Kondic et al: Police acting on SDS commands

Testifying as a Prosecution witness, Atif Dzafic, former commander of the Public Safety Station in Kljuc, said that indictee Kondic was appointed as chief of police in “late 1991”, adding that, from that day on, “the police executed orders made by the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS”.

“There were many examples of unlawful work of the police. For example, upon their return from battlefields in Croatia, Serbian volunteers used to cause problems, by shooting at buildings and people. The police used to confiscate their weapons. I found out that, instead of filing reports against those people, Kondic would return their weapons to them,” Dzafic said.

Besides Vinko Kondic, the State Prosecution charges Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic with participation in the prosecution, murder, extermination, deportation, unlawful detention, torture and forcible disappearance of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats from the Kljuc area in 1992.

The witness recalled that he rarely saw Kondic after he had been appointed as police chief, as he “used to travel and go away a lot”, adding that Kondic used to “convey the orders, which he received, to his Serbian deputies, as he obviously trusted them more than other deputies”.

Dzafic said that, in March 1992, “people started saying” that the police station in Kljuc would be adjoined to the Public Security Center in Banja Luka and “the Autonomous Region of Krajina” and start “ignoring the Sarajevo authorities” as of that date.

“On one occasion I was in Kondic’s office. A person called us from the Ministry in Sarajevo. We were told that 20 buses, transporting refugees from Slunj in Croatia, would pass through Kljuc and we had to let them go. Vinko Kondic heard the order, but he ordered his men to waylay those buses and separate all adult men, who were then sent to the detention camp in Manjaca,” the witness said.

The witness recalled having been a commander in the Public Safety Station in Kljuc until May 7, 1992, when he was asked, “just like all Bosniak and Croatian policemen”, to confirm his loyalty to “the Serbian state of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, by signing a statement.

“We refused to sign it. After that they said we would have to take annual leave. Fifteen days later they invited us to come to Vinko Kondic’s office again. When we got there, he asked us the same question. We refused again. After that we were all fired. They took our weapons away. Vinko ordered this,” Dzafic said.

After that Dzafic told the Court that he visited his hometown of Donji Gudelj, near Kljuc, where he was “deprived of liberty and taken, just like all other Bosniaks from that area”, to a school building in Sanica.

“There were about 150 of us in the room. Some reserve policemen from Kljuc, Serbs, guarded us. I knew them. They carried heavy weapons with them,” Dzafic added.

The examination of this witness is due to continue at the next hearing, scheduled for November 3, 2008.