Courtside

Stanisic-Zupljanin Trial Begins

Prosecutors say ex-police chiefs were responsible for atrocities committed against non-Serbs in Bosnia.

By Velma Saric in Sarajevo (TU No 616, 18-Sep-09)

The trial of two former high-ranking Bosnian Serb interior ministry officials accused of war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war began at the Hague tribunal this week.

Stojan Zupljanin, the former head of the Regional Security Services Centre in Banja Luka and adviser to the Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, who is awaiting trial for genocide, is charged with extermination, murder, persecution, and deportation of non-Serbs in northwestern Bosnia between April and December, 1992.

His co-accused Mico Stanisic is on trial for the murder, torture and cruel treatment of non-Serb civilians, as well as for his failure to prevent or punish crimes committed by his subordinates.

The indictment against him states that he was appointed the minister in charge of the newly founded Bosnian Serb ministry of internal affairs in April 1992. From that time, Stanisic was the most senior ministry official, and was also a member of the Bosnian Serb government of Republika Srpska, RS.

Both defendants – whose indictments were joined together in September 2008 – have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The accused are also alleged to have participated in a joint criminal enterprise in 1992, the goal of which was the permanent removal of Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats and other non-Serbs from the territory of an intended Serb state.

Prosecutors say that this criminal plan was led by Karadzic; former Bosnian Serb parliamentary speaker Momcilo Krajisnik; ex-Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic and Bosnian Serb wartime commander General Ratko Mladic.

The prosecution said in court this week that "there was a widespread, systematic campaign of crimes committed by Bosnian Serbs against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, and especially against Bosnian Muslims. The aim of this plan was to permanently remove non-Serbs from the territory which the Bosnian Serbs intended to belong to them and be part of a Serb state within Bosnia".

Prosecutor Joanna Korner told judges how her team planned to present its case.

"Our intention is to put the events into context during the introduction [of the case], and then gradually upgrade that framework with evidence. We will prove that the criminal enterprise was planned by the political leadership of the Bosnian Serbs, including their police and armed forces," she said.

She then outlined the role that prosecutors allege was played by the Bosnian Serb interior ministry in the Bosnian Serb leadership's criminal conspiracy.

"The participation of the RS ministry of interior (MUP) in this enterprise is obvious and was very significant for the success of the joint criminal enterprise led by Radovan Karadzic, Momcilo Krajisnik, Biljana Plavsic and Ratko Mladic. The accused Zupljanin and Stanisic
were ideologically dedicated to the aims of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and close to former RS president, Radovan Karadzic," she said.

"The prosecution will prove that the role of the MUP was of key significance for the achievement of the goal - the creation of a Serb state in Bosnia-Hercegovina. MUP members took active part in the initial takeover of authority by Bosnian Serbs in municipalities
throughout Bosnia-Hercegovina."

According to Korner, MUP members "were fully or partially responsible for the biggest mass murders" committed in the country during the conflict.

Prosecutors intend to prove that as senior officials in the MUP, Stanisic and Zupljanin bore responsibility for crimes committed by their subordinates during the war, Korner said.

The prosecution does not claim that they took direct part in those crimes, but we will prove that they knew of these crimes and supported them by failing to punish the perpetrators," she said, explaining that this was a sign of each accused's consent and participation in the criminal enterprise.

Korner then argued that evidence showed there was close cooperation between the Yugoslav army, JNA, the Bosnian Serb Army, VRS, as well as between the various members of the Bosnian Serb and Yugoslav authorities.

To support this argument, Korner cited an intercepted discussion between Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic on October 24, 1991, in which Karadzic told the then Serbian leader that the Bosnian Serbs' goal was to take over 65 per cent of Bosnian territory and to establish their own MUP.

In her introductory statement, Prosecutor Korner went on to describe the pattern of action of Serb MUP forces throughout Bosnia-Hercegovina during the war, saying it was "almost identical in all municipalities".

As evidence of this, she pointed to the brutal mass murders committed in municipalities throughout the country.

One such incident was the killing of some 200 men who were shot on Mount Vlasic, which lies close to Travnik in central Bosnia.

"This massacre was committed by members of the intervention squad of the police from the Prijedor Centre for Public Security," she said.

The prosecutor also pointed to mass murders committed in the towns of Visegrad, in eastern Bosnia, and Brcko in northeastern Bosnia, in April 1992, arguing that MUP forces carried out these crimes.

Korner then presented to the court a series of photographs taken by American news photographer Ron Haviv, which showed police killing people in Bijeljina in northeastern Bosnia in the spring of 1992.

"Just as photographs from the Vietnam war showed how policemen killed civilians, these photos are equally well known," Korner said.

The court was then shown television news reports filmed in June and July 1992, the Omarska and Keraterm concentration camps in Prijedor municipality of north-western Bosnia, where Bosniak and Croat prisoners were tortured and abused during the war.

"Police members managed or guarded notorious camps throughout Bosnia-Hercegovina, as was the case of the Keraterm and Omarska camps," she said.

She added that Zupljanin visited the Omarska camp in July 1992, "meaning he was directly acquainted with the treatment of prisoners", she said.

The trial chamber then heard the testimony of the first prosecution witness in the case, Dr Robert Donia, an American historian of the University of Michigan.

Donia, who has authored three books on Bosnia-Hercegovina, testified about the Bosnian Serbs plan to create an ethnically clean Serb state within the country. The historian, who during his research has analysed more than 100 transcripts from Bosnian Serb parliament sessions, also discussed the political preparations carried out by the Bosnian Serb authorities to achieve this.

He also testified about the role of the JNA and the Bosnian Serb police in carrying out this plan.

Donia told the trial chamber that as early as September 1991, many Bosnian municipalities with a Serb majority population were joined to create autonomous districts with parallel Serb authorities.

The witness also claimed that these autonomous districts were established in order to prevent Bosnia-Hercegovina's international independence, as well as recognition of the country as an independent state, which according to the witness, was an aim pursued jointly by Croats and Muslims in the country.

The prosecution entered into evidence the transcript of another intercepted conversation between Karadzic and Milosevic, from September 5, 1991.

The witness who had already read the transcript, said that in this conversation, Karadzic was telling Milosevic what he thought their long-term aims should be.

Donia cited a quote in which Karadzic said that the Bosnian Serb leadership "will be pushing for regionalisation and the establishment of its own police".

The witness said that "this conversation had taken place seven months before the conflict in Bosnia-Hercegovina broke out". He stated that Karadzic gave instructions and carefully followed the development of the Bosnian Serb interior ministry, without giving further details on this.

Korner then asked the witness to describe how the Bosnian Serb interior ministry took part in taking over power in Bosnia.

"In brief, MUP was an integral part of the takeover of power in those municipalities where the municipal assemblies were under control by the SDS. Often, the police force largely or completely consisted of Serbs," Donia replied.

Stanisic surrendered to the Hague tribunal in March 2005. Zupljanin remained in hiding until June of the same year, when he was arrested in the town of Pancevo, just outside the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

The trial continues on September 28.

Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.