Kondic et al: Crime scaffolding
24 September 2008 The first Prosecution witness is examined in the absence of indictee Vinko Kondic, who refused to appear at the hearing.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina examined former detainee Fahrudin Cemal, as its first witness at the trial of the three persons, charged with crimes in Kljuc. Indictee Vinko Kondic refused to appear at the hearing without giving any "justification" for that.
"We have been informed by health service doctors that the
indictee is mentally and physically capable of attending the trial. As usual, on
the eve of this hearing he said that he was not able to attend due to his health
state. The indictee will be given an audio recording of this hearing already
today," Trial Chamber Chairwoman Jasmina Kosovic said.
The start of the trial of the indictees, who are
charged with crimes committed in Kljuc, has been postponed several times due to
Kondic's bad health.
The Prosecution charges Kondic, Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic with having participated in organising a group of people and abetting them to commit genocide. The three indictees committed crime against humanity and war crimes in Kljuc municipality in the course of 1992.
"Kondic was a chief of the police administration. I knew him because I was a delegate in the Kljuc Municipal Assembly. I visited him several times, asking for his help, because Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats faced problems due to the fact that they did not want to participate in the war in Croatia," witness Fahrudin Cemal said, adding that "police was not able to protect them".
This witness said that, on May 7, 1992 Serbs took over the local administration in Kljuc. After that Bosniaks and Croats left to Pudin Han in order to protect themselves. They formed the new municipality "Bosanski Kljuc" in that town.
As indicated by Cemal, on May 28, 1992 members of "the army and police" captured him and other "adult men" from Velagici, in Kljuc municipality, taking them to "Nikola Mackic" school building for examination and then to a prison in Stara Gradiska, where they stayed until "late June or early July".
"They took 30 or 40 of us from Stara Gradiska to Manjaca, where people from Kljuc, Doboj and Sanski Most had been held. The concentration camp was surrounded by wired fencing and a minefield. We were all mistreated and beaten. This place was a scaffolding of crime," Cemal said.
In early September 1992 Cemal and "all Croats from Manjaca and 32 men from Kljuc" were transferred to "Batkovici" detention camp, where he stayed for one year. While he was there, he was sentenced to "20 years' imprisonment".
"They charged me with having been against the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as with illegal possession of weapons and attack on Kljuc. The trial took place in some building in Bijeljina. This is where the sentence was pronounced," Cemal said.
He claims to have been taken from Batkovic detention camp back to Manjaca in October 1993, adding that he was exchanged on mount Vlasic two days later.
The trial is due to continue on Monday, September 29.
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
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