Markac Was True Professional
Defence witness tells tribunal that Croatian police strictly observed rules of international law.
Markac Was True Professional
Defence witness tells tribunal that Croatian police strictly observed rules of international law.
A former Croatian assistant special police chief told the Hague tribunal trial of his former superior this week that members of his unit were instructed to observe rules of international humanitarian law every time they went into action.
Dragutin Vurnek, a defence witness in the trial of former Croatian police chief Mladen Markac, said that the team he had headed, the Sisak-Moslavina county police unit, had stuck strictly to orders and not committed any war crimes as it passed through the Krajina region.
Markac is accused, along with generals Ante Gotovina and Ivan Cermak, of participating in a joint criminal enterprise to drive the ethnic Serb population from the Krajina region of Croatia in 1995. During Operation Storm in August 1995, Croatian forces recaptured the Krajina region, which had been held by rebel Serbs since 1991.
According to the indictment, Gotovina was the overall operational commander of the offensive in the southern portion of the Krajina region, while Markac was in charge of special police units, and Cermak headed the Knin garrison.
On December 5, 2006, the accused, Gotovina, Cermak and Markac, all pleaded not guilty. The trial commenced on March 11, 2008.
"The very day before Operation Storm began, on August 3, 1995, there was a meeting in Starigrad where Markac told all his subordinates that in treating civilians and POWs they have to respect norms of international humanitarian law,” the witness said.
He also described day two of Operation Storm, on August 5, 1995, when he entered the village of Gracac with his unit. He said that there had been no combat activity on the way to the village and that "during all of Operation Storm, once [the municipality of] Crni Vrh had been taken, there was no need for artillery support".
A defence lawyer for Markac, Tomislav Kuzmanovic, asked the witness, "What did you see there?"
"At the very entrance to Gracac, I saw a house burning,” the witness said. “There were warehouses close to the burning house and in our effort to find fire extinguishers we entered the warehouse and discovered a large quantity of weaponry and armaments, ammunition crates and so on," continued Vurnek.
“Nothing else was burning. There was no burning or pillaging of buildings. The special police force didn't do any of it."
According to the witness's claims, his unit returned to Kutina on August 8 or 9, after they had handed over their positions in the Krajina region to the Croatian army.
Giving his opinion on the accused Markac, the witness called him "a supreme strategist, a supreme operative commander, a humble and honest manager and a true professional”.
“I am proud and happy to have had the opportunity to be General Markac's policeman," Vurnek said.
After the witness had finished testifying, presiding judge Alphons Orie turned to the issue of a recent conflict between the Office of the Prosecution and the Croatian authorities over documents allegedly held by Gotovina’s defence team and demanded by the prosecution.
The trial of the three former Croatian generals will continue in 2010.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo.
Dragutin Vurnek, a defence witness in the trial of former Croatian police chief Mladen Markac, said that the team he had headed, the Sisak-Moslavina county police unit, had stuck strictly to orders and not committed any war crimes as it passed through the Krajina region.
Markac is accused, along with generals Ante Gotovina and Ivan Cermak, of participating in a joint criminal enterprise to drive the ethnic Serb population from the Krajina region of Croatia in 1995. During Operation Storm in August 1995, Croatian forces recaptured the Krajina region, which had been held by rebel Serbs since 1991.
According to the indictment, Gotovina was the overall operational commander of the offensive in the southern portion of the Krajina region, while Markac was in charge of special police units, and Cermak headed the Knin garrison.
On December 5, 2006, the accused, Gotovina, Cermak and Markac, all pleaded not guilty. The trial commenced on March 11, 2008.
"The very day before Operation Storm began, on August 3, 1995, there was a meeting in Starigrad where Markac told all his subordinates that in treating civilians and POWs they have to respect norms of international humanitarian law,” the witness said.
He also described day two of Operation Storm, on August 5, 1995, when he entered the village of Gracac with his unit. He said that there had been no combat activity on the way to the village and that "during all of Operation Storm, once [the municipality of] Crni Vrh had been taken, there was no need for artillery support".
A defence lawyer for Markac, Tomislav Kuzmanovic, asked the witness, "What did you see there?"
"At the very entrance to Gracac, I saw a house burning,” the witness said. “There were warehouses close to the burning house and in our effort to find fire extinguishers we entered the warehouse and discovered a large quantity of weaponry and armaments, ammunition crates and so on," continued Vurnek.
“Nothing else was burning. There was no burning or pillaging of buildings. The special police force didn't do any of it."
According to the witness's claims, his unit returned to Kutina on August 8 or 9, after they had handed over their positions in the Krajina region to the Croatian army.
Giving his opinion on the accused Markac, the witness called him "a supreme strategist, a supreme operative commander, a humble and honest manager and a true professional”.
“I am proud and happy to have had the opportunity to be General Markac's policeman," Vurnek said.
After the witness had finished testifying, presiding judge Alphons Orie turned to the issue of a recent conflict between the Office of the Prosecution and the Croatian authorities over documents allegedly held by Gotovina’s defence team and demanded by the prosecution.
The trial of the three former Croatian generals will continue in 2010.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo.
