Journalist Testifies About Grubori Killings
UN employee said he filmed footage which could prove Croatian forces were involved in ethnic cleasing.
Friday, 19 September, 2008
Journalist Testifies About Grubori Killings
UN employee said he filmed footage which could prove Croatian forces were involved in ethnic cleasing.
Friday, 19 September, 2008
The journalist – who was employed by the UN to record what was happening in the region –
said he filmed the corpses of the elderly men, which he came across in the village of Grubori after the Operation Storm offensive in 1995.
He told the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague that when he spoke to Croatian general Ivan Cermak later that day, he denied the victims had been killed at close range, and said his soldiers had been carrying out an “anti-terrorist operation”.
Cermak, the former commander of the Croatian garrison in Knin, is standing trial alongside two other Croatian generals – Ante Gotovina, who was in charge of Operation Storm, and Mladen Markac, the commander of special police units.
They are charged with crimes committed by their troops during and after the four-day offensive, which retook an area held by Serb rebels from 1991.
While prosecutors do not dispute Croatia’s right to reintegrate the Krajina region within its internationally recognised borders, they condemn the tactics used which they say left behind “a scarred wasteland of destroyed villages and homes”.
According to indictment, Croatian forces killed six elderly people in the village of Grubori –whch lies in the Plavno valley of Krajina – including some who could not move and were shot in their beds.
This week, Richard Linton – then a UN employee who was tasked with filming events unfolding in Krajina – said that on August 25, 1995, he was in the region interviewing those Serbs who had remained in their homes in the Plavno valley after Operation Storm.
He then saw smoke coming from Grubori and discovered that several houses there were on fire, he said.
The next day, he went to the village, where he came across a number of corpses. He said he filmed the bodies, which included a man who had been shot in the head and another whose throad had been slit.
“People, this couple, said to us that the Ustase were responsible for that, ” said Linton in a previous statement he made to the prosecution – the summary of which was read out in court this week.
Ustase, a term for Nazi collaborators during World War Two, is used by some Serbs to refer to Croatian ultra-nationalists.
“I don’t know whether they were talking about Croatian police or military, but that couple said that Croatians – people in Croatian uniforms with Croatian emblems – were responsible,” said Linton in the statement.
The witness said he taped the conversation with the couple. He added that six out of around 20 houses in the village had been set alight.
Linton said he interviewed Cermak that same day and told him about the dead men.
However, Cermak denied the victims had been killed at close range, saying his soldiers had been carrying out an “anti-terrorist operation”.
The witness confirmed that Cermak said he would go to Grubori to investigate. However, he said that he never checked if the general had kept his promise.
Linton said he sent his footage from Grubori immediately to the UN office in the Croatian capital Zagreb, because according to him, the material had the potential to show that Croatian forces were carrying out ethnic cleansing.
“For me, as a journalist, this was a perfect story. I had proof, as well as the local commander [Cermak] denying it,” said the witness.
During cross-examination, Cermak’s defence tried to show their client was not responsible for what went on in the town. While Cermak commanded Knin’s garrison, they said, the civilian authorities under the interior ministry were responsible for order in the town and the surrounding area.
Gillian Higgins, Cermak’s lawyer, suggested that Linton was not familiar with Cermak’s mandate at the time.
“Is it true that you … never found out what [Cermak] was responsible for and what his duties were?” she asked.
“Yes,” replied Linton.
Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR-trained journalist in Zagreb.
