Witness Provides Corroboration, But Little Else

With 16 days remaining to prove the 66 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against Slobodan Milosevic for the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, the Prosecution called a Serb journalist who appeared to add little to its case. Nenad Zafirovic worked for Radio B-92 in the early days of the war in Bosnia. While B-92 attempted to present objective information about the war in Bosnia, its audience was limited to Belgrade.

Mr. Zafirovic testified about Arkan's (Zeljko Raznatovic) control over Bijeljina, where one of the first battles of the war in Bosnia was fought. The prosecution has provided substantial evidence in support of its charge that at least 48 non-Serb men, women and children were killed during the attack on Bijeljina by Serb forces. Mr. Zafirovic neither confirmed nor denied this evidence, but testified that Ljubica Savic (aka 'Mauzer'), head of the local crisis staff, had invited Arkan and his men to Bijeljina.

On cross examination, Milosevic referred to the witness's statement to the Prosecution in which he said that Mauzer had the greatest control over the paramilitaries at Bijeljina and was most responsible for the killings. Prior testimony has connected Arkan to the Serbian Ministry of the Interior (MUP), but Mauzer was a local Serb. Mr. Zafirovic's statement appeared to contradict his testimony in court about Arkan's overall control. To support his contention about Arkan's control, the witness told the Court he learned from a JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) officer about Arkan's arrest of two JNA soldiers. When confronted, Arkan released the soldiers, though no action was taken against him. The evidence seems to add little to evidence the Prosecutor has already produced showing Arkan's, and thus the Serbian MUP's, participation in the massacres in Bijeljina.

The focus of the witness's testimony about Bijeljina concerned the visit by two members of the Bosnia-Herzegovinian (BiH) Presidency, Biljana Plavsic (Serb representative) and Fikret Abdic (Muslim representative), ostensibly to calm the situation. They met with Arkan, Mauzer, Goran Hadzic (President of the Serbian Autonomous Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem), and Colonel Jankovic of the JNA. Journalists were allowed to attend the beginning of the meeting, then 'chased out.' Zafirovic managed to remain for another half hour before being discovered. During that time, he witnessed an argument between Abdic and Arkan, when the latter accused the former of receiving weapons from the Croats, while Abdic protested that the Muslims had no weapons and the 'conflict' was between unarmed Muslims and armed Serbs. Plavsic attempted to mediate.

This is odd testimony given that of Sead Omeragic, another journalist at the meeting who testified earlier in the trial. According to him, Plavsic was an advocate for the Serbs, who insisted in the face of contrary evidence that more Serbs than Muslims had been killed and that Arkan had saved the Serbs from Muslim aggression by his intervention. Mr. Omeragic also testified that Colonel Jankovic was forced to admit that Muslims were the predominant victims of the massacre.

Mr. Zafirovic testified about visiting Erdut, Arkan's training camp in Croatia. He corroborated other testimony that Jovica Stanisic (Chief of the Serbian MUP's State Security Division, DB) and Radovan Stojicic, aka 'Badza' (deputy head of the Serbian MUP Public Security Division, JB), visited Arkan's headquarters. He also confirmed that he saw Dragan Vasilkovic, aka 'Captain Dragan', carrying out tactical maneuvers with Arkan's Volunteer Guard, thus corroborating Vasilkovic's earlier testimony in the trial, which the Accused has sought to discredit.

Another area of testimony concerned the witness's knowledge of Milosevic's influence on the Bosnian Serbs. Mr. Zafirovic was present at the 1993 negotiations in Geneva which attempted to resolve conflicts between the Bosnian Serbs, Muslims and Croats. While Milosevic was not an official member of any delegation, Mr. Zafirovic testified that, when Milosevic was present, '[he] was head of the delegation [of Bosnian Serbs] and everything depended on him.' When he was not present, the delegation was in regular contact with him. Official members of the Bosnian Serb delegation were Radovan Karadzic, RS President, Nikola Koljevic, RS Vice President, and Momcilo Krajisnik, President of the RS Assembly. The witness said delegation members addressed Milosevic as 'Mr. President' and, informally, out of his presence, as 'boss' or 'big daddy.'

On cross examination, Milosevic secured Mr. Zafirovic's agreement that his role was to use his influence to facilitate a resolution of the conflict, a role similar to that of Franjo Tudjman, President of Croatia, and Momir Bulatovic, President of Montenegro who also attended. Nevertheless, when cross examined by Amicus Curiae Branislav Tapuskovic, Mr. Zafirovic stood by his earlier claim. Tapuskovic: 'You said Mr. Milosevic was head of the delegation of Bosnian Serbs.' Witness: 'That was the impression I invariably had when the Accused was in Geneva. He had regular contact with the delegation when he was physically not present. This was confirmed by several sources.' When the Amicus pressed him whether Milosevic could give orders to the Bosnian Serbs, he replied, 'It is my deep conviction that the Accused did have the possibility of affecting the decisions of the leadership of the Republika Srpska,' though formal decisions had to be made by them. Mr. Zafirovic added that he did not know whether the Accused had 'ordered' the Bosnian Serb leadership to do anything.

While this adds to testimony about perceptions of Milosevic's power in relation to the Bosnian Serbs, one would expect more definitive evidence at this point in the trial. In any event, it does not seem to justify producing all of Mr. Zafirovic's testimony viva voce (orally) instead of the Prosecution's usual method of leading in court parts directly involving Milosevic, while producing the remainder through his sworn, written statement.

The other major area of Mr. Zafirovic's testimony concerned the 30th Session of the RS Assembly, where that body rejected the Vance-Owen Peace Plan despite Milosevic's on-site plea for its adoption. Though press were shut out of the working session where Milosevic gave his second address to the Assembly, the witness sneaked in a tape recorder through one of the Assembly delegates. He subsequently aired a selected portion on B-92 radio because, he testified, in it Milosevic admitted that Serbia (and Milosevic) was involved in the war in Bosnia contrary to the Accused's oft-stated denials. On cross examination, Milosevic provided a different interpretation. The full official transcript of the 30th Assembly Session has already been introduced into evidence, and appears to support Mr. Zafirovic's testimony [see CIJ Report, 'Transcripts Reveal Milosevic Involvement in Bosnian War,' September 12, 2003, p. 4]. Since the trasncript is the best evidence and Mr. Zafirovic was not personally present at the Assembly Session when Milosevic gave the speech, it is unclear why the Prosecution felt they needed Mr. Zafirovic's testimony on this.

An interesting part of Mr. Zafirovic's statement was revealed under cross examination by the Accused and the Amicus. In his statement to the Prosecutor, the witness reported that Karadzic and Krajisnik sought to personally gain from the war in Bosnia. 'They used their positions for their personal benefit,' Milosevic read. They were involved in illegal financial transactions and money laundering through an overseas account. The witness told the Court that Krajisnik met with Haris Silajdzic, BiH Prime Minister, in an attempt to sell parts of Bosnia to the Muslims for 1 to 1 1/2 million Deutschmarks. The information, he insisted, was accurate and based on knowledge he obtained from meetings with the leadership of the RS and some from the Federation [of Bosnia-Herzegovina]. Though interesting, it does not appear particularly relevant to the charges against Milosevic, and the Prosecutor did not lead it.

Another bit of information revealed on cross examination concerned Karadzic's and Plavsic's knowledge of 'concentration camps' set up in the RS by Bosnian Serbs. Mr. Zafirovic testified that he asked Karadzic about it toward the end of 1993, beginning of 1994. Karadzic denied knowing anything about concentration camps but said he would look into it. The Accused told the witness he was glad to hear that someone else confirmed his view that Karadzic knew nothing about the camps. On the contrary, Mr. Zafirovic confirmed that Karadzic knew about them at least by the beginning of 1994. Since many of the camps continued to operate throughout the war, it appears that Karadzic, at a minimum, neglected his duty to prevent the atrocities and war crimes that were perpetrated in them by men under his control.

While this supports charges against Karadzic, it is the connections between Karadzic and the Accused that are critical in this trial. With so little time remaining, one would expect the prosecutor to concentrate on linkage evidence, i.e. evidence that links Milosevic to the crimes.

While Mr. Zafirovic was able to corroborate some prior evidence presented by the Prosecution, he was not a strong witness. Under Milosevic's insistent but polite questioning, he conceded a number of points -- that Milosevic used his influence with the Bosnian Serbs in the interests of securing peace, that no JNA or Serbian MUP were active in Bijeljina, and that Plavsic and Abdic went to Bijeljina to calm the situation, which they did. Some of this is contradicted by prior prosecution witnesses. With so few days remaining in this case -- and so little evidence supporting the genocide or complicity in genocide charges -- the choice of Mr. Zafirovic as a full viva voce witness was puzzling. Perhaps the Prosecution was also disappointed.