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Kondic et al: Too Much Knowledge of Crimes

Kondic i ostali

21 December 2009  A Prosecution witness says Vinko Kondic ordered him to perform various types of forced labour in the Kljuc area, adding that Marko Adamovic told him he could not leave the town because he "knew too much".

Mehmed Banjaluckic performed his "civil duty" in the Kljuc area from 1992 to 1995. As he said, he used to receive invitations to work which were signed by "Chief Vinko Kondic".

"While performing my civil duty, I used to go to certain areas to collect dead or wounded people and to Pudin Han, where stoves were manufactured. Sometimes we cleaned the streets, unloaded flour bags. Some people went to battlefields to dig trenches... I know that women used to pick corn, clean
gardens and clean other people's houses, like servants," Banjaluckic explained.

He said that on one occasion Vinko Kondic threatened him, telling him he had to go back to Kljuc after he drove the bodies of two dead soldiers to Banja Luka as per an order he received.

"He said: 'Do not be a fool. You wife stays here. Anything can happen unless you come back'," the witness recalled.

Vinko Kondic, former Chief of the Public Safety Station in Kljuc, Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic are charged with having committed crimes against humanity and having 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.

The indictment alleges that at the time Lukic was Commander of the Territorial Defence Headquarters in Kljuc and a member of the Town Defence Command, while Adamovic was Commander of the Kljuc Town Defence Command and Deputy Commander of Kljuc Battalion with the Territorial Defence.

As stated by Banjaluckic, members of the Public Safety Station and Territorial Defence in Kljuc participated in 1992 in capturing Bosniaks from that area and, later on, organizing forced labour by men.

During 1992 Bosniaks and Croats joined organized convoys and left their homes in the Kljuc area, after having been "given permission by the police". However, Banjaluckic did not secure this permission.

"I asked Vinko to let me leave on two occasions, but he told me I could not get the permission. Adamovic explained to me I could not go because I knew too much," the witness said, adding that he was invited to come to the municipal building, without saying when this happened. He said that, upon his arrival, he met Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic, who told him to "go back home, wait for orders and not go anywhere".

In the autumn of 1995 Banjaluckic saw Adamovic again in Sokolovo village. Adamovic allegedly let him go back to the town, together with the other men who were taken somewhere to perform forced labour.

"Serbs started leaving the town, so they took us to Sokolovo. We asked Adamovic and Brane Ribic if they could let us go back to pick up our wives and children, who had stayed in the town. They allowed us to go. Later on we found out we were supposed to be killed on that day," Banjaluckic said.

After having examined the witness, indictee Adamovic said he was not present in Sokolovo on that day.

"I consider this person is not telling the truth. I shall prove I was somewhere else at the time," Adamovic said.

Vinko Kondic did not attend the examination of witness Banjaluckic. He refused to appear at the hearing because he "did not feel well", despite the fact that the Detention Unit Medical Service determined that he was capable of following the trial. The Trial Chamber said it would ask the Medical Service to provide it with "a detailed report" on Kondic in the coming period.

The trial is due to continue on December 23, 2009.