Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 17269

 1                           Wednesday, 7 March 2012

 2                           [Prosecution Closing Statement]

 3                           [Open session]

 4                           --- Upon commencing at 2.18 p.m.

 5                           [The accused entered court]

 6             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] The court is in session.

 7             Registrar, can you kindly call the case, please.

 8             THE REGISTRAR:  Thank you, Your Honours.  This is case number

 9     IT-03-67-T, the Prosecutor versus Vojislav Seselj.

10             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you, Registrar.

11             Today is Wednesday, the 7th of March, 2012.  I would like to

12     greet all the people present in the courtroom, including the

13     representatives of the OTP that shall complete their closing arguments

14     today.  I would like to greet the accused present in the courtroom as

15     well as all the people assisting us.

16             Yesterday, as you know, at some point in time we had a problem

17     which related to a translation issue.  The Trial Chamber asked to have a

18     report on the matter.  The report was sent by the head of CLSS.  It turns

19     out that after having read and heard the audiotape in B/C/S, the

20     interpreter in the language of the accused did say, on page 17237,

21     line 9 to 12, "Blagojevic and Seselj's men."  The interpreter, therefore,

22     did say "Seselj's men" in the language of the accused and not

23     "Mr. Seselj."

24             You must have misheard, Mr. Seselj.  Maybe there was some

25     interference in your microphone, but the interpreter did interpret the


Page 17270

 1     words of the Prosecutor correctly.  This is what I wish to clarify.  That

 2     said --

 3             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] And what about checking the verse,

 4     the song?

 5             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] This is ongoing.  We shall get

 6     a report towards the end of the week.  Seemingly according to the

 7     information we have obtained, there was a problem concerning what was

 8     said because the audiotape may not match the words uttered by the

 9     soldiers we saw on the pictures saluting and marching.  We will get back

10     to you on this issue at the beginning of next week.  I'm awaiting the

11     report at the moment.

12             So much on this issue for today.

13             Madam Prosecutor.

14             MS. IODICE:  Thank you, Your Honours.  Good afternoon.

15             Yesterday we were discussing the participation of Vojvoda

16     Vasilije Vidovic, aka Vaske, in the battle-fields of Ilijas and Vogosca

17     in the Greater Sarajevo area.

18             Rajko Jankovic's VRS unit worked together with Vojvoda Vaske and

19     his Seseljevci.  During one of these joint operations in Crna Rijeka,

20     Ilijas, Vaske killed a non-Serb civilian, as Witness Sejdic testified.

21     The evidence also proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Vojvoda Vaske

22     took part in the destruction of religious property after the take-over of

23     Ilijas and Vogosca.  VS-1055 testified that Vaske damaged or destroyed

24     mosques and churches in Ilijas municipality during the course of 1992,

25     including those in Ilijas, Ljesevo, Misoca, and Visoca.  The accused


Page 17271

 1     claims that the Ilijas mosque was destroyed at the end of 1992, while

 2     Vaske was in Nisic.  This claim is contradicted by the evidence on the

 3     record.  Witness Dzafic, in Exhibit P840, describes how, in June 1992, he

 4     heard the explosion that destroyed the Stari Ilijas mosque and later

 5     heard Vaske's Seseljevci recounting how they had destroyed the mosque.

 6     Similarly, Exhibit P1045 confirms that the mosques in Misoca were

 7     destroyed in June 1992.

 8             With regards to Vogosca municipality, Witness Sejdic testified at

 9     transcript 8282 that Vaske destroyed the mosque in Svrake.  The accused's

10     attempts to confuse the witness were not persuasive and should be

11     dismissed.

12             Vojvoda Nikola Poplasen was also active in Vogosca, and

13     throughout the second half of 1992 he was directly involved in the forced

14     labour and exchange of non-Serbs as specified in Exhibit P975 and in

15     paragraphs 408 through 410 of the Prosecution's closing brief.  Despite

16     the accused's claims to the contrary, the evidence proves beyond a

17     reasonable doubt that Poplasen's link to the SRS and to the accused was

18     firmly established already in early 1992.  In the order promoting

19     Poplasen to Vojvoda, which is Exhibit P218, the accused confirmed that

20     Poplasen:

21             "As of May 1992, he has been performing the duties of the

22     president of the Serbian Radical Party for Republika Srpska."

23             The accused confirmed this again in September 1992 in

24     Exhibit P1205, stating that an SRS branch had already been established in

25     Republika Srpska and Nikola Poplasen was its president.


Page 17272

 1             As the accused admitted, another one of his Vojvodas,

 2     Slavko Aleksic, was in Grbavica, Novo Sarajevo.  In Exhibit P1102,

 3     Aleksic admitted arriving at the Jewish cemetery on the 21st of April,

 4     1992, and together with his Seseljevci they were "clearing Grbavica."  He

 5     soon controlled the area of what he defined as Serbian Grbavica, which he

 6     explained was one of the most difficult sections of the Serb defence

 7     lines, fiercely attacked by the Army of BiH because:

 8             "They knew that, if they broke through the lines of the defence

 9     at the Jewish cemetery, Grbavica would also fall, and Lukavica and

10     everything else."

11             Soon he gathered around him about 100 Seseljevci, volunteers from

12     Serbia, but also from other countries, as shown in Exhibit P256,

13     summarising the role of Aleksic and his link to the accused.

14                           [Video-clip played]

15             "Maggie O'Kane:  ... Serbian-held suburb in Sarajevo.

16             "Unknown man:  He says:  'Nice to meet you.'

17             "Maggie O'Kane:  The militia attracts volunteers from all over

18     the world.

19             "Where are you from?

20             "Zack Novakovic:  New York.

21             "Maggie O'Kane:  You're from New York?

22             "Zack Novakovic:  Yes.

23             "Maggie O'Kane:  Aha.  How long have you been here?

24             "Zack Novakovic:  I was here in the summer, winter, and now with

25     Vojvoda's brigade up on the Jewish cemetery.


Page 17273

 1             THE INTERPRETER: [Voiceover]

 2             "Slavko Aleksic:  I believe the state as it is now ...

 3             "Maggie O'Kane:  They are a law unto themselves, converted to the

 4     creed of Greater Serbia and armed with the help of Milosevic, but they

 5     are not out of the puppet master's control.

 6             "Zack Novakovic:  Our great Vojvoda leader said that, first of

 7     all, Grbavica is ours and Sarajevo will be ours.  Our church is there and

 8     will be ours again.  We lost a lot of lives, a lot of Serbian lives, and

 9     that's why we're never going to give it up.

10             "Maggie O'Kane:  Who represents your political leadership?  Who

11     gave them this authority here?

12             "Zack Novakovic:  Again, Seselj, which is a great man from the

13     radical side, and he gave the rank, Vojvoda, to Slavko Aleksic.

14             "Maggie O'Kane:  And when you say he's the real defender, what do

15     you mean?  The guys in Lukavica say they're the defenders.

16             "Zack Novakovic:  No way.  I mean, once you see the people when

17     they see Vojvoda, I mean the tears come down.  Children run to him.  I

18     mean, these people just count on him.  They count on Vojvoda, and he's

19     protecting this side so far and he'll be protecting that side.

20             "Maggie O'Kane:  And what's he fighting for?

21             "Zack Novakovic:  Great Serbia, of course.  And Sarajevo first.

22             "Maggie O'Kane:  And do you feel you're backed in this by

23     President Milosevic?

24             "Zack Novakovic:  That's a whole different story.  Me, I like the

25     guy, you know.  To me he's a Chetnik, you know.  People might say he's


Page 17274

 1     communist or whatever, but he's kind of defended us too from the start.

 2             "Maggie O'Kane:  Thank you very much."

 3             MS. IODICE:  It was Aleksic's Seseljevci who, together with other

 4     Serb forces, took over Grbavica and subjected its non-Serb population to

 5     a campaign of killings, arbitrary searches, and plunder, which forced

 6     them out of their homes, as detailed in paragraphs 384 through 387 of the

 7     Prosecution's closing brief.

 8             Another of the accused's Vojvoda, Branislav Gavrilovic, aka Brne,

 9     was active in Ilidza municipality.  There, the Seseljevci co-operated

10     with the Serb Crisis Staff of Nedjeljko Prstojevic to forcibly expel

11     non-Serbs from the municipality.

12             As the accused admitted at transcript 1935, Brne was transferred

13     to Sarajevo from Slavonia by JNA helicopter.  As Brne confirmed in

14     Exhibit P999, this helicopter transfer was arranged thanks to his

15     Vojvoda, Vojislav Seselj.

16             The accused has heavily disputed the evidence of

17     Witness Perica Koblar, who describes the joint VRS and Brne's Seseljevci

18     action to capture Gola Brda on Mount Igman and the capture and murder of

19     prisoners of war.  The accused ignored that the same events have been

20     described by Brne himself and by the accused's own periodical,

21     "Velika Srbija," these are, in that order, Exhibit P999 and

22     Exhibit P1000.

23             The evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that on the

24     17th of July, 1993, four members of the Army of BiH, including Koblar,

25     were captured by a group of Seseljevci under the command of Brne during


Page 17275

 1     an action which "Velika Srbija" describes as one of the typical successes

 2     of Vojvoda Brne and his Chetniks.

 3             As described in paragraphs 395 through 400 of the Prosecution's

 4     closing brief, Koblar was captured by a Seseljevac called Pajkovic, whose

 5     presence and role amongst Brne's Seseljevci is confirmed by

 6     Exhibit P1000.  One of the prisoners of war, Robert Kahrimanovic, was

 7     murdered by a member of Brne's Seseljevci immediately upon capture.  The

 8     remaining three were taken down Mount Igman to a clearing where Brne was

 9     waiting.

10             Brne was introduced to the prisoners of war as "Chetnik Vojvoda,

11     Branislav Gavrilovic," as described at transcript 8009.  The prisoners of

12     war were severely beaten and insulted with the ethnic slur "balija."

13     Brne, upon learning that one of the prisoners of war, Zivko Krajisnik,

14     was a Serb, kicked him, broke Krajisnik's nose with his fingers, and

15     said:

16             "Repeat that again.  Say you're a Serb again and I'll rip your

17     head off."

18             Brne then ordered at transcript 8011:

19             "Take him away.  Take the trash away.  Kill the trash."

20             Krajisnik was taken a few metres away by one of Brne's Seseljevci

21     and murdered.

22             Another prisoner of war, Rusmir Hamalukic, was killed by

23     Pajkovic.  Koblar's evidence is credible, reliable, and coherent.

24             There is no doubt that the Army of BiH soldiers were captured by

25     Brne's Seseljevci.  While the accused seems to dispute the insignia that


Page 17276

 1     Brne's Seseljevci had, he does not dispute that it was in fact Brne's

 2     Seseljevci, he admitted at transcript 8099:

 3             "... it was the Chetnik unit ... there is no dispute that they

 4     were called Chetniks and they called themselves Chetniks."

 5             The detail of the insignia is irrelevant.

 6             There is also no doubt that the Army of BiH soldiers were

 7     captured alive and then murdered by Brne and his Seseljevci.  They were

 8     not killed in battle, as the accused claims.  The detail of the capture

 9     was also recorded by "Velika Srbija," and Brne even bragged about it.  He

10     said in Exhibit P999:

11             "We caught four Muslim fighters on the spot."

12             The minor inconsistencies within Koblar's first statement, if

13     any, have been clarified by him during his testimony.  He stated how his

14     statement to the BiH military authorities was given only two days after

15     he had fled from detention.  He never had the opportunity of reading it

16     and was taken under time pressure.

17             In conclusion, the evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that

18     the crimes charged in relation to Greater Sarajevo were committed by

19     members of the Serb forces, including Seseljevci.  These crimes were an

20     integral part of the common plan to ethnically cleanse Serb-targeted

21     territories in BiH of its non-Serb population and create Serb-controlled

22     areas.

23             I will now give the floor to Mr. Traldi, who will describe how

24     the same pattern of crimes repeated in Mostar and Nevesinje.

25             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you, Madam Prosecutor.


Page 17277

 1             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Sorry, is this the sixth

 2     representative of the OTP to speak?

 3             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Certainly, yes.  I hadn't

 4     counted them.

 5             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] [Previous translation continues]...

 6     I was counting.  Five were announced and now the sixth one is coming up.

 7     Is this possible under your procedure?  Five speak as were announced on

 8     behalf of the Prosecution.  This is the sixth one.  Mr. Marcussen,

 9     Mrs. Iodice, and others have already spoken.

10             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Mr. Seselj, you are a

11     well-reputed professor of law and -- that the public prosecution cannot

12     be separated.  There is a chief prosecutor and then there are trial

13     attorneys, senior trial attorneys.  When I have time, I listen to the

14     other cases, and sometimes in the Karadzic case I see new faces, new

15     attorneys, trial attorneys, who come in to lead a number of witnesses.

16     That is perfectly understandable, unless of course they have your

17     intellectual capabilities, which of course is very difficult.  So I think

18     the job has to be divided up and that is why there are several people

19     working for the Office of the Prosecutor.

20             Welcome, Mr. Traldi, I shall give you the floor now.

21             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. Antonetti, I have to tell you

22     this too.  Remember my objection from the beginning, when I said five

23     were not enough.  Then you shut me up.  And now it turns out that five is

24     really not enough.  I'm not only the most renowned professor of law, but

25     I also make very good estimates, almost as a clairvoyant.


Page 17278

 1             The Prosecution had the duty to announce at the beginning who

 2     would be representing the Prosecution in closing arguments.  He announced

 3     five and now he should apologise.  He should have apologised today saying

 4     five of us were not enough, so I brought the sixth.  And I know that as a

 5     most renounced professor of law, indeed.

 6             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Mr. Marcussen -- let's resume

 7     because that is a point of detail.

 8             Mr. Prosecutor, you have the floor.

 9             MR. TRALDI:  Thank you, Your Honours, and good afternoon.  I

10     believe if you check the transcript, Mr. Marcussen said there would be

11     five in addition to himself and named all five of us.

12             The crimes charged in Mostar and Nevesinje were part of the joint

13     criminal enterprise.  JCE members, including the accused, targeted the

14     region and deployed forces under their control, while those implementing

15     the JCE on the ground created or took control over local instruments of

16     power.  When the conflict reached Eastern Herzegovina, joint Serb forces,

17     including Seseljevci, fought under JNA, TO, and VRS officers.  Witnesses

18     clearly and repeatedly identified members of those same joint Serb

19     forces, including Seseljevci, as physical perpetrators of the crimes in

20     the area.

21             Since the crimes were part of the JCE and the perpetrators were

22     part of Serb forces on the ground and subordinated to JCE members, the

23     accused is responsible as a member of the JCE.

24             To demonstrate, I will address three issues.  I will first

25     explain how JCE members, including the accused, targeted


Page 17279

 1     Eastern Herzegovina and created and deployed co-ordinated forces to

 2     establish Serb domination of the area.  I will then describe the campaign

 3     of destruction and murder those forces carried out in Mostar.  Finally, I

 4     will describe the campaign of destruction and murder which obliterated

 5     the non-Serb population of Nevesinje, their homes, their villages, and

 6     their cultural institutions.

 7             JCE members had targeted the Eastern Herzegovina region from the

 8     beginning of the conflict.  The region was strategically important, and

 9     to control it, JCE members deployed their own forces to Eastern

10     Herzegovina and established and supported forces based in the area.

11     Control of Eastern Herzegovina supported three of the strategic goals of

12     the Bosnian Serb leadership.  Goal number one, separation of the Serbian

13     people from the Muslim and Croat communities; goal number four, a border

14     on the Neretva and Una Rivers; and goal number six, access to the

15     Adriatic Sea via Herzegovina.  Mostar itself also boasted a significant

16     military infrastructure.

17             On 16 September 1991, the Bosnian Serb leadership declared the

18     SAO Herzegovina, the Srpska Autonomna Oblast of Herzegovina.  This

19     included Nevesinje.  Just days later, the JNA's Uzice Corps deployed

20     additional forces to the area and General Torbica held a meeting with

21     local Serb leaders where he told them Serbia would fulfil its historical

22     destiny and gain control of territory mirroring the accused's vision of

23     Greater Serbia.  The JNA and Serb police then distributed thousands of

24     arms to the local Serb population.  These arms were first used often in

25     the combat in Croatia, but once conflict began in Bosnia, the same arms


Page 17280

 1     supported the implementation of the JCE in Eastern Herzegovina.

 2             As Yugoslavia began to split apart, the JNA, under JCE members

 3     Milosevic and Adzic, deployed forces under General Momcilo Perisic to the

 4     region in mass.  The Red Berets, under JCE members Stanisic and

 5     Simatovic, established a training camp in nearby Trebinje for police

 6     special operations units and at least one special operations unit from

 7     the Trebinje police was deployed to the war in Croatia.  And at the

 8     beginning of 1992, Serb leaders in Nevesinje established a Crisis Staff.

 9             By now, the patterns Mr. Mussemeyer had described were visible in

10     Eastern Herzegovina.  The Serb population had been armed and separate

11     parallel Serb institutions had been created.

12             As the Serb forces coalesced in Eastern Herzegovina, life began

13     to change for non-Serb civilians.  Members of Arsen Grahovac's

14     Karadjordje unit told non-Serbs they would end up in mass graves if they

15     did not leave Nevesinje.  And for non-Serbs like Witness Kujan, life in

16     Nevesinje became "like living in a prison camp."  And that's from

17     Exhibit P524, page 4.

18             The accused himself made an enormous contribution to the campaign

19     in Eastern Herzegovina.  He had begun targeting the region in early 1991,

20     meeting with Chetnik commanders and establishing co-operation with local

21     Serb leaders, including Karadjordje unit commander Grahovac and local SDS

22     leader Bozidar Vucurevic.  The accused went to the region in fall 1991,

23     visiting Nevesinje, Gacko, Trebinje, and Bileca, as well as travelling to

24     the ethnically-cleansed town of Konavle, Croatia, with Vucurevic.

25     Your Honours can see this, for instance, in Exhibits P1162 and P1394.


Page 17281

 1             After the accused visited, Seseljevci formed units which went to

 2     fight in Croatia, and Croats in the region discussed forming their own

 3     volunteer units in response for defence.  The accused's targeting of

 4     Eastern Herzegovina and co-operation with local leaders is set out in,

 5     for instance, Exhibits P163, P524, P880, P881, and P989, as well as the

 6     exhibits I mentioned earlier.

 7             As Serb take-overs began in BiH, the accused publicly announced

 8     he would visit Eastern Herzegovina again, in Exhibits P685 and P1296.

 9     When he arrived, he met with Vucurevic and Grahovac.  This visit is

10     discussed in Exhibit P524.

11             Like other local Serb leaders across BiH and Croatia, Vucurevic

12     asked the accused for additional manpower to support Serb forces.  The

13     accused's Vojvoda Vakic describes this in "Velika Srbija" in Exhibit P55.

14     And on 30 March 1992, the accused gave a press conference in Trebinje,

15     just south of Nevesinje.  He called upon Bosnian Serbs to act through

16     their own authorities in their territories to complete what he called the

17     liberation of their territories:

18             "... with the help of the Territorial Defence and Serbian

19     volunteers whom we can send whenever this is necessary.  We will start

20     sending these volunteers to Herzegovina in the very near future."

21             That's from Exhibit P1109, page 1.

22             In his brief, the accused attacks Witness Kujan for testifying

23     that the accused was present in Nevesinje in early 1992.  But as this

24     evidence shows, the accused did visit Eastern Herzegovina in March 1992,

25     where he called for further conflict and promised to send Seseljevci to


Page 17282

 1     the region.

 2             When he returned to Belgrade, the accused called for Serb forces

 3     to seize "the whole Neretva River valley."  That's from Exhibit P1262,

 4     page 14.  As the accused had promised and as he did throughout the

 5     conflict, he then contributed his Seseljevci to the Serb forces in

 6     Eastern Herzegovina.

 7             On 8 April 1992, the Ministry for Serbs Outside Serbia requested

 8     three buses to transport what they called refugees from Belgrade to areas

 9     of Eastern Herzegovina, including Nevesinje.  That's Exhibit P1070.  And

10     war chief staff -- sorry, War Staff Chief Ljubisa Petkovic explained in

11     his evidence that this was merely a ruse to conceal the buses' real

12     purpose:  Transporting Seseljevci to the front lines.  And that's in

13     Exhibit C16, page 74.

14             The accused deployed hundreds of other Seseljevci to

15     Eastern Herzegovina, where five of his Vojvodas led Seseljevci into

16     battle.  The Trial Chamber is referred to Exhibits P54, P55, P843, P846,

17     P889, P1002, and P1311, where the accused and his Seseljevci discuss this

18     deployment themselves.  Official records of Serb forces and both Serb and

19     Bosnian police show Seseljevci in the region in, for instance,

20     Exhibits P29, P891, P1008, and P1162.  Details about the Seseljevci who

21     were deployed to Eastern Herzegovina are set out in paragraphs 264

22     through 271 of the Prosecution's closing brief.

23             The accused's own war-time statements corroborate this evidence

24     and show his men remained in Eastern Herzegovina at the time of the

25     crimes charged in his indictment.  Exhibit P218, in which the accused


Page 17283

 1     declared many of his men to be Vojvodas, shows that Vojvoda Tripkovic was

 2     still fighting in Mostar on 14 June 1992, and that Vojvoda Baret remained

 3     in the area until 31 July 1992, after the massacres at Uborak and Sutina,

 4     which I will discuss in due course.

 5             Other Seseljevci remained in nearby Eastern Herzegovina, easily

 6     close enough to Mostar and Nevesinje to fight and commit crimes there,

 7     until well after the crimes charged in the indictment had been committed.

 8     In another order declaring his men to be Vojvodas, the accused stated in

 9     Exhibit P217 that Vojvoda Vakic fought in Herzegovina in both May and

10     June of 1992, that Vojvoda Radovan Radovic fought in the Neretva valley

11     and Nevesinje in both 1992 and 1993, and that Vojvoda Nedjeljko

12     Vidjakovic also commanded a Seseljevci unit from Trebinje which fought in

13     the region.  And Exhibits C10 and P891 confirm that large groups of

14     Seseljevci were in Eastern Herzegovina until months after the crimes

15     charged in this case.

16             Credible witness identifications place these Seseljevci among the

17     perpetrators of crimes.  Witnesses Dabic, VS-1067, and Tot were members

18     of Serb forces.  Consequently, they were well positioned to correctly

19     identify a particular fighting force's affiliation, whether to one Serb

20     force or another.  Victim witnesses VS-1022, Bilic, and Karisik were

21     detained for at least several days and mistreated and had the opportunity

22     to learn identifying information about their tormentors.

23             And indeed, civilians in Eastern Herzegovina knew to fear the

24     Seseljevci.  As Witness Stoparic testified, when his Seseljevci unit went

25     through villages, non-Serb civilians would flee.


Page 17284

 1             Despite the Seseljevci's crimes, when forces were needed in

 2     Eastern Herzegovina, even in 1993, Slobodan Milosevic continued to

 3     personally call on the accused, and the accused provided thousands of

 4     additional volunteers.  He himself declared that he sent Seseljevci to

 5     areas right near Mostar at Milosevic's behest, long after he now claims

 6     his Seseljevci had left the region.  That's in Exhibit P644, page 17.

 7             As in Vukovar and elsewhere, the accused has attempted to

 8     downplay his contribution to the campaign in Eastern Herzegovina now that

 9     he is faced with international justice.  He argues that Seseljevci left

10     the Mostar area around 19 May 1992, before the massacres at Uborak and

11     Sutina, and that no significant number of Seseljevci were present in

12     Nevesinje.  The evidence I have summarised proves beyond a reasonable

13     doubt that Seseljevci, in fact, remained in and around Mostar and

14     Nevesinje while crimes were committed.

15             The accused's arguments in this respect are unconvincing.  First,

16     he asserts that the Seseljevci must have withdrawn from Mostar by

17     25 May 1992 because Vojvoda Ba ret was in Podgorica, Montenegro, with the

18     accused on that date.  This assertion addresses only one of the hundreds

19     of Seseljevci in the Mostar area at the time, and another Vojvoda, Vakic,

20     often travelled from Eastern Herzegovina to Podgorica for supplies, as he

21     told "Velika Srbija" in Exhibit P54.

22             Consequently, even if Baret were in Podgorica with the accused on

23     25 May, it would not suggest that Seseljevci were no longer in Mostar at

24     the time.  Next, the accused attempts to cast doubt on the

25     identifications of his men.  He asserts that Witnesses Karisik, Bilic,


Page 17285

 1     and VS-1051 did not mention the accused or his Seseljevci in their

 2     initial statements to local authorities.  Victim witnesses Karisik and

 3     VS-1051 were cross-examined as to why they had not identified the

 4     Seseljevci who participated in the crimes against them when they first

 5     gave statements to local authorities.  VS-1051 explained that the witness

 6     was still traumatised when the statement was given and Karisik stood by

 7     his identification of Seseljevci under cross-examination.

 8             Regarding Witness Bilic, the accused's claim that the witness did

 9     not identify Seseljevci is unsupported by any evidence in the record and,

10     moreover, was not raised on cross-examination in violation of

11     Rule 90(H)(ii) and should not be considered.

12             The accused further argues that Witnesses Dabic, VS-1022, and

13     VS-1067 offered only hearsay testimony about Seseljevci.  Those

14     witnesses' evidence is admissible before this Tribunal and well

15     corroborated.  In this regard, the Chamber should consider particularly

16     Exhibits P887, P889, P891, and P1162, along, of course, with the

17     witnesses' own evidence.

18             The accused also asserts that Witnesses Kujan and VS-1068 were

19     mistaken in identifying his men as perpetrators, but provides no support

20     for this proposition.  And he ignores Witness Zoran Tot, his own

21     volunteer, who gave evidence that Seseljevci participated in crimes

22     including the wanton destruction of Mostar.

23             Finally, the accused denies witness evidence that his Seseljevci

24     were present at Boracko Jezero, which I will come to later, even though

25     Vojvoda Vakic informed the Serbian Assembly in 1993 that a Seseljevci


Page 17286

 1     commander had, in fact, been killed in Boracko Jezero.  And that's in

 2     Exhibit P889, page 19.

 3             Dispute the accused's denials, it is clear that he and his

 4     Seseljevci made a significant and substantial contribution to the

 5     persecutorial campaign in Eastern Herzegovina and to the field of

 6     operations in which the crimes were committed.  As I will next explain,

 7     the accused is also linked to the combined Serb forces in Eastern

 8     Herzegovina by his contribution to their campaign.

 9             These combined Serb forces were directly linked to JCE members

10     including the accused.  As these slides show, all Serb forces in

11     Eastern Herzegovina were subordinated to JCE members.  Thus, the JCE

12     members, including the accused, are jointly responsible for their crimes.

13             As this first slide reflects, Serb forces in Eastern Herzegovina

14     were initially subordinated to the JNA under General Perisic, which was

15     subordinated to JCE members Blagoje Adzic and Slobodan Milosevic.  After

16     the JNA withdrew, Serb forces in the area were led by the VRS Herzegovina

17     Corps, which was under the control of JCE members Ratko Mladic and

18     Radovan Karadzic.

19             Seseljevci in the region were subordinated to the official Serb

20     armies, the accused himself discusses this in his Milosevic testimony and

21     in Exhibit P1002, as were Savic and his police, the Red Berets, the

22     Karadjordje unit, and local Serb forces such as the TO.  When members of

23     those forces committed crimes within the common purpose of the JCE, those

24     crimes were attributable to the JNA or VRS commands and thus linked to

25     Milosevic, Karadzic, Adzic, Mladic, and the other JCE members including


Page 17287

 1     the accused.

 2             As the second slide will reflect, many of the Serb forces in

 3     Eastern Herzegovina were also part of hierarchical structures linked to

 4     other JCE members.  As reflected here, Seseljevci were members of a

 5     hierarchical structure headed by the accused.  Savic and his police as

 6     well as the local Serb TO were part of structures headed by JCE member

 7     Radovan Karadzic.  The Red Berets were part of a structure headed by JCE

 8     members Stanisic and Simatovic.  Relevant evidence is set forth on the

 9     slide, including Exhibits P410 and P1033 and adjudicated fact 193 from

10     this Chamber's 10 December 2007 decision.

11             Relevant evidence is also summarised in the section of our

12     closing brief discussing the structure of the accused's political and

13     paramilitary organisations.

14             Crimes committed by members of these forces also link to the JCE

15     members, including the accused, through the JCE members atop those

16     hierarchical structures.

17             The accused offers two arguments relevant to the linkage between

18     Serb forces and JCE members in his brief.  First, he argues that this

19     Tribunal has not previously convicted a commander or a physical

20     perpetrator for the crimes in Mostar, and he thus cannot be held

21     responsible as a member of the JCE.  This is mistaken.  There is no legal

22     requirement that a physical or intermediate perpetrator must have been

23     convicted for JCE liability to attach.

24             Second, the accused argues that he cannot be held responsible for

25     the crimes in Eastern Herzegovina because the perpetrators were local


Page 17288

 1     Serbs; this is mistaken.  What the evidence shows is that members of Serb

 2     forces in Eastern Herzegovina, including local Serbs who fought in those

 3     forces, are linked to JCE members in two ways.  They are dually linked to

 4     the JNA or VRS and to the JCE members leading their own hierarchical

 5     structures.  The JCE members are thus jointly criminally responsible for

 6     crimes committed by members of Serb forces in the region, no matter to

 7     which specific force a specific perpetrator belonged.  For that

 8     principle, this Chamber can refer to, for instance, the Brdjanin appeal

 9     judgement, paragraphs 409 and 413.

10             With the linkage between the accused and the various Serb forces

11     in Eastern Herzegovina in mind, I will turn to the conflict and crimes in

12     Mostar.

13             Conflict began in BiH at the end of March 1992.  On 2 April, the

14     accused called for Serb forces to "seize the entire Neretva valley" and

15     ensure "a link between Eastern Herzegovina, Romanija, and Ozren."  That's

16     from Exhibit P1262, pages 14 and 15.

17             Days later, conflict engulfed Mostar.  The SDS ordered Serbs to

18     leave and Serb forces shelled the city ruthlessly.  Civilians were

19     killed, including a Croat beaten and murdered by Seseljevci and JNA

20     troops.  Seseljevci arrived in nearby Buna and Bjelusine from whence they

21     destroyed and looted villages such as Topla.  One of the perpetrators was

22     a Seseljevac named Vranjanac.  Vranjanac identified himself as a

23     Seseljevac to other members of Serb forces, and this is corroborated by

24     Exhibits P891 and P1051.  The accused's attempt to distance himself from

25     Vranjanac should be rejected.


Page 17289

 1             By the end of May, the east bank of the Neretva River had been

 2     ethnically cleansed of non-Serbs.  In Mostar, non-Serb civilians fled to

 3     shelters to escape JNA shelling.  Witnesses Bilic, Karisik, and VS-1068

 4     described how Serb forces, including Seseljevci, held civilians prisoner

 5     in the Zalik shelter and forced civilians to labour while exposed to

 6     gun-fire and physical assault.  They described how detainees were

 7     sometimes taken to the JNA north camp and mistreated and at least one

 8     detainee never returned.  Serb fighters would tell detainees stories

 9     about murdering non-Serbs, and they would tell them the area would one

10     day all be part of Greater Serbia, and they so terrorised the detainees

11     that one witness testified:

12             "You couldn't even hear very well for all of the crying and

13     screaming in the shelter."

14             The indiscriminate and disproportionate shelling of non-military

15     structures in Mostar escalated just before the JNA withdrew from the

16     city.  As Exhibits P843 and P846 describe, General Perisic ordered Serb

17     forces including Seseljevci to shell Mostar with no specific targets.

18     Civilians who fled the shelling were mopped up under Perisic's orders.

19     And here I'd refer Your Honours particularly to the evidence of

20     Witness Tot, particularly in Exhibit P843, paragraphs 49 and 50.

21             JCE member Ratko Mladic's notes reveal his awareness that Perisic

22     was "destroying Mostar."  That's in Exhibit P1344 at page 7.  And the

23     accused's Vojvoda Oliver Baret was present in JNA headquarters during the

24     bombing, co-ordinating between the JNA and the Seseljevci in Mostar.  And

25     as Riedlmayer's report and the associated exhibits demonstrate, Serb


Page 17290

 1     forces devastated and destroyed non-Serb religious and cultural sites

 2     throughout Mostar during this campaign.

 3             Earlier in the proceedings, the accused attempted to justify the

 4     destruction of Mostar, by stating that the west bank of the Neretva River

 5     was in the hands of Croatian forces and the JNA was simply resisting

 6     them.  Essentially, he argues Serb forces' wanton destruction was

 7     justified and defensive.  This is incorrect.

 8             First, the wanton and indiscriminate shelling of a civilian

 9     population can hardly be qualified as defensive.  Second, this Tribunal's

10     jurisprudence is quite clear that combatants and their leaders may not

11     shield their violations of international humanitarian law behind an

12     allegedly defensive operation.  The critical consideration for the

13     accused's liability is that members of Serb forces for whose crimes he is

14     culpable violated international humanitarian law in destroying Mostar,

15     not his assertion that some of Mostar's territory was under Croatian

16     control when they did so.  For that principle, I would refer Your Honours

17     to paragraphs 268 of the Martic appeal judgement and paragraph 812 of the

18     Kordic and Cerkez appeal judgement.

19             Conflict in the Mostar area --

20             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] There's a very important

21     correction.  The interpreter is saying "Mladic" case, but it's, in fact,

22     the Martic case.  There is still no judgement in the Mladic case.  You

23     should avoid confusing the public.

24             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Correct.  The English

25     transcript reads "Martic."


Page 17291

 1             Please proceed.

 2             MR. TRALDI:  Thank you, Your Honour.

 3             Conflict in the Mostar area continued after the JNA shelled and

 4     devastated the city and then turned over its weapons to the VRS and

 5     officially withdrew from BiH.  When Serb forces suffered casualties in a

 6     nearby operation, Zdravko Kandic, the Mostar TO commander who had become

 7     a battalion commander in the VRS, ordered Serb forces to round up

 8     non-Serbs from East Mostar.

 9             Those Serb forces detained, abused, and eventually massacred

10     non-Serbs in three nearby locations:  Vrapcici stadium, Uborak junkyard,

11     and Sutina cemetery.

12             We are now showing Exhibit P488, which you can see on your

13     screens.  That exhibit shows the Zalik shelter, the JNA north camp, and

14     Vrapcici, Uborak, and Sutina.  In the bottom left-hand corner you can see

15     north camp and the Zalik shelter and you can see how a single main road

16     from the shelter leads to Sutina, Vrapcici, and finally Uborak.

17             Serb forces at Kandic's direction rounded up Witness Karisik and

18     other non-Serbs and took them to Sutina cemetery and then to Vrapcici

19     stadium.  Eventually, 90 people were held in the stadium in horrible

20     conditions, including women and children.  Karisik ate and drank only

21     once in six days.  He expected to die.  Eventually, Karisik and others

22     were taken out in a van and the others were murdered by the side of the

23     road.  Serb forces, including Seseljevci, took other non-Serbs to Uborak

24     junkyard and murdered them as well.  Karisik was instead taken back to

25     Sutina where he was beaten but eventually escaped.


Page 17292

 1             Chetniks rounded up other non-Serbs at a shelter in Zalik.  They

 2     were taken to the Sutina cemetery, brutally abused, then taken outside

 3     and murdered.  Some were forced to assist in dumping murder victims in a

 4     mass grave.

 5             The massacres at Uborak and Sutina followed a round-up of

 6     civilians directly ordered by VRS commander Zdravko Kandic and carried

 7     out by subordinate Serb forces.  The organised nature of the massacre is

 8     evident.  For instance, a member of the Serb forces stated when Karisik's

 9     group arrived at Sutina:

10             "They're not for here.  Take them to Vrapcici."

11             And that's from T8776.

12             Kandic was subordinated to the Bosnian Serb leadership, including

13     VRS commander Mladic.  Witnesses identified perpetrators carrying out his

14     operation from various Serb forces, including Seseljevci and their local

15     collaborators.  All the perpetrators were subordinated to Kandic,

16     carrying out his orders and consequently linked to the VRS and the

17     Bosnian Serb leadership, and through them linked to the other JCE

18     members, including the accused.

19             The JCE members also implemented their common purpose in

20     Nevesinje.  In preparation, Serb leaders armed the local Serb population,

21     removed non-Serbs from local police forces, and replaced the mayor of

22     Nevesinje.  Serb forces also set up check-points which deprived Nevesinje

23     Muslims of freedom of movement.  These were often manned by Seseljevci,

24     including a man named Kinez, as well as police and members of the

25     Karadjordje unit.  Some Serb fighters at check-points can be seen in


Page 17293

 1     Exhibit P887, stating that they only recognised the authority of the

 2     accused and his fellow JCE member Milan Martic.

 3             As a note, some of the evidence regarding check-points originates

 4     from Witness Dabic.  This witness' credibility is discussed in the

 5     argumentative annex to our closing brief, and I will not repeat this

 6     discussion every time we rely on his evidence.  Regarding Seseljevci's

 7     presence at check-points, however, I point out that the witness's

 8     evidence is corroborated by official documentation and video evidence.

 9             The persecutory campaign in Nevesinje accelerated after conflict

10     started in BiH and reached nearby Mostar.  Many Serbs who left Mostar at

11     SDS orders went to Nevesinje and drove Nevesinje Muslims out of their

12     homes.  Non-Serbs were killed and others fled to the woods and then out

13     of the municipality entirely to save their lives.  These non-Serbs

14     suffered forcible transfer, as is clear in paragraphs 279 through 281 of

15     the Stakic appeal judgement.

16             Earlier in these proceedings the accused asked Your Honours how

17     could they, meaning Serb forces, attack Nevesinje when 90 per cent of its

18     population was Serb anyway ?  The actual number was 74 per cent according

19     to the census.  JCE members in the Bosnian Serb leadership did not

20     exclude Serb majority municipalities from their persecutory campaign.

21     Instead, they had established specific instructions for targeting Serb

22     majority municipalities, Variant A.

23             As you can see in Exhibit P524, page 5, the same steps described

24     in Variant A were implemented in Nevesinje.

25             And in June 1992, Serb forces implementing the JCE in Nevesinje


Page 17294

 1     decided that it was not enough for Nevesinje to be a Serb-majority

 2     municipality.  It would be made pure Serbian, just the way DB official

 3     Mihalj Kertes had described the Drina River valley in Eastern Bosnia.

 4             Serb fighters were explicitly ordered to ethnically cleanse

 5     Nevesinje municipality.  Their operational orders were to "burn down ...

 6     destroy everything ... make the villages and people disappear."

 7             And that's from Exhibit P880, page 31.

 8             As Witness Kujan and others described, Serb forces in Nevesinje

 9     carried out those orders with chilling completeness.  Beginning in the

10     second week of June, Serb forces under the VRS would shell villages, then

11     enter, loot and burn down homes, massacre any remaining non-Serb

12     civilians, and finally burn down the entire village.  By the end of June,

13     the entire non-Serb population had fled or been massacred.  Their

14     villages had been destroyed and their holy sites had been either

15     destroyed or seriously damaged.

16             Witness Kujan described the Serb forces' campaign in terms that

17     mirrored their orders, as you will see in this slide show.  This first

18     slide shows the orders given to Serb forces in Nevesinje:  Burn down,

19     destroy everything, make the villages and the people disappear.

20             One of the most visible things to disappear was non-Serbs' holy

21     and sacred places.  Before the war, Nevesinje had one Catholic church,

22     one Orthodox church, and three mosques.  Today, only the Orthodox church

23     remains.  The other religious buildings have been levelled and turned

24     into parking-lots.  You can see the old Nevesinje Catholic church which

25     was completely destroyed by Seseljevci under Vranjanac on this slide.


Page 17295

 1             The next slide shows Witness Kujan's description of the JCE

 2     campaign.  After describing the destruction of non-Serb religious

 3     institutions, he explains that Serb forces "wanted to destroy everything

 4     that wasn't Serbian, and they did just that."  That's from Exhibit P524,

 5     page 2.

 6             The third slide discusses the pattern of attacks.  Witness Kujan

 7     stated:

 8             "The pattern of these attacks I witnessed was the same.  There

 9     would be shelling first, then entering the villages, then burning down of

10     some houses.  The village would be cleared of people and all movable

11     property would be stolen from inside and outside the homes.  Cars and any

12     equipment would be taken away and then the whole village would be burnt

13     down."

14             That's from Exhibit P524, page 6.

15             And I would refer Your Honours for comparison to the description

16     of Serb forces' tactics during their campaign in Croatia in Exhibit P412.

17             The final slide from Exhibit P524, page 8, shows the consequences

18     of the JCE campaign, non-Serbs fled from Nevesinje.  And by 26 June 1992,

19     Nevesinje had been "totally ethnically cleansed of its non-Serb

20     population."  The non-Serb villages and people had quite literally

21     disappeared from Nevesinje municipality.

22             As it already had in Vukovar, Zvornik, Greater Sarajevo, and

23     Mostar, the Serb forces' campaign in Nevesinje led to massacres and the

24     torture and cruel treatment of detained persons.  Evidence can be found

25     in, among others, Exhibits P483, P487, P523, P524, P525, P880, P881, and


Page 17296

 1     P1052.

 2             One group of Muslim civilians attempting to flee from the Serb

 3     forces' campaign was caught hiding in the woods near Teleca Lastva.  They

 4     were detained, interrogated, and tortured, and some of the women were

 5     raped or sexually abused.  Seven of the prisoners were taken away by Serb

 6     forces, including Seseljevci, and never seen alive again.  The survivors

 7     were ordered to clean up the blood left over from prisoners being

 8     tortured.

 9             But the crimes in Eastern Herzegovina and perhaps best -- and

10     indeed, in Bosnia as a whole, are perhaps best represented by the stories

11     of Fadila and Mirsada Mahinic.  Relevant evidence about the crimes

12     against their group of civilians is set forth in paragraphs 473 to 478 of

13     the Prosecution's closing brief.

14             What that evidence shows is this:

15             In late June 1992, a group of Muslim civilians fled the villages

16     of Presjeka and Kljuna under heavy shelling.  Some left behind their

17     elderly parents who knew they would be murdered but stayed behind to

18     avoid slowing down their families and making their escape more difficult.

19     Those who stayed were, indeed, murdered and their bodies were not even

20     identified until 1998.

21             The group that left, including the Mahinics, were captured by

22     Serb forces and held until VRS officer Zdravko Kandic arrived.

23             While they were held, Serb forces and local Serbs taunted the

24     group, saying:

25             "Fuck your balija mothers.  We'll kill you, we'll slaughter you."


Page 17297

 1             And told one woman:

 2             "Shut up, you balija, balinka.  You are guilty of being a

 3     Muslim."

 4             After Kandic arrived and spoke to their captors, the men in the

 5     group were taken away and killed in the Dubravica pit.  The women and

 6     children, including Habib and Ferida Sipkovic and their 7-day-old baby,

 7     were held in the basement of the Kilavci heating plant with no light and

 8     no food or water.  They were abused by members of the Serb forces, one of

 9     whom identified the perpetrators as including Seseljevci.

10             The Mahinics and a few other women were taken away to

11     Boracko Jezero while the other members of their group were murdered,

12     including the baby who the evidence shows had not even lived long enough

13     to have a name.  Eleven other victims named Mahinic were killed.

14             When Serb forces were selecting women to take to Boracko Jezero,

15     one Serb fighter looked at the new mother and said:

16             "You see, she's just had a baby ... she's no use to us.  Who's

17     going to fuck with her?"

18             The women who were taken away could have had no doubt what their

19     captors intended.  And a Serb named Petar Divjakovic then took the

20     selected women towards the motel at Boracko Jezero, where Chetniks told

21     them they would be raped.  Women in the group were, indeed, raped and

22     detainees were viciously beaten.  Almost ten years later the Mahinics'

23     bodies were found in a nearby mass grave.

24             The Mahinics' story encompasses all of the counts charged in

25     Nevesinje municipality.  The villages of members of their group were


Page 17298

 1     wantonly destroyed, leaving them no choice but to flee and constituting

 2     forcible transfer.  When they were captured, the Serb forces tortured,

 3     raped, cruelly treated, and massacred members of their group.  And they

 4     themselves were murdered.

 5             The repeated ethnic slurs hurled at them and their fellow Muslims

 6     reveal that the perpetrators of these crimes committed the crimes with

 7     the discriminatory intent characteristic of persecution.

 8             And perpetrators identified as Seseljevci participated in the

 9     crimes.  These crimes and the others in Mostar and Nevesinje were an

10     integral part of the common plan to ethnically cleanse Serb-targeted

11     territories throughout BiH of their non-Serb populations and to create

12     Serb-controlled areas.  Serb forces including Seseljevci followed their

13     orders to make non-Serb villages and people disappear through wanton

14     destruction, forcible transfer, and persecution.  Non-Serbs who were

15     tragically captured by Serb forces, like the Mahinics and several of the

16     witnesses in this case, were brutalised, tortured, and murdered in large

17     numbers.

18             Next, having discussed the crimes in Mostar and Nevesinje,

19     Ms. Biersay will next discuss how, as non-Serbs began to flee Nevesinje

20     in May of 1992, the accused himself personally committed persecution and

21     forcible transfer against the non-Serbs of Hrtkovci.

22             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you, Mr. Prosecutor.  As

23     Mrs. Biersay is going to take the floor, we are going to have a break

24     now, a 20-minute break and we shall resume in 20 minutes' time.

25                           --- Recess taken at 3.42 p.m.


Page 17299

 1                           --- On resuming at 4.04 p.m.

 2             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] The court is back in session.

 3             You may proceed, Ms. Biersay.

 4             MS. BIERSAY:  Thank you, Your Honour.

 5             Before starting, I wanted to tell the Trial Chamber that I

 6     provided to the Chamber and to the accused a sheet that associates the

 7     names of three witnesses with a letter of the alphabet and this is just

 8     to ensure that the identities of witnesses are not disclosed when I

 9     address nonpublic information.  I may not use all the names, but I

10     understand that the Trial Chamber would prefer not to go in and out of

11     private session.  So this is my attempt to try to prevent doing that.

12     Hopefully I can make it work.

13             Your Honours, the accused committed crimes in Croatia.  He

14     committed crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  And he also committed crimes

15     in Serbia.  In this case, he gave a speech in the village of Hrtkovci on

16     May 6, 1992.  That speech ignited the flames of ethnic hatred and forever

17     changed the face of that village.  He accomplished exactly what he set

18     out to do:  To force Croats out of the village and out of Serbia.

19             Before Yugoslavia started breaking apart, the village of Hrtkovci

20     in Vojvodina, Serbia, was ethnically diverse.  It had a Croat majority,

21     as well as Hungarians and Serbs.  Witnesses described that there were

22     many mixed marriages between Serbs and Croats or Hungarians.  And the

23     people of different ethnicities, they lived together in peace and in

24     harmony.  That tranquility began to change, slowly at first, as the

25     village was infected by the violent inter-ethnic conflict in neighbouring


Page 17300

 1     Croatia and then in BiH as more and more refugees from -- Serb refugees

 2     came into Vojvodina looking for safety and places to live.  After the

 3     accused delivered his hate speech on 6 May 1992, the changes that had

 4     begun slowly in Hrtkovci exploded into ethnic tension and fear.

 5             The accused personally brought that tension and fear to the

 6     people of Hrtkovci with his hatred.  He personally made Croats so afraid

 7     that many fled the village soon after.  He personally encouraged Serb

 8     refugees in Hrtkovci to participate in his persecution campaign against

 9     Croats.

10             As highlighted in paragraphs 561 and 562 of the Prosecution's

11     closing brief, the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that the

12     accused physically committed persecution through the hate speech because

13     of what he said, who he was, and the context of war in which he made the

14     speech.

15             He targeted Hrtkovci as the place for the May 6 SRS rally because

16     Hrtkovci was majority Croat and was considered "Ustasha" territory during

17     World War II.  And not only did he target Hrtkovci as a place for this

18     rally, he targeted the date.  He targeted May 6 as the day for the

19     SRS rally in Hrtkovci because it was St. George's Day, a very important

20     Serb holiday.  So he chose to spend a significant Serb holiday in a Croat

21     majority village, an event that was advertised with posters and announced

22     on Radio Ruma, transcript page 10337.

23             On the day of the accused's hate speech, he and the SRS set the

24     stage for maximum impact.  They purposely filled Hrtkovci with an

25     intimidating atmosphere.  Ethnically divisive and intimidating Chetnik


Page 17301

 1     music played from a loudspeaker.  A large group of armed men wearing

 2     black World War II-era Chetnik uniforms arrived and spread throughout the

 3     town.  A much larger crowd of Serb refugees was present at the rally

 4     site.  They had all come to see and hear the accused.  And there are also

 5     some local Croats there as well.  This is described at transcript

 6     page 10335 and in Exhibits P329 and 1329.

 7             The security provided for the rally far surpassed that of any

 8     electoral campaign.  In addition to the armed Chetnik men, there was a

 9     policeman with an automatic rifle in the street at every 100 metres.  The

10     level of security provided for the rally was so intense, it reminded

11     Witness Ejic of the times when Tito passed through.

12             A member of the accused's security detail carried what appeared

13     to be a bayonet and stood by the stage.  It was clear, clear that the

14     objective was to "create fear, a different psychological atmosphere among

15     the local population."  Transcript pages 10335, 10337 to 10338, and

16     10489.

17             A list of prominent Croats in Hrtkovci was read to the crowd.

18     The accused admits in Exhibit P31, pages 1304 to 1305, that a member of

19     the SRS party standing next to him read out the list.  And those Croats

20     were labelled as disloyal.  During his speech, the accused repeated his

21     rhetoric of hatred and division and pounded his chest.  He called for a

22     Greater Serbia.  He denigrated Croats of Hrtkovci as Ustasha.  He

23     labelled them disloyal enemies of the Serbian people.  He accused some

24     Croats as being in the "Ustasha National Guard", branded their parents as

25     disloyal and as having no place in Hrtkovci.  He called for Croats to be


Page 17302

 1     forced out of Hrtkovci.  He shouted:  "Let them go to their homeland."

 2             He accused Tudjman of driving Serbs from Croatia.  And he

 3     promised Serb refugees they could move into the Croat houses in Hrtkovci.

 4     He encouraged every Serb family of refugees to knock on a Croat door and

 5     give its inhabitants an address in a Croatian place outside of Serbia.

 6     He delivered an ultimatum to Hrtkovci Croats:  Move to Croatia or be

 7     placed on buses and be sent to the border, saying:

 8             "There will be enough buses.  We will drive them to the border of

 9     Serb territory and they can walk on from there."  And that's in

10     Exhibit P547 at page 4.

11             He instructed "Serbs from Hrtkovci and other villages" to

12     "promptly get rid of the remaining Croats."

13             He promised Serbs that they would overcome economic and social

14     crisis by getting rid of the remaining Croats, and he threatened Croats

15     that "they would have nowhere to return to."

16             Very similar language that he used with respect to the cleansed

17     town of Osijek that I described to the Trial Chamber previously.

18             And what did the crowd do?  The crowd applauded and shouted

19     "Ustasha out ... this is Serbia."

20             As addressed in the Prosecution closing brief at paragraphs 559

21     and 562, the accused's May 6 speech constitutes persecution.  In his

22     speech, the accused invoked a litany of the same hateful denigration that

23     he used to justify the commission of crimes to achieve the common

24     criminal purpose in Croatia and in BiH.  In a book published after he was

25     indicted in this case, the accused produced a partial transcript of that


Page 17303

 1     May 6 speech.  Even though it is a partial transcript, it fully

 2     establishes the accused's intent to persecute Croats through his hate

 3     speech, especially given the context in which the speech was given,

 4     namely, the raging inter-ethnic conflict in Croatia and in BiH.

 5             When the accused finished his May 6th hate speech, he had

 6     personally committed the crime of persecution.  And despite what he

 7     claims, his speech in Hrtkovci was not an innocent election promise.  As

 8     set out in the Nahimana appeals judgement, especially in paragraph 771,

 9     there is no legal protection for hate speech based on conditional

10     language.

11             This accused delivered a speech filled with ethnic hatred and

12     fear-mongering.  He exploited his status and authority to deliberately

13     fuel the tension between local Croats and Serb refugees.  He exploited

14     the ongoing violence in Croatia that made both Croats and Serbs

15     frightened.  By so doing, he breached the cloak that protects free speech

16     and transformed his hate speech into a crime in and of itself; and for

17     that, he is criminally responsible.

18             His speech violated the Croats' right to dignity and security.

19     The Croats in Hrtkovci who heard his words or heard about them knew that

20     he was not making empty threats.  They knew the accused was an

21     influential elected official who publicly flaunted his quasi-military

22     authority inside and outside of Serbia.  They knew about the crimes

23     committed by Seseljevci.  They knew the accused influenced and controlled

24     Seseljevci, and he was synonymous with his Seseljevci, and they were

25     notorious for their participation in crimes committed in Croatia.  And


Page 17304

 1     I'd refer to transcript 1545 as well as 15411 and 15412.

 2             Immediately after his speech, many Croats began preparing to

 3     leave Hrtkovci, showing they felt denigrated and threatened, just as the

 4     accused intended.  By August 1992, the Serb leadership of the village

 5     changed the name of Hrtkovci to Srbislavci to reflect that Serbs were now

 6     the majority.  That's only three months after the accused's May 6 speech.

 7     Even the signposts into and out of the village were changed to

 8     Srbislavci.  Transcript pages 10382 to 10383 as well as Exhibit P549.

 9             But the accused had begun targeting non-Serbs in Vojvodina and

10     Hrtkovci as early as September 1991 during the war in Croatia.  And I'm

11     now citing the evidence of Witness A on your sheet.

12             As described in Exhibits P1112, pages 5 to 6; P1129, pages 26 to

13     28, 161 to 163, the accused gave instructions in September of 1991 for

14     how this persecution campaign should be carried out in Hrtkovci:

15             Dismissing non-Serbs from government jobs, threatening non-Serbs

16     through intimidating telephone calls, attacking non-Serbs, attacking

17     their homes, marking non-Serb houses, throwing grenades, and breaking

18     windows.

19             So at the same time he was giving instructions for the

20     persecution campaign against Hrtkovci's Croats in 1991, the accused was

21     also denigrating Croats in Croatia.  Serb forces, including Seseljevci,

22     implemented a brutal campaign of persecution against Croats in targeted

23     areas of Croatia.  And his persecutorial speeches and the campaign itself

24     were reported throughout Serbia.

25             And it's important to consider what the Croats in Serbia were


Page 17305

 1     seeing.  Throughout Croatia, JNA tanks rolled, Croat towns shelled,

 2     Croats expelled, Croats killed.  Croatia was being cleansed of Croats and

 3     the accused wanted to cleanse Serbia of its Croats.  But this did not

 4     happen in 1991 or in the beginning of 1992.

 5                           [Trial Chamber and Registrar confer]

 6             MS. BIERSAY:  The accused -- before the May 6 hate speech, it's

 7     true that two or three Croat families did leave, and I'd refer the

 8     Trial Chamber to transcript page 15461 and 15498.  But most of them

 9     remained until May 6, 1992, and too many Croats remained for the accused.

10     So his May 6 speech was designed to reach new dimensions of persecution

11     by targeting Croats and sowing fear in the village.

12             The events following the accused's persecution through his 6 May

13     speech proves that he committed forcible transfer and deportation and

14     that he aided and abetted and instigated others to persecute and forcibly

15     transfer and deport Croats from Hrtkovci.

16             Reports of his hate speech and the reaction of the crowd spread

17     through the Croatian community of Hrtkovci.  Fear and panic infected that

18     community and news spread, as one would imagine, in a small village.  It

19     spread by word of mouth, from person to person, from household to

20     household.  And Croats decided they had no real choice but to leave

21     Hrtkovci.  The accused had warned them to "clear out of Serbia."  And

22     they did.  They were so frightened after the speech, they started

23     collecting travel documents and many left.

24             The accused had directed Serbs to "promptly get rid of the

25     remaining Croats in your and surrounding villages."  They did.  And they


Page 17306

 1     cleaned up the Croats who remained in Hrtkovci.

 2             The accused intended to and succeeded in instilling fear in the

 3     local Croat population against whom he advocated discrimination and

 4     violence.  His speech aggravated an already tense situation between local

 5     Croats and Serb refugees in Hrtkovci.  He created an atmosphere so

 6     coercive that most Croats could not remain there any longer.

 7             Local Croats took the accused's threats very seriously, and they

 8     took his threats very seriously because his hate speech was interpreted

 9     as that, a threat, a warning sign that simply "could not be ignored."

10     After the speech, Croats began collecting travel documents.

11             "They were standing in queues and waiting, like in embassies."

12             And I'd direct the Trial Chamber to transcript page 9920, and

13     direct the Trial Chamber to the evidence of Witnesses Paulic and VS-061

14     and VS-067 as well as Exhibits 555 and Exhibit P556.

15             And the Trial Chamber heard evidence that Croats began collecting

16     records - like c hristening certificates and marriage records - from the

17     local Catholic church so that they could leave Hrtkovci.  Requests for

18     christening certificates and marriage records increased dramatically

19     after the accused's hate speech.  Witnesses testified that they left

20     Hrtkovci as a direct result of the speech.

21             So the accused lacks any credibility when he argues essentially

22     that Croats exercised a genuine choice to leave Hrtkovci if they arranged

23     house exchanges.  Witness Ejic testified that nearly all those listed in

24     the victim annex to the indictment, which he saw as Exhibit P558, he

25     said:  Nearly all of them "went to Croatia or even beyond."  Transcript


Page 17307

 1     page 10407.

 2             He could only find two examples of people who left to Croatia of

 3     their own free will because, according to him, "everything else was done

 4     either out of fear or under different types of threat."  Transcript

 5     page 10408.

 6             Croats did not choose to leave a community where they had been

 7     secure all their lives to go to the middle of a war in Croatia.  They did

 8     not choose to uproot their lives, families, children, to leave their jobs

 9     and their friends, to go to a country being ravaged by a war they had

10     been watching on television.  They felt they had to leave because they

11     thought their lives were in danger in Hrtkovci.  For those Croats who

12     remained, they remained because they were ready to die for staying there,

13     and I direct the Trial Chamber's attention to Exhibit 555 on page 2.

14             The demographic change underlying the renaming of Hrtkovci as

15     Srbislavci is confirmed by the evidence of Witness Tabeau and the

16     October 1992 report of the UN Special Rapporteu r, and this is

17     Exhibit P982.  And paragraph 22 of Exhibit P982 references the ethnic

18     cleansing of Croats from Vojvodina.  The demographic change is further

19     corroborated by witness evidence and press articles memorialising the

20     flight of Croats from Hrtkovci.  And I've already listed one,

21     Exhibit P555 and P556, just to list a few.

22             Exhibit P555 is an article from "NIN" weekly and it's dated the

23     22nd of May, 1992, so two weeks after the accused's hate speech, and it's

24     titled:  "Hrtkovci - a village that is moving, Dr. Vojislav Seselj's

25     programme to move out the non-Serb population from Serbia is becoming a


Page 17308

 1     reality."

 2             A retired local policeman explained in that article that:

 3             "It all began after Mr. Seselj's speech here in the village.

 4     Many people have already left the village."

 5             So all this evidence proves the impact of the accused's speech

 6     beyond a reasonable doubt.

 7             So when the accused claims that only eight people were forcibly

 8     displaced from Hrtkovci, it is an offensive and gross distortion of the

 9     facts.  In his erroneous reading of the law, he argues that only those

10     Croats who were physically harmed can qualify as being persecuted or

11     forcibly displaced, and this is inconsistent with the law and the facts

12     and should be rejected.  The relevant paragraphs in the Prosecution

13     closing brief can be found at 522, 529, 541, 550, and 555 to 564.

14             I would like now to address the evidence that shows the accused

15     aided, abetted, and instigated persecution and forcible transfer and

16     deportation with his speech.

17             His speech in Hrtkovci must be assessed in the context of all of

18     his other language denigrating Croats.  As one example, on April 1st,

19     1992, exactly as the Serb take-overs were being implemented in BiH, the

20     accused used the National Assembly to attack Croats in Serbia.  He said

21     Croats should be forced from Serbia in retaliation for Tudjman forcing

22     Serbs out of Croatia.  He rejected the notion that there were any loyal

23     Croats in Serbia, and this is reflected in Exhibit P16 which I will ask

24     to be played now.

25                           [Video-clip played]


Page 17309

 1             THE INTERPRETER: [Voiceover]

 2             "Holding that the argument was not going in the right direction,

 3     Seselj asked to speak again.  If the Croats are expelling the Serbs from

 4     Zagreb, what were the Croats waiting for in Belgrade and in Serbia?

 5     According to him, this represents a normal exchange of people in the

 6     principles of retortion or, as he explained it, retaliation.

 7     Mahmut Memic and Antun Skenderovic acted in response to this.

 8     Antun Skenderovic said that Seselj's viewpoints had already been known,

 9     but that it was good that that time he presented them from the Assembly

10     floor and thus marked the Croats in Serbia as hostages.  Further in his

11     response, Seselj maintained that this regime was too lenient towards

12     Croats and that after the next elections, all of them would be expelled

13     and that not even those living in Serbia would sleep peacefully until

14     they moved.

15             "'By the same right Tudjman used to expel Serbs, we will expel

16     Croats,' said Seselj, adding that he wanted to disperse another illusion

17     about the loyal behaviour of Croats in Serbia, since, he maintained,

18     'They were aiding the Ustashas in this war too.'"

19             MS. BIERSAY:  So according to the accused, Croats were "aiding

20     the Ustashas in this war too."

21             And the accused maintained the pressure on Croats in Hrtkovci by

22     making a special, personal appearance in that small village, mustering

23     all the pomp and circumstance and political quasi-military trappings that

24     had become the norm for his appearances.  What resulted was a campaign of

25     discrimination, coercion, and violence directed against Croats and some


Page 17310

 1     of the perpetrators are linked to the accused.  Directly following the

 2     accused's May 6 speech, Croats were harassed, intimidated, and threatened

 3     in exactly the same way the accused had instructed in September of 1991.

 4             "Threats were coming in every day."

 5             Hand-grenades were thrown at Croat houses.  Dogs were killed.

 6     Bomb threats were made.  Transcript pages 10777, transcript page 9919,

 7     and Exhibits P551, P559, and P64 [sic], to name a few.

 8             The evidence shows that through his support and encouragement,

 9     the accused's tools, like Ostoja Sibincic, Rade Cakmak, and others,

10     targeted Croats just as the accused intended with his May 6 speech.  I

11     refer the Trial Chamber to Exhibit P564, page 5; transcript pages 2471,

12     2475 to 2476; as well as Exhibits P1129, pages 26 to 28; and P1112,

13     pages 5 to 6.

14             Sibincic was one of the organisers of the May 6 SRS rally.  He

15     stood on the side of the stage during the speeches that day, and along

16     with others, both he and Cakmak terrorised Croats in Hrtkovci.  Both were

17     the accused's men in Hrtkovci.  In spring, they travelled to the SRS

18     office in Belgrade where the accused gave him "the green light" to drive

19     Croats from Hrtkovci.  The accused had also given the green light to

20     target -- to others to target Croats in Hrtkovci in May 1992.  This

21     evidence is reflected in Exhibits P1058, paragraphs 102 and 101;

22     Exhibit P1056, paragraphs 87 to 88; Exhibit P1112, page 12; P1129,

23     pages 27 to 28, and 65 to 66.

24             Many inside and outside of Hrtkovci claimed that Sibincic worked

25     closely with the accused, that he was the accused's right-hand man and


Page 17311

 1     that he did all the dirty work of the SRS in Hrtkovci.  I refer the

 2     Chamber to the testimony of Witnesses Baricevic, Ejic, VS-067, VS-1036,

 3     VS-061, and P564, page 5.

 4             In August 1992, Sibincic and Cakmak were charged together with

 5     three others for committing crimes against Croats in Hrtkovci, but far

 6     from condemning their actions or even remaining silent, the accused on

 7     the 27th of August, 1992, publicly demanded their release.

 8             "Sibincic and the others arrested in Srbislavci, former Hrtkovci,

 9     should be immediately released."  Exhibit P1202, page 10.  And the

10     accused is referring to Hrtkovci as former Hrtkovci mere months after his

11     May 6 speech.

12             With this public demand, the accused showed both his affiliation

13     with Sibincic and he further encouraged and aided and abetted the

14     criminal campaign of persecution and forcible displacement that had

15     occurred in Hrtkovci.

16             Before concluding, I will address some additional claims raised

17     by the accused in his trial brief.  First, the Trial Chamber had admitted

18     the statement of Witness A on your sheet as P1112.  His viva voce

19     testimony was admitted as P1129.  Witness A was cross-examined in that

20     other case.  His admitted evidence is credible and reliable.  But the

21     accused claims in his brief that Witness A is a Defence witness who

22     recanted his OTP statements during another proceeding.

23             One, I refer the Trial Chamber to the argumentative appendix to

24     the Prosecution closing brief.

25             Two, Witness A's unsworn, unadmitted statements are not evidence


Page 17312

 1     in this case.  His sworn unadmitted testimony in another proceeding is

 2     not evidence in this case.  What is in the trial record in this case as

 3     reliable and probative evidence are his admitted statement and admitted

 4     testimony.

 5             The second issue I'll address raised by the accused, according to

 6     him, he can only be convicted of instigating his followers or

 7     sympathisers if there had been a local SRS board in Hrtkovci at the time

 8     of the speech because that is the only manner in which he could have

 9     exerted any influence.  This claim is baseless.  There is no legal or

10     factual basis for it and it should be rejected summarily.  Even if it

11     were true that the accused did not have a formal local board, he

12     certainly had sympathisers and supporters - the very reason he could and

13     did have a rally in Hrtkovci in the first place.

14             And third, as set out in the Appeals Chamber decision on the

15     31st of August, 2004, in this case regarding the jurisdictional

16     requirement, Article 5 does not require a material nexus between the acts

17     of the accused and the armed conflict, only a connection between the

18     Article 5 crime and the armed conflict.  It is sufficient that the acts

19     coincide geographically and temporally with the armed conflict.  At all

20     times relevant to the indictment, a state of armed conflict existed in

21     Croatia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

22             And the crimes committed by the accused in Hrtkovci are linked to

23     the conflict in Croatia and to his pursuit of Greater Serbia.  When the

24     accused committed the crimes in Hrtkovci, a conflict was ongoing in

25     Croatia.  Both Serb and Croat civilians suffered the consequences of that


Page 17313

 1     conflict and Serbs from Croatia fled to Serbia.  The Serb refugees who

 2     arrived in Hrtkovci saw Croats in Serbia as a cause of their suffering

 3     and tensions rose.

 4             And the accused himself makes the link between what was happening

 5     in Croatia and Serbia, and he charged Vojvodina Croats with conspiring

 6     with Tudjman as Ustashas.  For example, on -- the Trial Chamber has other

 7     examples, but one example is from the 12th of June, 1992, when the

 8     accused declared in a radio interview that Croats "will have to move out

 9     according to the principles of reciprocity.  I mean, since Tudjman

10     expelled more than 300 [sic] Serbs, what are the Croats in Serbia waiting

11     for?"

12             300.000 Serbs that should be, expelled more than 300 Serbs --

13     300.000 Serbs.

14             Furthermore, as the Trial Chamber has already heard,

15     President Milosevic, president of the republic of Serbia, provided

16     military, police, and political support from Serbia to the conflict in

17     Croatia and BiH.  The accused himself, he also gathered volunteers in

18     Serbia and deployed them to Croatia and BiH.  Consequently, the

19     jurisdictional requirement under Article 5 is satisfied regarding

20     Hrtkovci in Serbia, and this is highlighted in the Prosecution closing

21     brief at paragraphs 542 to 544 and 548 to 550.

22             The accused has not disputed the drastic demographic changes in

23     Hrtkovci.  What he offers are excuses and justifications seeking to

24     disconnect himself from the mass exodus of Croats that his speech caused.

25     None of these claimed justifications undermine the evidence presented by


Page 17314

 1     the Prosecution.

 2             In conclusion, the very fact that we can today speak of Hrtkovci

 3     before May 6, 1992, and after the accused's words on that day highlights

 4     how his crimes permanently changed the face of a peaceful multi-ethnic

 5     village in Serbia.

 6             I will conclude my remarks there, Your Honours, and then I will

 7     turn the lectern over to Mr. Marcussen.

 8             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [No interpretation].

 9             [Interpretation] You may proceed.

10             MR. MARCUSSEN:  Your Honours, the accused's individual criminal

11     responsibility for the crimes charged in the indictment has been proven

12     beyond a reasonable doubt.  For the accused, Greater Serbia is his

13     raison d'etre.  Throughout the trial, the accused has tried to cast

14     himself as the victim of conspiracies and injustice because of an

15     ideological belief in Greater Serbia.  He makes these claims to distract

16     attention from what the evidence in this case has proven; namely, that he

17     is responsible for the suffering of tens of thousands of victims who were

18     expelled from their homes, murdered, detained, tortured, raped, and whose

19     villages, towns, and religious sites were wantonly destroyed as a result

20     of his words and his acts.

21             The disintegration of the former Yugoslavia tore its constituent

22     republics apart.  So the accused and other JCE members put aside their

23     political differences, and the accused in close co-operation with other

24     JCE members set out to create a Serb-only state.

25             When the Serb autonomous regions were created in Croatia and


Page 17315

 1     Bosnia and Herzegovina, the accused began a relentless propaganda

 2     campaign to justify the creation of Greater Serbia.  The accused's

 3     political position allowed him to deliver his propaganda to a wide

 4     audience.  The same position cloaked his words with respectability.  His

 5     propaganda was ethnically denigrating and dehumanising.  He was a

 6     proponent of the idea that non-Serbs who once were neighbours, friends,

 7     and family were now subhuman, genocidal, and needed to be expelled from

 8     the new Greater Serbia by "all available means," as he said on the

 9     5th of March 20 years ago.

10             When he said non-Serbs should fear the Serbs, crimes targeting

11     non-Serbs were soon committed.  With his words, he planted the seeds of

12     ethnic hatred and helped them grow into ethnic violence against

13     non-Serbs.  The accused crafted his public persona as the commander of an

14     armed force that could carry out his will.  Using the SCP and the

15     SRS War Staff which he controlled, the accused recruited and organised

16     thousands of volunteers.  These volunteers were so closely associated

17     with him that they were known as his men, Seseljevci.

18             He sent them into Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to support

19     the newly created Serb structures such as TOs in Croatia and the SDS

20     Crisis Staffs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  When the JNA as a result of

21     desertion and the purging of non-Serbs was in need for his Seseljevci, he

22     sent his units to participate in its operations in Croatia.  His

23     Seseljevci fought together with other Serb forces that the JNA members --

24     that the JCE members had established and controlled.

25             Through his contacts with other JCE members and through his


Page 17316

 1     War Staff, the accused ensured that his Seseljevci were armed, equipped,

 2     transported, and deployed.  He ensured that they had jobs to go back to

 3     and received benefits so they could be deployed.  He provided

 4     encouragement and moral support with his visits to the front and in his

 5     speeches praising their successes.

 6             At least from August 1991, the joint Serb fighting force that the

 7     accused and other JCE members had created was engaged in a campaign of

 8     persecution against the non-Serb population in vast areas -- in vast

 9     areas of Croatia where the accused's Seseljevci became notorious for

10     their brutality and crimes.

11             Despite the horrible consequences of the campaign in Croatia, the

12     accused continued his relentless propaganda campaign against Croats.  He

13     instigated the commission of further crimes by incessantly equating

14     Croats to Ustasha fascists and he repeated his calls for blind revenge

15     for Ustasha crimes against Serbs during the Second World War.

16             As he intended, crimes were committed.  The JNA wantonly

17     destroyed Vukovar and forced most of its non-Serb population to flee.  As

18     they had done in area after area that had fallen before, when Vukovar

19     fell, Serb forces, including numerous Seseljevci that the accused had

20     personally decided to send to Vukovar, expelled, murdered, beat,

21     tortured, raped, and abused the remaining non-Serb population.

22             The accused and the other JCE members continued their

23     persecutorial campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina when it moved for

24     independence.  The accused fully supported the continued persecutorial

25     campaign there.  He intensified his propaganda campaign against Muslims


Page 17317

 1     and Croats.  He sent thousands of his Seseljevci to support the newly

 2     established Crisis Staffs and TOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 3             The accused's threat of rivers of blood became gruesome reality

 4     for the non-Serbs when his Seseljevci in Bosnia and Herzegovina

 5     participated in the atrocities committed by Serb forces as they took

 6     control over Serb-claimed areas.  In Zvornik, Greater Sarajevo, Mostar,

 7     and Nevesinje, his Seseljevci participated in the systematic expulsion,

 8     detention, murder, torture, rape, and other sexual abuse of non-Serbs and

 9     the wanton destruction of their property and religious sites.

10             Your Honours, the evidence in this case has proven beyond a

11     reasonable doubt that the accused is responsible for the commission of

12     the crimes that he did not personally carry out, but which were committed

13     by his Seseljevci and members of the Serb forces controlled by the JCE

14     members set out in the indictment because, one, the accused and the other

15     JCE members at least by August 1991 were joined in a common criminal

16     purpose to conduct a widespread and systematic campaign of persecution

17     against the non-Serbs in the areas targeted as Serb land in Croatia and

18     Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Two, the crimes were an integral part of this

19     common purpose.  And three, the accused significantly contributed to the

20     common criminal purpose by his relentless propaganda and instigation and

21     by the thousands of Seseljevci that he sent to commit and participate in

22     the crimes.

23             The evidence has also proven that the accused committed

24     persecution through hate speech in Vukovar and Hrtkovci.  The speeches in

25     these places threatened Croats and were given in the context of high


Page 17318

 1     ethnic tension.  Those speeches beyond a reasonable doubt deprived the

 2     Croats in those areas of their right to safety and deprived them of their

 3     right to dignity.  Moreover, as a result of the coercive environment that

 4     the accused created with his speech in Hrtkovci, as we have just heard,

 5     many Croats felt forced to leave the village.  And he is therefore also

 6     responsible for deportation and forcible transfer.

 7             He is therefore guilty for the crimes set out in the indictment.

 8     And as set out in the Prosecution's closing brief, he is also responsible

 9     for instigating and aiding and abetting the crimes set out in the

10     indictment.  And now, proven guilty of these crimes, he must be punished.

11     The accused's crimes in Vukovar, Zvornik, Greater Sarajevo, Mostar,

12     Nevesinje, and Hrtkovci are grave, both in scale and by their heinous

13     nature.

14             His criminal acts and conduct dramatically changed the character

15     of the targeted municipalities from multi-ethnic communities to Serb-only

16     areas by forcibly transferring and deporting tens of thousands of

17     non-Serbs, primarily Croats and Muslims; resulted in the devastation of

18     towns and villages, including Croat and Muslim homes, hospitals, stores,

19     and cemeteries; led to the plunder and encouraged the destruction of

20     religious sites; and caused the murder of 905 people.

21             Not only were the accused's crimes massive in scale, they were

22     also particularly brutal.  His acts and conduct contributed to the murder

23     of children, newborns, pregnant women, the elderly, and the sick; crosses

24     carved on the skin of Muslims; the rape of both women and men under the

25     most sadistic of circumstances.  His crimes deserve a punishment that


Page 17319

 1     reflects their gravity, and there are no mitigating circumstances.

 2             The accused's voluntarily surrender should not be considered a

 3     mitigating circumstance because it was his legal obligation to surrender.

 4     Moreover, in detention and in court his conduct have not warranted

 5     mitigation.  On the contrary, the accused announced that he was here to

 6     "shatter the Tribunal" and he has used the trial as a political platform

 7     for his continued agenda of Serb ethnic supremacy.  He has made every

 8     effort to obstruct the proper functioning of the Tribunal in its search

 9     for truth and accountability.

10             The accused has been contemptuous throughout this trial.  He

11     persistently verbally abused witnesses in court despite repeated

12     instructions from the Court to cease.  He and his associates discouraged

13     witnesses who were connected to the accused during the conflict from

14     appearing and testifying truthfully, in some cases even instructing them

15     on how to disavow their prior statements.  And the accused has repeatedly

16     breached orders for the protection of witnesses.  These are significant

17     aggravating circumstances.

18             In addition, the accused shows no remorse.  Of his propaganda and

19     instigation, he has said before this Chamber, I quote:

20             "And you think that what you were reading yesterday, the quotes

21     from my speeches, and when you showed the clips of my speeches, that I

22     was bothered.  You did me a service.  You have reminded the Serbian

23     people of what I did over those years and how I gained my reputation

24     amongst the Serbian people."

25             He has also told the Tribunal repeatedly:


Page 17320

 1             "I am proud of everything I said then and I am prepared to repeat

 2     all of my speeches even today."

 3             And these two quotes are from transcript pages 16801 and 16818.

 4             And in fact, at the hearing on Monday he said about his words:

 5             These "are the words of a genius that I am still proud of even

 6     today."

 7             That is at transcript page 48, line 4, and I can provide the

 8     Chamber a bit later if needed with the transcript reference to the

 9     official transcript.

10             No trial, conviction, and sentence will bring back the lives lost

11     and ruined by the accused's crimes.  But this fact just does not justify

12     failing to impose a substantial sentence of imprisonment.  The

13     Prosecution recommends a sentence of 28 years to run consecutive to any

14     other sentence imposed on him for his contempt of this Tribunal.

15             That concludes the Prosecution's closing arguments for now.  The

16     Prosecution reserves its remaining time for arguments in rebuttal, should

17     it become necessary, after the accused closing argument.

18             I have two matters to just address to the Chamber.  One is that I

19     respectfully request that the pseudonym sheet that Ms. Biersay referred

20     to in her submissions be added to the record as an exhibit marked for

21     identification so that it is available for later review of the record.

22     And the second thing is that at transcript page 17145, line 13, the name

23     "Krajisnik" should have been "Karadzic."

24             Thank you, Your Honours.

25             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I have something to say.


Page 17321

 1             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Just a moment, please.

 2             Thank you, Mr. Prosecutor.  First of all, Registrar, regarding

 3     this document that has been given to us, we'd like to have an exhibit

 4     number for it, for us to be able to use it later on.

 5             THE REGISTRAR:  Yes, Your Honour.  That will be Exhibit P1404,

 6     under seal.

 7             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Thank you.

 8             The accused's closing arguments are scheduled to take place as of

 9     Monday at 2.15.  He will have ten hours all included for his closing

10     arguments.  Furthermore, the Trial Chamber invites the accused, should he

11     have any documents that he wants to use including the two books that he

12     submitted to the Trial Chamber, one with a red cover, another with a blue

13     cover, I'm not giving the titles, in order to make the interpreters' work

14     easier.  Just in case he might refer to pages in these two books, I

15     invite him, therefore, to provide them prior to the Monday hearing

16     through the Registrar so that the interpreters may prepare those pages he

17     might want to use.  These two books, the one with the blue cover, the

18     other with the red cover, are new -- are re-prints.  Therefore, there may

19     be some changes between the latest book that we had and the one that we

20     don't.  So there may be inconsistencies or changes.  So if he so

21     wishes - of course he's not forced to - but if he can, he could provide

22     these documents.  This is not evidence, of course.  These books are

23     merely documents that he might want to refer to if he should feel the

24     need to do so.

25             Equally, when he makes his closing arguments, I should invite the


Page 17322

 1     Prosecution to remain silent unless there should be a mistake in the

 2     transcript or should the name of a protected witness be named.  But of

 3     course, the Trial Chamber is free to make sure that doesn't happen.  I

 4     repeat, closing arguments must be listened to in absolute silence, the

 5     same goes for the accused's closing arguments.

 6             Before I give the floor to Mr. Seselj -- yes, Mr. Marcussen, do

 7     you have anything to say?

 8             MR. MARCUSSEN:  Your Honours, as the Chamber just indicated, the

 9     books in question are not in evidence, so the Prosecution would find that

10     it is improper for the accused to be referring to this.  There might be

11     certain excerpts of the books that are in evidence as separate

12     Prosecution exhibits.  And if the accused makes use of those, of course

13     he's using the record and that is not a problem.  But in our submission,

14     he cannot be making reference to material which is not in evidence.  He

15     must confine himself to the trial record.

16             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] That interpretation is inaccurate.

17     First of all, you stopped me from leading my Defence case.  All the

18     documents that I tendered during cross-examination at the beginning of

19     the trial you refused.  And after that, I stopped tendering anything,

20     since you have not given me the possibility to lead my Defence case, I

21     put forward to you in good time two of my books.  One is "The

22     Roman Catholic Project of the Creation of the Artificial Croatian

23     Nation," and the other one is "The Ideology of Serbian Nationalism."  I

24     intend to use certain quotes from those books as an integral part of my

25     closing arguments, not as leading evidence, because whatever I tendered


Page 17323

 1     you refused.  You did not allow me to make my Defence case.  For me, that

 2     is over.  But instead of recalling things off the top of my head, I

 3     intend to read passages from those books.

 4             I will not provide those quotes in advance.  The translation

 5     service can make copies of these books and when I say page so and so,

 6     they can find the page.  I don't have the ability to provide this.  I

 7     have no one to help me and the administration of the prison does not

 8     allow me to make any submissions because they don't want to make

 9     photocopies for me, and photocopies are the only proof I have of

10     submitting something.

11             The reason I wanted the floor is to say this.  Mr. Marcussen does

12     not have the right to reserve time.  He was granted ten hours for the

13     Prosecution's closing arguments.  He didn't know how to use all of the

14     ten hours; that's his problem.  I will use all of my ten hours, and I may

15     ask for another two or three hours in addition; that's my right.  In all

16     the other cases where the accused is self-represented, he is given

17     advantages in terms of time.  For instance, Mr. Milosevic had 60 per cent

18     as opposed to 40 per cent of the Prosecution.

19             In other cases, the accused's time is not limited.  You have

20     limited me to the time used by the Prosecution.  I will

21     probably - although I don't know yet, I can't estimate properly now - I

22     may well ask for additional time.  The Prosecution has the right to a

23     rebuttal.  You will decide how much time.  But it's not the time that he

24     has spared.  Whatever time you give the Prosecutor for rebuttal, you will

25     have to give me the same amount of time to respond to the rebuttal;


Page 17324

 1     that's my right.  I will not reserve any time from my closing argument

 2     and I'm just reminding you that you have to do this.  And if you don't do

 3     it, even better for me.  That's another argument how this Tribunal is

 4     humiliating itself.  And I prefer to see you losing face --

 5             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] [Previous translation

 6     continues] ... decision the Trial Chamber has set the amount of hours for

 7     each party and made sure to say that closing arguments for either party

 8     are but an addition to the briefs that were filed.  The Prosecution filed

 9     their briefs, so did you.  Yours are over 600 pages long.  We were

10     infinitely generous towards you and we granted you ten hours, which is an

11     inordinate amount of time.  I have no memory in this Tribunal of closing

12     arguments lasting as many as ten hours.  Usually much less time is given

13     for the purpose.  However, this Tribunal says that in exceptional

14     circumstances following closing arguments the practice is that the

15     Prosecutor may have the floor for specific points, in which case the

16     Defence is also entitled obviously to close the proceedings in speaking

17     last.  This is the rule in law on this matter.

18             Closing arguments are closing arguments.  You've heard the

19     Prosecution's closing arguments.  You're now totally free to speak to

20     whatever topic you decide, but please do not waste the Trial Chamber's

21     time.  We therefore will make sure that your time is used in the best way

22     possible for your Defence.  But I'm not worried, I'm sure that you're

23     going to make best use of your time.

24             You told us that despite my invitation to give the books to the

25     interpreters, you have decided not to do so.  Well, interpreters are


Page 17325

 1     wonderful anyway -- make wonders.  And I've read the two books, so of

 2     course I'll make sure that I can check what you say because I have read

 3     over 2.000 pages in preparation for this.  And you yourself admitted that

 4     this is not in evidence or evidence, but that you will refer to these

 5     books.  So I see no problem whatsoever.

 6             Yes, Mr. Seselj, one last word.

 7             THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. President, I no longer have the

 8     books in English.  My legal advisors recently brought me five sets of

 9     those books, and immediately, as soon as they entered the prison

10     building, I handed them over to the guards to forward to the Tribunal;

11     three sets for the Trial Chamber, one set for the Prosecutor, and one set

12     for the Registrar.  I don't see that I could have done anything more.

13     They could not have brought more than that.  And it turns out that their

14     visit, since I was not given the right to privileged communication, we

15     spent two days sitting down talking about anything.  We couldn't talk

16     about my case because the conversation was eavesdropped.  My Case Manager

17     Nemanja Sarovic was present but we could not have access to privileged

18     communication.  Since we didn't have an interpreter to control our

19     conversation, we concluded that the conversation was eavesdropped, and

20     they had the right to do that because at the outset they told us that our

21     communication was not privileged.

22             They brought five sets of books.  If they had sent them by mail

23     or if my wife had brought them to the prison, the prison officers would

24     have provided me with just one set and the rest would have been

25     confiscated.  Nobody would have ever asked me why I needed five sets


Page 17326

 1     because the prison authorities are afraid of my propaganda being spread

 2     amongst other detainees.

 3             One thing more I need to tell you.  I learned yesterday from a

 4     document that I had been provided by the Registry was -- that there was a

 5     ban on my contacting all the other prisoners, and that was never provided

 6     in writing to me.  We're talking about Goran Hadzic and some others.  Why

 7     do I know that that applies to Goran Hadzic?  Because Hadzic was in the

 8     living room with his family and I was locked up with my legal advisors.

 9     This is just unheard of.

10             If there is any reason for that communication to be banned, then

11     I should be provided with an order and an explanation.  Why Hadzic of all

12     people?  Because in my proceedings I unmasked everything that was

13     happening around Ovcara, and the Prosecution is still insisting on the

14     old story about the military security service, the civilian security

15     service, everybody handing --

16             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [No interpretation]

17                           [Trial Chamber and Registrar confer]

18             JUDGE ANTONETTI: [Interpretation] Mr. Seselj, I was saying that

19     the Trial Chamber hasn't banned anything whatsoever and the issue you are

20     raising comes under the competence of the President and the Registry, not

21     us.  So what you have just said is on the transcript, but as far as we

22     are concerned, I can confirm that we haven't banned anything whatsoever.

23             That said, since everything has been said, we shall meet again at

24     a quarter past 2.00 on Monday.

25                           --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 5.21 p.m.,


Page 17327

 1                           to be reconvened on Monday, the 12th day of

 2                           March, 2012, at 2.15 p.m.

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