Page 7
1 Monday, 26th April, 1999
2 (Rule 77 Hearing)
3 (Open session)
4 --- Upon commencing at 10.02 a.m.
5 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: I take it I can be heard
6 by everyone? Yes.
7 Mr. Registrar, will you call the case next on
8 the list?
9 THE REGISTRAR: Good morning, Your Honours.
10 This is case number IT-94-1-A-R77, the Prosecutor
11 versus Dusko Tadic in the matter concerning allegations
12 against prior counsel.
13 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: There is an appeal by
14 Mr. Tadic, and in the course of that appeal,
15 proceedings have been instituted by the Appeals Chamber
16 concerning certain allegations against prior counsel
17 who is here. Mr. Vujin, you're here. There are
18 certain interested parties, Mr. Tadic himself, the
19 Prosecution as well.
20 May I take the appearances? Mr. Vujin, is
21 anyone appearing for you or are you appearing by
22 yourself?
23 MR. VUJIN: Good morning, Your Honours.
24 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Just a moment. I think
25 I'm now ready. Yes, please.
Page 8
1 MR. VUJIN: [in English] First of all, I
2 shall say that I can speak in English for the Tribunal
3 but, as you know, according to the decision in the
4 Tadic case, we can use our own language, and I would
5 like to speak in one of the most beautiful languages of
6 the world, as Ms. De Sampayo said to me once. Because
7 my legal assistant, Mr. Vladimir Domazet, speaks
8 French, I think it's better that both of us speak in
9 Serbian.
10 [in Serbian] Therefore, I am going, in the
11 course of these proceedings, to be defending myself,
12 together with the help of my colleague, my learned
13 colleague, Mr. Vladimir Domazet, who is going to assist
14 me in the proceedings and in examining the witness, and
15 he will be offering other counsel in the course of the
16 proceedings. Next to me on my right is Mr. Vladimir
17 Domazet. He is a lawyer from Nis who is on the list of
18 the defence counsel of this Tribunal as well.
19 I should also like, before we begin, via the
20 secretariat, and unfortunately we only have one copy --
21 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Vujin, may we
22 compartmentalise the exercise at this stage and confine
23 the present effort to merely recording who is appearing
24 for whom. Do I understand you to be meaning this, that
25 you are appearing for yourself but you also consider
Page 9
1 that Mr. Domazet is appearing as counsel for you?
2 MR. VUJIN: Quite so, Your Honour.
3 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Exactly. May I ask if
4 Mr. Tadic is here or if anyone is appearing for him?
5 Mr. Abell, you are appearing for Mr. Tadic --
6 MR. ABELL: That is right.
7 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: -- who will be in the
8 court at the appropriate time?
9 MR. ABELL: I was hoping that he would be, as
10 an interested party, present throughout the
11 proceedings, Your Honours. That was my understanding.
12 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: May I inquire from the
13 Registrar what is the status of Mr. Tadic?
14 Yes. The matter has been explained to me,
15 Mr. Abell. He is to testify in due course. Perhaps at
16 this stage, we will agree that his presence in the well
17 of the court is not appropriate.
18 MR. ABELL: As he is the first witness, Your
19 Honours, I don't object because I can't imagine there
20 is going to be very much done before that.
21 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Thank you, Mr. Abell.
22 I turn now to the Prosecution bench. The
23 Prosecution is an interested party also, as well as
24 Mr. Tadic. Is anyone appearing for the Prosecution?
25 MR. YAPA: May it please Your Honours. I
Page 10
1 appear for the Prosecution as an interested party with
2 Ms. Brenda Hollis, senior trial attorney, Mr. Michael
3 Keegan, trial attorney, and Ms. Ann Sutherland, legal
4 officer.
5 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Yes. That concludes the
6 appearances then.
7 Let me say a word about the sitting times of
8 the court. We have allocated to us this week the 26th,
9 the 27th, the 28th, and possibly the 29th. We propose
10 to sit this way, that subject to the usual breaks, we
11 will sit from 10.00 to 1.00 and from 2.30 to 5.30 with
12 one exception. The exception will relate to tomorrow,
13 and we propose that for tomorrow, the luncheon break be
14 from, say, ten to one to quarter to three.
15 Mr. Vujin, before we pass on, may I say that
16 last week we heard the appeal relating to Tadic,
17 Tadic's appeal, and towards the end, something was said
18 about this matter. I will not go into what was said or
19 why it was said, but the Appeals Chamber immediately
20 directed that a copy of the transcript should be sent
21 to you. I think the position of the Appeals Chamber
22 would be self-explanatory on the basis of the contents
23 of the transcript, and also I believe a copy of the
24 transcript was sent to the Prosecution.
25 Mr. Abell, you didn't get it. That's an
Page 11
1 oversight. I will direct immediately that you be
2 provided with a copy of the transcript.
3 MR. ABELL: I would be very grateful.
4 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: I think you should know
5 that the Appeals Chamber considers that what was said
6 then is, as it were, a non est. It doesn't affect
7 these proceedings, but I thought I should mention that
8 immediately.
9 MR. ABELL: I'm grateful, Your Honours.
10 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Now then I come to the
11 order made by this Chamber on the 10th of February,
12 1999. It is the order which alludes to certain
13 statements made by certain persons on the basis of
14 which the Chamber then issued that order. I will now
15 say this, that I expect Mr. Vujin and all interested
16 parties to have received copies of all statements
17 attached both to that order and to any other order
18 later made by the Chamber.
19 I will ask the Registrar to read the
20 pertinent parts of that order of 10th February, 1999.
21 THE REGISTRAR:
22 "Considering that the documents appear to
23 disclose grave allegations of contempt of the
24 International Tribunal against Mr. Milan Vujin, lead
25 counsel for Appellant at the time of the events
Page 12
1 complained of, including:
2 (i) telling persons about to give statements
3 to co-counsel for the Appellant what they should or
4 should not say before they were interviewed by
5 Mr. Livingston, and in effect instructing them to lie
6 to Mr. Livingston;
7 (ii) nodding his head to indicate to
8 witnesses, during witness interviews with
9 Mr. Livingston, when to say yes and when to say no;
10 (iii) interfering with witnesses in a manner
11 which dissuaded them from telling the truth;
12 (iv) knowingly instructing a witness to make
13 false declarations in a statement to the International
14 Tribunal; and
15 (v) paying a person giving a statement money
16 when pleased with the information provided, but not
17 paying him when he did not answer as instructed,
18 all said to have been done between September
19 1997 and April 1998 at the places mentioned in the
20 documents,
21 PURSUANT TO RULE 77 of the Rules of Procedure
22 and Evidence of the International Tribunal,
23 HEREBY REQUESTS all interested persons to
24 assist this Chamber in assembling and presenting
25 evidence concerning the aforementioned allegations of
Page 13
1 contempt, and.
2 ORDERS as follows:
3 (1) Mr. Vujin is called upon to appear
4 before the Appeals Chamber on Monday, 26 April 1999 at
5 10 a.m. to respond to the allegations that he committed
6 acts, as set out in the documents, which were in
7 contempt of the International Tribunal in that he
8 knowingly and wilfully intended thereby to interfere
9 with the administration of justice ..."
10 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: There are other parts of
11 that order, the text of which should be in the hands of
12 all concerned, but I believe it will be appreciated
13 that there is no necessity for the Registrar to read
14 out the remainder of the text.
15 One observation which I will make is that in
16 the first paragraph of the operative part of the order,
17 Mr. Vujin was called upon to appear before this Chamber
18 on Tuesday, 30 March, 1999. For reasons which are on
19 record, the matter did not proceed on that date. It is
20 now proceeding with the presence of Mr. Vujin.
21 Mr. Vujin submitted a statement to the
22 Chamber dated 26th of February, 1999. In that
23 statement, which I will not read out, he said: "I
24 categorically reject all the allegations made by
25 ill-intended persons ..." et cetera, and he said in
Page 14
1 effect that the allegations were false.
2 Mr. Vujin, I will not ask you to plead as an
3 accused pleads to an indictment. I would merely ask
4 you whether you stand by those statements, whether your
5 position has changed in relation to the allegations set
6 forth in the order of the Appeals Chamber.
7 MR. VUJIN: Your Honours, before I answer
8 your question directly, and the answer will be, of
9 course, affirmative, I should like to show my respect
10 for the Court and to send the Court decisions of the
11 federal government on the proclamation of the state of
12 the war because of the shameful aggression of the NATO
13 forces on our country and the decision of that same
14 government to ban the travels of any military recruit
15 outside the country, just to show that the reasons were
16 justified for which we failed to appear at the first
17 hearing in this proceedings.
18 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Vujin, I thank you
19 for that statement, but we have passed that phase of
20 the matter. You stand completely excused. We did not
21 proceed with the matter on the date in question and, as
22 you know, we deferred it in response to your request.
23 MR. VUJIN: Thank you, Your Honours.
24 Furthermore, I should like us to clarify a
25 matter of procedure before I repeat my position with
Page 15
1 regard to the allegations made against me. From the
2 part that has been read out today of the order of this
3 Chamber, it appears that I am being accused of
4 performing acts which are set out in five points.
5 I should like to ask the Trial Chamber to
6 explain to me the Rules according to which Rule 77, in
7 fact, of the Rules of Procedure that we're going to
8 discuss today.
9 Bearing this in mind, the changes and
10 amendments to the Rules that were completed on the
11 10th of July 1998, on the 12th of, let us say, '98,
12 those were the last amendments, as well as the
13 amendments which were completed and enacted on the 10th
14 of December, 1998. I'm raising this question because
15 the period which I -- the acts that I'm being accused
16 of between September 1997 to April 1998, that is the
17 period concerned.
18 In the sense of the provisions of Article 6
19 of the Rules, in point (D) of the Rules of Procedure
20 which come after the 10th of December, 1998, there is a
21 great difference in the responsibility as it is
22 prescribed in Article 77 of the Rules from what was
23 prescribed by the same provision, Rule 77, before the
24 amendments were enacted.
25 I should like to stress this fact because if
Page 16
1 we agree, and I think that it is absolutely in
2 accordance with (D) and Rule 6 of the Rules, it is
3 impossible to apply the points of Rule 77 of the
4 amended Rules of the 10th of December, 1998.
5 Then the fifth point of the accusations,
6 unfounded ones, against me cannot be contained there
7 and I cannot be held responsible according to that.
8 So may we clear up this matter of procedure,
9 because this, of course, is a Tribunal which has to
10 abide by its own Rules and regulations.
11 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: In that last
12 proposition, I don't think there would be any dispute.
13 The Tribunal has to abide both by the Statute and by
14 its Rules. The question which I believe you're raising
15 is one of interpretation, what is meant by the
16 reference in the order of 10 February, 1999 to Rule 77
17 of the Rules.
18 Now, Mr. Vujin, may I suggest this course:
19 We can have debate on that point, but would it be
20 convenient for us to take advantage of this occasion,
21 before any witnesses enter the well of the Court, to
22 afford to the Registrar an opportunity to make a
23 statement which he's intimated to me he desires to make
24 and then we can return to your point and we can have a
25 debate, if necessary, on it. Would that be agreeable
Page 17
1 to you? Yes. Yes.
2 MR. VUJIN: Very well, Your Honour. Yes.
3 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Then, Mr. Registrar, is
4 there a statement that you would like to make at this
5 point?
6 MR. HEINTZ: Mr. President --
7 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Would you like us to be
8 in private session?
9 MR. HEINTZ: I would ask my presentation to
10 be in non-public session, in application of Rule 75 of
11 the Rules, because this is a request relating to
12 certain protective measures regarding a certain number
13 of witnesses.
14 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Is it also an ex parte
15 application that you're making?
16 MR. HEINTZ: This is correct, Your Honour.
17 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: So you would like it to
18 be in closed session and ex parte?
19 MR. HEINTZ: Yes, I do.
20 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Well, at this point the
21 Registrar wishes to make an ex parte application and I
22 would, therefore, request Mr. Vujin and all interested
23 parties to withdraw for a moment until we have heard
24 the Registrar and then we will proceed.
25 --- Hearing adjourned at 10:25 a.m. for
Page 18
1 Ex Parte hearing
2 [Pages 19 to 24 of Ex Parte hearing omitted
3 - see separate transcript]
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Page 25
1 --- On resuming at 10.45 a.m.
2 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: This session is
3 resumed. We are in open session. Is that right,
4 Mr. Registrar?
5 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, we are.
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Now I will merely
7 announce that on application of the Registrar, the
8 Court has granted certain protective measures to
9 certain witness, and the operation of those measures
10 would be apparent as we proceed.
11 Now, I return to Mr. Vujin's submission as to
12 what is the meaning of the reference in our order of
13 10th February, 1999 to Rule 77. That Rule has been
14 amended from time to time. His question was whether
15 the reference to that Rule comprehended amendments made
16 subsequent to the acts which are alleged in the order
17 or whether the reference to the Rule is limited to the
18 Rule as it stood before the alleged acts were
19 committed.
20 Is that right, Mr. Vujin? Have I summarised
21 your position?
22 Then would there be any arguments on that?
23 Let me follow the sequence we had established. Perhaps
24 counsel for Mr. Tadic would like to say something. If
25 he wishes to, we will hear him.
Page 26
1 MR. ABELL: Your Honours, we have, as I
2 understand the position, three stages here. Going
3 backwards, if I may, we have Rule 77 in revision 14 as
4 from the 17th of December of last year. I won't read
5 out the whole of the Rule, but (E):
6 "Nothing in this Rule affects the inherent
7 power of the Tribunal to hold in contempt those who
8 knowingly and wilfully interfere with its
9 administration of justice."
10 It's my submission, first of all, that those
11 words would cover all the activities alleged against
12 Mr. Vujin, leaving aside for the moment the question of
13 when that Rule bites.
14 The next backwards in time, and I haven't,
15 I'm afraid, although the Prosecution may have, copies
16 for Your Honours in the time available to us, the next
17 in time, the next revision in time that I have a copy
18 of is dated the 12th of November, 1997. It is revision
19 12. I don't know whether Your Honours have a copy of
20 that.
21 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Did you speak,
22 Mr. Abell, of a revision of the 17th of December,
23 1998?
24 MR. ABELL: Your Honours, yes, revision 14.
25 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Ms. Featherstone, do you
Page 27
1 have ...
2 Our oracle here has explained the position to
3 me. The amendment was made on the 4th of December,
4 1998 but published on the 17th of December. I was a
5 little mystified a moment ago.
6 MR. ABELL: Do forgive me. I was obviously
7 reading from the date on the document that I have.
8 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Yes.
9 MR. ABELL: That was the publication date.
10 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Yes.
11 MR. ABELL: Just to repeat the submission I
12 just made, (E) of Rule 77, leaving aside the question
13 of when it bites, (E) of Rule 77, in my submission,
14 clearly covers all the activities alleged against
15 Mr. Vujin.
16 Going back in time, the next revision that I
17 would draw Your Honours' attention to is dated the 12th
18 of November, 1997. That being the publication date, it
19 may be that the actual date of enactment is a little
20 earlier, but that's the publication date. It is
21 revision 12, and it would cover -- on Mr. Vujin's
22 submissions as to when these provisions would bite, it
23 would cover anything from November onwards of 1997.
24 I would invite Your Honours' attention to
25 Rule 77(F). Again, nothing in this Rule affects the
Page 28
1 inherent power of the Tribunal to hold in contempt
2 those who knowingly and wilfully interfere with its
3 administration of justice. It is quite clearly
4 precisely the same wording as the current wording of
5 Rule 77(E), and my submissions apply, therefore, to
6 anything after November of '97, any of the activities
7 alleged against Mr. Vujin after November '97, my
8 submissions apply to both those Rules in the same way.
9 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Would you say,
10 Mr. Abell, that in whatever form Rule 77 stood from
11 time to time, it always included a reference to the
12 inherent jurisdiction of the Appeals Chamber?
13 MR. ABELL: From November of '97 onwards. I
14 ought, for completeness, to refer to Rule 77 in the
15 July '97 revision which is revision 11. I don't know
16 whether Your Honours have a copy of that.
17 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Not at the moment but
18 we --
19 MR. ABELL: Could I read it? Rule 77(C) has
20 a different provision.
21 "Any person who attempts to interfere with or
22 intimidates a witness may be found guilty of contempt
23 and sentenced in accordance with sub-Rule (A),"
24 sub-Rule (A) obviously of Rule 77. It is a different
25 sub-Rule obviously from sub-Rule (F) and sub-Rule (E)
Page 29
1 to which I have already drawn Your Honours' attention,
2 but in my respectful submission, although the wording
3 is not the same, it still clearly, I would submit,
4 covers the situation of a person who is either
5 attempting to interfere with or intimidate a witness.
6 That must include, in my submission, a proposed
7 witness, a person who is being interviewed with a view
8 to appearing as a witness in court proceedings.
9 I conclude my submissions by saying this,
10 that Rule 77, in its various forms, cover all of the
11 alleged activities against Mr. Vujin. That would be my
12 submission.
13 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Should the bench
14 understand you, Mr. Abell, to be saying this, that
15 subject to your umbrella argument about the Chamber's
16 inherent jurisdiction, the Rule would only apply in the
17 form in which it stood at the time when the alleged
18 acts were committed, but your contention is that in the
19 form or forms in which the Rule then stood, the Rule
20 would embrace the alleged acts?
21 MR. ABELL: That is correct, Your Honours,
22 yes.
23 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Thank you, Mr. Abell.
24 Would the Prosecution offer any assistance on
25 this point?
Page 30
1 MS. HOLLIS: Very briefly, Your Honours.
2 We would submit that, indeed, Rule 77 would
3 have to be read as it existed at the time of the period
4 where the conduct is alleged. We suggest that in
5 regard to that, the Rules you would look at would be
6 the Rules in existence as of 12 November, 1997 and the
7 Rules in existence as of 25 July, 1997.
8 If you look at those Rules, beginning first
9 with the Rule of July 1997, Rule 77 makes no mention of
10 the inherent power of the Judges; however, we suggest
11 that the inherent power exists whether mention is made
12 of it or not.
13 In regard to specific prohibited conduct,
14 Rule 77(C) discusses a person who attempts to interfere
15 with or intimidate a witness. We suggest that that
16 language is broad enough to include someone whose
17 statement is being offered because, indeed, it is a
18 form of testimony; it is a witness statement.
19 As to November of 1997, we again have the
20 Rule, this time it is (A)(ii):
21 "Any person who interferes with or
22 intimidates a witness who is giving, has given, or is
23 about to give evidence ..."
24 Again, we suggest that's broad enough to be
25 covered, and in this Rule, in November of 1997, we have
Page 31
1 at sub-part (F):
2 "Nothing in this Rule affects the inherent
3 power of the Tribunal."
4 That language does appear in November.
5 In regard to the Rule that is now in effect,
6 Your Honours, as of 17 December, 1998, we suggest that
7 the language that was used in sub-part (E) concerning
8 the inherent power of the Tribunal to hold in contempt
9 those who knowingly and wilfully interfere with its
10 administration of justice, we suggest that to the
11 extent "knowingly and wilfully" is a new standard to be
12 applied, should that standard be more strenuous so that
13 it operates to the prejudice of the accused, you would
14 not be able to use it. We suggest without knowing the
15 deliberations that resulted in this Rule, that what was
16 meant there was to explain the standard that is
17 applied. Therefore, we do not believe that this would
18 operate to the prejudice of the accused and that that
19 standard could be used.
20 We believe that if you look at the Rules, the
21 one area where the Rules have changed, and you would
22 have to abide by the earlier Rules, has to do with any
23 type of punishment that may be imposed upon a finding
24 beyond a reasonable doubt of contempt. Of course, the
25 finding of punishment in existence at the time of the
Page 32
1 conduct would prevail in that instance.
2 Those are the only comments that we have,
3 Your Honours.
4 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Ms. Hollis, may I ask
5 you this: You have the current Rules before you?
6 MS. HOLLIS: Yes, Your Honour, the 17th of
7 December, 1998.
8 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: The 17th of December at
9 the top. Yes, I see that. On page 1, the first page
10 as you open the cover, there's a list of amendments.
11 The alleged acts were said to have been done between
12 September 1997 and April 1998. Would it be the
13 position that amendments made after that period are
14 excluded?
15 MS. HOLLIS: To the extent that they would
16 create a new basis for contempt, we suggest that they
17 would. To the extent that they would increase the
18 punishment, we suggest that they would.
19 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: They would, yes.
20 MS. HOLLIS: To the extent that they would
21 create a standard which would operate to the detriment
22 of the person alleged to be in contempt, in other
23 words, a standard that would be more difficult against
24 that person, we suggest that they would. Other than
25 that, we suggest they would not operate to the
Page 33
1 detriment and, therefore, they could be considered.
2 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Thank you, Ms. Hollis.
3 Yes.
4 (Trial Chamber deliberates)
5 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: The ruling of the
6 Chamber is that subsequent amendments, those amendments
7 made subsequent to the period within which the alleged
8 acts were said to have been committed, are not
9 admissible if they would introduce a new standard or if
10 they would in any other way prejudice the position of
11 the counsel in question. The matter would be regulated
12 by Rule 77 in the form in which that Rule stood at the
13 times when the acts which are alleged were said to have
14 been committed. That is the position of the Chamber.
15 Having disposed of that argument, we will now
16 proceed to take the available witnesses. I understand
17 that the Chamber has at its disposal this week three or
18 four witnesses. The sequence of questioning was laid
19 out in the Court's order of 24 March, 1999, and as set
20 out in clause 4 of that order, each witness would be
21 asked questions by the bench, by counsel for Mr. Tadic,
22 by the Prosecution, and then by Mr. Vujin. We have
23 stated Mr. Vujin last because that seemed to be the
24 fairest way of ensuring that when he comes to ask
25 questions, he has before him the whole tabula of
Page 34
1 material which would have been elicited meanwhile by
2 the Court or by Mr. Abell or by the Prosecution.
3 I suppose this is recognised, but we will not
4 adhere to this scheme rigidly or inflexibly. We will
5 make modifications to it as we go along, the idea being
6 to afford to counsel a fair hearing on all of the
7 points in question.
8 Now, the statements of the witnesses would
9 have been served on all interested parties, and the
10 first witness will be Mr. Tadic, yes?
11 MR. ABELL: That is the first witness on the
12 list.
13 Your Honours, just before we embark upon the
14 evidence --
15 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: May I ask Mr. Vujin just
16 to give you a moment to make your statement?
17 MR. ABELL: I didn't see Mr. Vujin standing
18 up behind me.
19 Your Honours, it's simply this: I do want to
20 mention questions of the admissibility of some of the
21 material that has been placed before Your Honours by
22 Mr. Vujin. The reason I raise it at this stage,
23 although I appreciate Your Honours would not be hearing
24 it until later on in these proceedings, not within
25 these three or four days, the reason I mention it now
Page 35
1 is because, of course, it may have an impact upon the
2 questions that I would seek to ask Mr. Tadic and,
3 indeed, other witnesses.
4 Your Honour, may I mention briefly those
5 areas about which I am concerned?
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Abell, you put the
7 Chamber in this difficulty: You are asking the Chamber
8 to rule on the admissibility of evidence before it
9 would have been led. That is an awkward position for
10 the Chamber to be put in. May I suggest that as you go
11 along, you test the temperature; then we will see what
12 eventuates?
13 MR. ABELL: Yes.
14 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: May I add this, that
15 what the Chamber proposes to do is this: As a witness
16 is called, the witness will be asked if he made the
17 statement, if the contents were true, if he still
18 abides by the contents, and then the Chamber will limit
19 its interest to examining the witness on one or two
20 specific points but not so as to require him to recite
21 all afresh what he has said in his written statement.
22 Then the matter will be thrown open to the interested
23 parties and Mr. Vujin in the manner in which I have
24 suggested.
25 MR. ABELL: Yes. In asking Mr. Tadic
Page 36
1 questions, when I come to any area where I would submit
2 evidence sought to be put in by Mr. Vujin is
3 inadmissible, I'll indicate that, and then if need be,
4 we can discuss the matter at that point.
5 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Then you would also have
6 the right to recall a witness if the circumstances
7 indicate a necessity for that.
8 Yes, Mr. Vujin?
9 MR. VUJIN: Thank you, Your Honours. A
10 moment ago when I wanted to give proof for our apology
11 for not coming to the hearing that was called before,
12 you said that that was quite all right and that that is
13 why we're discussing this today. I forgot to ask the
14 Tribunal and all parties for understanding and,
15 according to the schedule for our work, that you
16 acknowledge and adhere to our request that we complete
17 our work by Wednesday, 5 p.m. on the 28th, that is
18 to say, because Mr. Domazet and myself have been
19 granted permission by the authorities to be out of the
20 country only until the 28th, midnight of the 28th, and
21 that is why we would not like to stay after the 28th of
22 this month.
23 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: May the position be
24 this, that the Chamber at this stage takes for
25 notification your intervention on this point, and we
Page 37
1 will give it due consideration and will see whether
2 there is any necessity to do anything about it.
3 Perhaps, who knows, the proceedings may well end before
4 that time in any case.
5 MR. VUJIN: Thank you.
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: It is now exactly ten
7 minutes after the hour. Would Mr. Vujin and the
8 interested parties consider that this is a convenient
9 moment to take a break? Yes.
10 --- Recess taken at 11.10 a.m.
11 --- On resuming at 11.35 a.m.
12 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: The sitting is resumed.
13 Mr. Tadic, you're on the witness stand. Would you
14 identify yourself briefly, your name, your date of
15 birth, place of birth?
16 MR. TADIC: My name is Dusko Tadic. I was
17 born on the 1st of October, 1955 in Kozarac, the
18 Prijedor municipality, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
19 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: You're the appellant in
20 the main case, the main appeal; is that right?
21 MR. TADIC: Yes. Yes.
22 I solemnly declare that I will speak the
23 truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
24 WITNESS: DUSKO TADIC
25 Questioned by the Court:
Page 38
1 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Do sit down, Mr. Tadic.
2 Mr. Tadic, in this matter you made two statements, did
3 you? One dated 7th of November, 1998 and the other
4 dated 24th November, 1998; is that correct?
5 A. Yes.
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: You have seen the
7 statements which have been served on your side? I
8 believe your counsel would have them.
9 A. You mean the statements that you have just
10 asked me about?
11 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Yes. The statements
12 which you made.
13 A. Yes. Yes.
14 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Now, Mr. Tadic, are the
15 contents of those statements true and correct?
16 A. Yes.
17 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: You adhere, today, to
18 what you said in those statements?
19 A. Yes. To the best of my recollection, I wrote
20 what I believed to be the truth.
21 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Now, I will turn to the
22 first of those two statements, that is, the statement
23 of 7th November, 1998. I will not be asking you to
24 recite afresh all that you said there. I will only ask
25 you a few questions about some aspects of your
Page 39
1 statement.
2 I will turn to that aspect concerning the
3 statement which you say was made by Mr. Radic. Do you
4 remember saying something about that?
5 A. Yes.
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Now, you said Mr. Vujin
7 spoke to you about the statement of Mr. Radic.
8 A. Yes.
9 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Did he tell you why the
10 statement should bear the date 10th March, 1997 --
11 1998?
12 A. I insisted that Mr. Vujin should come to The
13 Hague to take the statement of Mr. Radic and
14 Mr. Kvocka. However, he did not or he could not or did
15 not want to. I don't know the real reasons. But he
16 told me -- on the occasion he told me -- we decided
17 what should be asked, what that man should be asked,
18 both the men should be asked, so that I did what he
19 told me, and that is -- the essential points that that
20 man should put in his statement.
21 As far as the date is concerned, the date
22 that is stated there, he didn't explain to me. He said
23 that this was a date given to him and there were no
24 problems there about the date.
25 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Did Mr. Vujin tell you
Page 40
1 why he wanted you to tell Radic that Radic had given
2 the statement personally to Mr. Vujin?
3 A. I don't know. He did not explain the real
4 reasons for that. He considered that that was his
5 problem and that there were no problems, and that's
6 what I did. At least, that's what he told me. As far
7 as the date is concerned, he didn't give me any
8 separate explanations as to the date.
9 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: You're referring to the
10 Court that the 10th of March, 1998 was not the date on
11 which the statement was, in fact, made?
12 A. No. I think that Mr. Radic was not in The
13 Hague then at all.
14 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: I see. Now, I turn to
15 the second statement, the statement of 24th November,
16 1998, and I would ask you one or two questions.
17 You say that Mr. Vujin stressed that you
18 should never use the expression "camp." Did you know
19 why he stressed that?
20 A. Well, on several occasions when I talked to
21 any of the Yugoslav lawyers during the time that I was
22 in Germany, he insisted that that term never be used
23 because they were not camps, in their opinion. So that
24 this could cause harm to all the proceedings which
25 could appear before the Tribunal in The Hague.
Page 41
1 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Why did he tell you to
2 watch him?
3 A. I'm not quite sure. Generally speaking, I
4 was never in a position to talk to so many people here,
5 before such a lot of people, something that
6 Mr. Wladimiroff agreed to, but he told me that I would
7 understand everything.
8 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Did you understand
9 everything?
10 A. In principle, I understood nothing. I just
11 felt it was very unpleasant for me. I was confused.
12 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: You said you looked in
13 the direction of Mr. Vujin. He acted oddly.
14 Occasionally he shook his head and frowned.
15 A. Yes.
16 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: What impression did you
17 have from all of that?
18 A. I gained the impression that I should be
19 careful what I said, especially those things that were
20 in the interests of Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia's
21 interests, such as the role of the Yugoslav People's
22 Army, the term "camp," and so on and so forth. I had
23 to -- I was under some sort of feeling that I wasn't to
24 say that, and then I had to take great care not to make
25 a mistake.
Page 42
1 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Did he say something
2 about mentioning or not mentioning names?
3 A. Well, there was no mention especially of
4 names, because I didn't think that I knew any special
5 names or important names for that investigation.
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Now, you say he also
7 spoke about not wanting to jeopardise some people.
8 What did you understand by that?
9 A. Well, I understood by that that it was a
10 question of individuals who live in the territory of
11 Serbia or who hold important positions in Republika
12 Srpska.
13 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Why didn't you want to
14 show him certain documents?
15 A. Well, he told me -- that is to say, first of
16 all, I did not trust Mr. Vujin, in principle. There
17 was a series of information, and I doubted -- I thought
18 that he might abuse those documents, documents by
19 people who would be willing to speak freely about the
20 events in the Prijedor municipality.
21 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: When he said to you
22 something about your family, to the effect that you
23 should be careful, what did you understand him to be
24 meaning?
25 A. At the time, I knew that Mr. Vujin had close
Page 43
1 relationships with important police and military organs
2 of the Republika Srpska in Prijedor and that those
3 relationships went straight up to the general staff of
4 the Yugoslav army in Belgrade, so that I considered him
5 to be an important, powerful man.
6 On the other hand, I know that he had
7 meetings and close contacts with people who stood
8 behind many who were behind many criminal acts in the
9 Prijedor municipality and who were residing in Serbia
10 either provisionally or permanently.
11 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Now, you also said, in
12 your written statement, that Mr. Vujin said that he
13 would not allow a new man to be indicted and
14 particularly not a man from Serbia.
15 A. Yes.
16 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Was it your impression
17 that part of your defence would require an allegation
18 to be made against someone else?
19 A. Well, that problem was present for a length
20 of time but it never happened that Mr. Vujin directly
21 said that he would not allow anybody to be linked with
22 the events in the Prijedor municipality and Republika
23 Srpska who was at liberty. This was also something
24 that somebody who was very close to him said, at the
25 beginning of 1998, when a delegation from the Republika
Page 44
1 Srpska visited us in The Hague. One of the detainees
2 said that he respects Vujin because his strategy was
3 based on the fact that they had done -- that they would
4 have achieved nothing if one person were to leave
5 prison in The Hague and another person to enter the
6 prison in The Hague, so that I had the feeling that his
7 priority was to protect all those who were still at
8 liberty.
9 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Now, you said something
10 about Mr. Borovnica. Were you surprised to know that
11 Mr. Vujin knew that Mr. Borovnica had not killed the
12 two policemen?
13 A. On several occasions I received information
14 which indicated that Borovnica had not committed those
15 crimes, and that kind of information I tried to convey
16 to Mr. Wladimiroff, first of all, and then later on to
17 Mr. Vujin, and later on again to Mr. Livingston.
18 However, Vujin never let me know that he had proved the
19 correctness of that information, and I was surprised
20 why he did not check it if he now knew that as a fact.
21 He never told me any other version, although I insisted
22 that this should be checked out, because he himself
23 said that that was a priority in my own defence.
24 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Let me ask you one final
25 question. Was it your view that your defence would be
Page 45
1 assisted if you could prove that someone else did the
2 killing?
3 A. I always insisted upon the truth, upon
4 learning the truth about the events. I did not think
5 that all this would have any special influence on my
6 position in front of this Tribunal, first of all,
7 because I thought that I was the first man to appear
8 here and that nothing could change that, but I would
9 like to have the truth known once this is all over and
10 done with, and I did not wish this to remain the truth
11 without it being known to be the truth, and there was a
12 great doubt as to this point.
13 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: I do have one or two
14 more questions, lamentably, to ask. You recollect
15 something about Mr. Lopicic, the counsellor at the
16 Yugoslav Embassy? Now, did you tell Mr. Lopicic that
17 you would re-employ Mr. Vujin to lead your defence?
18 A. It lasted for a long time. Mr. Lopicic, for
19 a longer period of time after my break with Mr. Vujin,
20 in different ways, suggested that I had made a serious
21 mistake, and I received information via him that Vujin
22 was conducting an investigation into my case and that
23 he had evidence which could help me at the Tribunal in
24 The Hague, so that when I saw that none of the key
25 witnesses had turned up during the regular hearing at
Page 46
1 the Tribunal, I thought that Vujin was the only man who
2 could do that, who could bring them there, with the
3 help of the representative of the embassy.
4 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: It would be correct to
5 say that that was your decision to re-employ
6 Mr. Vujin?
7 A. Well, prior to that I asked Mr. Wladimiroff
8 to receive him as a member of the team and I told him
9 why. I said that the man had at his disposal key
10 witnesses and that would be a benefit for all of us.
11 However, Mr. Waldimiroff did not agree to that
12 solution, and he told me quite simply that he did not
13 believe the story. So that this happened in the way it
14 did. Quite simply, I was brought into a situation
15 where I had to decide to choose somebody who would be
16 able to bring eyewitnesses for the events that I had
17 been accused of here or that the situation would not
18 change in the future.
19 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Did you come into
20 contact, by telephone, with Mr. Vujin's secretary, a
21 lady by the name of Mrs. Kalincevic?
22 A. Well, from time to time I did contact her
23 when I called Mr. Vujin and at times the phone would be
24 answered by that woman, but I don't know her name. She
25 was the secretary there.
Page 47
1 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Did you call her and
2 tell her that you decided you desired to re-employ
3 Mr. Vujin?
4 A. I don't think I had a conversation of that
5 kind with that woman. It was different. Mr. Lopicic
6 contacted Vujin and the embassy in The Hague, and he
7 was the main go-between to engage Mr. Vujin in my
8 defence. In that name he thought that I should write a
9 letter to Mr. Vujin, requesting him to enter my case,
10 that I should do this formally, but that he, in direct
11 talks with Mr. Vujin, would arrange everything else.
12 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: The bench has no other
13 questions at this stage. We would invite Mr. Abell to
14 put any questions to the witness.
15 MR. ABELL: Thank you, Your Honours.
16 Questioned by Mr. Abell:
17 Q. Mr. Tadic, first of all, please, can I ask
18 you some further questions relating to the statement
19 that you made on the 7th of November of last year
20 concerning Mr. Mlado Radic? The first time that you
21 saw Mr. Radic yourself was when, Mr. Tadic?
22 A. You mean since the arrest?
23 Q. Yes.
24 A. Yes, I saw him for the first time here in The
25 Hague.
Page 48
1 Q. Can you remember the date when that would
2 have been?
3 A. I can't remember the exact date but I think
4 it was the beginning of April.
5 Q. Is there any possibility that you had seen
6 Mr. Radic in the U.N. detention centre on or before the
7 10th of March?
8 A. No.
9 Q. Was Mr. Radic even arrested at that stage?
10 A. No. I heard that he had been killed
11 previously. When Mr. Waldimiroff held the
12 investigation, we got the information that the man had
13 been killed on the battleground.
14 Q. You say in your statement that when you saw
15 Mr. Radic in the U.N. detention centre, he gave you
16 certain information as to who the perpetrators of
17 certain offences that you had already been found guilty
18 of actually were. Did you feel that that information
19 could assist you, therefore, in arriving at the truth?
20 A. Yes. And apart from that, he said publicly,
21 in front of people, others, in front of the guards as
22 well, that I was not the man who had committed those
23 acts while he was on duty in Omarska. It was
24 tragicomic. He spoke of this quite openly, whereas, on
25 the other hand, I was proclaimed guilty for those
Page 49
1 acts. I said that it was better for him not to say
2 things of that kind if he did not want to say so
3 earlier on, to tell my Defence counsel earlier on.
4 Q. Having heard that information from Mr. Radic,
5 as you tell us that he had information that could help
6 you, did you -- well, you tell us in your statement you
7 spoke with Mr. Vujin in order to get a statement taken
8 from Mr. Radic; is that right?
9 A. Yes. It went like this: First of all,
10 throughout the proceedings and also after the Court's
11 decision in the regular proceedings, the Tribunal
12 decided that the bulk of the events that happened in
13 Omarska for which I was declared guilty at the time
14 that Mr. Radic was the head of the guard, that man
15 could have been important and he could have known a lot
16 of the things that happened there. That's why I
17 informed Mr. Vujin that it would be good for him to
18 take this statement from him.
19 Q. Did you feel that Mr. Radic might have been
20 able to provide Mr. Vujin with information as to who
21 the real persons were who were responsible for some of
22 the offences of which you were convicted? Did you
23 think he could help Mr. Vujin to say who they were?
24 A. Yes. Yes.
25 Q. How many times did you ask Mr. Vujin to take
Page 50
1 a statement from Mlado Radic?
2 A. I think we talked twice regarding that
3 matter. I'm not exactly sure.
4 Q. Was Mr. Vujin keen to take a statement from
5 Mr. Radic?
6 A. No. Not only Radic, Mr. Kvocka was there too
7 because there was some proof that he was head of the
8 Omarska camp during the period that acts happened that
9 I was declared guilty for, and there was a question of
10 why didn't he go and talk to these people.
11 Q. Pause a moment. Mr. Kvocka, was he in a
12 similar position in the sense that he had provided you
13 with information which could be helpful in your
14 defence?
15 A. He was in that position, yes. I said that he
16 was in charge of the camp at that time, and I thought
17 that this was a person who knew what was going on
18 there.
19 Q. We see from your statement that you say that
20 eventually Mr. Vujin said that Mr. Radic could write a
21 statement himself.
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. Who did you want to take the statement from
24 Mlado Radic?
25 A. I insisted that Vujin do this. I insisted on
Page 51
1 that earlier, to take statements from key people who
2 were in the municipality of Prijedor, but this
3 proceeded with difficulty. I always insisted that this
4 be carried out in the most correct way and at the
5 proper time, but from '95 onwards, there were always
6 these different obstacles.
7 Q. When Mr. Radic was in the U.N. detention
8 centre, whom did you want to take a statement from
9 him?
10 A. I wanted my lawyer, Vujin, to take these
11 statements or Mr. Livingston. I was also interested
12 for a statement to be taken from Kvocka.
13 Q. Mr. Vujin, according to your statement, said
14 that he had no time and could not come to the detention
15 centre. We see that you, therefore, spoke with
16 Mr. Radic and the statement was taken of Mr. Radic in
17 that way, with you speaking to Mr. Radic; is that
18 correct?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. On whose instructions did you do that, if
21 anyone's?
22 A. I got that after I talked to Mr. Vujin by
23 telephone. On that occasion, I said which questions I
24 wanted to be posed to that person and I asked him what
25 he thought about that, and mostly we agreed on the
Page 52
1 important points, but he also said what was important
2 and what wasn't important for this person to respond to
3 in his statement.
4 Q. The statement which we have in the bundle
5 dated the 10th of March, was it taken on the 10th of
6 March in The Hague?
7 A. No. I think it was in early April.
8 Q. Why was the date "10th of March" put on the
9 statement? Whose idea was that?
10 A. Vujin told me to put that date and to also
11 say in Prijedor that the statement was taken by him
12 personally. I thought about that later, and I think
13 that Mr. Vujin was in the municipality of Prijedor at
14 that time, but I'm not sure of that.
15 Q. So the date went down on the basis of what
16 Mr. Vujin had asked you to put; is that right?
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. Also, the statement begins: "I, Mlado Radic,
19 in answer to a question of the lawyer Milan Vujin
20 voluntarily make the following ..." Whose idea was it
21 to say at the beginning of the statement that it was
22 answers to questions of Mr. Vujin?
23 A. It was Mr. Vujin's idea, as I've said.
24 Q. In paragraph 6 of that statement, that
25 paragraph begins: "To a question of the lawyer Milan
Page 53
1 Vujin if there were any incidents ..." and so it goes
2 on, whose idea was it to phrase that part of the
3 statement in that way, as if it was in answer to a
4 question posed personally by Mr. Vujin?
5 A. May I look at the statement?
6 Q. Yes. I'm sorry.
7 A. I have it here but I don't know if I may be
8 allowed to look at it.
9 Q. I thought you had been provided with it in
10 the bundle that the clerk gave you.
11 A. Yes, I have it. Would you please repeat the
12 question?
13 Q. Yes. I've already asked you about what
14 appears at the top of the statement, and you said that
15 that is there because Mr. Vujin asked for it to be
16 there. Paragraph 6, whose idea was it to start that
17 paragraph with that sentence, "To a question of the
18 lawyer Milan Vujin ..."?
19 A. Generally, it was Vujin's idea to respond to
20 each question in such a way that it would seem as if he
21 posed the question. I don't know in particular about
22 paragraph 6. It was just written in accordance with
23 that demand.
24 Q. Can I put it this way: Were you, therefore,
25 following the spirit of the instructions that Mr. Vujin
Page 54
1 had given you as to how this statement should be taken?
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Once the statement had been written out, did
4 you send it to Mr. Vujin?
5 A. I think I gave it. I didn't send it. I read
6 it to him over the telephone, and I told him that I
7 wasn't happy that it was done in that way and that I
8 insisted that he had to come here and take an expanded
9 statement from Mr. Radic. In particular, then when I
10 asked for Mr. Kvocka to provide the same statement, he
11 said that he wouldn't do it, but he would do it if
12 Mr. Vujin came to The Hague. So then I asked him to
13 come because I wasn't satisfied with this statement and
14 also because a statement needed to be taken from Mr.
15 Kvocka.
16 Q. I want to stay at the moment on the statement
17 dated the 10th of March. You're saying that, if I
18 understand you correctly, you told Mr. Vujin on the
19 telephone what was in the statement, what Mr. Radic had
20 said to you; is that right?
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. Who filed the statement dated the 10th of
23 March bearing that date?
24 A. I think it was filed by Mr. Vujin after the
25 statement he took from Mr. Radic on the 18th of April,
Page 55
1 '98, when he came to The Hague. When he came to The
2 Hague, I gave him that statement. Then he took an
3 additional statement from Radic in the detention
4 centre, and then I think he probably filed all of that
5 together to the Court.
6 Q. You saw Mr. Radic in mid to late April, yes,
7 in The Hague -- Mr. Vujin; that's correct, isn't it?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. The question I'm asking you is who filed the
10 statement dated the 10th of March?
11 A. Mr. Vujin.
12 Q. Do you agree that the implication behind
13 filing that statement is that it was taken on the 10th
14 of March of '98 in answer to Mr. Vujin's questions?
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. I'd like to move on from that, please, to the
17 statement that you made, the second and longest
18 statement that you made on the 24th of November of last
19 year. The first thing that I want to ask you about,
20 please, is this: At the -- do you have the statement
21 there?
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. I think it's been handed to you. You deal,
24 at the bottom of the first page of that statement, with
25 the interviews that you had with the U.N.
Page 56
1 investigators. Mr. Tadic, did you wish to cooperate
2 with the U.N. investigators in their interviews?
3 A. Yes.
4 Q. Did you wish to answer all their questions?
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. We see that you asked Mr. Wladimiroff, for
7 the last series of interviews, not to inform a single
8 Yugoslav lawyer that those further interviews were
9 going to take place; is that correct?
10 A. Yes, that's correct.
11 Q. Why did you ask Mr. Wladimiroff to make sure
12 that Mr. Vujin and others didn't know about those later
13 interviews?
14 A. There were a number of reasons. The first
15 reason was that I had a bad experience in the course of
16 the first questioning when Mr. Vujin and Mr. Simic were
17 present. I felt uncomfortable, and I think that I
18 didn't have the true freedom to speak openly. I was
19 under some kind of pressure just by the presence of
20 those people from Yugoslavia, from Republika Srpska.
21 The second problem was that after I found out
22 that Mr. Mladic and Mr. Karadzic were thoroughly
23 informed about what I had talked about in front of the
24 investigators, after which, some members of my family
25 experienced some problems. My brother's house in Banja
Page 57
1 Luka was searched, and one of my brothers was arrested
2 several times and there was an attempt to mobilise him
3 into the army. So I felt that this was not good. Then
4 besides that, I was criticised that I had talked too
5 much about the role of the crisis staff, such as the
6 one in Prijedor, and that because of that, they were
7 angry at me.
8 Q. Who criticised you?
9 A. Mr. Vujin said that during meetings at Pale
10 with Mr. Karadzic and Mr. Mladic, that they had
11 indicated that they were not satisfied by my conduct at
12 The Hague, especially Mladic, who said that I had
13 talked about the role of the crisis staffs, which was
14 contrary to what he believed in.
15 Q. Pause for a moment. When you say, "They
16 weren't satisfied," Mr. Vujin and the other person were
17 not satisfied with your conduct in the interview, do
18 you mean just answering the questions that were put to
19 you?
20 A. Well, the problem was probably in the topic
21 that was discussed.
22 Q. Yes, but that you were being asked questions,
23 are you saying that Mr. Vujin wasn't satisfied with the
24 way you'd answered the questions; is that what you're
25 saying?
Page 58
1 A. No, I'm not talking about that. I just said
2 that I received returned information after that
3 questioning that my acts here were not all right.
4 After those talks, Mr. Vujin had a meeting with the
5 people in Pale, and I think he took them my entire
6 testimony before the Tribunal here so that I got
7 messages that they were not satisfied, and this was
8 conveyed to me by him.
9 Q. Did you have any problem yourself, if need
10 be, with using the word "camp" in answer to questions?
11 A. No.
12 Q. What was the effect upon you, Mr. Tadic, of
13 the behaviour of Mr. Vujin, as you set out in the
14 statement, during those interviews at which he was
15 present?
16 A. Well, I felt that I couldn't say -- I thought
17 that I could say many more things that the Prosecution
18 would be interested in, things that they didn't even
19 ask me at that time. So because of their presence, I
20 couldn't --
21 Q. Because of whose presence?
22 A. Because of the presence of Mr. Vujin and
23 Mr. Simic.
24 Q. Let me move on. You speak in your statement
25 on page 2 of Mr. Wladimiroff wishing to go to Prijedor
Page 59
1 before your trial commenced and that a list of
2 witnesses that you and Mr. Wladimiroff had agreed
3 should be interviewed in connection with your defence
4 was prepared; yes?
5 A. Yes. We always used to do that together.
6 Q. You say that that was confidential
7 information?
8 A. Yes.
9 Q. Mr. Vujin was still on your team at that
10 stage, and, as we can see, a copy of that was sent to
11 him, that list. We can see in your statement that you
12 say that you discovered that that list had found its
13 way to the Prijedor police station and, indeed, into
14 the hands of Mr. Drljaca; yes?
15 A. Yes, that's correct. Mr. Wladimiroff told me
16 that Mr. Stephen -- they were all present there. They
17 were surprised. Because of that action, they thought
18 that irreparable damage was inflicted on my defence.
19 Q. How did you feel when you learnt that that
20 list had got into the hands of that man in Prijedor?
21 A. I was sure that they would prevent anybody
22 from talking to the foreign lawyers, at least the key
23 persons. The peripheral witnesses could have been
24 available to these people, but those people who were
25 involved in the conflict in the municipality of
Page 60
1 Prijedor and especially the camps of Omarska and
2 Keraterm, that these people were not available. This
3 was the main obstacle.
4 Q. Did that cause real problems in your trial in
5 terms of your witnesses, witnesses you wanted?
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. In your statement, you say that "It was
8 perfectly clear that it was Mr. Vujin who must have
9 supplied the list to the chief Simo Drljaca." Do you
10 stand by that?
11 A. Yes, I claim that was done certainly for a
12 number of reasons. First, all three of the lawyers
13 told me that they had an interest in defending me
14 honestly before this Court, and they were not concerned
15 about any eventual witness, whether the witnesses would
16 bring damage to anybody else from Republika Srpska by
17 their testimony. It was especially important that when
18 I asked Mr. Vujin whether it was true that he had done
19 this, he said that he had not, that this was perhaps
20 done by my brother Ljubomir. I asked my brother, and
21 he said, no, that wasn't true, that he did not have a
22 list of the witnesses. So this convinced me that this
23 was done by Mr. Vujin.
24 Q. Did Mr. Vujin at any stage speak to you to
25 suggest that he was going to do that, seek permission
Page 61
1 to do it, or give a reason for why it would be a good
2 idea to do it? Did he ever do that at all, say
3 anything like that to you?
4 A. No, he never asked me to do that. It would
5 have been stupid for him to ask me because we all knew
6 that some of the people on the list that we had
7 prepared were extremely important and that they knew a
8 lot about the events in the municipality of Prijedor,
9 so that statements by these people would harm the head
10 people in the police, people who held positions of
11 power. It was obvious that this was done in order to
12 prevent people from telling the truth.
13 Q. So would it be fair to say this, that if, in
14 fact, this was handed over by Mr. Vujin, he did it
15 behind your back and contrary to your wishes?
16 A. Yes, absolutely.
17 Q. And contrary to your interests in your
18 defence?
19 A. Contrary to my interests. First of all, I
20 had the information which was pretty important that
21 Mr. Drljaca was at a higher post in Bijeljina or Banja
22 Luka, but at the moment when I was arrested in Munich,
23 he was returned to a lower ranking position in
24 Prijedor, exclusively in order to block any truth from
25 coming out that would lead to important people in the
Page 62
1 municipality in Prijedor, including himself.
2 So that the list of those people was
3 something that I felt really influenced my ability to
4 defend myself before this Court, because none of the
5 eyewitnesses from Omarska or Keraterm could not have
6 appeared before this Court after that, nor ones from
7 the conflict in Kozarac, even in spite of the efforts
8 of my Defence team, Mr. Wladimiroff and the others.
9 Q. We can see in your statement that you say
10 that Mr. Wladimiroff, Mr. Steven Kay, and Mr. Orie told
11 you that they didn't want to have anything more to do
12 with Mr. Vujin, that it was up to you. It was them
13 representing you or him, Mr. Vujin representing with
14 you. Did they tell you why they didn't want to work in
15 the same team with him any more?
16 A. They told me the main reason was the fact was
17 he gave the list of the witnesses, which they believed
18 had brought irreparable harm to my case. So all three
19 of them did not want to have any contact with him
20 because they believed that he was not working in the
21 interests of my defence.
22 Mr. Wladimiroff also said that he was more
23 interested in defending Yugoslavia, Serbia, and the
24 people who are close to the authorities.
25 Q. Who said that, sorry?
Page 63
1 A. I don't know which part you wanted to hear.
2 Q. I think you said "Wladimiroff" by mistake,
3 unless I misheard that in my earphones. Who said they
4 were more interested in defending the state?
5 A. Mr. Wladimiroff said that. There were doubts
6 in a certain period, and Mr. Wladimiroff himself, and I
7 too, believed that we needed somebody to assist us in
8 the investigation in the territory of Yugoslavia and
9 Republika Srpska, because he was a foreigner, all the
10 others from the team were foreigners but, obviously,
11 this did not work.
12 Q. Mr. Tadic, I just want to clarify something
13 with you. When you say Mr. Wladimiroff said he was
14 more interested in defending the state, who is the "he"
15 that Mr. Wladimiroff was referring to?
16 A. Mr. Vujin. He didn't only tell me that on
17 that occasion, he told me that on several occasions.
18 Q. Now we can see the history of events. You
19 dispense with the services of Mr. Vujin shortly before
20 your trial. The time comes again when you re-engaged
21 Mr. Vujin sometime later, during the course of the
22 appeals process; is that correct?
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. During the trial, had you been able to call
25 anybody who you considered might be an eyewitness, a
Page 64
1 key witness to any of the events alleged against you?
2 A. No, I was not able. I asked all the
3 witnesses. I asked my defenders, the members of my
4 family to help. I asked many people. I had a meeting
5 with the Minister of Justice of Republika Srpska. They
6 met with me, with Mr. Wladimiroff. Mr. Arsovic, the
7 Minister of Justice, brought this problem before the
8 government of Republika Srpska, but the problem was he
9 was also replaced from his position because he urged
10 co-operation with my Defence team, the co-operation of
11 the authorities over there.
12 Q. I want you to help me about this. Given what
13 had happened with Mr. Vujin before the trial, why was
14 it that you decided to re-engaged him? What was it
15 that made you do that? Try to put it in a sentence or
16 two.
17 A. From the very beginning of Mr. Vujin's
18 engagement, he always gave me the hope that he would be
19 able to ensure the key figures who could come here and
20 testify in concrete terms on the events for which I had
21 been indicted in The Hague, and this was something that
22 was always -- this question was always raised, and he
23 would always promise me, give me promises to that
24 effect. However, things did not proceed in that way.
25 At one point, Mr. Lopicic started suggesting
Page 65
1 to me that I had made a mistake in replacing Mr. Vujin
2 and that it was not too late to include him into my
3 team once again, because he was a man who held
4 everything in his hands, and that he had made all the
5 necessary consultations in the Republika Srpska which
6 would allow me to get the key witnesses to the Tribunal
7 in The Hague. That was the vital moment, the essential
8 point.
9 I discussed this with Mr. Wladimiroff on
10 several occasions, asking him to re-employ, re-engage
11 Mr. Vujin only for the reason -- because I thought he
12 would be able to bring witnesses here to The Hague.
13 There was no other motive, just that.
14 Q. Let me ask you this: The Ambassador,
15 Mr. Lopicic, what he had to say to you, did that have
16 an influence on you and, if so, how much of an
17 influence on you?
18 A. Yes, it did have an influence. I did not
19 have contact with many people. For two or three years
20 I did not have occasion to talk to people from my
21 region. It was difficult for me to assess whom I
22 should trust and whom I should not trust. He was the
23 representative of a state, and I thought that if he
24 said something or if he promised anything that it was
25 something that could be believed, that it was the
Page 66
1 truth.
2 A. Let me deal with this part in this way:
3 You've mentioned that it was promised that Mr. Vujin
4 was making inquiries and getting hold of key witnesses
5 that could help in the progress of your appeal. Let me
6 ask you this: Once you had taken Mr. Vujin back in on
7 your team, as far as you're concerned, what did he
8 achieve? Did he deliver what he promised in terms of
9 getting key witnesses to come forward?
10 A. Well, it was a long process. I talked to
11 Mr. Wladimiroff on several occasion and asked him to
12 think about this offer that Mr. Vujin had made, to
13 think about it seriously. Quite simply, it was a case
14 of seven or eight witnesses who were eyewitnesses of
15 the events. I asked Wladimiroff whether that would be
16 important, and he said that would be exceptionally
17 important but that it was difficult to believe in this
18 offer made by Mr. Vujin, because his experience told
19 him that he was working to my own detriment.
20 However --
21 Q. These seven or eight people that you and
22 Mr. Wladimiroff identified might have been really
23 important witnesses. When Mr. Vujin came back into the
24 team, did he ever get a meaningful or helpful statement
25 from any one of them?
Page 67
1 A. No.
2 Q. You comment on the types of statements that
3 Mr. Vujin produced, in the middle of page four of your
4 statement, saying that they were prepared in a rather
5 simplistic and unprofessional manner and simply dealt
6 with not much detail, saying that they weren't present
7 at certain points. Do you stand by that, first of
8 all?
9 A. First of all, one of the important reasons
10 why I thought that he would be able to bring in written
11 evidence and eyewitnesses to the events was because
12 when Mr. Vujin took over my Defence team, brought to
13 The Hague and showed me documents which were
14 confidential in nature, and these were documents that
15 he either got in Prijedor or Bijeljina on the
16 investigations conducted there during the events of
17 1992, the investigation that was conducted under the
18 supervision of the Prijedor police.
19 Most of those documents were signed by
20 Drljaca and other investigating organs of the Prijedor
21 Municipality, so that I saw that perhaps it could be
22 true that some other documents might be in existence
23 which could help me before this Tribunal, who would
24 tell the truth about the events.
25 The documents that he brought me were such
Page 68
1 that they were investigations taken against alleged war
2 criminals in the municipality of Prijedor, crimes
3 against Serbs. But he said that he would be able to
4 come by the other documents as well, which had to do
5 with the other events that took place in the area.
6 Q. Did he ever come up with, as I say, anything
7 meaningful or helpful, the sort of things that you were
8 hoping for?
9 A. No, never. The most that he was able to do
10 was that upon my great insistence, he would sometimes
11 contact somebody who we thought could be an important
12 witness, but that individual was asked nothing in
13 regard to any of the things that could help me before
14 this Tribunal. He asked him questions, and I gave
15 answers which had nothing to do with the events that I
16 was indicted for here.
17 Q. Now, when Mr. Livingston came into the case,
18 was a decision made to seek help from the Tribunal in
19 order to try to compel certain witnesses considered to
20 be important to your case to come and give evidence?
21 A. Well, not at the very beginning. At the
22 beginning, I still thought that Vujin would fulfil his
23 promises, and he always told me he would. Other people
24 told me, General Talic and so on, he had perfect
25 co-operation, for example, with the chief of the
Page 69
1 Yugoslav army at the time, Mr. Persic, so that I had
2 the impression this was a normal minimum which he would
3 fulfil, but he protracted and procrastinated from
4 day-to-day and from month-to-month. Then I saw no end
5 to it. I felt that it would be a good idea if I
6 engaged somebody from abroad who would try to do
7 something for me.
8 Q. Did that person turn out to be
9 Mr. Livingston?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. At some stage after Mr. Livingston became
12 involved, as I asked you a few moments ago, was a
13 decision taken to seek the help of the Tribunal in
14 order to compel relevant witnesses for your defence to
15 come forward and make statements?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. Is that what ended up in the binding order,
18 in the order seeking those witnesses to come forward?
19 A. Yes. Mr. Livingston worked for a long time
20 to achieve that, and he contacted me in that regard,
21 but Mr. Vujin was opposed to that type of procedure
22 because he said that he would have everything
23 necessary. So quite simply, it was difficult -- but it
24 was difficult to believe at that point, and I really
25 supported Mr. Livingston's idea to do everything in his
Page 70
1 power and in the power of the Tribunal to reach
2 witnesses who could make a vital contribution to
3 knowledge of the events that had taken place in the
4 region.
5 Q. So was the decision to seek the Tribunal's
6 help to compel those witnesses to come forward, was
7 that done on your instructions and in accordance with
8 your wishes?
9 A. Yes. It was the proposal made by -- I asked
10 Mr. Livingston what ways and means were there to do
11 this, and he explained that this was one of the reasons
12 of achieving it, and I agreed, and so he went on to do
13 what he did.
14 Q. Who was involved in selecting which witnesses
15 should be interviewed?
16 A. Myself and Mr. Livingston sorted those
17 matters. Vujin did not take part in any of the
18 preparations of that order.
19 Q. Did you give any instructions as to who
20 should actually ask the questions to physically take
21 the statements from those witnesses?
22 A. I always insisted that that be exclusively
23 done by Mr. Livingston, only him.
24 Q. Why was that?
25 A. Mr. Livingston, in all contacts with any
Page 71
1 witnesses up till then, had always tried to achieve the
2 truth. He had no limitations in his questions. All he
3 wanted was to ask everything of importance for my case
4 of the witnesses, and he really proved to me that he
5 was a correct and upright man working in the correct
6 fashion.
7 At first it was a little difficult, because
8 he had not entered into the case fully, but when he had
9 grasped the case, then he said to me that it was only
10 facts that were important for a high Tribunal of this
11 kind, and that anything that Mr. Vujin would say about
12 an international conflict, whether they were camps or
13 not camps, whether it was international or not
14 international, that for this high Tribunal, that was
15 not as important as the facts themselves.
16 Q. I'm not going to ask you to comment
17 specifically about what happened at Prijedor police
18 station, because for obvious reasons you weren't a
19 witness to that. Let me ask you this, please: You
20 mentioned, towards the bottom of page 5 of your
21 statement, criticism of you by Mr. Vujin. Just take a
22 moment to find the place. Reference to Gavranovic.
23 Firstly, at this time were you satisfied or
24 not with the efforts that Mr. Livingston was making on
25 your behalf in seeking to track down witnesses and
Page 72
1 evidence?
2 A. I was satisfied with the idea and his
3 involvement and the efforts he made to track all this
4 down, but he did a series of obstacles and it's quite
5 unbelievable what he encountered in the Republika
6 Srpska. He went to the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina
7 as well and contacted my former neighbours, the locals,
8 and all parties regardless of the ethnic structure. So
9 his investigation was exclusively based on arriving at
10 the truth and tracking down witnesses and eyewitness
11 who could help me in front of this Tribunal.
12 Q. You say there, at that part of page 5 of your
13 statement, that you remember that Mr. Vujin called
14 Gavranovic several times asking her not to meet
15 Mr. Livingston. Did you want him to meet that lady?
16 A. Well, I insisted that he meet all the
17 witnesses, regardless of Mr. Vujin's opinions.
18 Mr. Vujin attempted to prevent contacts of this kind
19 from taking place with Mr. Livingston.
20 Q. You say that you spoke to Mr. Vujin yourself
21 about this, and that he said on several occasions that
22 he wouldn't allow her to testify about anything
23 connected with the events of Kozarac in '92. Do you
24 stand by that?
25 A. I absolutely stand by that, and even more
Page 73
1 than that. I know that he was in a situation of
2 controlling the behaviour of that woman, because he had
3 freed her husband, who was imprisoned, and he was set
4 free from detention by some means and sent home. This
5 was provisional. So there was always the possibility
6 of that husband of hers being taken prisoner again. So
7 he had almost complete control over that man and that
8 woman. Every time that Mr. Livingston met her, it was
9 in secret, as far as I know.
10 Q. Now, you've been asked questions already by
11 Their Honours in relation to Borovnica, and your
12 understanding as to whether that person had committed
13 the murder of the two policemen in Kozarac. Was that
14 your belief at the time of the trial?
15 A. It was difficult to believe in a story like
16 that in view of the fact that other rumours circulated
17 relating to the event, and particularly so because that
18 man died in a very strange way, allegedly on the battle
19 front. Later on, it transpired that he was forcefully
20 taken to the battlefront and was killed there. What he
21 had seen and whatnot, I don't know, but I don't think
22 that the man took part in the event.
23 Q. You speak, at the top of page 6, of
24 Mr. Vujin's visit to The Hague on the 5th of September
25 of '98, and a heated argument that you had concerning
Page 74
1 this part of the case.
2 Now, can we understand this? The thrust of
3 your defence, is this right, Mr. Tadic, has always been
4 that you were not responsible for any of the incidents
5 that you've been charged with and convicted of? First
6 of all, yes? Just a very simple "Yes" or "No" answer.
7 A. Yes. Especially with regard to the events in
8 Kozarac, when the two policemen for which Vujin said he
9 would take over the affair, and that he would
10 investigate the affair and prove the truth of the
11 affair.
12 Q. In your defence, would you have been
13 interested in evidence which tended to prove that you
14 were not the person responsible even if it tended to
15 identify who really was responsible?
16 A. I always asked that all the evidence be
17 presented, both written evidence and eyewitnesses,
18 particularly those two individuals. It was normal that
19 the people in Prijedor knew everything about the event,
20 because they were employed in the police force.
21 Drljaca, Jankovic, all the head police people knew what
22 their workers and members were doing. It was no
23 explanation that they did not.
24 This was confirmed by Mr. Vujin, later on in
25 his contacts with Jankovic. He said that Jankovic told
Page 75
1 him the true story linked to the events. I heard many
2 versions of the events but I always asked that they be
3 checked.
4 But since April 1998 onwards, Mr. Vujin and
5 Mr. Livingston, because of the facts that
6 Mr. Livingston had insisted upon, that is, to arrive at
7 the facts, they came into collision, Mr. Vujin and
8 Mr. Livingston. From April onwards, they didn't have
9 any contact, so that I found myself in a very difficult
10 situation, especially because Mr. Vujin insisted that
11 he take over the investigation and look into the events
12 in Kozarac.
13 Q. Let me ask you this, because that rather long
14 answer was from a fairly short question by me, which is
15 this: Were you interested in trying to get hold of
16 evidence to disprove your conviction, even if it meant
17 implicating other people in the crimes that you were
18 accused of?
19 A. Yes, absolutely so.
20 Q. Was Mr. Livingston interested in pursuing
21 that line?
22 A. Yes, he was.
23 Q. What about Mr. Vujin?
24 A. He exclusively stuck to his own strategy,
25 that everybody outside, especially those who had moved
Page 76
1 to live in Serbia, must not be brought into any kind of
2 connection with the Tribunal in The Hague.
3 Q. Did you, at any stage, trial or appeal stage,
4 want to run your defence on that basis? In other
5 words, not wanting to implicate any third parties.
6 A. No. Everything that I know through
7 Mr. Livingston's investigation and the investigation
8 led personally by my brother and the knowledge that he
9 arrived at in the previous period, I conveyed that
10 quite fairly to Mr. Livingston and Mr. Vujin to check
11 whether it was true, and to see and to prove what was
12 true, and to present the witnesses before this
13 Tribunal, regardless of the consequences, regardless of
14 who was in question, myself or anybody else.
15 Q. So help me about this. Page 6, near the top,
16 back to the argument between you and Mr. Vujin on the
17 5th of September of '98, dealing with the incident with
18 the two policemen, you say Vujin angrily replied that:
19 "I was ungrateful, but he could not allow a new man to
20 be indicted and particularly not a man from Serbia."
21 Do you stand by that?
22 A. I absolutely stand by that. All the more so
23 as that in the meantime I received information that he
24 personally had helped many others to move to Serbia and
25 to live there, so that these people were under control,
Page 77
1 were controlled.
2 Q. You go on to say that Mr. Vujin told you,
3 during this argument, that he and everyone at the
4 Prijedor police -- in the Prijedor police knew very
5 well that Borovnica did not kill the two policemen that
6 were dead and that that was the best solution. Again,
7 do you stand by that?
8 A. I stand by that theory completely and what he
9 told me at that time.
10 Q. Let me move on, please, to page 8. You've
11 referred, in the statement, to a number of documents
12 which you had come into possession of, and you deal,
13 towards the bottom half of that page, with another
14 discussion with Mr. Vujin where you say he repeated
15 several times that he, as lead counsel, would decide
16 what to submit and when to submit it. "He was
17 completely clear when he told me that he would never
18 allow any evidence to be submitted in my case that
19 could jeopardise anyone who was at liberty in
20 Yugoslavia or in Republika Srpska," and so it goes on
21 warning you to be careful what you did because you had
22 a family in Serbia and perhaps no one would be able to
23 protect them. How did you take that warning,
24 Mr. Tadic?
25 A. I took that warning seriously. All the more
Page 78
1 so as all my former lawyers from abroad advised me that
2 it was a good idea for my family to leave the territory
3 of Republika Srpska, and that the greatest danger for
4 their sojourn there were individuals who could be
5 uncovered by the investigating organs in The Hague.
6 All of them, for many years, for the most
7 part, considered that once I was proclaimed guilty,
8 they would all be free and that they could continue
9 their lives as they had lived them hitherto.
10 Apart from that, many of those people I knew
11 were living both in Belgrade and Novi Sad, and that
12 they had bought property there, and that they were in
13 contact with people that had already been arrested here
14 in Holland, and that they were well-informed about
15 everything taking place in and around my case.
16 Q. Mr. Tadic, just pause there for a moment.
17 MR. ABELL: Your Honours, that's all I want
18 to ask him about his statements, but I would wish to
19 ask him some questions relating to the material that
20 Mr. Vujin has put in. It would appear that that's a
21 natural break. I wonder, I see it's nearly 1.00. I
22 don't know whether that might be a convenient moment.
23 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Well, I was looking at
24 you inquiringly, Mr. Abell. It would help the bench if
25 you would find it possible to indicate how much further
Page 79
1 time you might need to complete your examination.
2 MR. ABELL: Yes. Well, I would hope - I
3 would hope - to deal with it perhaps in half an hour.
4 These things always are difficult. Please don't hold
5 me to it to the minute.
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: One appreciates that
7 very readily, Mr. Abell.
8 MR. ABELL: Of course, Your Honour.
9 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Then would it be
10 convenient if we resumed at 2.30?
11 The Court stands adjourned accordingly.
12 --- Recess taken at 12.58 p.m.
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Page 80
1 --- On resuming at 2.34 p.m.
2 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Abell?
3 MR. ABELL: Thank you, Your Honours.
4 Q. Mr. Tadic, I'm going to turn in just a moment
5 to the material which has been submitted in this matter
6 by Mr. Vujin, but before I do, could I just ask you to
7 do this: Obviously, listen very carefully to the
8 questions I ask and try to just answer the questions
9 that I ask. We all understand you want to say things,
10 but listen to my questions and try to keep your answers
11 short, if you can; all right? I'm sure that will help
12 everyone.
13 Now, first of all, I'm going to be looking at
14 the documents sent in by Mr. Vujin dated the 19th of
15 March headed "Submission of the Written Statements of
16 Witnesses," and that bundle has the pagination on it
17 165, if that assists.
18 Mr. Tadic, do you have a copy of that? You
19 can be supplied with it if need be.
20 A. I would like a copy, please.
21 Q. I'm going to look at a statement at page 146,
22 top right, of Djordje Lopicic, Dr. Djordje Lopicic. It
23 goes from 139 to 146.
24 A. I've been given a text in English.
25 Q. Mr. Tadic, we may well be getting you one in
Page 81
1 your own language in just a moment. I've asked for
2 that and it may be ready in a moment. Do you have it
3 now?
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Good. Now, the first thing I want to ask you
6 about Dr. Djordje Lopicic is this: Can you just help
7 me as to what your understanding is of the relationship
8 between Mr. Vujin and Dr. Djordje Lopicic? Is there
9 any link between them?
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. And that is what, please?
12 A. They have been friends for many years. I
13 think that they are very close when it comes to Djordje
14 Lopicic's stay in America as an ambassador and the
15 education of Mr. Vujin's son abroad. So they have very
16 close family ties.
17 Q. There is a statement from a (redacted)
18
(redacted), is there not, in the bundle provided by19 Mr. Vujin. You don't need to turn to it just yet.
20 Just answer "Yes" or "No."
21 A. Yes, I know there is. I know there is a
22 statement.
23 Q. She is not, is she not,
(redacted)24
(redacted)25 A. Yes.
Page 82
1 Q. And she is employed where?
2 A. She is employed in Mr. Vujin's offices.
3 Q. Now, can you help me, please, on the second
4 page --
5 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Mr. Abell, would you
6 give me the page number?
7 MR. ABELL: Yes, 145 on the top right. I
8 hope I understand the pagination, Your Honours, that --
9 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: It seems to be in
10 reverse order.
11 MR. ABELL: It does, and I was a little
12 curious about it. I hope that I have got it right.
13 It's the second page. It begins with the words
14 "Defence Counsel's," and it's 145 in the manuscript at
15 the top.
16 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Yes. You say that that
17 is the statement of?
18 MR. ABELL: That is the statement of Djordje
19 Lopicic. It begins at page 1 --
20 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: Yes, but you were
21 talking of his daughter, were you?
22 MR. ABELL: Only in passing, just to mention
23 the fact --
24 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: You're not asserting
25 that her statement is before us, are you?
Page 83
1 MR. ABELL: It is. It is further on in the
2 bundle.
3 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: At what page number?
4 MR. ABELL: Would Your Honours bear with me
5 for a moment?
6 JUDGE SHAHABUDDEEN: I see. Thank you very
7 much.
8 MR. ABELL: It is a little further on in the
9 bundle.
10 Q. I'm looking now at page 145 of Dr. Djordje
11 Lopicic's statement. He says that he discussed matters
12 with you. Firstly, do you agree that there were
13 occasions when you and the ambassador would speak?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. He says on that page, "I know for a fact that
16 at that time Milan Vujin was very professionally,
17 conscientiously, and expertly doing his work on the
18 defence of Dusko Tadic." Do you accept that statement
19 or not about the quality of Mr. Vujin's work on your
20 behalf?
21 A. What I saw through my case, I thought it was
22 not professional.
23 Q. How often would you discuss with the
24 ambassador, Dr. Lopicic, the details of your case and
25 the conduct of it?
Page 84
1 A. Well, the details from the defence case, we
2 didn't discuss them much. It all boiled down to one in
3 the same thing, the need to enable me to have an
4 insight into all the written documents and the bringing
5 in of the witnesses who were vital to my case. We
6 didn't discuss any other details much, so the
7 discussion was of a general nature mostly.
8 Q. On your meetings with Dr. Lopicic, did you
9 always discuss the details of your case or were there
10 other topics that would be discussed?
11 A. We discussed my physical state and quite
12 different matters, questions that were not related to
13 my case before this Tribunal at all.
14 Q. On the same page lower down, about six or
15 seven lines from the bottom, he says: "Mr. Vujin, on
16 several occasions, visited the highest state
17 authorities and personalities in the Republika
18 Srpska." As far as you know, Mr. Tadic, when he did
19 that, did he ever bring with him any foreign lawyer
20 from the team, either Mr. Livingston or
21 Mr. Wladimiroff, at the various stages, or Mr. Kay?
22 A. He usually came alone. He did not like to
23 contact the foreign lawyers much.
24 Q. I'm now on page 3, page 144 at the top, where
25 Dr. Lopicic deals with his finding out that you had
Page 85
1 dispensed with the services of Mr. Vujin. It came as a
2 great surprise to him, he says. He then says this:
3 "The only thing that I mentioned to him was that it
4 was not convenient that in his defence team there was
5 not a single defence counsel, a Serb either from FRY or
6 from the Republika Srpska." Do you agree that he just
7 restricted himself to saying it was not convenient or
8 did he say more than that?
9 A. He said far more than that.
10 Q. Give us, please, the gist or a precis, just a
11 summary of what he said to you when you decided to
12 dispense with Mr. Vujin's services shortly before the
13 trial.
14 A. Well, we talked about cooperation between the
15 authorities of Yugoslavia, the Republika Srpska and the
16 court in The Hague and the possibility of bringing
17 witnesses to the Tribunal who would be defence
18 witnesses, and he expressly said that I would get
19 nobody if I -- it was in that context, that I shouldn't
20 be stubborn because Yugoslav interests were at stake,
21 far more important interests than my own and mine
22 myself. So we had a much more lengthy conversation in
23 that direction, and everything boiled down to the fact
24 that my case was not only a case of me personally but
25 that many more important things were at stake. He said
Page 86
1 that there was a case against Yugoslavia and a
2 complaint from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and when it was a
3 case of an international armed conflict, that this
4 could have a serious effect and that I must take care
5 what I did.
6 Q. Mr. Tadic, you were the man in the dock or
7 about to be put in the dock on this trial. Who were
8 you concerned with, your own position or the position
9 of the state?
10 A. I was exclusively interested in my own
11 defence and not anybody else's, especially not the
12 defence of the state or important individuals who were
13 at the head of that state. They all knew that very
14 well. Everybody knew that, especially the foreign
15 lawyers.
16 Q. What impression did you get from what
17 Dr. Lopicic was telling you in that conversation?
18 A. Everything boiled down to the fact that
19 unless I had people from Yugoslavia, that is to say,
20 from Serbia, the Republika Srpska, on my defence team,
21 that I wouldn't get defence witnesses, that I would not
22 have access to material that could help my case. Quite
23 obviously, this was held under the control of my
24 defence team. Mr. Wladimiroff very often said that he
25 wasn't interested in the defence of Yugoslavia and
Page 87
1 Serbia, that he was only working for my own interests.
2 This very often irritated Ambassador Lopicic, and he
3 would criticise me for that, reproach me for it.
4 Q. Now, about two-thirds of the way down page
5 144, page 3, Dr. Lopicic says: "I most strongly refute
6 the allegations that I was telling Tadic at the time
7 that he would end up without a single important witness
8 from either FRY or the Republika Srpska." Do you agree
9 or disagree with that statement from this man?
10 A. I do not agree with his statement. I think
11 that it was quite the opposite. He raised his voice
12 when talking to me, and he clearly let me know that I
13 would end up as I have ended up. He made use of the
14 people who knew me and contacted Mr. Lopicic, and they
15 all came to visit me to tell me that I should listen to
16 his advice. He even called my wife up for that
17 purpose. He tried to exert influence on her, for her
18 to tell me that I was making a mistake.
19 Q. Did she speak to you about that, your wife?
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. From your conversation, how did she react?
22 What was her impression of what was being said to her
23 about getting you to change your mind?
24 A. The whole time after I was arrested, I tried
25 to keep my wife and children apart, because they had
Page 88
1 had a very difficult life and were finding it
2 difficult. I was very sorry that anybody had asked her
3 to use her influence with me. She was angry, and she
4 said that she wouldn't have come to visit me in The
5 Hague had she known they were going to do so. It was
6 her first visit.
7 She knew me very well and, of course, she
8 knew that nobody could influence me, that I would do
9 how I saw fit and how I thought that I should proceed.
10 My wife and I have known each other since we were 15
11 years old.
12 Q. You say or, rather, I'm sorry, I draw your
13 attention to the very bottom of that same page. "At
14 the time Tadic was simply obsessed," is the word used,
15 "with his Defence counsel Mr. Wladimiroff and his
16 team." Do you agree that you were obsessed with them
17 or were they simply your legal team?
18 A. I never had any dealings with a Court before,
19 and the way in which Mr. Wladimiroff and his associates
20 behaved towards me and my problem, the case that I was
21 being tried for, was something that I was exceptionally
22 satisfied with. There was no personal sentimentality
23 of any kind.
24 I was very satisfied with the professional
25 relationship that they displayed and, quite simply, he
Page 89
1 didn't find it difficult to travel to Republika Srpska,
2 and even the most remote village to check out some
3 things, whereas other lawyers found it very difficult
4 to go even 20 or 30 kilometres away and always found
5 reasons why they should not go. But he did not find it
6 a burden to go from Holland, or Steven Kay from London,
7 for example, and that was something that I was
8 extremely satisfied with, their approach.
9 Q. So they would take the trouble to go out to
10 your country and make investigations. Did they find it
11 easy, though, to get hold of the people they were
12 trying to get hold of?
13 A. It was very difficult, and I was -- really
14 marvelled at the courage they showed because, you know,
15 in 1995 there was a war waging in the area, and I know
16 that Mr. Wladimiroff spent so