Krajisnik Judges Seek Arrest of Witness

Judges overseeing the genocide trial of the former Bosnian Serb parliamentary speaker Momcilo Krajisnik have issued an arrest warrant for one of his wartime political colleagues, who failed to show up to testify in the case despite being subpoenaed.



Branko Djeric, who was the first prime minister of the Republika Srpska when it was established during the Bosnian crisis, had been set to give evidence in Krajisnik’s trial on June 26.



Djeric was also a member of a body within the Republika Srpska authorities known as the National Security Council, SNB, during the war. The council’s other members included Biljana Plavsic, who has pleaded guilty to persecuting non-Serbs; Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb president who remains on the run from the Hague tribunal; and Krajisnik.



With the prosecution and defence stages of the proceedings wrapped up, he was to have been the first of a handful of witnesses appearing this week at the behest of the judges themselves.



But he reportedly refused to accept the court’s subpoena when a Republika Srpska interior ministry agent attempted to deliver it to him at his current place of work, at the economics faculty in Pale, on June 19.



The arrest warrant, issued on June 27, requested the Bosnian authorities to detain Djeric and surrender him to The Hague, where he faces contempt of court charges punishable with a maximum of seven years in prison, a fine of up to 100,000 euro, or both.



In the event, the first witness to appear at the trial chamber’s request this week was Amir Delic, a Muslim from the town of Bosanski Novi who represented his people in negotiations with the local Serb wartime authorities. He challenged Krajisnik’s claims that refugee movements blamed on ethnic cleansing were in fact just an example of Muslims “exercising their right to freedom of movement”.



Delic spoke of the atmosphere of “fear and chaos” created by the Serb military in Bosanski Novi prior to the exodus of almost all of the town’s 9,500 Muslim residents in July 1992. Killings, arson and plunder were employed systematically, he said.



From May 1992, Delic said, Serb fighters began taking Muslim males – including his own uncle, who was “just a secretary of a kindergarten” – from their homes without any explanation. When his uncle’s body was found, he had been shot ten times, including in the back of the head.



“People who did not want to leave were killed on their property,” said the witness, adding that the father of one of his friends was killed on his doorstep.



With conditions in the town unbearable and Muslims not even able to buy bread, Delic said the Serb-run municipality authorities laid out regulations governing the process by which Muslims would be allowed to leave the area. “Basically, we had to give up all our property,” explained the witness, “to give it to the Republika Srpska, and to sign that we were doing all of this voluntarily.”



He said the Serb mayor of Bosanski Novi, Radomir Pasic, knew exactly what was going on. Pasic’s position was that “Muslims must leave, they cannot stay and he cannot guarantee safety to us”.



Later in the week, the judges called Bogdan Subotic, a former minister of defence of the Republika Srpska.



Subotic told the court that he was somewhat hesitant to testify, for fear that his words “could be misinterpreted”. But Judge Orie assured the witness that speaking publicly in court would allow people to see his evidence as a whole and would help to avoid any such problems.



Subotic’s testimony echoed claims by Krajisnik that the Army of the Republika Srpska, VRS, which is implicated in countless atrocities during the war, acted largely independently of the political structures of which the accused was a part.



Subotic said the Bosnian Serb government, and himself as defence minister, were not even informed about military operations up until the time when a Supreme Command body was established in November 1992. Even after that, he said, the Supreme Command was really just a “consultative body” and authority over the military rested with Karadzic.



The witness said that Krajisnik – who he described as “a pleasant and witty man who had a refined approach with everyone at the assembly” – “did not participate in the creation of military strategy”.



Subotic added that he personally resigned after being told by VRS commander Ratko Mladic in August 1992 that “you, minister, should take care about the food, blankets and ammunition… Operations are none of your business”.



Mladic, he said, was determined to “defeat the enemy” and acted independently, “arrogantly, thinking that he was the only one who is smart enough”. The political leadership, in contrast, was concerned with negotiations aimed at establishing cooperation with the international community.



In a separate development, the trial chamber has given permission for Krajisnik’s lawyers to approach the appeals chamber with their ongoing demands to have Judge Joaquín Martín Canivell pulled off the case.



The defence have argued that a decision by the United Nations Security Council to extend Judge Canivell’s term at the court was invalid. In its own ruling on the matter last week, the trial chamber said the objection was unfounded.



Adin Sadic is an IWPR intern in The Hague.