Prlic Witness Denies Ethnic Cleansing

A member of Bosnia’s parliament said this week that Bosniaks were not ethnically cleansed from Croat-controlled territory during the war, but left of their own accord.



Martin Raguz, currently a member of Bosnia’s state parliament, worked for the office for refugees and displaced people of the self-proclaimed Croat statelet of Herceg-Bosna during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.



The official dismissed claims that Bosnian Croats expelled Bosniaks from territory under the control of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO – the wartime entity’s armed forces and government.



He instead blamed military operations for the displacement, and said civilians fled the danger voluntarily.



“People went where it was better for them,” said the witness.



Former Herceg-Bosna prime minister Jadranko Prlic and other five senior officials are accused of taking part in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at expelling Bosniaks from parts of Bosnia and Hercegovina controlled by Bosnian Croats during the Croatian-Muslim conflict in 1993 and 1994.



On trial with Prlic are former Herceg-Bosna defence minister Bruno Stojic, HVO military police commander Valentin Coric, General Slobodan Praljak, General Milivoj Petkovic and the head of the commission for prisoner exchange, Berislav Pusic. They are all charged with responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including persecutions, murder, rape, and deportation.



The indictment states that members of Croatia’s political and military establishment wanted to unite Herceg-Bosna with Croatia proper.



Prosecution witnesses have testified that the HVO’s policy was to “implement its plan in a way that would require the removal of Muslims and other non-Croats” from Herceg-Bosna.



However, the defendants – supported by Raguz’s testimony this week – argue that the Bosnian Croats had to organise themselves because of their isolation from the government in Sarajevo, which was mostly made up of Bosniaks.



Raguz’s political carrier began in June 1992, when he was elected minister for work, social welfare and refugees of Bosnia and Hercegovina. At the end of 1992, he left Sarajevo and went to the Croatian capital Zagreb to join his family.



He stayed there until May 1993, when he accepted a job as deputy of chief of the department for refugees and displaced persons in Herceg-Bosna. He was then dismissed from the Bosnian government.



This week, Raguz defended the creation of the HVO.



“We must bear in mind the fact that [the HVO] was a legitimate defensive structure created when the socialist system was dissolving and it was impossible to protect the whole country,” he said.



The witness dismissed prosecution claims that Bosniaks were ethnically cleansed from the predominantly Croat region of Hercegovina.



He also denied that Croats from central Bosnia were then encouraged by the authorities to move to Hercegovina to increase population numbers there, in a process that has been termed “reverse ethnic cleansing”.



For instance, while he acknowledged that the HVO moved about 15,000 Croats from the Kakanj area of central Bosnia, he said it was in order to help people and save lives.



“I said already and I’m repeating it now – absolutely, it wasn’t about [reverse ethnic cleansing]. Here in front of this honourable court, I dismiss any possibility of characterising help for those people in that way,” Raguz said.



He argued that the HVO’s presence helped civilians.



“This area which the HVO defended was where the most people were saved and where the most humanitarian aid in Bosnia was delivered,” said Raguz.



Raguz explained that local officials, not Prlic’s government, took charge of refugee accommodation, and therefore the prime minister could not have command responsibility.



He explained that some Croat-run municipalities asked Herceg-Bosna officials to evacuate them because of the conflict with the Bosnian army. If the request was dismissed, the municipalities accused them of making political decisions and gambling with the lives of civilians, he said.



The witness dismissed allegations that visas issued to Bosniaks by Herceg-Bosna authorities allowing them to leave for third countries were instruments of ethnic cleansing.



A few thousand visas “was a small number considering the million people already displaced around the world”, said Raguz.



During cross-examination, the prosecution presented documents detailing the population before and after the conflict to show how many Bosnians had left Croat-controlled areas, such as the city of Mostar, during the war.



“I can only say that was to do with the war in Mostar where both sides were involved [Bosnian army and HVO] and where both nations got hurt,” said Raguz.



The trial continues next week.



Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR-trained journalist in Croatia.