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Kondic et al: Irrelevant Passes

Kondic i ostali

07 December 2009  A Prosecution witness says indictee Vinko Kondic, who did not attend the hearing, was "mentally killing him" during the course of an examination conducted in the summer of 1992.

Ahmet Crnalic told the Court he was among other residents of Crnalici, in Kljuc Municipality, who were arrested and taken to the railway station premises in Sanica, where indictee Vinko Kondic examined him. The witness did not say when this happened.

"A policeman came and took me with him. I assumed I had been accused of something. I was taken to the railway station building, where Vinko Kondic examined me. He asked me whether we had organized a territorial defence unit in our village, also saying we intended to attack them," Crnalic said, adding that the first indictee did not physically abuse him.

Kondic did not attend the examination of the witness, as he failed to appear in the courtroom for the sixth time in a row. The indictee claims he is incapable of attending the trial; the Medical Service with the Detention Unit says he is capable.

Kondic, Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic are charged with having committed crimes against humanity and organized a group of people and abetted them to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Kljuc area during 1991 and 1992.

Among other things, the Prosecution alleges that soldiers and policemen came to villages in the Kljuc area and conducted "intimidation and beating of their residents" from the end of May 1992 to April 1994. During that period at least 30 civilians were killed.

Crnalic explained that, at the end of May 1992, the residents of his village were asked to hand over their weapons. They did as requested. However, after that soldiers came and "invited us, via megaphones, to surrender, also saying nobody would do us any harm".

After having been arrested and examined in the railway station building, the witness was taken, together with a group of other men, to the sports hall in Sanica and then to Kljuc. He was then released from detention.

"Kondic examined me again in the sports hall in Kljuc. He did not beat me, but it was a mental killing. He wanted me to admit I had helped establish the territorial defence. (...) While I was there, I was examined four times. In the end Kondic gave me a free movement pass, telling me he would watch me and slaughter me if he found out anything about me," the witness recalled.

Crnalic's 16-year old son was arrested at the same time. His son was among "a few old and young men", who were released before the witness was transferred from Sanica to Kljuc.

"To me, the movement pass was irrelevant, because soldiers would come to the villages and take people away. When they came, I would hide in the forest, like all the other men. All those who could not go to the woods were killed, despite the fact they had those passes. For instance, they took people from Botonjici. We were in the woods, but we could hear their cries for help," the witness said.

Crnalic joined the other village residents who left Kljuc with a convoy on September 30, 1992.

"We had to give away our property. We had to sign away everything if we wanted to leave. My wife and three kids got permission to leave, but they did not give me a permission. My brother and me then went to Kljuc through the woods. We somehow managed to join the convoy," Crnalic said.

The trial is due to continue on December 14.