Page 15336
1 Tuesday, 18 February 2003
2 [Open session]
3 [The accused entered court]
4 --- Upon commencing at 9.03 a.m.
5 JUDGE MUMBA: Please call the case.
6 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning. Case number IT-95-9-T, the
7 Prosecutor versus Blagoje Simic, Miroslav Tadic and Simo Zaric.
8 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, Mr. Lukic, you're continuing.
9 WITNESS: MIROSLAV TADIC [Resumed]
10 [Witness answered through interpreter]
11 Examined by Mr. Lukic: [Continued]
12 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honours.
13 Q. Good morning, Mr. Tadic. We will continue. We spoke about the
14 first exchange at Zasavica and my final question is this: Given that in
15 your interview to the OTP on page 71, you mentioned that you learned later
16 on that Croats refused to release ten Serbs who had also been brought to
17 Zasavica. When was it that you heard about that, that they were not able
18 to cross over in that exchange, they were not allowed to do that?
19 A. The first knowledge was gained on that very day when we saw that a
20 fewer number of people came than was initially planned. However, we were
21 not quite sure what was behind this. I learned of this later with the
22 next exchange on the 4th of July, when the people who were returned on the
23 first occasion came, and then they told us that they were at the exchange
24 site but that due to some reasons, they were returned, and at the time
25 they didn't know why they were returned.
Page 15337
1 Q. Following that exchange, did you continue negotiations regarding
2 the ensuing exchanges? Where did you go for negotiations and whom did you
3 negotiate with?
4 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours could we move into
5 private session before the witness gives his answer?
6 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
7 [Private session]
8 [redacted]
9 [redacted]
10 [redacted]
11 [redacted]
12 [redacted]
13 [redacted]
14 [redacted]
15 [redacted]
16 [redacted]
17 [redacted]
18 [redacted]
19 [redacted]
20 [redacted]
21 [Open session]
22 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
23 Q. My question was: Did you continue negotiating and where were
24 these negotiations conducted and what was the purpose of them?
25 A. After the 25th or 26th of May, we learned from the people who were
Page 15338
1 exchanged then a lot of new facts that were important, and we wanted to
2 continue with our negotiations in order to have some more activity of that
3 nature. Mr. Mikic, a few days later, told me that another man would come
4 who would talk to me, and that was this very gentleman that we have
5 mentioned. We continued our negotiations concerning the upcoming
6 exchange. At the time I did not know the gentleman, so it was a bit
7 tense, the situation was a bit tense. There was a bit of mistrust there.
8 However, we had no other option. We had to talk.
9 Q. Where were these talks conducted?
10 A. The talks were still conducted through the communication centre so
11 we had no direct contact except the contact through communication centre.
12 Q. We have heard Mr. Ninkovic and Mr. Maslic testify about the
13 communication centre. Let us just point out for the Trial Chamber that
14 this communication centre was linked throughout the region with several
15 other centres and that was how it was before the war; is that right?
16 A. Yes. Mr. Ninkovic spoke about this and he is more informed than
17 anyone else and he said that before the war, this communication centre was
18 used to establish contact between various municipalities in our region.
19 This region is called the Doboj region. I don't want to enumerate these
20 municipalities it's already been done.
21 Q. The official name of that centre was the centre for early warning
22 and reporting is that what it was called?
23 A. Yes, I think that's what Mr. Ninkovic said.
24 Q. Yes. But we will refer to as the communication centre because
25 that is how it is generally known.
Page 15339
1 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, could the witness be
2 shown document PDB 141? That's how it is internally marked, 141/ter.
3 That's the last document that was delivered in this particular set of
4 documents. The witness will speak of this document. He knows quite a lot
5 about it.
6 Your Honours, you have the original document, as it was drafted,
7 then there is a version in B/C/S and the translation into English. I saw
8 several errors in the B/C/S version that were later reflected in the
9 English version as well. And I would like now to go with the witness over
10 five reports. I believe this document to be very important, not only for
11 Mr. Tadic's Defence but also in order to clearly show what the situation
12 was like in Samac. What you can see, Your Honours, is that up until the
13 17th of April, there are only certain hours given in certain reports, and
14 after the first several pages, you will see that the dates are missing and
15 then after the month of June, the reports were made -- the entries were
16 made on a daily basis and in order to cover this quickly, Mr. Tadic, I
17 will read this out to you and you can just confirm to me whether it's
18 correct or not.
19 Q. The first part I would like to read out is on the English version,
20 page 7, paragraph 4. And it begins with the 30th of June. The 30th of
21 June, if you've found that entry, then I would start reading out --
22 JUDGE MUMBA: Which document? We can't find the -- page 7, we
23 can't find 30th of June.
24 MR. DI FAZIO: I can't find it either, if it's --
25 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] The English version.
Page 15340
1 THE INTERPRETER: Excuse me, the French booth does not have the
2 text.
3 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] [Microphone not activated]
4 JUDGE MUMBA: Mr. Lukic the French booth say they don't have the
5 document.
6 THE INTERPRETER: Neither does the English booth, Your Honour.
7 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] English version at the end, page 7 is
8 marked, page 7 of the English version.
9 MR. PANTELIC: Also, Your Honour, we have a problem with the ELMO.
10 We don't receive any picture here. So in the meantime maybe we could have
11 assistance of the technical booth.
12 JUDGE LINDHOLM: Mr. Lukic, I have a question because there are no
13 number attached, do you mean this thick document, what is a handwritten
14 first part and then it's -- there is a B/C/S version and an English
15 version and it's the document dated on the 6th of December, 1992? Is that
16 the document we are talking about?
17 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Yes, you're quite right. In the
18 original B/C/S version, which is handwritten, you will see that the 6
19 December of 1992 is written in a handwriting, in the upper corner, but the
20 date mentioned is the 26th of November, and the witness will tell us about
21 that. That is the document, you're quite right.
22 JUDGE LINDHOLM: If I may continue, Your Honour, on page 7 we
23 can't find what you was -- you were pointing to. There is no paragraph 4.
24 There is three dates, 6 of February, 7th of February and 10th of February
25 and then no dates at all except for, yeah, they are 12th of February, 13th
Page 15341
1 of February and 14th of February.
2 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, please take a look at
3 page 7 of the English version. Do you have an English version marked on
4 page 7? Do you have that?
5 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
6 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] On that page, or rather -- I'm sorry,
7 page 4, page 4, paragraph 3, [In English] [Microphone not activated] 30
8 June. [Interpretation] On the 30th of June.
9 JUDGE LINDHOLM: No, there is nothing such.
10 JUDGE MUMBA: Could we have the usher's assistance, maybe the
11 usher should show you the document we have. Mr. Lukic can look at it and
12 see whether that's the correct document.
13 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Since the transcript was done later
14 on, the pages in your versions are differently marked. Let us leave aside
15 this document and during the break, I will compare the pages and then we
16 can analyse this document after the break. It will be easier for
17 everybody to follow. In the meantime we can cover other issues.
18 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
19 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I have the initial translation and
20 this is how I did my marking but during the break I will get everything
21 ready.
22 Q. Mr. Tadic, we will come back to this document after the break.
23 Tell us, please: What did you negotiate about with the opposite side?
24 What was the procedure like and what did you do after the negotiations in
25 order to carry out an exchange successfully?
Page 15342
1 A. First of all, we talked about the events which took place on the
2 25th of May so we talked about the first exchange, and jointly we
3 concluded that as far as the technical matters were concerned, that
4 exchange was not a great success. There were problems with crossing over
5 at the exchange site. The river itself, the River Bosna, presented quite
6 a problem. At the time the water level was quite high, and the terrain on
7 the opposite side was quite muddy so the access was not an easy one.
8 Another problem was that at the time we found ourselves right between two
9 defence lines, if I can call them that way, behind our back were the
10 soldiers of the Army of Republika Srpska, whereas behind the back of the
11 people on the other side were the soldiers of the Croatian Defence
12 Council. So a minor incident, not a deliberate one, could have put both
13 sides in a very difficult situation. Therefore, we concluded that we
14 shouldn't have any other activities at that site.
15 Q. And did somebody propose something? Did somebody give an initial
16 proposal and where did you start meeting after that?
17 A. After some time, given that the opposite side had already had
18 talks with the 1st Krajina Corps, with which we had no contact whatsoever,
19 there was part of the core that was stationed in Banja Luka at the time,
20 in the Banja Luka area. So as a result of that, they already had some
21 experience with that and they used to meet in a place called Dragalic,
22 which is a gas station on the former highway between Belgrade and Zagreb,
23 some 30 kilometres from Slavonski Brod in the direction of Zagreb.
24 There was another site on the eastern part of that area, near a
25 town called Sid, the place was called Lipovac. They suggested that we
Page 15343
1 conduct the following exchange in Lipovac. At the time it was an UNPA
2 zone. That's what it was called. It was under the control of the United
3 Nations. I believe that there was a Russian battalion there in addition
4 to other forces.
5 Q. Just a minute. We will now analyse these two issues but before we
6 do that, it would be good to put a map before the witness. This was a map
7 presented during the testimony of Dr. Donia showing UNPA zones. Perhaps
8 the witness could now show us where Samac is and where these other two
9 places, Sid and Lipovac are?
10 JUDGE MUMBA: What is the document's formal exhibit number?
11 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I don't know exactly but it was
12 attached to the expert report of Dr. Donia.
13 JUDGE MUMBA: Can we just have the number from the registry,
14 please, assistance? If you can search so that we know exactly which map.
15 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I don't know exactly but it was
16 attached to the expert report. I don't know if Dr. Donia specifically
17 mentioned this. This is map number 13, showing Bosnia and Herzegovina and
18 the UNPA protected zones. I have the OTP number here. Perhaps they would
19 be able to help us, 03019614 is the number, since this is an OTP exhibit.
20 MR. DI FAZIO: That can't help us at the moment to identify it.
21 Am I right if Mr. Lukic intends to have it marked and present it as a
22 fresh new exhibit? Or if that's the case, we don't need to know what the
23 old number is.
24 JUDGE MUMBA: It was attached to the report, I'm informed, which
25 was Exhibit -- which is Exhibit P1.
Page 15344
1 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] That's right.
2 MR. DI FAZIO: I understand that Mr. Lukic intends to create now
3 an entirely new exhibit because it's going to be marked by the witness.
4 JUDGE MUMBA: It's map 13 of Exhibit P1, I think.
5 Yes, the correct information now Dr. Donia's report is P1, all the
6 maps collectively are P2. So it's part of P2. So your intention is to
7 have that clear map marked by the accused and then it will be exhibit --
8 it will be an exhibit for the Defence?
9 MR. LUKIC: Yes.
10 JUDGE MUMBA: All right.
11 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
12 Q. Mr. Tadic, if you can just roughly mark with number 1, Samac,
13 Dragalic with number 2, and Lipovac with number 3?
14 A. Since in the forthcoming testimonies, there will be mention of
15 these UNPA areas or rather places where exchanges occurred, I would like
16 to mark all the places where the exchanges took place. I think that's the
17 best approach.
18 Samac is exactly here, while the River Sava is here so I will mark
19 it with number 1.
20 Sid is approximately here, and the highway runs through this area
21 and this is where Lipovac is.
22 Q. Please mark Sid with number 2.
23 A. Number 3 is Lipovac.
24 Q. And where was Dragalic, approximately?
25 A. Here in this zone, there is the place called Nemetin which will
Page 15345
1 also going to be mentioned in relation to the exchange of the 14th of
2 August, 1992.
3 Q. So Nemetin is in Yugoslavia?
4 A. No, it was in the UNPA zone east. These areas with lines indicate
5 UNPA zones. Dragalic is on the part of the highway, roughly here. That
6 will be number 5. And in this part here, as I said here there was a
7 Russian battalion and there were Indians in Nemetin. However in Dragalic
8 which is very close, there was a battalion from Nepal. So this is the
9 eastern part of this shaded area and this is Novska which is also going to
10 be mentioned, marked with number 6. There was a Jordanian battalion.
11 Q. Speaking about these exchange locations, can you tell us where the
12 negotiations with the Muslim part took place most often and where
13 representatives from Samac took place?
14 A. There is no border line here but this is a kind of demarcation
15 line that ran through this area and this is where Sibosnica was.
16 Satorovici [phoen] was here. And this is Gradacac. And Karanovac near
17 Doboj is also a place that we are going to see on a video film. So
18 towards Tuzla was this demarcation line, and these four locations were on
19 this line that I just mentioned.
20 Q. Could you please put number 7 for all these four locations?
21 A. That means these were the locations where negotiations were
22 conducted with the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
23 Q. As we can see where the negotiations with the Muslim side took
24 place were not under the UN protection?
25 A. There is another place where negotiations were conducted in which
Page 15346
1 I took part, and that was somewhere here near Glina. This is supposed to
2 be where Petrinja is located, and there was a Belgian battalion there.
3 This is number 8. So all these marked locations and places -- do I have
4 to go back again?
5 Q. Not necessary.
6 A. These were the locations where negotiations were conducted at the
7 time in which the commission from Samac took place. There were other,
8 many other places, but we did not have contact with these places except
9 the ones that I just marked.
10 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Could we have a number for this
11 exhibit, please?
12 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] This shaded area here is called
13 Western Slavonia, where you see this place which is called Pakrac.
14 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
15 Q. The legend says that these were all protected areas so it is
16 clear.
17 Mr. Tadic, we don't have to discuss this document furthermore.
18 Can we have it marked as an exhibit?
19 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
20 THE REGISTRAR: This will be Exhibit D153/3.
21 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
22 Q. And finally, before we proceed to the exchange of July, tell me
23 where was this exchange to be taken -- to take place in July was agreed?
24 A. I already said that we did not have any information about these
25 places before that date, and they told us that there was a possibility
Page 15347
1 that in those UNPA zones, safe contacts, either in the form of talks or in
2 the form of exchange, could be secured. We had no experience in that and
3 we couldn't come up with any better proposal so quite simply we accepted
4 this proposal. I very often say "we" and whenever I say "we" I refer to
5 the Serbian part of the negotiating team from Samac. That means either
6 myself or Veljo Maslic or possibly some messages were received by other
7 people than us and we can see that when we speak about the communication
8 centre.
9 Q. In order to eventually get to Lipovac and make the exchange there,
10 what did you have to do to make the convoy reach Lipovac?
11 A. Yes. We saw that there was this UNPA zone in the map. I didn't
12 show but maybe I should have shown to you where we had to go through in
13 order to reach Lipovac. At the time it was in this UNPA zone which was
14 particularly protected one, and it was inaccessible without the approval
15 of representatives of the United Nations. At the time, they had their
16 offices kind of offices in Belgrade. In addition, we had to go through
17 Brcko, Bijeljina and in Raca we had to cross over to another state, that
18 is Yugoslavia. We had to then go through a part of Yugoslavia which also
19 required permission. So people coming from another state who are not
20 citizens of that particular state, people coming from war-torn zone and of
21 course we needed permission to reach Sid, and also the permission from the
22 United Nations to get to Lipovac. That was really a great problem and I
23 simply went to Belgrade in order to discuss it with the Yugoslav
24 commission, how to accomplish this, because at the time Yugoslavia also
25 had its own exchange commission and I got in touch with some people there
Page 15348
1 who were involved in these matters and they explained to me that we need
2 to have all these permissions that I have just mentioned. They were very
3 forthcoming and they said they would help me in all these matters, that
4 they would get in touch with Yugoslavia and with the United Nations as
5 well, and that they would obtain these permissions for our passage. Of
6 course, that's what they did. I didn't have any contacts with the
7 representatives of Yugoslavia or with representatives of the United
8 Nations. They made a written request for the permission and we did get
9 this permission, I think sometime in late June, for us to be able to cross
10 over to Yugoslavia, pass through these parts of Yugoslavia, and eventually
11 reach the UNPA zone that I just mentioned.
12 Q. Before we proceed with the exchange itself, when you were
13 negotiating with the opposite side, and if they have any requests, what
14 did you do if those persons were in detention or were not in detention?
15 What was the procedure? Did you decide it yourself or not?
16 A. I already explained the procedure. I can only repeat it now. The
17 people who were not in detention, and wanted to leave, they applied to the
18 local Red Cross organisation, as for the people who were in detention,
19 permission was given for them by the secretariat or rather the police
20 station or MUP, as we used to call it. So the permission was issued for
21 them by MUP. Of course, those who applied with the Red Cross did not
22 necessarily mean that they would automatically get so to say a visa to
23 leave. Somebody should request them to come from the opposite side in
24 order to put them on the list. So it could have happened that somebody
25 applied but if the -- that person was not sought from the other side,
Page 15349
1 instead of people under -- a man under number 20 as opposed to the man who
2 was first on the list could have been exchanged. This process of seeking
3 went from the opposite side and that is the witness I'm referring to.
4 However, he did not know these men, these people, and he was not able to
5 put anyone in the list to cross over because he didn't know anyone. So
6 that means that somebody ought to suggest to him which particular persons
7 he should seek from our region, and accordingly, he would submit this kind
8 of list to our side and based on that list, and from the one with the
9 applications with the Red Cross already, we took the men who were sought.
10 So that means that somebody could not be -- could not apply for but could
11 have been exchanged.
12 Q. Even if the people who were not sought but who expressed their
13 desire to go and there were vacant places on the buses, what did you do?
14 A. If the number agreed was insufficient, then we would tell him that
15 we have applications from people who wished to cross over, and we would
16 dictate this list to him. Then in turn, he would contact the people on
17 the other side who were supposed to receive these people in Orasje or most
18 often in Samac and Domaljevac on this side because that's where the
19 majority of the residents of Samac were. Then they would say that they
20 knew these people and they didn't know that they didn't arrive or that
21 they expressed their desire in various ways and that is when it could
22 happen that none of those who applied went over, because nobody expressed
23 readiness to receive them and then he would tell us, "I have no facilities
24 provided for this particular person so don't bring there person over."
25 Q. Can we now move to a private session, please?
Page 15350
1 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
2 [Private session]
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14 [Open session]
15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Was this a private session because
16 of the gentleman that we just mentioned?
17 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
18 Q. Yes. Tell me what was the attitude of Mr. Todorovic towards
19 Lukac, towards Bicici and other witnesses?
20 A. He had a similar attitude towards him as towards the others. He
21 continued to spread rumours that those were very important people, in
22 order maybe to make himself look more important.
23 Q. So what kind of information did you pass on to the opposite side
24 when these persons were sought for?
25 A. I just told them what I knew. I said that there would be problems
Page 15352
1 with getting permission and that as soon as I got one I would put him on
2 so that is what I discussed with them. So regardless of what the opposite
3 side insisted on and sought some people, unless there was permission, this
4 cannot be discussed and vice versa. If we wanted to have some people from
5 the opposite side, if no permission is given, they equally could not have
6 been put on the list. So in each and every case, we need permission from
7 the organs that were conducting investigations or filed reports to the
8 courts. These were organs in charge.
9 MR. DI FAZIO: If Your Honours please, in order for to you make
10 sense of this information -- sorry, this evidence, you will have to know
11 from whom the permission was being granted. That is in Bosanski Samac.
12 Mr. Tadic has said that on one occasion, Mr. Todorovic was the person
13 granting or not granting permission. But you should know, I submit,
14 whether it was him, that is Mr. Todorovic, on all occasions, who was the
15 man responsible for granting permission for prisoners to be exchanged or
16 whether Mr. Tadic is saying it was Mr. Todorovic or other people.
17 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I believe that the witness has already
18 said that, at the beginning, but let's clarify.
19 Q. Whom did you apply regarding this? Was it just to him or to
20 somebody else? Who was supposed to give you permissions for prisoners?
21 A. I've already said that the chief of MUP was in charge of that, and
22 that was Mr. Todorovic, and he could have delegated this authority to some
23 of his associates, to inspectors, police commanders and so on. So he did
24 not have to give permission himself necessarily, but he was in charge of
25 this so to speak. If he withheld his approval, then they were not allowed
Page 15353
1 to do anything without his consent, and in this particular case, I've
2 already said that Mr. Todorovic was absent, and it was quite clear that
3 somebody else was involved in decision-making in that particular instance.
4 Q. So permissions were also requested from some other organs but we
5 will get to that later chronologically?
6 A. During those first days at the beginning, we mostly applied to SUP
7 for permissions. You will see in the documents that the opposite side
8 sought permissions from the military segment, whereas we did not have that
9 initially.
10 Q. Yesterday, when we spoke about your entering detention facilities,
11 and you told us that you never went to detention facilities except on one
12 occasion, tell us, please, when and why did you go there? I'm interested
13 in the episode with Mr. Mate Perkovic which you mentioned in your
14 interview.
15 A. On one occasion, when I had a radio contact and was talking to the
16 other side, to the opposite side, I learned that there was a man there who
17 wanted to exchange a few words with me. I didn't know the man. And he
18 told me that his name was Perkovic. I forgot his first name. And that he
19 had a brother detained in Samac, at least that was the information he had,
20 and that is Mate Perkovic, the brother is Mate Perkovic. So he asked me
21 to go and relay the message to his brother to say to him that his family
22 was fine, that there were in a safe place, somewhere in Croatia, I
23 believe, the family was his wife and children, so he just needed to know
24 that they were fine and safe, that he shouldn't worry about them, that he
25 should only worry about himself and that he should try to get on the
Page 15354
1 exchange list.
2 I went to the SUP, and since I didn't know where Mr. Perkovic was
3 kept, I asked the guard on duty to tell me where Perkovic was. He told me
4 that he was there in the SUP building. I told him that I wanted to have a
5 little talk with him and he said that he needed to check with his
6 superiors. He called somebody on the phone and then said to me, "That's
7 fine." And then he went to the SUP building area where two cells were,
8 these two cells were frequently mentioned and shown here, and he took Mato
9 Perkovic to the hallway. I'd never seen the man before. I conveyed the
10 message to him. He thanked me and went back to his cell. That was all
11 regarding my contact with Mato Perkovic. And I would like to emphasise
12 that I didn't know him from before.
13 In 2000, when I was on provisional release, I happened to be in a
14 store selling construction material, and it belongs to a witness called
15 Veselin Blagojevic. Two men came to the store to buy something. I knew
16 one of them very well, and I didn't know the other. And when we greeted
17 each other, he asked me, do you know this man? I said no. He said, this
18 is Mato Perkovic.
19 Q. Did you greet each other then?
20 A. Naturally, we did. In addition to just greeting each other, we
21 also had a little talk and he was very happy about his current situation.
22 Q. Before we get to the July exchange, let's cover several other
23 issues, chronologically. In the month of June, did you go to visit
24 Patriarch Pavle in Belgrade and if so what happened there? First, tell me
25 did you go there?
Page 15355
1 A. Yes, I did. I went to see his holiness.
2 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Can we go into private session because
3 we will be mentioning a protected witness.
4 JUDGE MUMBA: Very well.
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5 [redacted]
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7 [redacted]
8 [redacted]
9 [redacted]
10 [redacted]
11 [Open session]
12 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
13 Q. Now we will discuss the July exchange.
14 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Could the witness be shown the
15 following documents together, D12/3, D8/3, D9/3, D71/3, D72/3 and D30/3
16 ID? The last document is D30/4 ID.
17 Q. While the documents are being prepared, tell us, please, were
18 there any problems in preparation for that exchange, Lipovac, 4th and 5th
19 July of 1992? How was the final number for the exchange arrived at?
20 A. I remember that well because that was practically the first
21 exchange and I remember all of the details well. It was agreed that at
22 around that time, at least the intention was to have that organised as the
23 largest exchange that we ever had with the opposite side. A total of 220
24 people crossed over from both sides. It was a combination of people,
25 military -- fit for military service, the elderly, women and children, on
Page 15359
1 both sides. That was the category of people exchanged. So it was a
2 combination that we agreed upon in our talks.
3 I assumed that problems would arise in connection with certain
4 persons that were supposed to be exchanged, even one witness said here
5 that one well-intentioned policeman had told him to quickly board the bus
6 and not to peek through the window, which was a sign that somebody was
7 displeased at his leaving. So he was told since he was on the list he
8 should get on the bus quickly and to hide from being seen by other
9 people. Initially, we had problems with [redacted].
10 Q. Who created these problems?
11 A. Is this a closed or open session?
12 Q. We have to move back again to private session. Just to strike out
13 the name.
14 [Private session]
15 [redacted]
16 [redacted]
17 [redacted]
18 [redacted]
19 [redacted]
20 [redacted]
21 [redacted]
22 [redacted]
23 [redacted]
24 [redacted]
25 [redacted]
Page 15360
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Page 15361
1 [redacted]
2 [redacted]
3 [redacted]
4 [redacted]
5 [redacted]
6 [redacted]
7 [redacted]
8 [redacted]
9 [redacted]
10 [redacted]
11 [redacted]
12 [redacted]
13 [Open session]
14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Since we were late, and I drove my
15 own passenger car, I told them that I will go a little bit forward because
16 my car was faster than the bus in the columns, in order for me to get
17 there in time to advise that we were running late and to make sure that
18 the exchange would take place. I arrived to the place where the Russian
19 battalion was stationed. They were notified about our arrival. I told
20 them that we were running late but they said that they couldn't do
21 anything because they had no contacts from -- with the opposite side, that
22 we had to wait for the police, the UN police to arrive, and since they had
23 communications with them, they called them, the UN police arrived, in fact
24 two policemen came, one of them was a Swede and the other one was an
25 Irishman. We waited there, and I acted as an interpreter as well, and we
Page 15362
1 waited for the buses to arrive for perhaps another hour after I had
2 arrived. So the buses were really -- were pretty much delayed. All the
3 other operations and activities were now taken over by the policemen
4 because they were in contact with the side where Croats were, and they
5 brought some associates of there from Vinkovci and they told us that the
6 other side had been waiting for us since we didn't appear they went back.
7 Then this man told them to go and meet the column, to bring those people
8 back, and if the exchange was impossible to happen on that same evening,
9 that it should happen the following day. So thanks to the UN policemen,
10 it was agreed that the exchange would take place the following day.
11 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
12 Q. Just a few more details relating to this exchange. At the very
13 line of exchange, did persons had to declare their view? You have a list
14 in front of you and can you tell us whether the identical categories of
15 people who cross over on the first occasion --
16 A. Allow me to say one more sentence about this. That night we had
17 to spend outdoors because this parking lot near the motel was closed at
18 the time, and when I arrived it was already dark. I approached these
19 people, I told them what the situation was, that they should organise
20 themselves somehow, and to have women and children stay in buses and that
21 men should endure this night. We who had cars spent the night on this
22 parking lot until the next morning, just as everybody else did.
23 Q. Can you please comment on -- because you said that a certain
24 number of men fit for military service, a certain number of elderly men,
25 women and children were agreed. Do these numbers correspond? Are they
Page 15363
1 identical?
2 A. It is identical, but it happened that in this list, that has kind
3 of marked D12/3, I don't know if it is its -- no, I apologise. I'm
4 looking at another list. That has number 1 in the corner, and there is a
5 list of women --
6 Q. We are talking about the document D8/3 ter, beginning with the
7 woman's name?
8 A. Yes, we have names of children, specified here, just Milka Stanic
9 and children. It didn't say specifically whether there were two children
10 or more than two children. For example, under number 6, you have Stana
11 Dragojlovic and a child. In this case, it's obvious that there was one
12 child. So if you presume that whenever you have children, there were two
13 children, it turns out that there were more than 40 children involved. And
14 this number was a little bit disputable because apparently there were more
15 children. Amongst Serbs who crossed over to our side. Otherwise,
16 everything is exactly as it had been agreed.
17 Q. Are you familiar with all these six lists?
18 A. Yes. I am. And I believe that I had sent these lists to
19 Mrs. Marija Velikonja in 1996.
20 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, on behalf of Mr. Zaric's
21 counsel, can we ask to have an exhibit number for document D30/4 ID
22 because the remaining documents have already been tendered as exhibits.
23 JUDGE MUMBA: Any objection?
24 MR. DI FAZIO: I apologise for that delay. No objections, if Your
25 Honours please.
Page 15364
1 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. Can we have the number?
2 THE REGISTRAR: It will be Exhibit D30/4. And ter for the B/C/S.
3 Thank you.
4 JUDGE MUMBA: Thank you.
5 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] D71/3 and D72/3 have the same number
6 but I think we have submitted translations of these documents. All right.
7 We shall not waste the Chamber's time now.
8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Can I make a comment regarding a few
9 names here?
10 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
11 Q. Yes. We just have to check whether we are in closed session.
12 A. We don't need private session for this and I'm referring to the
13 list, number 3, which begins with the name Kosta, father's name Ljubomir
14 Arsenic.
15 MR. DI FAZIO: Your Honour could we be precisely clear about what
16 exhibit we have in front of the witness, what exhibit we are talking
17 about? Thank you.
18 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] The witness is talking now about the
19 document D9/3.
20 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, you can continue.
21 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Since yesterday, I mentioned
22 something about this, about these ordinal numbers, 27, 28 and 29. These
23 are exactly the names of my uncles. You can see one was born -- two were
24 born in 1915 and one was born in 1929, and that was particularly the
25 persons who did not apply for the first exchange out of fear because they
Page 15365
1 didn't know what the outcome of the exchange was going to be. So because
2 they were afraid, they remained another two months in detention although
3 they were given priority because much younger people applied than those in
4 this list. However, all these elderly people had bad experience with
5 these events and they were reluctant to apply because of fear and later,
6 they were a little bit upset for having been made to wait another two
7 months because those were old men, as I said, two of them were born in
8 1915 and one of them was born in 1929.
9 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
10 Q. Thank you. Can we go -- move to private session just for a couple
11 of moments because we are going to mention a protected witness?
12 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
13 [Private session]
14 [redacted]
15 [redacted]
16 [redacted]
17 [redacted]
18 [redacted]
19 [redacted]
20 [redacted]
21 [redacted]
22 [redacted]
23 [redacted]
24 [redacted]
25 [redacted]
Page 15366
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Page 15367
1 [redacted]
2 [redacted]
3 [redacted]
4 [redacted]
5 [redacted]
6 [redacted]
7 [redacted]
8 [redacted]
9 [Open session]
10 JUDGE LINDHOLM: Mr. Lukic, I have a question. Page 31, now it
11 disappeared, but it was lines I think 4, 5 and 6, doesn't make any sense
12 to me. What did the witness intend to tell us?
13 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] In order not to go back to private
14 session, when the witness told you, "I don't mind having been beaten but I
15 mind having been beaten by Todorovic" that was the comment you made, can
16 you please exchange to the Trial Chamber what did you have in mind? What
17 did this witness actually say?
18 A. If that's what it was on that page, I said there that the witness,
19 this witness, told me that he didn't particularly mind being in a state he
20 was in and he was in a bad state. We had heard here during testimony that
21 he had been beaten by Mr. Todorovic as well, but since he was an
22 experienced policeman, he knew quite a lot about the police, he told me
23 that he minded the fact that the head of SUP descended so low as to beat
24 him. That was what he minded. He said that the head of SUP would have a
25 lot of ways in getting him in a state he was without affecting himself.
Page 15368
1 So you can conclude what he meant by this.
2 JUDGE LINDHOLM: Thank you.
3 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It's like when at the SUP station,
4 the head of SUP would say to his subordinates, "Don't beat him" and then
5 wink at the same time. That's what he meant.
6 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Can we now have a break, Your Honours?
7 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. We will continue at 11.00.
8 --- Recess taken at 10.30 a.m.
9 --- On resuming at 11.03 a.m.
10 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, Mr. Lukic.
11 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
12 Q. Mr. Tadic, just one more question concerning the July exchange.
13 Did something happen when you got in buses to Samac with people who had
14 been exchanged and those who refused to cross over?
15 A. After spending the night in Sid, we completed the exchange, then
16 quite early at that. We returned to Samac, and at the Tekstilac kitchen,
17 a meal was prepared for those who had come from the other side. There
18 were quite a lot of people there waiting. You can imagine what it looks
19 like when some 220 to 230 people come. You can imagine the amount of
20 people waiting to greet them and to see them. So the -- when the meal was
21 already at its end, a shelling of Samac started. Several shells landed in
22 the vicinity of the kitchen, with one of the shells hitting the building
23 itself on the left side. However, there were no casualties, and people
24 simply dispersed, running away from the area. Several people were wounded
25 but there were no fatalities.
Page 15369
1 Q. Could we now take a look at the notebook of the communication
2 centre?
3 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Could the witness please be shown
4 document PDB 141/3? The problem was that we had two translations,
5 initially I didn't think that it was necessary to translate pages
6 pertaining to the period before the 17th of April, because I didn't think
7 that anything there was relevant for this case, but there are other
8 important things.
9 Q. The first part I would like to read out is on page 17 of the
10 English version. It's the third paragraph. The date is the 30th of June,
11 1992. At 900 hours. That's how that sentence begins. And if you have
12 found this, I would like to read it out to Mr. Tadic now. Mr. Tadic,
13 could you please follow what I'm reading and then comment on it? There is
14 a word in the original which has not been translated, so I will read it
15 all out. "On the 30th of June, 1992, at 0900 hours, at conversation with
16 Domaljevac was conducted concerning the exchange. Bozanovic was read out
17 a list of people sought by Orasje. Conversation scheduled for 1100 hours
18 on the same day. Conversation with [redacted]from Odzak was scheduled for
19 1400 hours. Conversation with [redacted]took place concerning the
20 exchange and a new meeting was scheduled during the day, once [redacted]
21 calls at 2100 hours. Bozanovic conveyed the message to Orasje concerning
22 the exchange. Orasje ready for exchange, providing that the three
23 persons -- providing that the three persons, Tadic wrote down are found.
24 New meeting scheduled for the following day, the 1st of July, 1992, at
25 0900 hours with Domaljevac." That's at page 14, Mr. Tadic. You will see
Page 15370
1 pagination in the upper corner.
2 Can you tell us, please, as far as I can tell, this coincides with
3 the talks that took place concerning the July exchange. Did you talk to
4 Bozanovic and [redacted]concerning that exchange around that time?
5 A. Mr. Marko Bozanovic has been mentioned here in several contexts,
6 so to speak, and one of the contexts was his involvement in exchanges
7 which took place in 1992 and 1993. Since we also had contact with
8 Domaljevac, but that contact was not of the same nature, as the other one
9 from the communication centre, technically it was arranged in a different
10 manner, I didn't really pay attention to that. But at any rate, we were
11 able to establish contact with Marko Bozanovic. I had several
12 conversations with him and the one mentioned here is probably one of them.
13 Q. I would like to ask you to turn to page 16 of the B/C/S version
14 and I suggest that the Trial Chamber turn to page 20, paragraph 4, the
15 29th of July. That is the date that I will turn to now. On the 29th of
16 July, 1992, talked with [redacted]concerning the exchange. Certain
17 difficulties arose because an exchange commission had been set up on
18 [redacted] side, which is making further work more difficult, as he has
19 less independence in decision-making now. They will meet again tomorrow
20 on the 30th of July, 1992, same time as before.
21 Can we comment on the following, please?
22 A. I failed to find that passage. What date was it, did you say?
23 Q. Just listen to what I'm reading, the 29th of July, the 16th page,
24 now listen to my question. On the Bosnian side, Grujicic Milutin is
25 mentioned, a man from Nova Gradiska. I'm interested in this man, Milutin
Page 15371
1 Grujicic?
2 JUDGE MUMBA: Mr. Lukic, to be fair to Mr. Tadic can the usher get
3 the document for him and then you show him which paragraph so that he can
4 follow. I mean if he has to answer questions he must follow the passage
5 you are referring to. The B/C/S version, show him the paragraph.
6 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Mr. Tadic has the original B/C/S
7 version.
8 Q. Mr. Tadic, 29th of July, 1992, page 16. Page 16 bottom of the
9 page.
10 A. I can see that. I've found it.
11 Q. Perhaps it would be easier if you had a transcript in front of
12 you.
13 A. Since I sat on that chair and I wanted to see what was going on
14 here, I'm trying now to put it on the ELMO so that my fellow accused can
15 see it.
16 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Could we move into private session,
17 Your Honours?
18 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
19 MR. PANTELIC: If I may be of assistance, Mr. Usher can you find
20 on that version 29th of July because now we have 29th of August, so just
21 one month before and we shall resolve the problem.
22 [Private session]
23 [redacted]
24 [redacted]
25 [redacted]
Page 15372
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Page 15378
1 [redacted]
2 [redacted]
3 [redacted]
4 [redacted]
5 [redacted]
6 [redacted]
7 [redacted]
8 [redacted]
9 [redacted]
10 [redacted]
11 [redacted]
12 [redacted]
13 [Open session]
14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Mr. Susak was wounded and of course,
15 he was taken prisoner, because of complications to do with his wound, he
16 was transferred for treatment to Belgrade, to the military medical
17 academy. He was taken prisoner in late June. So throughout July, and
18 part of August, he was undergoing treatment in Belgrade, in the
19 institution I have mentioned. After this, when he was much better, he was
20 transferred to the military clinic in Bijeljina, and that's where he was
21 when we discussed him. Although we had approval, however, from high
22 authorities, in this case military authorities, Mr. Todorovic didn't want
23 to organise his transport from Bijeljina to Samac. On several occasions,
24 I asked him to bring him to Samac so that we could organise the exchange.
25 The two exchanges that were to take place before this date in September
Page 15379
1 were not held precisely because this gentleman from Bijeljina had not been
2 brought, and then the other side began to get angry. They said, "Why
3 can't you organise this?"
4 So there was nothing else I could do but go to Bijeljina. I asked
5 that I be given a policeman, a civilian policeman, and that I should go to
6 Bijeljina. I went to Bijeljina with this policeman and of course, we had
7 approval, we had a document, and I found Mr. Susak. I didn't know him. We
8 put him in my car and I drove him to Samac. I was supposed to come to
9 Samac before 1500 hours so that I could talk to (redacted) but I was a
10 little late, and I had just arrived in front of the TO where I was to
11 leave him so that he could spend the night there, when Simo Krunic
12 happened to be there. He's already been mentioned here. He's a
13 policeman. And I said to him, "Simo, here is this man. Look after him.
14 Otherwise, your brother will not be coming tomorrow," because his brother
15 was to be exchanged on the following day. Simo said, "Don't worry, I will
16 sleep with him tonight." Then I went to the communication centre and
17 confirmed that everything was all right now, and that the exchange would
18 take place on the following day.
19 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
20 Q. As far as I can see from this document, and from what we know,
21 there was an exchange on the 4th of September. Did it often happen that
22 lists were discussed until the very last moment?
23 A. Yes. This document shows this, and very often there were
24 situations due to technical reasons that required discussions until the
25 very last moment. On both sides, there were technical hitches, and
Page 15380
1 someone would always say, "Well we can't do it like this. Let's do it
2 like that."
3 Q. And my last question in connection with this document, whose duty
4 was it to keep this record? Who entered the information we have just been
5 discussing and that we have put before the Chamber?
6 A. The communication centre had existed before the war, and it
7 operated according to the legislation then in force. I don't know very
8 much about it but there was an operator there day and night. There was
9 always a duty operator who received and sent certain messages relating to
10 certain situations, and if you look at this, a dispatch arrived, dispatch
11 sent, these are their -- how shall I call them -- documents. These are
12 military things, military matters, that were transmitted through the radio
13 connection.
14 Q. Do you know whether these were employees of the Secretariat of
15 National Defence?
16 A. Yes. They were employees of the Secretariat for National Defence
17 and had been before the war and continued to be so during the war and they
18 are still there doing something. In this document, you can see that in
19 the beginning, private messages were often received because people learned
20 of this possibility and they used various phone lines to ask about their
21 relatives, because other phones were not functioning so they made
22 inquiries about their relatives, about their friends, and they sent
23 messages through the communication centre for people who were interested
24 in this.
25 Q. When we mentioned the Maksa from Pelagicevo, what was the full
Page 15381
1 name of this person, his first and last name?
2 A. He was a Captain First Class, I think, Makso Simeunovic.
3 Q. Did you often have contacts with him in connection with the
4 exchanges?
5 A. Yes, we saw each other often.
6 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I wish to tender this document into
7 evidence and I ask that it be given a number.
8 MR. DI FAZIO: And I ask if Your Honours please that it be given
9 an ID number at this stage only. Apparently I'm informed that the --
10 there have been two translations done of this document, one of which was
11 done here in the ICTY, and that more recent translation does not accord
12 with the translation that the Defence have provided to us, and it's not
13 yet complete, so until that can be done, can it simply be given an ID
14 number and then at a later stage, I suggest that we won't have any
15 objections to it becoming a full exhibit.
16 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I simply wish to inform the Chamber
17 both translations are official translations done in the Tribunal. The
18 only difference is that one version is shorter and the other one is
19 complete. In the way they have been formatted there may be some
20 differences but I do agree that the translation should be checked and that
21 we should then have a number given it.
22 I made a mistake, I wanted to help the translation unit, and so I
23 picked out some pages I was interested in so that they would have less
24 work. That's why we have two different versions.
25 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] There is one more thing I wish to
Page 15382
1 comment on.
2 JUDGE MUMBA: Who wants to comment?
3 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Mr. Tadic wanted to make a comment but
4 I would first like that we would have the number attached to the document.
5 JUDGE MUMBA: Before we give the number, what I want to ask you,
6 Mr. Lukic is, for your case for the Defence of Mr. Miroslav Tadic, you
7 are relying only on the paragraphs discussed?
8 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] No, Your Honours. I just wanted to
9 demonstrate here a few characteristics aspects but I believe what the
10 whole log is interesting for the Defence, not only because of the line of
11 exchange but especially in the second part, you will see the in document
12 itself that starting from autumn onwards there was no mention of exchanges
13 any more. If you recall, the witness said that when the Bosanski Brod
14 fell, there was no communication going on between the communication
15 centre, but in the radio log, there were daily entries relating to the
16 shelling and this is relevant for the Defence concerning the living
17 conditions in Samac. That is why I believe it should be tendered as an
18 exhibit.
19 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. We can have the number.
20 THE REGISTRAR: This will be treated as document D 154/3 ID and
21 D154/3 ter ID for the B/C/S.
22 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
23 Q. Mr. Tadic, you wanted to comment on something?
24 A. I wanted to comment a detail referring to the conversation with
25 Tesanj.
Page 15383
1 Q. I didn't want to mention that but the Chamber will have an insight
2 into this part as well. That took place on -- just a moment. Let me find
3 it. Just a second, please. In June, 1992, is that right?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Go on.
6 A. I would like to draw the attention to this detail in June, 1992,
7 we had no contacts whatsoever with a part of -- parts of Doboj, Tesanj
8 and Banja Luka. In other words with the western parts, there were no
9 communications and particularly in that period it happened that Dujkovic,
10 a man from our town, was taken prisoner in the area of Tesanj. That is a
11 municipality --
12 Q. Just a moment. For the Chamber, page 15, in the translation.
13 This is what Mr. Tadic is talking about.
14 A. This is the municipality which is about 40 kilometres to the south
15 from Doboj. We found out that this incident took place, that in fact his
16 father found out because he was our friend and colleague from Samac, and
17 he tried to find a way to establish communication with Tesanj, and that
18 was done through this communication centre. The people from that area,
19 who had been working on these assignments confirmed that Mr. Dujkovic
20 had been captured and we had lengthy conversations with them how to
21 release him, since we had no physical contacts with them. Then they
22 suggested that we from Samac release two men that were kept in prison in
23 Samac.
24 Q. Who are they?
25 A. The people from Tesanj. I never saw these people before or
Page 15384
1 after. And that is the Muslim parts of the then Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2 After several conversations, they accepted our proposal and released
3 Mr. Dujkovic who then went to the area of Doboj but since we were not
4 able at that time to release the men, we undertook obligation to release
5 them in the next forthcoming exchange, to be carried out in our area, and
6 that happened in July, 1992. These two men left. Therefore, there was
7 really a high level of trust between these two commissions, even though we
8 didn't have a physical commission, we agreed to carry this out, although
9 we had never seen each other, either before that or after that. And in
10 the radio log, on the margin, somebody wrote by hand, and with pencil,
11 those two names, because otherwise, no one would know what had actually
12 taken place. I think it was written there on the margin they left on the
13 5th of July. I omitted to show those names in the list but maybe it
14 wasn't necessary.
15 Q. I presume that you maintained contacts with the opposite side
16 after the July exchange concerning exchanges, but I believe that one
17 incident temporarily had frozen so to say the process of exchange. What
18 happened in July in the area of Odzak municipality?
19 A. That has already been mentioned, that in mid-July, 1992, the
20 Krajina Corps captured the area of Odzak municipality from the River Bosna
21 to the west as far -- to the west towards Zagreb, including the River
22 Sava. So this was a kind of V-shaped area that was under the control of
23 the HVO. So the detainees from Odzak, who were in Odzak, the Serbs
24 detained in Odzak, were transferred to Bosanski Brod. One or two days,
25 they spent in an elementary school in Novi Grad, and after that, they were
Page 15385
1 transferred to Bosanski Brod, a number to the educational centre in
2 Bosanski Brod and the remaining number in the company called Tulek and
3 they spent sometime there.
4 Q. Tell us what happened with the families of those men, their wives
5 and children, of these detainees at the time when the breakthrough of
6 corridor took place, who remained in the territory?
7 A. When people started to anticipate a war conflict between these two
8 armies, four or five prisoners managed to escape from the elementary
9 school, the ones who had been brought from Odzak, and since they knew the
10 village very well, they found shelter in the nearby woods, and the same
11 was done by the families, the wives and children who happened to be there
12 at the time in Novi Grad. The majority of them found shelter in these
13 areas where they couldn't be found or they went to some cellars and a
14 number of families were taken by the Croatian Army who was withdrawing to
15 Bosanski Brod.
16 Q. Would you like to have some water? I see that you're coughing.
17 Would you like us to have a break?
18 A. No.
19 Q. Mr. Tadic, what we are interested in in this procedure is what
20 became of the population that used to live in this territory before the
21 corridor was broken through?
22 A. The Croatian population and part of the Muslim population that
23 lived in the town of Odzak, which means that there were no
24 Muslim-populated villages, the entire population withdrew from this area
25 so looking towards Samac, Prud crossed over at the point Skela-Zorica,
Page 15386
1 another went via Skela to Novi Grad, and one via Skela to Kriva. So
2 that when the Krajina units arrived, they virtually didn't find anyone.
3 There were not even any clashes there at the time. I remember very well
4 hearing that from the Krajina fighters, that only two soldiers were
5 wounded and one Croatian soldier was killed but he was not from our
6 region. He was killed in Novi Grad.
7 Q. Did the Croats from the surrounding village of the -- of Odzak
8 municipality leave the area before the arrival of the army?
9 A. All of them, from Prud up to Donji Svilaj all the villages were
10 abandoned. That was a rather odd operation that ran in a rather unusual
11 way for an ordinary person, if you look at it how it happened.
12 Q. Can you repeat the names of two ferries?
13 A. Ferries in Zorice, in Novi Grad, and in Donji Svilaj. On the
14 other side of the River Sava, there are places with similar names, there
15 is Slavonski Novi Grad and Slavonski Svilaj.
16 Q. Where are these places?
17 A. That -- they are in the Republic of Croatia.
18 Q. I would kindly ask the witness to be shown the document with the
19 internal mark PDB 30/3. Do you know the date when Odzak fell?
20 A. On the 14th of July, 1992.
21 Q. I should rather say -- taken by the Army of Republika Srpska. Are
22 you familiar with this document?
23 A. Yes, I am.
24 Q. When did you see it for the first time?
25 A. I saw it for the first time in July, 1992, or somewhat later.
Page 15387
1 Q. Have you ever seen this document again later?
2 A. Yes. I have. That was one of the documents.
3 Q. Tell me, are you familiar with a name Ivica Matanovic, and who was
4 that man?
5 A. Yes. I know the name of Ivica Matanovic. He was the commander of
6 the 102nd Odzak Brigade. By the way he was a former JNA officer who came
7 to Odzak while those events were in progress but he was originally from
8 our area.
9 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I would like to have
10 this tendered as an exhibit. With me, I have a copy here. However, the
11 document is in the communication centre in Modrica -- sorry, security
12 centre in Modrica, and I would like this document with a coloured stamp to
13 be tendered as an exhibit.
14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] If you allow me, I would like to
15 make some comments on this first paragraph.
16 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
17 Q. Yes. I would like to go into details?
18 A. I would like to read this first paragraph, which reads, "All
19 civilian population should be transferred by ferry to Svilaj in an
20 organised manner and tractors with trailers should be transferred from the
21 village via Svilaj, Velika Brusnica [phoen], Bosanski Brod, the bridge
22 Slavonski Brod".
23 Q. Do you know that the population withdrew along these routes?
24 A. Yes. Some witnesses before me testified to this, both witnesses
25 for the Prosecution and witnesses for the Defence.
Page 15388
1 Q. So this route, when you take this ferry to cross over to Svilaj
2 across the River Sava, just make it clear for the Chamber, where does it
3 lead?
4 A. That is the territory of the Republic of Croatia.
5 Q. If there are no objections, can we have the number for this
6 document, please?
7 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
8 THE REGISTRAR: This will be Exhibit D155/3 and D155/3 ter.
9 MR. DI FAZIO: If Your Honours please, there is no objection to
10 being given an exhibit number but its authenticity is of course by no
11 means accepted by the Prosecution.
12 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I just don't understand, due to the
13 translation that I got is whether the Prosecutor has any objection to the
14 authenticity or not.
15 MR. DI FAZIO: Yes. Until there is -- the authenticity of this
16 document is by no means accepted by the Prosecution.
17 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Then can we kindly have the number?
18 JUDGE MUMBA: We've already given it a number, D155/3 ter and
19 D155/3.
20 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
21 Q. Mr. Tadic, after the arrival of the Army of Republika Srpska to
22 the territory of Odzak municipality, what do you know what was established
23 then and did you visit this territory of Odzak municipality following the
24 arrival of the Army of Republika Srpska?
25 A. After -- in the aftermath of these events, I went to the territory
Page 15389
1 of Odzak. This is nothing unnatural because I originally come from that
2 region, and I both wanted and needed to go there because I wanted to see
3 what the situation was there with the people, with my family, et cetera.
4 It happened sometime on and around the 20th of July. Of course the place
5 was full -- was swarming with army. I went to Odzak and at the checkpoint
6 that had already been established at the entry point to Odzak and there
7 was another one at Jakesnica [phoen], I was told that I had to ask for
8 permission to move around the area.
9 Q. When was that when you first came?
10 A. On or around the 20th of July, whether it was the 19th or the 20th
11 of July. At the time, the command of the Krajina Brigade was
12 headquartered in, I believe, a hotel. I went there and I met there a
13 major, his name was Mile Peronija [phoen]. He was the head of this
14 brigade, told him what I wanted to see, and he responded that military
15 administration was introduced in the area and that both civilians or
16 members of any other military units had to have permissions to move
17 around. Those permissions were granted on a one-off basis, and after
18 that, one could get a permanent permission. He decided that he can issue
19 a permanent permission to me because I needed to come quite often and he
20 gave me a kind of small ID paper. It resembles a telephone -- pay phone
21 card. And at every checkpoint that had been set up at every two or three
22 kilometres, so one had to pass through four or five of them, there were
23 road obstacles also so one had to show this little card and they would let
24 you go -- pass through. I also heard some more details from him. I asked
25 him whether there were civilians, who did they find, whether anyone was
Page 15390
1 taken prisoner, so that was what I was interested in, and he replied that
2 they had found a small number of women and children and elderly people who
3 were transferred to the reception centre in Modrica.
4 Q. Do you remember how many people were there?
5 A. Between 15 or 20, women, children and elderly people at that
6 moment. He also told me that one Muslim was taken prisoner, his name was,
7 I think, Delic, and that he was there in detention in Odzak. Then he
8 added that one Croatian soldier got killed and I immediately wanted to
9 know where that happened and how, and he told me that it happened in the
10 town. When I went to Novi Grad, I had seen that man. His name was Ivan
11 Korade, and I asked him to be buried there so that should the Croats --
12 should the Croats seek his body, I would be able to hand him over.
13 Q. Concerning the people who were transferred to Modrica, did you
14 find out their ethnicity?
15 A. When I finished my visit there, I dropped by in Modrica to this
16 reception centre, and I saw those precisely those people, whom I had
17 already known and some of them I didn't know particularly well, and in
18 conversing with them, I told them that a number of people were exchanged
19 on the 2nd of July, and that there were members of their families in
20 Samac. And I remember that I offered a lift two women by the family name
21 of Aleksic [phoen] and their father-in-law had been exchanged in Samac on
22 the 5th of July.
23 Q. Can you tell us when and where your fellow citizens from Novi Grad
24 or rather my colleagues are telling me, what was the ethnicity of those
25 people whom you met in Modrica?
Page 15391
1 A. Those people in Modrica were Serbs and Croats.
2 Q. When did the return of Serb families to Novi Grad start, those who
3 had been living in Samac but were originally from Novi Grad and who was
4 this organised by?
5 A. Well, there were already a lot of people from -- in Samac from
6 Novi Grad. There was the first exchange in May, then the second one on
7 the 5th of July, and that resulted in a large number of people coming to
8 Samac, and then other members of the families arrived there as well, so
9 that there were quite a lot of people, and they wanted to go to their
10 villages as soon as possible. The troops were in their villages at the
11 time. However, the military administration ruled that out, and specified
12 that the return of the civilian population would be possible only when the
13 situation permitted it or rather the conditions permitted it. And that
14 was based on their assessment. So that it wasn't until autumn that the
15 return of these people began. However, they could go for visits, day
16 visits, on an individual basis, and people took advantage of this. They
17 would take a permission, go and visit their village, and then come back
18 within the same day to Samac. It wasn't until later that the conditions
19 permitted for a larger number of people to return to their homes to
20 rebuild the homes, and create everything that was needed for a normal
21 life.
22 Q. The name of Colonel Vujnovic does it mean anything to you? Do you
23 know what he was involved in?
24 A. The name sounds familiar, the name of Colonel Vujnovic. I had an
25 opportunity to meet him. He was in the 1st Krajina Corps, in charge of
Page 15392
1 some civilian affairs, I'm not quite sure exactly what he was involved in
2 but it had something to do with civilian affairs and that corps. I
3 remember that on one occasion he came to Samac and met with people from
4 Novi Grad who were gathered there insisting on their return. He explained
5 to them why it was impossible for them to return in large numbers and
6 convinced them that it was impossible, telling them that they should not
7 insist upon it and that as soon as the situation permitted it, he would
8 inform them and they would be able to return to their villages. And to
9 Odzak, naturally, if somebody was from Odzak.
10 Q. These developments concerning Odzak, did that change your attitude
11 in your work with the opposite side concerning exchanges? Did you
12 continue negotiating and organising exchanges?
13 A. Perhaps just in the first few days, there was some kind of a
14 delay, similar to any other crisis, so after the 8th of May, there was a
15 minor delay and then after the 15th of July, there was another delay.
16 However, we knew what we had to do, and we attempted to establish contact
17 if by no other means than using ham operators and we managed to establish
18 contact and continue our work.
19 Q. Did you meet Milutin Grujicic then and what was the relationship
20 between you and the 1st Krajina Corps commission in the work that ensued?
21 A. In late July, I met Mr. Grujicic. I think that he came to Samac
22 before and met Velimir Maslic but I wasn't there and didn't meet him then.
23 When we started having first talks, that Velimir had arranged with them,
24 then I met Mr. Grujicic in Gradiska which is the town where he lived
25 although he originally was from Okucani in the Republic of Croatia. He
Page 15393
1 lived in Gradiska as a refugee in some apartment.
2 Q. What was your cooperation from -- what was your cooperation like
3 from the time you met him and onwards? We will get to Bakovici later
4 but I'm now interested in learning what was your cooperation like. Was
5 that a relationship where one was a superior and the other one was a
6 subordinate or were you equal?
7 A. We could say that he was our mentor. We relied on him.
8 Q. Who do you mean "we"?
9 A. I mean the commission from Samac, and all other commissions, there
10 was one in Modrica, in Doboj, in Derventa, and Brod and so on, so all of
11 these commissions relied on him because he had access to the opposite
12 side. He had established contacts with the Nepalese battalion and through
13 the Nepalese battalion we were able to contact the Croatian side directly
14 in the Dragalic area. We were never able to go there on our own. We
15 could never go there on our own initiative to Dragalic and meet with the
16 Croatian side. That was simply not possible. He always had to get a
17 permission in advance, and only upon obtaining the permission from the
18 Nepalese battalion with the list of people were those people who were on
19 the list able to cross over. Naturally, they had to wear civilian
20 clothing and be unarmed, because the Nepalese Battalion supervised the
21 situation very closely.
22 Q. This Samac commission, what kind of relations did it have with
23 other commissions you have just mentioned? How did they get in touch and
24 what was the reason for them getting in touch?
25 A. All of the commissions in the territory of the former Yugoslavia
Page 15394
1 had an interest to cooperate in the affairs or concerning the affairs
2 we've mentioned here. So as a result of that, we sent our data to other
3 commissions and other commissions in turn sent their data to us. The same
4 was done by the Red Cross chapters. If a Red Cross chapter from some town
5 knew that we would go and negotiate, that they would send us a list,
6 asking us to inquire about those people in our negotiations. So that we,
7 the Samac commission, as well as all other commissions, had tonnes of
8 lists of people from various areas of the war-ridden former Yugoslavia. I
9 remember that I received some lists from Sid, these people asked me to
10 inquire whether some of their fellow citizens were kept elsewhere and so
11 on.
12 Representatives of Orasje got involved in the work of the
13 commission. Later it became known as the Serbian Orasje and people from
14 that area fled to Republika Srpska. Then the next one was Pelagicevo.
15 Those people were together with us, trying to solve their problems.
16 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Could the witness now be shown Exhibit
17 D91/3?
18 Q. Please take a look at this document?
19 A. There is no need for that. I know it by heart.
20 Q. Can you give us your comment?
21 A. This is one of the documents which circulated around at the time
22 from one commission to the next one. Here at the bottom you can see
23 "commission for seeking and exchanging" and the members of the commission,
24 and then on this right-hand side is the representative of the Red Cross,
25 and these are people from Modrica.
Page 15395
1 Q. Are all of these civilian commissions?
2 A. Yes. All of these are civilian commissions, commissions for
3 searching for people, and they didn't always know whether all of the
4 people were civilians or in the military. However, they sought them
5 because they were from their area. What is particularly interesting is
6 that information from various sources went to Modrica. For example, they
7 were looking for people that I had on my list, and that perhaps had been
8 exchanged previously, but somebody on the other side was looking for them,
9 unknowing that they had been exchanged and that's why they would send me a
10 list saying this person is sought by many sources. They send these kinds
11 of lists not only to our commission but also to other commissions in
12 Doboj, in Brod, and elsewhere, and you can see it clearly here. It says
13 here, "The people sought from Modrica municipality." You can see that
14 there are Muslims among them, Serbs and Croats. The list of people sought
15 from the Zenica area, a list from Croatia and so on, here on this page,
16 right here, you can see people from Novi Grad who he sought and who had
17 already been on my list, Luba Rakic, Djoko Rakic, and so on. Let me tell
18 you something about this person here, Miroslav Sisljagic I will probably
19 revert back to him later on but Miso Sisljagic is even more interesting.
20 Miso Sisljagic got killed before this date here. He had been killed
21 somewhere in Bosanski Brod. Pero Tadic here had already fled before this
22 date, from a camp or prison in Bosanski Brod, he had already fled and was
23 somewhere in the vicinity of Krajina units at the time.
24 This is Pero's son, who was exchanged later.
25 And so on. You can see people from Gracanica and from other
Page 15396
1 towns.
2 Q. Thank you. We won't be needing this document any more.
3 A. These are the documents that circulated among commissions, with
4 the aim of locating these people.
5 Q. After the June exchange, did something happen in your relations
6 with Mr. Todorovic and the 2nd Posavina Brigade?
7 A. Mr. Todorovic and some other individuals, shall I call them, there
8 was something going on with them all the time. Before this and after
9 this. After the July exchange, when Mr. Todorovic returned from the
10 hospital following his treatment, he was very angry that all of this had
11 taken place regardless of him or without his participation, and we
12 couldn't get it undone because it was already done, and he was especially
13 upset that it had been done while he was hospitalised. I don't know where
14 he was hospitalised but he went -- he was in a rehabilitation programme or
15 something like that. At that time, in late July, Captain Jez came to our
16 area, who had found a supporter in Mr. Todorovic. They had similar
17 attitudes. And were able to reach an agreement concerning their further
18 activities.
19 Q. Can you tell us what unit Captain Jez belonged to? Do you
20 remember what he did?
21 A. He was a security officer but I don't know what unit he was with.
22 He simply moved about our area. He was a member of Krajina Brigades but
23 he was in charge of our area as well.
24 MR. DI FAZIO: If Your Honours please, in order to follow previous
25 answer of Mr. Tadic's you should be clear about one thing in particular.
Page 15397
1 He says that after the July exchange Mr. Todorovic returned and was very
2 angry that all of this had taken place. I assume that that's a reference
3 to exchanges but if I'm incorrect, then perhaps I could be -- that could
4 be clarified for my -- for the Prosecution's purposes, and in any event it
5 should be, I think, made clear what was he angry about.
6 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. Can we move into private session for just a few moments?
8 A. There is no need for that.
9 Q. All right. I agree.
10 A. All of this pertains to the July exchange, and it is clear whom we
11 have in mind. We mentioned a protected witness who was exchanged in July,
12 and therefore, this is what made him angry, the fact that his consent was
13 not asked for, for that July exchange.
14 Q. Do you know whether he did something to Mr. Cancarevic regarding
15 that?
16 A. Naturally, he harassed Cancarevic as well and I think that he
17 transferred him to Pelagicevo, and after that, Cancarevic was not a
18 commander of police in Samac any more but rather in Pelagicevo.
19 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Could the witness now be shown a new
20 document, internally marked PDB 31/3?
21 Q. I assume you are very familiar with this document. What can you
22 tell us about it?
23 A. Yes, I am familiar with it and this document is one of the
24 consequences of our disagreements. It says here on the basis of
25 unofficial lists submitted by Miroslav Tadic, relating to people planned
Page 15398
1 for exchange. It is the standpoint of this command that a certain number
2 of people cannot be exchanged under present conditions. For someone to
3 prohibit someone from being exchanged, they would have to know these
4 people, because it's impossible for someone to prohibit someone from being
5 exchanged if they didn't know them. So the undersigned, he didn't know
6 these people at all, which means that somebody else had to have told him
7 that these people should not be exchanged, and that was Stevan Todorovic
8 who knew these people because they were detained with Stevan Todorovic,
9 and he acted through this gentleman who signed this document and the --
10 got this list made because he had quite a lot of influence over this
11 gentleman. I am sure that the undersigned had no idea who these people
12 were.
13 Q. As this list contains quite a number of names mentioned in these
14 proceedings, can you tell us, please, what you did when you received this
15 list? It's addressed to the Crisis Staff. Did the Crisis Staff hold any
16 discussions or reach any decisions in relation to this document, and what
17 did you do?
18 A. This document was not discussed. It wasn't even registered as
19 having been received by the Crisis Staff. Mr. Mitrovic sent it to me
20 because it's actually addressed to me. So the Crisis Staff did not
21 discuss it, nor was it ever recorded as a document of the Crisis Staff.
22 It wasn't registered. Everybody always referred to the Crisis Staff. So
23 that's what this gentleman thought. He thought that that's what he should
24 put here. But this was actually aimed at me, and against me so to say.
25 Q. You never answered my second question. What did you do when the
Page 15399
1 other side asked for these people on this list and what was your
2 relationship with the military authorities? Would you wait for the end of
3 the question, please? So what was your relationship with the 2nd Posavina
4 Brigade after July, in connection with the exchanges?
5 A. It's logical that if I were to send lists there, to be approved, I
6 couldn't put these names, I couldn't put these people down on the lists
7 because that would be counter to the order they had issued. So that we
8 had to wait for this furore to die down a little bit before new exchanges
9 could take place. All the people on this list were ultimately exchanged.
10 Some sooner, some later, but they were all exchanged in the end.
11 Q. Did you personally or the people you worked for ask Captain Jez
12 for his approval after this? Did you ask for the approval for the police
13 apart from what you said about Mr. Todorovic?
14 A. After what happened in connection with this document, there was
15 another incident a little later. An official commission was established
16 and although I had not been the President of the commission up to then,
17 because the commission was not formally established and I was not formally
18 appointed its president but because I did the most work on these tasks, I
19 seemed to be the President of the commission that was doing this, and then
20 on the intervention of Todorovic and Jez, who are mentioned here, what
21 happened was that the commission we have already mentioned was
22 established, headed by Velimir Maslic. He found it easier to cooperate
23 with them than I did, because he had a different attitude towards the
24 whole job. His attitude was more professional [as interpreted]. I
25 approached it differently. And of course, for every exchange, you had to
Page 15400
1 get the approval either of the army or of the police.
2 Q. Do you remember what Mr. Maslic said before this Court about his
3 being present when Mr. Jez was crossing out the names of your relatives?
4 Did Maslic tell you about this at the time? Did you know about it?
5 A. Unfortunately not. I learned that here.
6 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] May we take a break now? But first of
7 all if there is no objection, I ask that this document be given a number
8 before the break.
9 MR. DI FAZIO: No objection, if Your Honours please.
10 THE REGISTRAR: It will be Exhibit D156/3 and D156/3 ter for the
11 B/C/S.
12 JUDGE MUMBA: We shall break and continue our proceedings at 1250
13 hours.
14 --- Recess taken at 12.30 p.m.
15 --- On resuming at 12.53 p.m.
16 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, Mr. Lukic.
17 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] We have a correction of the
18 interpretation, on page 65, line 1, speaking of Mr. Maslic, it says here
19 that he was more professional.
20 Q. Can you tell us what word you used exactly, why Maslic was
21 appointed president of the commission for exchanges? What was the word
22 you used?
23 A. I couldn't comment on why he was appointed, but I used the word, I
24 think, that he was more official in that area, meaning to say that I was
25 more emotionally tied to people.
Page 15401
1 Q. You used the word like a clerk or like a bureaucrat?
2 A. He knew people from the Odzak -- or rather he didn't know any
3 people from the area of Odzak, or of Samac, because he had not been in
4 Samac long, and he was from Samac. He had arrived some four or five years
5 before these events took place and he didn't know as many people as I did.
6 And that was the difference between us.
7 Q. Thank you.
8 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, before I move on, I wish
9 to clarify or rather to ask the Office of the Prosecutor as to their
10 standpoint with respect to document D-- the last document, D156/3. I
11 consulted the Prosecution and they said that they do not object to the
12 document being tendered into evidence but that they do contest its
13 authenticity. So I wish to ask the Prosecutor to say why they challenge
14 its authenticity, in view of the fact that the document contains
15 everything that -- according to the rules, so to speak, whenever the
16 authenticity of a document was in question, and during the pre-trial
17 stage, the Prosecution did not object to this document, they should have
18 objected at that stage. If we knew the reasons then we would be able to
19 prove the authenticity of this document. If the Prosecution has no
20 reasons to challenge the authenticity of the document, I submit that the
21 objection should be overruled.
22 MR. DI FAZIO: Sorry, if Your Honours, please.
23 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
24 MR. DI FAZIO: I had no objection at all to the provision of
25 156/3. I made no comments on its authenticity.
Page 15402
1 JUDGE MUMBA: So I see. It was misunderstood then.
2 MR. DI FAZIO: That's 156/3. There was a previous document.
3 JUDGE MUMBA: Oh, I see.
4 MR. DI FAZIO: 155/3 in which I made the comment that the
5 Prosecution, although not objecting to its going into evidence, is not
6 conceding, that it is authentic, that it is an authentic document, and
7 that's the situation. But as far as 156/3 is concerned, I made no comment
8 relating to its authenticity and I have no objection to its admissibility.
9 JUDGE MUMBA: Very well. So that is cleared.
10 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I think I still have not received the
11 reply. We are discussing document D155/3. I have no explanation as to
12 why the Prosecution is challenging the authenticity of this document.
13 This is not clear to me, because nothing has been said as to why this
14 document is not authentic in comparison to all the other documents that
15 have been tendered so far. The document contains a seal, it has been
16 recognised by the witness, and if the Prosecution has grounds for
17 challenging its authenticity, then it has to give us those grounds.
18 JUDGE WILLIAMS: I think there is a little bit of confusion here
19 as well, Mr. Lukic, because on page 66, line ten and the following, you
20 actually said D156/3 and wanted comments from the Prosecutor and quite
21 clearly it was on the record as Mr. Di Fazio has just said that they have
22 no objection to 156. So I think that's where there was a little bit of
23 confusion.
24 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I really think it is not my mistake.
25 I did say document 155. It is probably an error in the transcript. What
Page 15403
1 concerns me is the standpoint taken by the Prosecution on document D155/3,
2 the order of the 11th of July, 1992. This is the document on which I wish
3 to hear the position of the Prosecution.
4 MR. WEINER: Yes, Your Honour. We had certain questions as to the
5 authenticity of this letter. Number 1, the stamp on the B/C/S version,
6 155/3 ter, is blurred. We can't decipher anything on that stamp. To the
7 right of the stamp is the signature of it. We haven't heard any testimony
8 that this witness was present during the signing of this document, that
9 this witness is familiar with this individual's signature, recognises that
10 to be the signature of Ivica Matanovic. So there is no evidence as to
11 that.
12 With regard to the second option which you have under the theory
13 of authenticity, you can either prove it through direct evidence or you
14 can prove it circumstantially. We haven't received any corroborating
15 evidence as to each one of these things being carried out, that these
16 units were actually seen doing certain things, that any of this did in
17 fact happen, that there is no corroborating information as to any of it.
18 Therefore, based on it being a handwritten document with no evidence as to
19 the signature, as to the stamp, as to any of this, in fact, occurring,
20 it's just as possible this is all a forged document. Thank you.
21 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] If this is the Prosecutor's position,
22 allow me to say a few words. A, the stamp mentioned by my learned
23 colleagues can very discernibly be seen on the copy because the copy was
24 made by using a computer from the original. B, the original of the
25 document, I verified through my investigator in the municipal secretariat
Page 15404
1 of the municipality of Doboj in the year 2000, and I have a certified copy
2 here but I don't have an English translation of this certified copy. And
3 C if the Chamber accepts the reasons for this objection as acceptable,
4 then the Defence would propose to hear first of all the investigator for
5 the purpose of our Defence, where he got his document from, and where the
6 document is, and if the Chamber -- and that is that if the Chamber
7 believes that this objection is grounded. However, I think that on no
8 occasion was it ever demanded from witnesses to confirm the signature, if
9 they know the content of the signature -- of the document, it does not
10 necessarily mean that they automatically know the person who had signed
11 the document, for as long as he was speaking this document, and I would
12 like to remind the Chamber here that another two witnesses discussed this
13 document, one for the Prosecution and the witness DW 1/3, that was the
14 witness for the Defence, regarding the facts relating to this document,
15 and I think that the Prosecutor has not offered any substantial reason in
16 order for to us establish the chain and the procedure how this document
17 had been obtained, because we believe that this document is crucial for
18 the Defence.
19 MR. WEINER: If counsel has a certified copy, is it certified from
20 the 102nd Brigade command? What is it -- we can also work on this at the
21 break maybe and not waste any time.
22 JUDGE MUMBA: That's what I was about to propose. Why don't
23 Mr. Lukic present the Prosecution with the certification or the latest
24 whatever original that he has and then you can deal with that and also
25 look at the evidence of the witness Mr. Lukic has just mentioned as having
Page 15405
1 discussed some of the contents of this document.
2 MR. WEINER: Yes, we can do that rather than waste any court time
3 on this, thank you.
4 JUDGE MUMBA: Also, I think it's important to establish the
5 importance of the contents of this document. They do touch on the
6 evidence of the -- I think demographer on the movement of the population,
7 besides other matters the Defence may be using it for, I think. Maybe
8 that will be sorted out. If not, then we will come back to it.
9 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] During the break, I would just like to
10 add that in the document itself the Prosecution stated that the majority
11 of the population had withdrawn from the territory of Odzak municipality,
12 together with the HVO. That was the thesis of the Prosecution. But I
13 think it's best that the parties discuss this document, that we do not
14 waste any more time for the Chamber on this issue.
15 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. So you can proceed with the rest of the
16 evidence for your client.
17 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
18 Q. Mr. Tadic, let us proceed now to the exchanges from August. I'd
19 like you to be shown now the document marked PDB 40/3. And let us
20 concentrate in our further examination on the exchanges that were
21 significant and in which you took part. One such exchange, as the Chamber
22 knows, took place on the 15th of August, and the other one was on the 25th
23 of August. Am I right? Do you remember these two exchanges taking place
24 in August?
25 A. Yes. I remember these exchanges, and these documents indicate
Page 15406
1 this fact.
2 Q. Tell me, this is the document drawn up by the Croatian commission.
3 On page 3, there is mention of the list of detained women. Do you have
4 any knowledge of this? Do you know of any women being detained on the
5 opposite side?
6 A. The majority of these women from the list I know, especially
7 number 1. Under number 1, we see the name of Milena Dragojlovic, the
8 woman who I mentioned earlier and the one who on the 19th of April, 1992,
9 was captured, together with her husband, and with Milan Rakic, and the
10 other two young men that I mentioned before. Therefore, she was captured
11 and was in Slavonski Brod in detention, wherefrom she was released in this
12 manner.
13 Q. Can we please have a number for this document?
14 THE REGISTRAR: This will be Exhibit D157/3 and ter for the
15 B/C/S.
16 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I would like now the witness to be
17 shown Exhibit D130/3.
18 Q. I think the Chamber already knows where Slavonski Brod is located.
19 A. Everybody knows it's in Croatia.
20 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
21 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
22 Q. During this August exchange was it agreed to accelerate the
23 exchange of elderly people and women? Do you know anything about that,
24 that it was agreed not to hamper this process?
25 A. Given the fact that there were on going talks, we always tried to
Page 15407
1 agree for the flow of these people to be as simple as possible without any
2 major complications and similar things. And in the course of these talks,
3 the dominant topics were, for example, to have the elderly people, the
4 sick people, or the wounded people, to be transferred to the other side as
5 soon as possible in order to be given proper treatment. Similarly, we
6 frequently discussed that it was necessary to work on having separated
7 families and who hadn't yet managed to reunite to work on this issue in
8 order to reunite them as soon as possible on both sides.
9 Q. Can you please look at page 2 of this document? You are probably
10 very much familiar with it.
11 A. Yes. This is exactly what is written at the top of the page,
12 pursuant to agreement, at the latest exchange, the opposing sides --
13 Q. You don't have to read the whole of it.
14 A. The characteristic thing about this list is that under number 6,
15 there is the woman, Joka Tadic, that is my uncle's wife, and above her is
16 the name of her daughter, Danica Ninkovic. My aunt Joka was born in 1906.
17 Q. We needn't go further into that.
18 A. She is still alive. And her son was Pero Tadic, the person I just
19 mentioned earlier, and there were many other relatives of hers who were in
20 detention.
21 Q. Let us now hear from you what I think is rather important about
22 the exchanges and hadn't been mentioned before in this Chamber, and we --
23 I think we should shed some light on your role in these exchanges. Tell
24 me, what kind of situations did you encounter upon your return from these
25 exchanges? And what were the cases like regarding people who were not
Page 15408
1 exchanged?
2 A. The situations ensuing the exchanges were very difficult ones,
3 especially that was the case in late 1992, when the exchanges did not take
4 place any more in the Samac part of the municipality but rather in the
5 Odzak part of the municipality. It was not our usual practice to say in
6 advance who would be exchanged, so that people would know one or two or
7 five days in advance to read a list, because we were never sure who would
8 be exchanged actually, and we wanted to avoid any mistakes by putting
9 someone on the list and then for that person not to be exchanged. In late
10 1992, a large number of people from the area of Odzak, pursuant to the
11 permission granted by the military administration, moved to live in this
12 area, especially there were a lot of people from Novi Grad, Dubica, and
13 since a sort of civilian life kind of started to evolve, those exchanges
14 were transferred from Samac to Odzak. In fact we set off from Samac but
15 we returned to the area of Odzak. So instead of going to lunch or to
16 dinner, to the SIT kitchen, the lunch was made in a hotel in Odzak where
17 kitchen was set up there.
18 Q. Please don't go into too many details, just tell me what happened?
19 A. This is where we had -- where those exchanged people had the first
20 contact with their relatives. It goes without saying that people -- these
21 people who managed to cross over were extremely pleased and of course
22 there was no end to the sorrow of those who failed to come as well as to
23 the sorrow of their family members. The people who were dissatisfied saw
24 me as the main culprit for this situation. And all their rage was vented
25 against me in most cases, because the other participants in these
Page 15409
1 processes, they didn't even know. They didn't know Veljo or those men
2 from the Krajina commission, so that I was the main target of their
3 dissatisfaction. It is really hard to describe all these situations.
4 There were even threats made, insults, insults were endless. I remember
5 especially one occasion which was not so vehement, where there were not so
6 many insults. In Dubica, when we arrived at around 3.00 a.m. the bus
7 stopped and two or three men descended, because that was not a large scale
8 exchange and one man approached asking about his son. I told him that I
9 didn't know who his son was, because in this darkness I couldn't recognise
10 him, and I even less knew where his son was, if he wasn't on this
11 exchange, he would be on the next one. The man responded, "Now you're
12 going to exchange everyone because I'm going to bring a rifle" and he went
13 to fetch a rifle. There was a policeman on board the bus, mentioned
14 before, whose name was Pero Krstanovic. Let us not confuse this man with
15 the other man called Perica from Novo Selo. And he instructed the driver
16 to drive on. That was an exchange that took place in January. The driver
17 started the bus so abruptly and he turned around the bend and the man who
18 brought the rifle fired at us, but luckily, he did not hit the bus and we
19 went on.
20 There were numerous situations like this.
21 JUDGE MUMBA: Mr. Tadic, you mentioned January. Was that January,
22 1993?
23 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes, 1993. I remember it was
24 winter, it was -- I think on the 7th of January. That was a small-scale
25 exchange.
Page 15410
1 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
2 Q. Let us not go into details, but what can you tell us about Mihajlo
3 Sisljagic?
4 THE INTERPRETER: The interpreter did not catch all the names, I'm
5 sorry.
6 JUDGE MUMBA: Mr. Lukic, before the answer the interpreter says
7 they did not catch all the names.
8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] If I may say these names. A while
9 ago I said that I was considered to be the one to be blamed for not having
10 all people exchanged in that particular exchange, so in a certain manner,
11 I was to blame. Both by the Serbs, by the Croats and by the Muslims
12 equally. They saw me as the culprit even in the eyes of those who had
13 been exchanged and in the eyes of those who hadn't been exchanged. I was
14 to blame also in the eyes of those who were missing and due to that were
15 not exchanged, and to those who were killed, and were not exchanged, and
16 even in the eyes of those who were first exchanged and that got killed
17 later. A large number of people remained unexchanged -- unexchanged
18 because there was no information, and there is still no information up to
19 this date about their fate.
20 These people are from the Odzak area, Petar Markic went missing
21 in May of 1992.
22 JUDGE MUMBA: Mr. Lukic do we need these details?
23 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
24 Q. Mr. Tadic, we don't want to go into details but what you've just
25 told us now is quite important.
Page 15411
1 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, I don't wish to go into
2 details but I think it's important to explain what problems Mr. Tadic
3 encountered in his work.
4 Q. You don't have to give us specific examples, Mr. Tadic, just
5 clarify what you've just said. What led to you being blamed by everybody?
6 A. The people I started talking about, are those who disappeared in
7 the course of these events. That means that their fate is unknown. The
8 ones I was going to enumerate are registered by the International Red
9 Cross and have their numbers in the records.
10 Q. Tell us, why were you considered the culprit by those who were
11 exchanged and later killed? Why were you blamed by their families?
12 A. There was -- there were many people who got killed on the opposite
13 side, for whatever reason. I wouldn't like to go into these reasons now.
14 The reasons for them being killed. But they were exchanged after being
15 killed, meaning their bodies were exchanged. Their bodies were brought in
16 and turned over, and I was blamed for not exchanging them earlier, before
17 they got killed. The other ones blamed me that I didn't exchange them
18 while they were alive, nor after they were killed.
19 The third group who were exchanged alive but got killed later,
20 they would say, had he not exchanged them, perhaps they would still be
21 alive today. So these were all different fates of the people who have
22 been mentioned. And somehow, their fates were linked to me -- with me.
23 Q. I'm sure you would have much to tell us regarding this but let us
24 abide by the instructions of the Trial Chamber and focus on other issues
25 important for this trial.
Page 15412
1 I will now focus on the topic that I'm interested in, which is
2 your relationship with the volunteers or the people wearing camouflage
3 uniforms, the so-called Crni who had come from Serbia. There are several
4 brief episodes I would like to hear you describe, but before we turn to
5 that, I would like to hear what was your relationship with Lugar.
6 Yesterday you told us about an episode through which we could see his
7 attitude with respect to you and the people who remained in Crkvina after
8 the massacre. Did you have any other encounters with Lugar and if so,
9 what were they like?
10 A. I had plenty of encounters, not only with Lugar but also with
11 others, specials if I may call them that. I would just like to add to
12 what Mr. Ljubo Vukovic said when he described the episode when Lugar came
13 to the civilian protection staff. That night, he called me sometime
14 around 2.00 a.m., asking me what I was doing. I told him, "Do you know
15 what people normally do at 2 a.m.? They sleep." And then he started
16 yelling and shouting, you Serbs, what are you like, while I'm creating a
17 state you're sleeping and saying such similar rubbish. And then he said
18 to me, "Make sure you have two or three people ready for me tomorrow who
19 will tell us what they had experienced on the other side," because there
20 was an exchange going on right at about that time.
21 I couldn't mention everything he told me on that occasion.
22 Yesterday, when I went to the staff offices, I happened to pass by
23 two young men who had been exchanged a day or two prior to that event.
24 Those young men were Sveta Goranovic, Svetozar, and another one with the
25 last name Jovanovic. So I told them come with me -- come along with me
Page 15413
1 and you'll have to explain something to somebody. We got there and we
2 ordered coffee and in the meantime, Mr. Lugar arrived. He put a piece of
3 paper in front of them and told them, "Why don't you draw here where the
4 front lines are, where Ustasha positions are and so on."
5 Q. Who said so to them?
6 A. Lugar said that to them and what little they knew they put it on
7 paper. He was quite arrogant and they were a bit scared. And at the end,
8 he asked them, "Did they beat you?" And they said, "Yes." And then he
9 said, "You will come to the detention facility with me, there are Ustashas
10 there and you can beat them all you like." And they said, "Well, how
11 could we go and beat people we don't know, whom we blame for nothing?"
12 And then he jumped and was very angry and his pistol fell out and fired,
13 and what Ljubo said had indeed happened. It hit a hanger. It was enough
14 to have somebody come over for a coffee and talk about something for the
15 pistol to be drawn out. I think that all of that speaks about the
16 attitude he had with respect to people he had a talk with. Naturally,
17 after that, he jumped and started cursing, God knows what, and then he
18 left the premises.
19 Q. Do you know that there were people from Odzak municipality who did
20 go to detention facilities to beat prisoners? Let me ask you first about
21 these two young men. Do you know whether they went to detention
22 facilities?
23 A. No, never, I know that for a fact. However, he could have come
24 across those who were willing.
25 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Perhaps we should make a break now,
Page 15414
1 but before that, the Prosecutor wishes to say something?
2 MR. DI FAZIO: Yes, if I may just for the sake of clarity can we
3 get a time frame on this episode with Lugar that the witness describes?
4 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, before we rise.
5 MR. DI FAZIO: Yes.
6 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I can't remember exactly but perhaps
7 sometime in August of 1992. We could establish the date exactly if
8 necessary, when Sveta Goranovic was exchanged. We can find his name in
9 the exchange lists. I didn't think this to be particularly important so I
10 didn't research it, but it would be possible to establish when Goranovic
11 was exchanged. At any rate, it was in 1992.
12 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] We can take our break now.
13 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. We will break now and continue our proceedings
14 at 1500 hours.
15 --- Luncheon recess taken at 1.32 p.m.
16 --- On resuming at 3.01 p.m.
17 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes, Mr. Lukic. You're continuing.
18 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
19 Q. Mr. Tadic, do you know somebody called Zvezdan? Did you have any
20 encounters with him? Just tell us briefly. We need to cover these
21 episodes as briefly as possible.
22 A. I had hard time going through these episodes. I remember that
23 name, or perhaps it's a nickname. On one occasion, I think it was late
24 June of 1992, around --
25 MR. DI FAZIO: Sorry to interrupt, just so that can follow the
Page 15415
1 evidence unfortunately neither my colleague, Mr. Weiner, nor I heard the
2 name of the person and in the transcript it's written Zvezdan -- Zvezdan.
3 If the name could just be repeated so that we could now follow this
4 evidence, please?
5 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
6 Q. I said the person called Zvezdan - Z-V-E-Z-D-A-N - the person has
7 been mentioned during this trial. Go ahead, please.
8 A. I said I didn't know whether that was his first name or his
9 nickname. Around 11.00 p.m., somebody knocked on my door. I remember
10 well there was no electricity, therefore the bell didn't work. I went
11 down, downstairs, and when I asked who it was, they replied, the military
12 police. I opened the door and I saw four unknown to me men. I asked them
13 what they needed and they said, "We will tell you presently." They
14 entered the hallway and then later on we went upstairs. My wife lit the
15 candle and they wanted me to write some kind of a statement, whom I had
16 contacts with, how I established contacts with the other side, did I
17 reveal any military secrets, and similar rubbish. My wife started being
18 angry. She was getting upset, and then Zvezdan said, "I will take the old
19 lady to the other room," for fear of not using a worse word. I asked
20 them, "Do you know who I am?" I wanted to calm the situation down a bit.
21 However, they said, "We don't know but the one who sent us does." In the
22 dark, I wrote the statement. They expressly wanted me to write it in
23 Cyrillic alphabet. After I wrote down some ten lines of the statement,
24 they asked me whether I had arms. I told them I had a pistol. They asked
25 where it was. I said it's hanging on the coat rack. And one of them went
Page 15416
1 there and got the pistol. I told them it was a military pistol. And they
2 said no matter we will give it back to you tomorrow, after you come for
3 additional questioning.
4 They left and I never saw them again. They neither called me nor
5 did I look for them. However, I had occasion to see Zvezdan in Pelagicevo
6 at the military police, when I went to verify whether a young man called
7 Danijel Jovanovic was in prison there. He was sought by the Croats. And
8 he was allegedly captured on our side. I went there intending to see
9 whether he was kept in detention there. When I got there, he looked at me
10 sideways and asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted to inquire about the
11 whereabouts of this soldier. He remembered me. He knew -- he realised
12 that I was the one involved in exchanges, and asked me, "Are you Brko whom
13 I questioned?" I said, "Yes." And he said, "And you're still alive."
14 And I said, as you can see for yourself. And he sent me to a shop to
15 inquire about Jovanovic. He didn't want to send a policeman with me. I
16 went there by myself. And the glass windows of the shop were broken.
17 There were several prisoners in there and I approached the bars on the
18 windows of the shop. I asked whether Danijel Jovanovic was there and a
19 young man approached me and said, "I am that person." And then I told him
20 that he was sought by the Croatian side and I asked him whether he wanted
21 to be exchanged and he said yes.
22 We will probably see this in the documents.
23 Q. Can you please give me direct answers to my questions? When did
24 this incident involving Zvezdan take place?
25 A. I think it was the end of June, 1992, and I said so at the
Page 15417
1 beginning.
2 JUDGE WILLIAMS: Excuse me, Mr. Lukic, you mentioned on page 80,
3 line 6, that this person called Zvezdan has been mentioned in the trial.
4 When? I mean, I don't mean every page. I mean that it -- frankly it's
5 not a name that strikes me as being that familiar. Was he a special,
6 paramilitary? I mean who was he, if you could just maybe -- you or
7 through Mr. Tadic, just clarify that?
8 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] I believe he was mentioned several
9 times but the freshest instance was when Witness DW 2/3 testified. If you
10 remember, when this specials came, the one who took him to write a
11 statement, he mentioned the name of this person as being one of the
12 specials who had come from Serbia and who made him write the statement.
13 They also wanted to get some money from him, and I don't want to go into
14 details because this all transpired in a closed session.
15 JUDGE WILLIAMS: That's just fine but simply to know, yes, he was
16 one of the specials. That's sufficient.
17 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
18 Q. That's right. Mr. Tadic, Zvezdan was in a group of volunteers or
19 of the people wearing camouflage uniforms who had come from Serbia?
20 A. I've said at the outset that four men, unknown to me, had come,
21 meaning that all four of them were from Serbia. They were not locals,
22 otherwise I would have known them.
23 Q. I'm interested in another person from that group, and according to
24 my information, his nickname was Grof, meaning count. Did you have an
25 encounter with him and what transpired there?
Page 15418
1 A. He was one of those specials, and let me tell you right away, that
2 they never went alone. They usually moved in groups. On one occasion,
3 somebody called Jovo Savic, a deputy commander of the 4th Detachment,
4 informed me that the specials were going around wanting to set on fire a
5 company which was across from my house. It was a carpentry workshop where
6 coffins were made later. He said that they were carrying around a zolja
7 and wanted to fire at that facility. A few minutes went by and some four
8 or five of them came by. They sat at a table. I knew what it was all
9 about so I sat with them trying to calm them down and to prevent the
10 situation from escalating. There were residential buildings all around us
11 and there were many highly inflammable items in that company or workshop,
12 and one of them pointed to that company and said, "Can you see what is
13 written there?" And what it said there was, Comrade Tito, we are -- we
14 give our pledge to you. I never paid attention to that. But then the man
15 said to me, "Have that sign removed within ten minutes." Since I worked
16 at the civilian protection staff, I said that I will get somebody to paint
17 the sign over tomorrow. And then he said to me, "Two minutes have
18 passed." And then I sent two soldiers from the 4th Detachment who
19 happened to be there and told them to try to shoot at the sign from their
20 rifles, to see if it would fall down, to see if the mortar would come
21 off. And they fired at it and somehow managed to get the letters off. In
22 my shop, I still had Tito's picture hanging, the one I described
23 yesterday, and I thought if they should enter that room, they will see
24 Tito's picture and there will be great trouble so I told somebody go into
25 that room take Tito's picture off and the man did it. He hid it behind a
Page 15419
1 chair. However, they never went into that room and they stayed for a few
2 more minutes and then they left, their hand-held grenade launcher remained
3 there and this is how we prevented them from setting that place on fire.
4 There were several other encounters, both involving me and other
5 citizens of Samac.
6 JUDGE MUMBA: All right.
7 MR. DI FAZIO: I just thought that if the witness was leaving this
8 episode if we could once again try and get a fix on an approximate time
9 period for this episode.
10 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I think I've already said that it
11 was late June.
12 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
13 Q. Well, no, that concerned the previous incident.
14 A. Yes, you're right. The incident involving Grof, or the count,
15 took place a bit earlier, perhaps early June.
16 I started saying that in addition to the encounters I had with
17 them, there were many other residents of our town who had unpleasant
18 encounters with these men. I remember that our commander, Radovan Antic,
19 also had some problems, as did Makso Simeunovic and Blagoje Simic and
20 Simo Zaric. Perhaps more than one would expect. We've already heard here
21 that whomever they came across and didn't like, they would start slapping
22 or hitting the person, and looking for a pretext to cause trouble. So
23 there were many such encounters and none of them were pleasant.
24 I -- these four men that I just described, a minute ago, Zvezdan
25 and his gang, I saw them frequently in the company of the commander of the
Page 15420
1 5th Battalion, called Mladen Radovic. In 2000 I asked him whether he had
2 sent these people. I used to see them with him frequently and he told me
3 that he had not sent them. I don't know whether he's to be believed or
4 not.
5 Q. We shall now move on to another topic and in order to proceed
6 faster, we have already spoken a lot about the testimonies before the
7 Court so I ask you to answer my questions only briefly.
8 JUDGE WILLIAMS: Just before you move on, I wonder, Mr. Tadic,
9 whether you would know, this man, Grof, the count, is he the same person,
10 if you know, that the witness Jelena Kapetanovic mentioned as being
11 somebody who came when she was incarcerated in the stadium and then the
12 cultural centre gymnasium, whatever it was, in Crkvina, if you know? It's
13 just that the name seems to ring a bell in my mind.
14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No. It's not the same man, because
15 Jelena was mixed up. It wasn't Grof but another man who came to the
16 detention unit. I think this man's name was Debeli or the fat guy. Grof
17 was so to speak a lower level special purpose man. He didn't have a high
18 post.
19 JUDGE WILLIAMS: Thank you.
20 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I would only ask Mr. Lukic why he's
21 in such a hurry.
22 JUDGE MUMBA: It's because the Defence has to answer the charges
23 so we don't need any more details about the characteristics of some of
24 these people referred to as specials. I think the ones you have narrated,
25 the episodes you have narrated are sufficient.
Page 15421
1 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
2 Q. Mr. Tadic, I am putting questions to you which I, as your counsel,
3 consider to be important for your Defence. I believe that you trust me to
4 put proper questions to you, and that we shall stick to what we feel will
5 contribute to challenging the claims of the Prosecution.
6 A. Well, we shall see.
7 Q. I will put a few questions to you about civilian protection and
8 work obligation. We have talked about this before this Court. We have
9 heard testimonies about it, which is why I feel there is no need to go
10 into detail and repeat things. We shall mention only what is essential.
11 This Court has heard quite a lot of testimony about the fact that the
12 premises of the team working on the work obligation were on the ground
13 floor. We heard about the telephone, about the way messages were
14 transmitted, so now I'm asking you: Did you personally or anybody else
15 from the civilian protection staff give any kind of orders to the work
16 obligation service which was housed in the pensioners' club building?
17 A. The only connection between the civilian protection and the work
18 obligation was that we shared the same building and the same telephone.
19 Everything else was separate. No tasks were given to the civilian
20 protection in connection with work obligation unless someone from the
21 civilian protection went to assist by repairing a building or a roof, so
22 if someone from civilian protection helped in something that work
23 obligation was doing, then they would be connected in that way but the
24 civilian protection did not require people to be constantly present as the
25 work that was done was something that happened occasionally, according to
Page 15422
1 need, except for the building of coffins that we have already mentioned.
2 Q. Were you or anyone from the civilian protection able to come in
3 front of the pensioners' club where people gathered for work obligation
4 and then take them away to do something or would you have to apply with a
5 request for this to be approved?
6 A. Neither did we do this, nor did we take anyone away. If we needed
7 someone, then one of us would go downstairs to ask Dzevad or Debeli, they
8 are commissioners, whether they had any men available who might be able to
9 help at that moment. If he had people available, he give them to us. If
10 he didn't, then he couldn't. So that was the sort of cooperation we had.
11 And if people were there, and were available, they were happy to go and
12 help.
13 Q. At sessions of the Crisis Staff, the ones what you attended, did
14 you discuss work obligation and did you issue any orders or instructions
15 concerning work obligation to anyone?
16 A. While I was there, we never discussed this at the Crisis Staff,
17 nor did we issue any kind of instructions, because you -- you can tell
18 from what has been said so far how this was organised.
19 Q. Was your private vehicle requisitioned?
20 A. My private vehicle, which I used throughout the war, was
21 requisitioned, but I was the only person who used it. This was a kind of
22 perk that we had, because if you had an official car, it was easier to
23 pass through all those checkpoints. You would get a permit, a
24 green-coloured card from the Secretariat for National Defence, containing
25 the details of the vehicle and you would only show that at the checkpoints
Page 15423
1 and then it was easier to pass through.
2 Q. Could the ministry have used that vehicle for other purposes if
3 they needed it to conduct other business because it was requisitioned?
4 A. Well, yes. In theory but there was no time for them to do that.
5 I don't know when they would do that because I constantly used it. I
6 think I drove over 90.000 kilometres in that car during the war.
7 Q. Did you, as the commander of the civilian protection staff and the
8 member of the Crisis Staff, were you ever asked anything about the
9 organisation of the procurement of wood for fuel?
10 A. These supplies came through the executive board, and it was no
11 secret that that is how fuel or wood was obtained. Citizens who were at
12 risk in any way, such as single mothers, families of soldiers who had been
13 killed, elderly people and so on, who were unable to obtain firewood, they
14 would apply for it and be granted or given firewood by the executive
15 board, and it was they who distributed it.
16 Q. Did you yourself issue orders to anyone to go and collect firewood
17 from the abandoned villages and bring it to warehouses in Samac? You know
18 what the witness Nusret Hadzijusufovic said about this. And I will ask
19 you right away whether you knew any women who lived above Merkur?
20 A. I never ordered either Nusret or anyone else to do this because
21 there were others who were in charge of that sort of work. So why would I
22 issue orders that were not within my sphere of activity? There was no
23 need for me to do that but I know that firewood was brought in and
24 distributed and that we, as members of the civilian protection staff, had
25 to obtain firewood for our own offices and we did this in the same way as
Page 15424
1 everybody else. We asked the executive board that truck load or two of
2 firewood be brought to us and we used it to heat our premises.
3 Q. In connection with the Merkur building, witness Hadzijusufovic
4 testified that he had been ordered to take firewood there to some women
5 who had applied to Tadic.
6 A. I know who these women are. There were three such women who lived
7 in a studio flat there. They were refugees from Donja Dubica, there was
8 an elderly woman and her two daughters. One daughter was called Mila and
9 her son was killed in Brod, and that was the basis upon which she asked
10 for firewood and that's why it was supplied to her.
11 Q. Was her name Goranovic Mara?
12 A. It was Mila Goranovic, her sister was Mara and the mother's name
13 was Smilja.
14 Q. Did they ever apply to you with requests for firewood?
15 A. No, they didn't. But Granny Smilja always asked about her
16 grandson.
17 Q. I will now put a few questions to you about your relations with
18 the Secretariat for National Defence, and the local police, in the period
19 while you held some posts in Samac. At the beginning of your testimony,
20 you said that your son was in the 4th Detachment?
21 A. What did you say?
22 Q. That your son Miroslav was also in the 4th Detachment. Where was
23 he later? And how did you feel about where he was later?
24 A. Well, I have already said here that my son was in the 4th
25 Detachment. I think this was towards the end of June, when he was sent to
Page 15425
1 a Special Battalion.
2 Q. Who sent him there?
3 A. The Ministry for National Defence, the Secretariat for National
4 Defence of Osijek [as interpreted], headed at that time by Bozo Ninkovic.
5 I think it was a big misfortune for parents to have their sons sent to a
6 Special Battalion.
7 Q. Why?
8 MR. LAZAREVIC: [Previous translation continues] ... here, unusual
9 here in the transcript on page 90, line 3, it says the Secretariat for
10 National Defence of Osijek and this is definitely not what the witness
11 said.
12 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. Can we have that corrected, then?
13 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. Mr. Tadic?
15 A. The Secretariat for National Defence headed by Bozo Ninkovic.
16 Q. In what town?
17 A. Bosanski Samac.
18 Q. You began to talk about why it was a misfortune for parents to
19 have their son sent to the Special Battalion?
20 A. Well, this battalion had several names among the people. They
21 called it the intervention battalion and there were other names for it,
22 and you could see from those names that it had a special purpose. Every
23 third soldier of that battalion was killed so one in three was killed, and
24 almost everybody was wounded.
25 Q. What happened to your son?
Page 15426
1 A. Fortunately he survived, but he was also seriously wounded.
2 Q. Can you tell the Chamber when your son was seriously wounded?
3 A. He was wounded on the 19th of August, 1992.
4 Q. Did you personally do something to prevent your son being sent to
5 that battalion? Was there anything you were able to do? What was your
6 relationship with the people who sent him there? What did people say
7 about this?
8 A. Well, I didn't do anything, because I felt that I shouldn't.
9 Q. Were there any rumours going around Samac and was this considered
10 normal?
11 A. Well, people might have talked more if he hadn't gone, but he went
12 and, again, there were stories going around that -- well, but had I asked
13 that he not go, that would not have been seen in a good light.
14 Q. Tell me: Was your son later tried, processed? And what was the
15 situation concerning those proceedings? And when was this?
16 A. This was in 1993, early 1993. I will be as brief as possible. An
17 acquaintance of mine, a neighbour called Adic, came into our cafe. He was
18 drunk and his 11 year old son was with him and another friend or relative
19 of his. I think his brother-in-law.
20 Q. What did you say the man's name was?
21 A. I didn't. I only said a neighbour of mine, and an acquaintance.
22 Q. What was his name?
23 A. His name was Slobodan Ilincic. This was at about 1.00 after
24 midnight, 1.00 a.m. and he tried to cause trouble. This man, whenever he
25 got drunk lost control. He didn't get drunk often but on that occasion,
Page 15427
1 his wife was away somewhere and he took the opportunity to get drunk. He
2 tried to hit me, and then my son pushed him and he fell down, and hit a
3 footrest next to the bar and hurt himself. After that, his brother-in-law
4 and his son took him away. He went home first but then he went to the
5 health centre after that, and to make a long story short, on the following
6 day, the police arrived, the civilian police, and they drew up an official
7 record which they were bound to do, and handed this over to the Court and
8 my son was sentenced to four months in prison and 7.000 German marks in
9 damages to that man. I'm saying only that he was not reported -- reported
10 either by the Crisis Staff or the municipal assembly or Blagoje Simic or
11 anyone, but it is well known who can submit a criminal report. The police
12 had to do this ex officio, and that's how my son came to be sentenced.
13 Q. We will now move on to a completely different topic.
14 Mr. Tadic, were you a member of the War Presidency?
15 A. No, I wasn't, and you can see this from that document enumerating
16 the members of the War Presidency.
17 Q. Did you attend sessions of the War Presidency?
18 A. No.
19 Q. We know that it is indisputable before this Court that the
20 municipality resumed its operation in January, 1993. I'm referring to the
21 municipality of Samac. Did you hold any position in the municipal
22 authorities ever since it became operable again?
23 A. I didn't hold any position, before, at the time, or after that. I
24 wasn't a councillor, nor an employee of the municipality of Samac.
25 Q. Up to what time were you the commander of the civilian protection
Page 15428
1 staff and what position did you hold after that?
2 A. The civilian protection staff, as I said at the beginning, covered
3 a whole area of activities, and when the municipality -- municipal
4 authorities became operational, occasionally the duties of the
5 protection -- civilian protection staff were delegated to the municipal
6 organs. We've already seen that the inventory of flats was done by the
7 organs that were established only later. Similarly, when the municipal
8 assembly was established, the protection civilian staff almost had no role
9 any more at the time, because even the building of the coffins that we
10 mentioned in early 1993 also came under the jurisdiction of the executive
11 board and these coffins could not have been gotten free, for free. People
12 had to go to the municipality for kind of certain certificate and with
13 that certificate, they could get these coffins. So if there was any
14 justification for any person to get this coffin for free, then it would be
15 written in the certificate. Otherwise every citizen had to pay for the
16 coffin and then go and collect it there.
17 So, under such circumstances, the Secretariat for National
18 Defence, under which jurisdiction the protection civilian -- civilian
19 protection staff operated, established a new civilian protection staff,
20 which got a so-called normal shape of civilian protection under normal
21 circumstances.
22 People specialised in certain areas, became members of the staff,
23 like people of fire -- for caving in, for fire protection, or for securing
24 the water supply, so about a dozen people were professionally assigned to
25 this civilian protection staff, and the staff moved again back to the
Page 15429
1 communication centre. They were given a female secretary. I think her
2 name was Gordana Tovic.
3 JUDGE MUMBA: [Previous translation continues] ... what position
4 the defendant held.
5 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
6 Q. The Presiding Judge, Mrs. Mumba is more interested to hear what
7 was your role and your position?
8 A. In this reorganised staff, I was again for a short time the head,
9 and after that, Perica Krstanovic was appointed to that position and after
10 that, I had nothing to do whatsoever with the civilian protection staff.
11 That staff appointed me a commissioner of a local commune.
12 Q. When did that take place?
13 A. In early 1993. After that, I didn't have an office or any
14 specific job or any special work obligation with the exception of what I
15 did as a member of the commission for exchange.
16 Q. We will talk a little bit more about exchanges later but tell me:
17 Did you take part in any decision-taking process of the War Presidency,
18 and the municipal authorities, after the Crisis Staff started -- ceased to
19 operate?
20 A. No, I didn't take any decisions.
21 Q. Did you hear anything and what do you know about the incident when
22 people swam across the River Sava in August, 1992?
23 A. I heard that there -- there were people swimming across the River
24 Sava in August, 1992, but I didn't believe that as many as 100 people
25 could have swum across the river without anything seeing that so I didn't
Page 15430
1 pay much attention to this story. I didn't believe that that happened,
2 but maybe a few people managed to swim across, but I really couldn't
3 believe that it could have been 100 people, because there were guards
4 there, there were troops there, and I really couldn't believe how that
5 could have happened. But later, in this trial, I heard from many
6 witnesses that this did happen and I accept that as a fact.
7 Q. In your interview, you also talked extensively and replied to the
8 OTP questions about Zasavica and people being taken away to Zasavica. At
9 the time you didn't mention this incident of swimming across the Sava, but
10 do you believe that these are interlinked incidents? Do you have any
11 knowledge of that?
12 A. At the time, I didn't have any particulars. I knew that the
13 incident in Zasavica did happen but only later, I realised that that was
14 the reason why those people were taken to Zasavica.
15 Q. Did you yourself go to Zasavica in that period?
16 A. No.
17 Q. I would like the witness to be shown the map, 5 -- P9. And I
18 would like to ask the witness to show us where Zasavica is because this is
19 interesting regarding to the first exchange.
20 Can you describe us what was so particular about this village
21 during the war?
22 A. I am trying to focus here on this area which is interesting. We
23 can't see Samac here. We can only see Zasavica and this is this part of
24 the village. This road leads to Modrica from Samac to Modrica and here
25 there is another road leading to Zasavica.
Page 15431
1 Q. What you just pointed, is that where the bridge is that we saw on
2 the video?
3 A. Yes. That's where the bridge is. There is no river there. This
4 is just a ravine and this is where the bridge is. And this first house
5 here, once you cross the bridge, that is where -- this is the house
6 belonging to a man named Loncaric and Dr. Ozren Stanimirovic mentioned
7 that and I know very well this man, Loncaric and this house belongs to him
8 and that is where a tavern used to be and we were also colleagues so when
9 you enter Zasavica at this crossroads, there is this artesian well
10 where -- from which the water is supplied and this is where the village is
11 branching so the greater part of the village is on the other side, as you
12 can see.
13 Q. Can you mark, if you have a pencil, where does -- did this first
14 exchange that we heard of took place? Can you see that on the map?
15 A. Well, roughly, not exactly. When we went to do this exchange, we
16 didn't enter here into the village, but rather we entered more downwards,
17 in order not to disturb the peace of the villagers of Zasavica, not to
18 upset them, so we went down to the road at a lower point and we basically
19 reached the same point by taking a bypass road.
20 Q. Can you mark this point with number 1?
21 A. Number 1 is place where we took the detour, and number 2 is the
22 place where the exchange was done, and that is where we people crossed
23 over the Bosna and went to the opposite side, to Odzak municipality. At
24 the time, the demarcation lines were somewhere here, running along the
25 River Bosna, and on the other side also along the River Bosna, so when we
Page 15432
1 came close to the river the people stood there and the line was here. We
2 were between these lines and it was very, very dangerous to be in that
3 place.
4 Q. Tell us: At the time before July, while the demarcation line was
5 on the River Bosna, before Odzak was captured, taken by the Army of
6 Republika Srpska, was that area shelled? Do you have any knowledge of
7 that?
8 A. Before 15th of July, 1992, this is where the demarcation line was,
9 and shells arrived from that side but they never reached the area of
10 Zasavica. The closest they hit the land was somewhere here and this is
11 where one woman got killed. I think that her last name was Sulapovic
12 [phoen] and she is in that list, on that list, and also the postman's
13 house was damaged by a shell.
14 Q. How about these villages surrounding Zasavica? Were they shelled
15 in that period?
16 A. This is part -- this part is known as Donja Crkvina and it had
17 also been shelled, and this here is Gornja Crkvina and this part was also
18 shelled, and this intersection also was shelled. This is the road that
19 leads to Gradacac.
20 Q. Can you mark all these locations with numbers 3, and 4?
21 A. So Donja Crkvina is number 3, and Gornji Crkvina is number 4, this
22 cluster of houses here.
23 Q. How far apart are these -- sorry, how far are these villages are
24 from Zasavica?
25 A. Well, they are practically not far away. They are virtually one
Page 15433
1 and the same settlement. You see these two or three houses here, they
2 actually belong to Crkvina, and the houses behind this dotted line belong
3 to Zasavica. So there is virtually no big distance between these
4 villages.
5 Q. Can we please have the number attached to this document?
6 A. Are we going to go back to this?
7 Q. I will ask you further questions but I don't think we need the map
8 any more.
9 A. Because we mentioned this incident of swimming across the Sava and
10 the arrival of these people to Zasavica, I think I need to say a few more
11 sentences about this. In August, when they came in late August, 25th or
12 26th, of August, at the time there was no demarcation line here. This was
13 a free zone, and people could easily move around to the other side and
14 vice versa. So somewhere here was a pontoon bridge across which it was
15 possible to cross over even in a car to the other side. So at the time,
16 when those people who had been brought from Samac in August, next to this
17 checkpoint that I just mentioned, the whole area was accessible to them.
18 So while this area was under the control of the HVO, people could freely
19 move through village -- down village roads to Crkvina and to Milosevac and
20 because these are the fields that belong to the villagers of Milosevac,
21 Zasavica and Crkvina. So this is to the west.
22 Q. What you just said for the sake of clarity, can you mark with
23 number 5 this checkpoint? Where was it?
24 A. Well, this is this house of the man Loncaric who used to run a
25 pub.
Page 15434
1 Q. And what you said that people could freely cross over the pontoon
2 bridge, can you mark that with number 6?
3 A. Yes, that's the pontoon bridge and this entire territory was
4 free for movement of civilians from both sides.
5 MR. DI FAZIO: If Your Honours please, I wonder if there is a
6 mistake in the transcript.
7 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
8 MR. DI FAZIO: I haven't misunderstood something. The witness
9 seemed to say that while this area was under the control of the HVO,
10 people could move freely through the village, and at the time his pen was
11 running around the area of the village of Zasavica. Is the witness saying
12 that Zasavica was under HVO control? Because that's the way it reads. It
13 may be that something was lost in the translation. I assume that that may
14 well have happened.
15 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Yes, I understood it but let's have
16 the witness clarify.
17 Q. Were you able to cross over from Zasavica to the territory
18 controlled by the HVO, without any details, please?
19 A. No, no details whatsoever. All of these matters are very
20 important. Up until the 15th of June, 1992, 15th of July, interpreters
21 correction, the HVO was there, and the positions, the line of the Army of
22 Republika Srpska, were established here, and at that time, it was
23 impossible to cross over to the other side except for that instance when
24 100 people swam over across the Sava River.
25 And starting in the 15th of July, 1992, there was no HVO on this
Page 15435
1 other side, so this whole area was one and the same, and one could move
2 freely about. Cross over and come back. And this is what happened. The
3 pontoon bridge was here and it was used for people to travel between Samac
4 municipality and Odzak municipality.
5 Q. I think it would be best if we said for the record that the
6 witness showed that up until the middle of July, there was a demarcation
7 line on the Bosna River and one couldn't cross freely to and fro, the two
8 sides, but after the HVO withdrew from that area, which was on the other
9 side of the Bosna River, people could go freely to the other side, to the
10 other bank of the river.
11 A. What I also wish to say is that when these people came in late
12 August to Zasavica, this entire area here was open for movement. There
13 were no troops there. There were no demarcation lines so that the only
14 security site was a checkpoint here. Up until the 15th of July, 1992,
15 there was security on this side of the line.
16 Q. Can we now be given a number for this document?
17 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes. No objection from the Prosecution?
18 MR. DI FAZIO: No, no objection to the production into evidence of
19 this map. I'm a bit concerned about whether or not we will later be able
20 to marry up the markings on the map to what the witness has said in the
21 transcript but that concern having been expressed, I have no objection to
22 its actual tendering into evidence.
23 THE REGISTRAR: This will be Exhibit D158/3.
24 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] This can be verified in
25 cross-examination but I believe that a lot of issues have been now
Page 15436
1 clarified by the witness.
2 Q. Did you know the Tomic family from Zasavica?
3 A. When I showed the photograph, I've already said that my sister's
4 daughter is married to a Croat from Zasavica, and the house in the picture
5 that we saw can be clearly seen, and that house is right here at this
6 intersection. My friend, Pero Tomic, was on very good terms with me. I
7 went to his house frequently, be it for various parties or some other
8 reason. He was one of the founders of the HDZ in Zasavica village.
9 According to the testimony of the last protected witness, some of the
10 residents of Zasavica and my friend Pero crossed over across the Bosna
11 River and went to the Odzak area. The witness testified that 400 people
12 or thereabouts went from this part of Zasavica and crossed over and that
13 some 70 people remained in the then Zasavica. I had contact with that
14 neighbour of mine, Pero, later on. We used to see each other on the
15 demarcation line after I was indicted.
16 Q. In addition to these family ties with him, were you on good terms
17 with other residents of Zasavica? We know it to be a village mostly
18 populated by Croats before the war.
19 A. A lot of people from that village know me, as I know them. There
20 are a lot of my students living there. In this area right here, we can't
21 see it on the map, but it's visible on that photograph, Marjan Jelavic and
22 Anto Jelavic lived here on this road. There are two houses in the
23 vicinity of the church here. I was on very good terms with them. Anto
24 used to be my roommate when we lived in Samac, and my sister is living in
25 that house as a refugee now.
Page 15437
1 Q. Could the technical booth now show the excerpt of the videotape
2 regarding Zasavica? We need to see a few details from the beginning of
3 the tape to see whether it has anything to do with what we've just been
4 talking about.
5 MR. DI FAZIO: Does this have an exhibit number?
6 JUDGE MUMBA: The map?
7 MR. DI FAZIO: The videotape, I mean.
8 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] D142/3, admitted when Dario Radic
9 testified.
10 MR. DI FAZIO: Thank you.
11 [Videotape played]
12 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
13 Q. Mr. Tadic, you can comment while the tape is running.
14 A. This is way too far.
15 Q. All right. Let's rewind back to the beginning.
16 A. This is the road leading from Samac to Modrica, right here on the
17 right is where you turn to go to Zasavica.
18 Q. How far is this from the centre of Samac?
19 A. Some four to five [Realtime transcript read in error "45"]
20 kilometres. This is the bridge. You can tell that it's fairly narrow,
21 and it's difficult for large trucks to travel across that bridge.
22 We just passed the Loncaric house and then the house we can see
23 in front is the one that belongs to my friend Pero Tomic, this kiosk
24 didn't exist before, it was recently constructed. And here we turn to the
25 left, I showed that on the map just a minute ago and this road now will
Page 15438
1 take to us the church in Zasavica.
2 This is approximately how it looked in 1992, before the 17th. And
3 you can see what it looks like now.
4 Could we continue for just a bit longer? And then we will see a
5 church to the right, but before that, we'll see the house, I think that's
6 what it was, the house belonging to Zecevic, where one of the female
7 witnesses lived.
8 In this part of Zasavica, there were many refugees. We can see
9 the church now. Many refugees from central Bosnia from Sadilovac [phoen].
10 I believe that some of them are still living there nowadays. And also
11 some people who came as refugees from Odzak municipality.
12 We just missed the church, I think.
13 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
14 Q. I believe we've seen enough. These refugees that you mentioned,
15 who are still living in Zasavica, what is their ethnicity?
16 A. They are Serbs from central Bosnia, as I've said, from Sadilovac
17 area, Gostovic and other places, I don't know the names of all of them.
18 And there are also some refugees from Novi Grad and Dubica and other Serb
19 villages in Odzak municipality. I don't know what the situation is like
20 today but I know that my sister is still living there as a refugee, as are
21 some other people. The people who have returned, the Croats from
22 Zasavica, they got their properties back and they either rented them out
23 or they stayed in the village themselves, depending on the arrangements
24 they made.
25 Q. When I asked you whether you went to Zasavica, you told me no. I
Page 15439
1 was referring to the period after the arrest in August, but I will remind
2 you --
3 A. You don't have to remind me, I remember it very well.
4 Q. Shall I read it out?
5 A. No, you don't have to. On one occasion, when a family named
6 Hodzic from Samac was allowed to cross over the Croatian territory in
7 order to go to France, as their daughter lived in France and was a
8 physician there, their daughter managed, through Marko Bozanovic, to get
9 her mother and sister out, because Marko Bozanovic had some relations with
10 one of these daughters that went to France. So he asked me to bring the
11 Hodzic family to Dragalic because they had a permit issued to them. I was
12 on good terms with Hodzics -- the Hodzic family. Their son worked at
13 school with me.
14 Q. My question was whether you went to Zasavica.
15 A. Yes, I did. On that occasion, I went to Zasavica to the house of
16 a man where she resided. She got ready, as did her daughter, and based on
17 the papers that I had received from the Red Cross, I took them. I drove
18 them, to Dragalic where their daughter from France was waiting and they
19 departed for France.
20 Q. Was that in the summer of 1992, as you stated in the interview?
21 A. That was in 1992. There are documents confirming this. I don't
22 remember the date, didn't stick in my mind, but I think it was summer of
23 1992 because the weather was fine.
24 JUDGE WILLIAMS: Excuse me, Mr. Lukic, just from the point of view
25 of clarity of the transcript, page 102, line 20, you asked Mr. Tadic how
Page 15440
1 far Zasavica is from the centre of Samac. The answer on line 21, I
2 believe I heard Mr. Tadic say four to five kilometres but the transcript
3 says 45. Could you just clarify whether it's four to five or 45?
4 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Let's have the witness say.
5 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Four to five kilometres. I never
6 measured the distance but some four or perhaps five kilometres.
7 JUDGE WILLIAMS: Thank you. That's what I heard you say too.
8 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
9 Q. Mr. Tadic, I would like now to turn to several exchanges. The
10 first one I'm interested in is the next one in the chronological order on
11 the 4th of September, 1992.
12 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Could the witness please be shown
13 document D3/3?
14 Q. Do you remember which exchange it was? Do you remember any
15 specific details? We mentioned the witness called Zvonko Susak but rather
16 not witness but an individual with that name. We mentioned him. We
17 mentioned the communication centre, and before -- while we are getting the
18 document, do you remember something related to his father that you could
19 tell us about?
20 A. Zvonko Susak, as I've already said, was wounded in late June,
21 1992, when his father was killed. He was unable to locate his father's
22 corpse, and in 2000, when I was at home, he came to see me, asking me to
23 assist him in that endeavour. Since I had some information about the
24 people who were there at the time, they were the people from Novi Grad, I
25 attempted, with a lot of difficulties, to try and locate this. I used
Page 15441
1 another man to establish contacts with Croats. I promised I wouldn't
2 reveal his identity. And then I said I would disclose it to him. So this
3 is how it all came about and he took me to a site, that was perhaps some
4 several square metres large. Later on I showed the site to Zvonko who
5 started digging there and he found his father's body which he later
6 buried.
7 Q. Would you please take a look at this document, now?
8 MR. DI FAZIO: If Your Honours please, could Mr. Tadic specify
9 when in 2000 he spoke to this man?
10 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
11 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] This was when I was on provisional
12 release, in Samac. This is when he came to see me. And this is when I
13 talked to him.
14 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
15 Q. Please tell us the people on this list, we've heard a lot of
16 testimony regarding that. Did all of these people have to declare their
17 will to cross over at the exchange site or not?
18 A. All of them had to declare whether they wanted to cross over or
19 not. That was the typical procedure. We can see that here on this
20 document, where it says that Vukovic, Stipo refused or did not declare
21 his will. Juric, Mato; Cosic, Alija. Juric, Mato is a man from Zasavica.
22 He also declared his will. He remained the -- in Zasavica throughout the
23 entire war and is there nowadays. This other person is from Zasavica as
24 well. I know these people also. They stated that they wished to cross
25 over. Grga Abramovic is on the list of people who were not allowed to
Page 15442
1 leave Samac. This has to do with the document we discussed a little bit
2 ago.
3 Q. Mr. Tadic, let's be more specific. You said that these people had
4 to state their will?
5 A. Yes. These people had to declare whether they wished to cross
6 over to the Croatian side or not and they said that they did not wish to
7 go to the Croatian side and returned back to Samac and then I've just told
8 you that this man is from Zasavica and is still living there today as are
9 other people listed here who are still living in Samac today. I mentioned
10 Grga Abramovic on purpose because his name was on the other list we just
11 recently discussed and he's living in Holland today.
12 Q. Thank you. I would now ask that the witness be shown document PDB
13 51/3.
14 Very briefly, are these the persons who on that occasion were
15 handed over by the HVO commission, that is the people who crossed over to
16 your side, and what is their ethnicity?
17 A. These are Serbs who crossed over to our side. All of them are
18 marked with a plus. None of them went back.
19 Q. Can we be given a number for this document?
20 JUDGE MUMBA: Yes.
21 THE REGISTRAR: This will be Exhibit D159/3 and ter for the
22 B/C/S.
23 JUDGE WILLIAMS: Excuse me, Mr. Lukic, Mr. Tadic, with respect to
24 this particular document, D159/3 ter, you say that all of them are marked
25 with a plus, none of them went back. With respect, though, to them all
Page 15443
1 being marked with a plus, at least on the Xerox copy I have, a few, such
2 as number 6, Mr. Branko, number 7, Mr. Pero, number 9, Mr. Jovo Ninkovic,
3 et cetera, are marked with minuses and a couple of others as well, not
4 with pluses. And in fact one person, Mr. Savo Savic has neither a plus
5 nor a minus.
6 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
7 Q. Mr. Tadic, I will read the names.
8 A. May I see the document again? Because I know all the people on
9 that list, down to the last man. And I can tell you about each one of
10 them.
11 JUDGE WILLIAMS: I think it was just the question you said they
12 are all marked with a plus, that is the thing that is at odds with what's
13 in front of us.
14 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Maybe I didn't pay enough attention,
15 and now I can say that I didn't pay attention to the pluses, but I know
16 Branko Mikanovic very well.
17 JUDGE MUMBA: Mr. Tadic, I think to make the whole story short,
18 the point is you said that you didn't pay attention to the pluses. Your
19 evidence is that all these people listed were exchanged and were received
20 by your side. That is your evidence, is it?
21 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] All these people crossed over to our
22 side, Savo Savic arrived in the next exchange, not in this one. He
23 arrived in the next exchange, but all of these people crossed over to the
24 Serbian side. So that all the people on this list, I know them personally
25 and they all crossed over to the Serbian side.
Page 15444
1 JUDGE MUMBA: Very well.
2 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation]
3 Q. Before I move on to the next exchange list, I will just put a
4 question to you concerning something we heard about before this Tribunal.
5 Do you know whether there were any situations where people who were
6 exchanged or people from the commissions asked you to send them some of
7 their things? And what did you do about this?
8 A. This happened quite often. Families or people who had left
9 earlier through the commission sent messages, packages, or things that had
10 sentimental value for them. This was no secret. And at the demarcation
11 lines, we usually inspected the things to see what it was that was being
12 taken over, but we allowed this all to pass through, and we would tell
13 people what sort of things they were allowed to send so that we could
14 avoid being brought into an embarrassing situation.
15 Q. Do you remember taking some personal belongings to the family of
16 Juro Krajnovic and what was your relation with that family?
17 A. I often took Juro Krajnovic things prepared for him by his
18 father-in-law, Djordje Ninkovic, and even Djordje himself accompanied me
19 several times to the demarcation line to see Juro. And to talk about
20 their situation, to exchange their views. I have known Juro for a long
21 time, I knew him for 20 years and more although he's considerably younger
22 than me. For a time, he was the director of the Mladost company which was
23 across the road from my house. And I remember that my daughter went to
24 university in Zagreb at the faculty of technology, where she studied the
25 technology of garment making or clothing.
Page 15445
1 Q. Well, to shorten things, can you just tell us about your relation
2 with this Krajnovic?
3 A. We were on friendly terms, on good terms.
4 Q. How did it come about that his family went to be exchanged with
5 him and were they exchanged in the first exchange, as witness Drljacic,
6 Hajra said?
7 A. No, they didn't go to the first exchange. I think it was in
8 September, either on the 16th or the 18th. At any rate in mid-September,
9 that was when they left and that may have been the fourth or fifth
10 exchange. And how this situation arose, I could explain briefly. At the
11 exchange that took place around the 15th or 16th of September, nobody from
12 Samac went to be exchanged. There was only me as a negotiator, because I
13 wanted to establish some details about an exchange. We had already
14 finalised our lists. The lists that we had discussed previously. And
15 obtained approval, and the only thing that was left to do was to establish
16 a date for the exchange. However, from Doboj, they brought some people
17 who were to be exchanged, that they had agreed upon with the Croats, and
18 then there was a hitch, because four people didn't want to cross over to
19 the other side, four Muslims who had arrived from Doboj, they refused to
20 cross over to the other side. And then there was a holdup and the
21 exchange almost failed. There was some members of the international
22 community there, I seem to remember, and this man was very persistent and
23 there was a lot of discussion, and this went on until around midnight.
24 I had no influence on these talks because I was not included, but
25 then I suggested that we should bring four men from the list we had
Page 15446
1 already agreed upon and that rather than waiting for the next date, we
2 should bring the first four men on our list, neither Mijo nor I paid
3 attention to who these people were, we simply said well, the first four
4 names on our list. We could just as well have said the last four names.
5 And then the international police guaranteed that this would take place,
6 and then this exchange took place, the one that we had waited for until
7 midnight. And because we had guarantees for the next exchange, the only
8 problem was to bring these four people on the list, Juro Krajnovic and
9 three other Croats.
10 Q. Does this mean that at the time you already had the approval of
11 the police, the SUP in Samac, for these people to be exchanged?
12 A. Yes, everything had already been agreed on except the date of
13 their exchange. The list had already been completed, and all that was
14 left to do was to agree on a convenient date, convenient to both sides,
15 for the exchange.
16 Q. Go on, yes.
17 A. Because only four men were going to be exchanged, a van was used,
18 but a man's wife, Goja, who is a Serb, came along, and she insisted
19 ongoing too. She wanted to go with her husband, and because there were no
20 obstacles to this, I went to the Red Cross to get a document for her, and
21 this was verified by the Red Cross, so she left with her husband and their
22 two children. The international police was waiting for us there.
23 Q. Well, this is not important. The witness Hajra Drljacic said
24 before this Court that you took some money from the Krajnovic family for
25 this exchange.
Page 15447
1 A. I never took any money from the Krajnovic family or anyone else
2 but we are now talking about the Krajnovic family. I didn't take any
3 money. This had been agreed on and later on, I remained on very good
4 terms with this Krajnovic and his entire family, and we saw each other
5 very often and his father-in-law's patron saint's day, she said they were
6 one of the first families to leave Samac but in fact, they left only in
7 mid-September, and this is a fabrication just as the fabrication about
8 money.
9 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Is it time to break for today, Your
10 Honour?
11 JUDGE MUMBA: We have half a minute.
12 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I suggest that we continue until
13 7.00.
14 JUDGE MUMBA: Unfortunately we can't get the supporting services
15 beyond this hour, especially the interpretation services. We could only
16 go up to this time. Otherwise, if the services were available, we could
17 certainly have gone up to 7.00. We will adjourn now and continue
18 tomorrow.
19 Mr. Lukic I wanted to know how long are you going to take before
20 you end up your examination-in-chief?
21 MR. LUKIC: [Interpretation] Around two hours. It may be a little
22 more or a little less but I will do my best. I will go through the
23 exchanges and try to finish by the first break tomorrow. I will stick to
24 specific exchanges and avoid going into details.
25 JUDGE MUMBA: Very well.
Page 15448
1 MR. DI FAZIO: If Your Honours please, perhaps to assist the
2 Chamber, I wonder if other Defence counsel might indicate how long they
3 expect to be, if they can give such an indication.
4 JUDGE MUMBA: Not the accuseds, no.
5 MR. DI FAZIO: Very well, thank you.
6 JUDGE MUMBA: It's the witnesses.
7 MR. DI FAZIO: Yes.
8 JUDGE MUMBA: The Court will rise.
9 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at
10 4.31 p.m., to be reconvened on Wednesday,
11 the 19th day of February, 2003, at 9.00 a.m.
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