Kondic et al: Wrong Religion
16 December 2009 Testifying for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the trial for crimes committed in Kljuc, Mile Radulovic recalled the murder of his Muslim neighbours in 1992, adding that they were in "an unpleasant position" at that time.
"Muslims were in an unpleasant position. Murders happened. People, belonging to the same religious group as you were killed and there was nothing you could do. (...) I used to see houses and haystacks on fire in some villages, but I do not know who did that. I heard many people were killed in Botonjici," Radulovic said, explaining that, in most cases, "soldiers coming from other locations" committed the murders in the villages in the Kljuc area.
Radulovic said that members of the Police Interventions Squad from Sanica and Kljuc used to capture Muslims and take them for questioning, adding that members of the Sixth Brigade from Sanski most used to come to the area and participate in murders.
Vinko Kondic, Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic are charged with a number of crimes against Bosniaks in the Kljuc area during 1991 and 1992. The Prosecution claims that Kondic was Chief of the Public Safety Station in Kljuc, Lukic was Commander of the Territorial Defence Headquarters in Kljuc Municipality and Adamovic was Deputy Commander of the Kljuc Territorial Defence Battalion.
"Milan Tomic was my Commander in Sanica. Vinko or Veljko Kondic was Chief of Police in Kljuc. I was mobilized by the police on April or May 8, 1992. At the time Tomic said that authority had been taken over. A duty officers list was distributed to us. I was told to guard the Police Station in Sanica and protect it from Muslims, although I did not see them do anything," Radulovic said.
This witness told the Court he saw some soldiers in July 1992 coming back from Biljani. A short time later he found out that a certain number of village residents had been killed.
The indictment alleges that, on July 10, 1992, members of the army, with the help of police forces, captured all the male residents of Biljani village, "with no legal grounds to do so", detained them in the school building, took them out and killed them. On that day at least 219 people were killed.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina then examined Milenko Mladjenovic, a former journalist with Kljuc Radio, who said that he read "announcements and orders" issued by the Crisis Committee and wartime Presidency in that town during the course of 1992.
"In those first months our informative programme consisted of announcements and orders, as well as other things, such as extracts from the press, that could be used to channel the life in the town at the time." Mladjenovic explained, adding that the radio "was listened to by many people" because this was the only source of information for them. He said that signals aired by radio stations from Sarajevo, Zagreb and Bihac were stronger.
Indictee Kondic failed to attend this hearing because he "did not feel well". The medical service of the Detention Unit determined that he was "capable of attending the trial". This is the ninth hearing in a row from which Kondic has been absent.
The trial is due to continue on December 21, 2009.
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