Prlic Defence Counters Refugee Abuse Claims

The Croatian government did not discriminate between ethnic Croats and Muslim refugees from Bosnia, said a defence witness in the trial of former Herceg-Bosna prime minister Jadranko Prlic.



Prlic and five other Bosnian Croat officials are accused at the Hague tribunal of attempting to ethnically cleanse Muslims from Bosnia which they proclaimed as the Croatian statelet of Herceg Bosna during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.



Prlic’s defence is seeking to highlight the efforts made by the Croatian authorities to look after Bosnian Muslim refugees. The witness, Damir Zoric, was secretary general of the Croatian government’s Office of Displaced Persons and Refugees, ODPR, in Croatia from November 1991 to March 1993.



Recalling a prosecution witness who had testified that Bosniak refugees were isolated and denied access to education, defence lawyer Micheal Karnavas asked the witness to comment on a February 1993 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, document.



“This document shows that UNHCR…in cooperation with the ODPR tried to help refugees in Croatia irrespective of their origin,” said Damir.



Prlic’s defence asked the witness about large sums of money provided by UNHCR to his office to provide shelter and accommodation and fund programmes for women and children.



“UNHCR obviously had confidence in our office…trusting that the money would be distributed to those in need and to those to whom it was directed,” the witness told the court.



Zoric explained how empty buildings in Croatian cities were used to house refugees from Bosnia.



“People simply entered these premises and tried to organise their lives. We tried to provide them with infrastructure, or if that was not possible, we strove to move people to other facilities,” he said.



In the village of Gasinci near Davoko, a former military camp was adapted to house ethnic Croats and Muslims from the Bosnian Posavina, said Zoric. According to him, there were also representatives of international organisations at the camp, including UNHCR, Islamic organisations and the International Red Cross.



Zoric contradicted claims made by prosecution witness Azra Krajsek earlier in the trial that Muslim refugees were abused in reception centres in Gasinci. Zoric denied Krajsek’s testimony that weapons were pointed at Bosnian Muslims.



“The information that the Croatian government would keep weapons where there were ethnic Croats and Bosnian Muslims is not credible to me,” Zoric told the court.



“We know that our forces were badly armed and our weapons badly needed elsewhere.”



The witness, who said he went to Gasinci “several times”, pointed out that no such claims had been made at the time through official channels.



While Zoric admitted that “nobody was happy” at Gasinci, he put it down to the fact that being a refugee was “a very sad situation”. However, he insisted that everybody, Muslim or Croat, was treated equally.



“There was no discrimination. There was no officially encouraged violence. On the contrary, if there had been sparks something would have been done to alleviate the situation,” he said.



The witness said no international organisation had asked for the facility to be closed down, “On the contrary – they assisted in adapting those facilities for accommodating internally displaced persons and refugees.”



Zoric also confirmed that 30 million US dollars was donated by the Croatian finance minister to a group known as the Crisis Staff of Muslims of Croatia.



Asked by Karnavas if the group could choose household items, medical supplies and food according to its needs, and take them to Bosnia Herzegovina, the witness replied, “That’s my understanding.



“If we think back to Croatia as it was at the time, this amount is simply enormous.”



Prosecutor Kenneth Scott objected to this part of the testimony. He said the witness did not know about the details of the arrangement between the crisis staff and the Croatian government - such as whether the money had to be paid back.



“The witness has no knowledge of this matter,” Scott told the court, saying that his comments amounted to “general knowledge and speculation”.



Addressing the claim that Muslim refugees were isolated, Karnavas asked why the government established centres on islands such as Korcula and Vis – four hours from the mainland by ferry.



The witness explained that the islands were tourism centres which could provide accommodation because there were few visitors at the time.



Karnavas also asked the witness about refugees – mostly Muslims – who had to sleep in empty swimming pools before being taken to the island of Obanjan, while ethnic Croats stayed with families.



“There was no discrimination, but it’s a fact that ethnic Croats found it easier to integrate into Croatian society. Many of them had relatives in Croatia,” said the witness.



Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.