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Court Hears of Bosnian Serb’s Prijedor Protest
Ex-official in leading Bosnian Serb party recounts how he wanted to step down be
cause it was being linked to murder and pillage.
By Velma Saric - International Justice - ICTY
TRI Issue 664,
8 Oct 10
A former Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, chief told the trial of ex-senior Bosnia
n Serb security officials Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin this week that he s
ought to resign from the party in 1992 because it was being blamed for abuses in
the Prijedor region.
Zupljanin - the former head of the regional security services centre in Banja Lu
ka and adviser to Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, who is on tria
l for genocide - is accused of the extermination, murder, persecution, and depor
tation of non-Serbs in north-western Bosnia between April and December, 1992.
Stanisic - a former minister in the Bosnian Serb ministry of internal affairs, M
UP - is charged with murder, torture and cruel treatment of non-Serb civilians,
as well as for his failure to prevent or punish crimes committed by his subordin
ates.
Stanisic and Zupljanin are alleged to have participated in a joint criminal ente
rprise aimed at the permanent removal of non-Serbs from the territory of an inte
nded Serbian state. They are accused of crimes committed between April 1 and Dec
ember 31, 1992, in 20 municipalities throughout Bosnia, including Prijedor.
Their alleged crimes include persecution, extermination, murder, torture, inhuma
ne acts and deportation as crimes against humanity, in addition to murder, tortu
re and cruel treatment as violations of the laws or customs of war.
At the beginning of his statement, prosecution witness Simo Miskovic, the former
SDS chairman in Prijedor, recounted how his party had taken over the municipali
ty.
“Serbs in Prijedor took power as soon as the risk of eventual conflict became obvi
ous,” he said, adding that this action was implemented in the early hours of April
30, 1992.
He explained that the “final decision” to seize power in the municipality was made o
n April 29 at a meeting of local Serb officials held at the Yugoslav army, JNA,
barracks, where it was agreed that “the police and territorial defence forces shou
ld get ready for action”. The takeover began at 4 am the next morning.
Prijedor is a large municipality in north-west Bosnia and an important regional
centre, where prior to 1992 the ethnically mixed population and administration i
ncluded Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats. During the war, the municipality was
the site of a number of crimes, including the murder, deportation and imprisonme
nt of non-Serb civilians.
The witness said that, by 6 am on April 30, the police, the municipal assembly a
nd all other institutions in the municipality were under Bosnian Serb control.
Miskovic stated several times during his testimony that the “action went peacefull
y, without any incidents or a single scratch”. He emphasised that the decision to
take such measures was made as a reaction to the “imminent risk of possible confli
ct in Prijedor municipality”.
Prosecutor Belinda Pidwell then questioned the witness about an encounter with Z
upljanin and a delegation of Bosnian Serb officials to the Omarska camp, in July
1992.
The indictment against Stanisic and Zupljanin enumerates more than 50 different
detention facilities, including Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje camps, set up by
Bosnian Serb forces where non-Serb captives were beaten, tortured, sexually ass
aulted, humiliated, harassed and psychologically abused.
“When were you first told that there was a delegation coming from Banja Luka to vi
sit this place of detention?” Pidwell asked.
“I was not told, I didn’t even know they were coming, it was just by chance that I w
as on the pavement before the [municipal] assembly building when the delegation
arrived by car, so I ended up with them,” Miskovic answered.
The witness explained that it was “only when we came out of the cars at the Omarsk
a building, I saw who was in the delegation” which he said included Zupljanin and
Radoslav Brdjanin, the former head of the Banja Luka crisis staff of the self-de
clared Autonomous Region of Krajina.
In April 2007, Brdjanin was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment at the Hague tribu
nal for crimes committed against non-Serbs in Krajina.
“Were you told what the purpose of the visit was?” the prosecutor asked.
“No,” the witness answered.
Pidwell went on to ask Miskovic whether he knew that Omarska was being used as “wh
at [Bosnian Serbs] referred to as an ‘investigation centre’”.
Miskovic replied that “he had the information that a large number of persons were
being held at Omarska and subjected to an investigation by the active and reserv
e elements of police and intelligence services”.
At Omarska, he said he saw many people from Prijedor, but explained that since t
hey were bearded and dishevelled he “couldn’t recognise them, but I knew they could
recognise me, so I felt uneasy and lowered my head from all the discomfort, and
thus entered the hall”.
“Apart from being unshaved, how did they seem in general when it comes to their he
alth and appearance?” Pidwell asked.
“You know how men are, I don t have to explain,” the witness replied. “When you don’t sh
ave for a longer time, you get a beard. The other thing is, well, if you don’t cha
nge clothes, they look wrinkled, perhaps because they slept in them, perhaps bec
ause they had nowhere to hang their clothes - that’s what it looked like.”
He added that he had no knowledge of the condition of the detainees’ health.
“I didn’t know who had what problems with his health, whether he came with them or t
hey appeared there [in Omarska]. I didn’t know - the doctors who looked into them
knew this,” he continued.
Miskovic said that the prisoners were mostly Muslims, with some Croats.
Pidwell then asked the witness to clarify why he tried to quit his role in the P
rijedor municipality in October 1992.
The witness explained that he had been attempting to “protect his dignity and the
dignity of the party” because the “talk of the town was to pin every illegal act in
town, every lawless matter of fact, to the SDS”.
“There were certain….acts committed in Prijedor municipality by individuals, and the
se acts were used to harm the party’s image,” he continued.
“Because of the attempt to create such an image of the party in the citizens, and
because this didn’t correspond to the true state of affairs, as chairman of the lo
cal party board and in order to protect my dignity and the dignity of the party,
I wrote a platform document in which I stressed that because of activities happ
ening in Prijedor municipality and because of the wish to attach these activitie
s to the SDS, I resign from my function.”
The witness said he directed this open letter to the local media in Prijedor, ca
lling on the relevant bodies to act to stop the trend of blaming the SDS for var
ious activities.
The prosecutor asked the witness three times what these “activities” were supposed t
o have been.
Eventually, the witness replied that “pillaging, murder, removal of property from
other people s homes” was being attributed to the SDS.
Stanisic surrendered in March 2005, while Zupljanin was arrested by the Serbian
authorities on June 10, 2008, after 13 years as a fugitive. Their indictments we
re joined together in September 2008 and both have pleaded not guilty to all cou
nts.
The trial continues this week.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.