Witness Says Gotovina Had No Control Over Army Court
Former official testifies that general was not connected to Croatian tribunal mandated to investigate war crimes.
Witness Says Gotovina Had No Control Over Army Court
Former official testifies that general was not connected to Croatian tribunal mandated to investigate war crimes.
The former chairman of the military tribunal in Split, Zoran Matulovic, testified that Ante Gotovina had no influence over the court, which was responsible for investigating and prosecuting Croatian Army, HV, troops suspected of war crimes in 1995.
The witness appeared this week for the defence in the Hague tribunal trial of Croatian general Gotovina. The commander of the Croatian army's Split military district during Operation Storm, Gotovina is accused by prosecutors of having failed to prevent or punish crimes committed by his troops at that time.
However, Matulovic said this week that Gotovina had no influence over the court, which was mandated with investigating reports of crimes committed by Croatian soldiers in the Serb-controlled Krajina region of Croatia.
He also told judges that there was no connection between the Split command division headed by Gotovina and the military tribunal, which came under the authority of Croatia’s justice ministry.
“Everything the military tribunal did was under close scrutiny by the ministry of justice. A military commander could in no way have influenced the work of the tribunal. Mr Gotovina had no possibility of influencing the [court’s] processes,” Matulovic said.
He said as far as he knew, Gotovina had never tried to become involved with the work of the court, “In my five years of work, I never heard of him having called, ordered, or asked for anyone or anything.”
Gotovina and generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac are accused of responsibility for the killing of dozens of people and the shelling and torching of Serb towns and villages as Croat troops retook the Krajina region during the Operation Storm counter-offensive. The assault, which began on August 4, 1995, ended after four days with a victory for the Croatian army.
The three men are charged with taking part in a joint criminal enterprise, the aim of which was to drive the Serb population out of the Krajina region permanently though the use of force, persecution, and other crimes.
The indictment says they instigated, encouraged and condoned crimes against Serbs “by failing to report and/or investigate crimes or alleged crimes against them, to follow up on such allegations and/or investigations, and/or to punish or discipline subordinates and others in the Croatian authorities and forces” over which they had effective control.
It also accuses Gotovina of “failing to establish and maintain law and order among, and discipline of, his subordinates, and neither preventing nor punishing crimes committed against the Krajina Serbs”.
At the beginning of this week’s session, a statement given by Matulovic in May this year was introduced as evidence.
In this, Matulovic stated that the Split military tribunal was responsible for prosecuting those suspected of crimes committed in the Krajina area during and after Zagreb’s military Operation Storm.
During the trial, presiding judge Alphons Orie asked Matulovic what the head of the Split command division had been required to do, if he had heard reports of, for example, houses being burnt by forces in a territory under his control.
“He was supposed to inform the military police about this and nothing else,” answered the witness.
Defence attorney Luka Misetic asked Matulovic what would have happened if those suspected of atrocities had been released from military service before proceedings could be initiated against them.
“The military tribunals only had jurisdiction if a person was a soldier. If the person was a civilian or [his] military status had ended, then it was civilian courts that had jurisdiction and those cases would be transferred to civilian courts,” the witness replied.
He also said that “if an investigation in a certain case against an individual had been closed or was still ongoing, and if that person had lost their military status, not a single phase of the proceedings would be repeated – the trial would just continue in civilian courts”.
In cross-examination, prosecutor Prashanthi Mahindaratne suggested that in the part of the Krajina known as the Sector South, a multitude of crimes – including murder, burning and pillaging – were committed against Serb civilians by Croatian troops after Operation Storm.
However, Matulovic answered that “a multitude is a relative category” and that in such a “hypothetically presented situation” – which included no details about numbers of victims – one could not know for sure who all the perpetrators had been.
“Is it not possible that those who fled burnt their own houses out of spite, knowing they couldn’t use them anymore?” asked the witness, stressing that he spoke “merely hypothetically”.
Matulovic also said that the Split military tribunal and its prosecutors were mandated to investigate crimes committed against imprisoned members of the Serb Army of Krajina after Operation Storm.
The indictment against the generals also charges them with responsibility for the murder of certain members of Serb armed forces who had laid down their arms or were otherwise out of action.
However, Matulovic insisted that Serb soldiers detained around the time of Operation Storm were treated “most appropriately”.
“Not a single one of those prisoners was maltreated,” he said, adding that “the rule of law functioned normally in the Republic of Croatia at that time”.
Matulovic said the proper treatment of these prisoners of war was also confirmed by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, who visited them in prison and informed the tribunal about their condition.
Although it was not usual practice, the representatives would occasionally glance at the letters written by the prisoners of war, he said.
The witness said that according to the ICRC representatives, in these letters, “the [detainees] informed their relatives that they had no complaints regarding the prison conditions and that they were being treated in a fair and proper manner”.
Judge Orie asked whether the ICRC ever complained about the treatment of the prisoners.
“There never were any complaints by representatives of the Red Cross, either spoken or in writing,” answered the witness.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.
