ethnic,
8 religious, or political affiliation. It is persecutory
9 violence.
10 The massacre carried out in the village of
11 Ahmici on the 16th of April, 1993 comprises an
12 individual yet appalling episode of that wide-spread
13 pattern of persecutory violent. The tragedy which
14 unfolded that day carried all the hallmarks of an
15 ancient tragedy. For one thing, it possessed unity of
16 time, space, and action. The killing, wounding, and
17 burning took place in the same area within a few hours
18 and was carried out by a relatively small group of
19 members of the Bosnian Croatian military forces, the
20 HVO and the special units of the Croatian military
21 police, the so-called Jokers, Jokeri. Over the course
22 of the several months taken up by these trial
23 proceedings, we have seen before our very eyes, through
24 the narration of the victims and the survivors the
25 unfolding of a great tragedy. And just as in the
1ancient tragedies where the misdeeds are never shown
2 but are only recounted by the actors, numerous
3 witnesses have told our Trial Chamber of the human
4 tragedies which befell so many of the ordinary
5 inhabitants of that small village, Ahmici.
6 Indisputably, what happened on the 16th of
7 April, 1993 in Ahmici has gone down in history as
8 comprising one of the most vicious illustrations of
9 man's inhumanity to man. Today, the name of that small
10 village must be added to the long list of previously
11 unknown hamlets and towns that recall abhorrent
12 misdeeds and make us all shudder with horror and
13 shame: Dachau, Oradour sur Glane, Katijn, Marzabotto,
14 Soweto, My Lai, Sabra, and Shatila, and so many
15 others.
16 To be sure, the primary task of this Trial
17 Chamber was not to construct a historical record of
18 modern human horrors in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The
19 principal duty of our Trial Chamber was simply to
20 decide whether the six defendants standing trial were
21 guilty of partaking in this persecutory violence or
22 whether they were instead extraneous to it and hence,
23 not guilty.
24 At the end of this trial, we Judges, we have
25 come to the conclusion that with the possible exception
1of one of the accused, this Trial Chamber has not tried
2 the major culprits, those who are most responsible for
3 the massacre of 16th April, 1993, those who ordered and
4 planned, and those who carried out the very worst of
5 the atrocities -- against innocent civilians.
6 We thus had to confine ourselves to the six
7 persons accused by the Prosecutor before our Trial
8 Chamber to determine whether and to what extent they
9 participated in the crimes perpetrated in Ahmici. Our
10 task has not been easy. More than six years after
11 those events -- events that occurred far away from The
12 Hague -- we have had to shoulder the heavy burden of
13 establishing incredible facts by means of credible
14 evidence.
15 We have now accomplished our arduous task.
16 The judgement of the Trial Chamber in this case is some
17 340 pages in length. Accordingly, instead of
18 presenting the judgement in its entirety, we will
19 provide a brief summary of the Trial Chamber's findings
20 as to the charges against the accused and deliver the
21 disposition.
22 Having considered all the evidence and all
23 the arguments, the judgement of the Trial Chamber is as
24 follows:
25 Mr. Zoran Kupreskic, could you please stand.
1The Trial Chamber finds you, Zoran Kupreskic,
2 that you participated in the attack on Ahmici on the
3 16th of April 1993 as a soldier in the HVO. We find
4 that you, together with your brother Mirjan, were
5 present as an attacker on that day and that you were
6 actively involved in those events. The Trial Chamber
7 finds also that you attacked your Muslim neighbours
8 solely because of their ethnicity and with the aim of
9 cleansing the village of any Muslim inhabitants. We
10 find that you acted as a co-perpetrator, together with
11 your brother Mirjan, within the meaning of Article 7(1)
12 of our Statute, because you adhered to a common plan
13 for the execution of the cleansing campaign of the
14 village. This, by necessity, was a highly coordinated
15 effort and required full prior knowledge on your part
16 of the intended activities. We find, in addition, that
17 you played a leading role as a local commander.
18 Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds you,
19 Zoran Kupreskic, guilty of persecution as a crime
20 against humanity under Count 1 of the indictment.
21 With regard to the attack on the family of
22 Witness KL, you are charged with murder and inhumane
23 acts as a crime against humanity under Article 5 of our
24 Statute and cruel treatment under Article 3 of the
25 Statute. We are not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt
1that you were present at the scene of the crime and
2 thus we cannot draw any inference as to your possible
3 participation in the events in question.
4 Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds you,
5 Zoran Kupreskic, not guilty with regard to murder and
6 inhumane acts as a crime against humanity under
7 Counts 2 through 11 of the indictment.
8 In the light of these findings, we sentence
9 you, Zoran Kupreskic, to 10 years imprisonment.
10 You may sit down.
11 Mr. Mirjan Kupreskic, could you please
12 stand.
13 Mirjan Kupreskic, the Trial Chamber refers to
14 the facts just mentioned with regard to the attack on
15 Ahmici on the 16th of April, 1993. The Trial Chamber
16 finds that these acts were all committed by you,
17 together with your brother Zoran, and thus our findings
18 also apply mutatis mutandis to you, although you played
19 a lesser role than your brother.
20 Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds you
21 guilty of persecution as a crime against humanity under
22 Count 1 of the indictment.
23 With regard to the attack on the family of
24 Witness KL, the Trial Chamber finds, as in the case of
25 your brother Zoran, that it is not satisfied beyond
1reasonable doubt that you were present at the scene of
2 the crime and thus we cannot draw any inference as to
3 your possible participation in the events in question.
4 Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds you,
5 Mirjan Kupreskic, not guilty with regard to murder and
6 inhumane acts as a crime against humanity under
7 Counts 2 through 11 of the indictment.
8 In the light of these findings, the Trial
9 Chamber sentences you, Mirjan Kupreskic, to 8 years
10 imprisonment.
11 You may sit down.
12 Mr. Vlatko Kupreskic, could you please
13 stand.
14 Mr. Vlatko Kupreskic, the Trial Chamber finds
15 that you were involved in the preparations for the
16 attack on Ahmici in your role as police operations
17 officer and as a resident of the village of Ahmici.
18 The Trial Chamber finds that you were present during
19 the attack and ready to lend assistance to the
20 attacking forces. In particular, we find that you
21 helped prepare for the attack and that you supported
22 the attack carried out by the other accused, the HVO
23 and the military police. You did so principally by
24 unloading weapons in your store and agreeing to the use
25 of your house as a strategic point and staging area for
1the attacking troops.
2 Your role is thus not quite as prominent as
3 that of the other accused. The Trial Chamber finds
4 that you merely supported the actions of the others;
5 conduct which amounts to aiding and abetting and not to
6 co-perpetration. The Trial Chamber finds that you were
7 nevertheless aware that your actions would
8 substantially and effectively assist the attackers in
9 their activities. You also knew that the attack would
10 not be a battle between soldiers but that the Muslim
11 civilians of your own village would be targeted.
12 Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds you
13 guilty of aiding and abetting persecution as a crime
14 against humanity under Count 1 of the indictment.
15 With regard to the shooting of the Pezer
16 family, you were charged with murder and inhumane acts
17 as crimes against humanity pursuant to Article 5 of the
18 Statute and with murder and cruel treatment as a war
19 crime pursuant to Article 3 of our Statute.
20 The Trial Chamber is not satisfied beyond
21 reasonable doubt that you, Vlatko Kupreskic, were among
22 the soldiers standing in front of your house who were
23 responsible for the shooting. Thus we cannot draw any
24 inference as to your involvement in those crimes.
25 Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds you,
1Vlatko Kupreskic, not guilty under Counts 12 through 15
2 of the indictment.
3 In the light of these findings, the Trial
4 Chamber sentences you, Vlatko Kupreskic, to 6 years
5 imprisonment.
6 You may sit down.
7 Mr. Drago Josipovic, could you please stand.
8 Mr. Drago Josipovic, together with Vladimir
9 Santic, you are charged under Count 1 of the indictment
10 with persecution as a crime against humanity. The
11 Trial Chamber finds that you participated in the murder
12 of Muzafer Puscul, that you took part in the attack on
13 the house of Nazif Ahmic and that you were actively
14 involved in the burning of private property.
15 The Trial Chamber finds that you, together
16 with Vladimir Santic, were part of a group that went to
17 the Ahmic house with the common intent to kill and/or
18 expel its inhabitants and set it on fire and that you
19 were present at the scene of the crime. We find that
20 you did so purely because the victims were Muslims, for
21 the same reason I set out before with respect to Zoran
22 and Mirjan Kupreskic. We find further that you were
23 aware that you would be attacking unarmed and helpless
24 civilians and that this attack was part of the
25 beginning of a large-scale campaign of ethnic cleansing
1of Muslims from the Lasva River Valley.
2 Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds you,
3 Drago Josipovic, guilty of persecution as a crime
4 against humanity under Count 1 of the indictment.
5 In relation to the murder of Muzafer Puscul,
6 you are charged under Counts 16 through 19 with murder
7 and inhumane acts as crimes against humanity pursuant
8 to Article 5 of our Statute, as well as murder and
9 cruel treatment pursuant to Article 3 of our Statute.
10 The Trial Chamber finds that even though you may not
11 yourself have killed Muzafer Puscul, by your active
12 presence in the group, together with Vladimir Santic,
13 you were a co-perpetrator. The same applies for the
14 suffering caused to the Puscul family by being forced
15 to witness the murder of Muzafer Puscul, by being
16 expelled from their family home, and by having their
17 home destroyed. These acts clearly constituted
18 inhumane acts.
19 The Trial Chamber accordingly finds you,
20 Drago Josipovic, guilty of murder and inhumane acts as
21 crimes against humanity under Counts 16 and 18 of the
22 indictment.
23 By contrast, the Trial Chamber finds that you
24 were charged cumulatively with Count 17 and 19 in an
25 improper manner. For reasons of law, the Trial Chamber
1therefore finds you not guilty with regard to murder
2 and cruel treatment under Article 3 of the Statute, war
3 crimes, under Counts 17 and 19 of the indictment.
4 In the light of these findings, the Trial
5 Chamber sentences you, Drago Josipovic, to 10 years
6 imprisonment for persecution as a crime against
7 humanity, to 15 years imprisonment for murder as a
8 crime against humanity, and to 10 years imprisonment
9 for inhumane acts as a crime against humanity. The
10 Trial Chamber has determined that these sentences are
11 to be served concurrently. That means, Mr. Drago
12 Josipovic, that you are sentenced to a total of 15
13 years imprisonment.
14 You may sit down.
15 Mr. Vladimir Santic, would you please stand.
16 Mr. Vladimir Santic, together with Drago
17 Josipovic, you are charged with persecution as a crime
18 against humanity under Count 1 of the indictment.
19 The Trial Chamber finds that you were, in
20 April 1993, the commander of the 1st Company of the 4th
21 Battalion of the military police. You were also
22 commander of the Jokers. As I have said with respect
23 to the accused Drago Josipovic, you participated in the
24 murder of Muzafer Puscul and the burning of his house.
25 In addition, from your position as a company
1commander of the military police and commander of the
2 Jokers, it can be safely inferred that you passed on
3 the orders of your superiors to your men. Your
4 presence at the scene of the attack also served as
5 encouragement for your subordinates to abide by the
6 orders they had received. The Trial Chamber finds that
7 the fact that you, Vladimir Santic, were in a position
8 of command during the events in question lends an even
9 greater magnitude to your responsibility.
10 Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds you
11 guilty of persecution as a crime against humanity under
12 Count 1 of the indictment.
13 Under Counts 16 through 19, you were charged,
14 together with Drago Josipovic, with murder and inhumane
15 acts. The considerations I have just set out with
16 respect to the accused Drago Josipovic also apply
17 mutatis mutandis to you.
18 Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds you,
19 Vladimir Santic, guilty of murder and inhumane acts as
20 crimes against humanity under Counts 16 and 18 of the
21 indictment.
22 For the same reasons just mentioned
23 concerning cumulative charging, the Trial Chamber, for
24 reasons of law, finds you not guilty under Counts 17
25 and 19 of the indictment.
1In the light of these findings, the Trial
2 Chamber sentences you, Mr. Vladimir Santic, to 25 years
3 of imprisonment for persecution as a crime against
4 humanity, to 15 years of imprisonment for murder as a
5 crime against humanity, and to 10 years imprisonment
6 for inhumane acts as a crime against humanity. The
7 Trial Chamber has determined that these sentences are
8 to be served concurrently. That means, Mr. Vladimir
9 Santic, that you are sentenced to a total of 25 years
10 of imprisonment.
11 You may sit down.
12 Mr. Dragan Papic, would you please stand.
13 Dragan Papic, you were charged under Count 1
14 with persecution as a crime against humanity under
15 Article 5 of the Statute of the International Criminal
16 Tribunal. The Trial Chamber finds that you were
17 mobilised in the HVO during some part of the period
18 relevant to the indictment, although your precise role
19 is not clear. The Trial Chamber finds that none of the
20 Prosecution evidence is sufficient to establish beyond
21 a reasonable doubt that you were an active participant
22 in the attack on Ahmici on the 16th of April, 1993 or
23 in any of the events preceding that attack.
24 Thus, the Trial Chamber finds that there is
25 reasonable doubt as to whether you participated in the
1attack on Ahmici. Accordingly, the Trial Chamber finds
2 you, Dragan Papic, not guilty under Count 1 of the
3 indictment.
4 In the light of these findings, the Trial
5 Chamber acquits you, Dragan Papic, and you are
6 therefore to be released. This is, of course, unless
7 the Prosecution is to advise us of its intention to
8 file a notice of appeal under Rules 99(B) and 108 and
9 intends to make an application for an order for the
10 continued detention of Mr. Dragan Papic.
11 May I ask the Prosecutor about their
12 position. Do you intend to file such a motion?
13 MR. TERRIER: Mr. President, the Prosecution
14 will not present that type of request today.
15 JUDGE CASSESE: Not today. But you reserve
16 the right to present such a motion later on?
17 MR. TERRIER: Mr. President, the Prosecutor,
18 of course, reserves the right to appeal if it considers
19 it necessary after a review of the judgement, but we do
20 not intend to present a request based on Rule 99 of the
21 Rules.
22 JUDGE CASSESE: In light of the statement
23 just made by the Prosecutor, we decide and order that
24 Mr. Dragan Papic should be released from the U.N.
25 Detention Centre, and therefore we instruct the
1Registrar, in consultation with the relevant officials,
2 to put in place all the necessary arrangements for the
3 immediate release of Mr. Papic.
4 Are there any other matters that should be
5 brought to the attention of the Trial Chamber at this
6 stage?
7 I turn to the Prosecutor. Any matters?
8 MR. TERRIER: No, Mr. President.
9 JUDGE CASSESE: Defence counsel? Do Defence
10 counsel have anything to raise?
11 MR. PAVKOVIC: Thank you, Mr. President. The
12 Defence doesn't have anything to raise either.
13 JUDGE CASSESE: Thank you so much. This
14 concludes the judgement of this Trial Chamber, and the
15 Trial Chamber now stands adjourned.
16 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at
17 9.45 a.m.
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