Sparks Fly in Norac-Ademi Trial

Croatian generals Mirko Norac and Rahim Ademi used their closing statements to deny responsibility for war crimes during the 1993 Medak Pocket military operation.



The co-defendants have been in conflict with one another from the start of their trial at Zagreb County Court, each seeking to downplay their own involvement while alleging that the other played a prominent commanding role.



As the strategy continued this week, tempers ran high.



Ademi and Norac are accused of commanding troops who killed prisoners at the time of the operation, in what is the first case to be referred to the Croatian courts by the Hague war crimes tribunal. Both have pleaded not guilty.



At the time of the offensive, Ademi was acting commander of Gospic military district, in southern Croatia, while Norac was commander of the 9th Guards Motorised Brigade, the main unit involved in the operation.



Prosecutors also say Norac commanded “Sector One”, a combat group set up specifically to run the operation. He denies it ever existed.



Although Ademi was technically the higher ranking of the two, he claims Norac was not under his control, but rather took orders from a parallel chain of command headed by Janko Bobetko, the chief of the general staff, and Gojko Susak, the minister of defence. Both are now dead.



“[I] didn’t ever give any commands to Norac,” Ademi said.



For his part, Norac insisted Ademi was his sole superior.

“There was no parallel chain of command,” he told the court. “This method of shifting responsibility onto another officer is not fair. It is dishonourable on the part of [Ademi] as a Croatian general.”



According to the original tribunal indictment, at least 29 Serb civilians were killed and dozens more wounded during the offensive, which was mounted to regain control of part of Croatia held by Serb rebels since 1991. Many of the victims were women or elderly.



The generals are also accused of destroying civilian property unlawfully. Most prosecution witnesses have testified that people wearing Croatian army uniforms set fire to and looted Serb property.



During the trial, defence witnesses have given differing statements about the chain of command, with some even saying that both Norac and Ademi were only nominally in charge.



Witnesses have testified that that Admiral Davor Domazet-Loso, who was investigated for war crimes but never charged, was in direct contact with Bobetko and Susak – implying that he bypassed the defendants – and that he transmitted orders from the high command and made sure that they were carried out.



“Ademi and Norac had no direct lines of communication to Bobetko, while Loso did,” said Bobetko’s former assistant Franjo Feldi last year.



Ademi maintained this week that Norac worked with the admiral.



“The operation was carried out under the command of Norac and [Domazet-Loso],” he said.



Last September, Domazet-Loso told the court that while he had been present during the operation, he only made suggestions to the field commanders.



In his statement, Norac told the court that documents relating to the 9th Guards Brigade were missing and others had been doctored to make him appear responsible.



“Some documents were fabricated during the time I was in prison, with the aim of showing I was the only commander of the Medak Pocket operation,” he said.



“When I was checking documents delivered to me, I saw that there were no documents from the 9th Guards Brigade. I couldn’t believe it. I know that the archive of the 9th Guards Brigade was in good order.”



In 2003, Norac was sentenced by a Croatian court to 12 years in prison for the killing of Serb civilians in the town of Gospic at the beginning of the war.



Norac accused Ademi and Petar Stipetic, a former army chief of staff who testified in the latter’s defence, of removing the documents.



During his testimony, Stipetic blamed Domazet-Loso for the missing documents, a charge the admiral denied while giving testimony last year. Ademi, too, has denied that anyone tampered with documents from his zone of operation.



Presiding judge Marin Mrcela asked Norac why he had not asked the witnesses about the missing documents when they were on the stand. Norac replied he had learned about it only this year.



In his closing statement, chief state prosecutor Antun Kvakan repeated the charges against the generals, underlining the accusation of “failure to secure sufficient military policemen in the field when it was obvious that crimes could easily occur”.



Kvakan dismissed Ademi’s defence that the operation was commanded by Bobetko via Domazet-Loso.



He also dismissed Norac’s claim that Sector One did not exist, reminding the court of the large number of documents and witness statements that mentioned it.



The defence teams are expected to make their closing statements on May 26.



Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR-trained journalist in Zagreb.