Savic and Mucibabic: Crisis Headquarters at Nevesinje
11 September 2008 The State Prosecution hears the ex-president of the Nevesinje Crisis headquarters and member of the Serb Autonomous Region's Herzegovina Crisis headquarters.
Vukan Bratic was head of the Crisis headquarters at Nevesinje which was formed at the beginning of April 1992. Veselin Grahovac, Momcilo Golijanin, Gojko Stajic, Radovan Radojicic or Mile Martic, Arsen Grahovac and Milan Kapola were members of the Crisis Headqurter together with him.
By the midle of April, the Crisis Headquarters of
the self-proclaimed Serb Autonomous region (SAO)
Herzegovina was formed in which officials from the municipalities of
Nevesinje, Gacko, Kalinovik, Bileca, Serb Mostar, Trebinje, Ljubinje and Berkovic
as well as Krsto Savic ''as minister of interior of SAO Herzegovina''
participated.
Bratic gave a statement during Savic's and
Mile Mucibabic's trial. They were indicted for the persecution and murders of Bosniak civilians from the area of the municipalities under the Crisis
headquarters of the SAO Herzegovina.
As the witness explained, in both crisis teams,
members were soldiers and police officers which ''informed the rest of them about
security situation in the field''.
As he stated, the crisis headquarters did not have
authority to make orders. Their task was to ''observe the situation''.
''There were a lot of refugees so we have to take
care of them'' explained Bratic, who was a teacher in the Nevesinje high school
but became ''politically engaged'' since 1990 when he was elected member of
the municipality assembly on behalf of the Serb Renewal Movement (SPO) ''but was not their member''.
Bratic also stated that the headquarters was dismantled under an order
that ''arrived from Pale''.
Bosniaks from Nevesinje were expelled in big numbers during the month of June, when a lot of them were imprisoned
and murdered. The Prosecution witness claims that Bosniaks were leaving the town
organised by the Red Cross and ''helped by the police and military''.
Bratic denied claims from some of the Prosecution
witnesses that the Crisis staff organised the departure of Bosniak civilians from Nevesinje by publicly summoning them in order for them to come to the place where buses were waiting for them.
''They left after the Crisis headquarters was
dismantled,'' he stated.
He stated that back then he did not know about the capturing of civilians nor their detention inside the police station or
tool factory.
Bratic mentioned in his statement the existence
of paramilitary formations and their presence in Nevesinje. After the Prosecution
questioned who the members of these
formations were, the witness explained that these were persons that did not want to be in the unit.
''They
wear the uniforms and did what they wanted to do'', adding that he do
not know which formations they were coming from.
The Prosecution heard witness Dragan
Radovanovic, a police member in Nevesinje who stated that he ''heard'' but did
not know that the civilians were held in the police station basement back in
1992 nor did he know about the operations in which police participated in because he
worked in administration.
The next hearing is set for 17 September
when a further three Prosecution witnesses will be heard.
Justice Report is a
specialist reporting agency focusing on war crimes trials taking place before
local courts; development of the local legal system; and efforts to come to
terms with the past.
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The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
Komentari:
Poslao: 2009-03-15 13:25:58,
Ujednom Gradjansko-vjerskom ratu kakav je bio uBiH nemoze se govoriti o genocidu , jer se svaka strana u svojoj odbrani organizovala na nacin koji je bio naj efikasniji i naj uspjesniji u njegovoj odbranj.U svakom ratu svaka strana u ratu ima svoju obavjestajnu sluzbu i na osnovu njenih izvjestaja organizuje se za odbranu ili napad.Sva ubijanja u ratu su ili iz osvete ili ukazivanja neprijatelju da ne pocini zestoke pripremane napade.Srpska strana ako je pocinila nesto , pocinila je na osnovu tacnih obavjestajnih podataka o zauzimanju Nevesinja, unistavanju Nevesinjskih srpskih sela i pokolju cjelokupnog srpskog stanovnistva.Na osnovu predhodnih informacija , ovako brze i ne promisljene akcije su mogli preduzimati ljudi i jedinice koje nisu bile pod kontrolom ni jedne zvanicne institucije u Nevesinju.Te jedinice i te pojedince nisu mogli a nisu imali ni zakonsko pravo da ih kontrolisu ljudi koji su bili na odredenim zvanicnim funkcijama, zato za njihova nedjela nemogu biti krivi.