Karajic: Other side of the law

Indictee Suljo Karajic admitted that he “hit the Commander of the Municipal Civil Protection Staffs in Velika Kladusa” several times, as alleged in the indictment filed by the State Prosecution.

“When asked why the horse and cart was late, the Municipal Civil Protection Staffs Commander started giving some presumptuous answers, claiming that he would do what he wanted to do. I was infuriated. I could no longer control myself, so I hit him several times with a wooden slat,” Karajic said, testifying in his own defence. 

The indictee said that these carts “meant everything” to the soldiers at the front lines, because they were used for transporting material and technical resources needed for defence.  

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Karajic, as a member of the Military Police Squad with the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with having committed war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war “in the Bihac District” in late 1994 and early 1995.

The tenth count in the indictment alleges that, in February 1995 Karajic attacked the Commander of the Municipal Civil Protection Staffs in Murtici village, Velika Kladusa Municipality, by verbally abusing him and then physically attacking him, together with other soldiers, by hitting him with a rubber stick, which caused “gashes and contusions on his head”, as well as bruises on other parts of his body. 

“I stopped hitting the Civil Protection representative and went out to take some fresh air, because I had been wounded and I was not feeling very well. Later on I was told that Fikret Miljkanovic, who was a member of my Unit, had continued beating the man. Hasica Suljkanovic told him to stop and he stopped,” Karajic said.

The indictee testified in his own defence at the two previous hearings, when he admitted two more counts contained in the indictment. One of these pertains to the murder of Amir Karajic, known as Kolac, a former member of the National Defence of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region, ND WBAR, and the other concerns an assault on a doctor, “who did not want to offer medical assistance to a member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. 

“I am sorry for what I did. I regret it. It happened that I found myself on the other side of the law,” Karajic said at the end of the direct examination.

The indictee categorically denied the third count in the indictment. This alleges that, in December 1994 he captured civilians, who, as he thought, supported the Western Bosnia autonomy, in Todorovska Slapnica village, Velika Kladusa Municipality and that he exposed these people to mental torture and murder. 

“I did not do that. I must have been mixed up with somebody else. Whatever happened after the murder of Kolac was blamed upon me,” Karajic said.

He then spoke about the establishment of the Second Military Police Squad with the 505th Buzim Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he commanded. He said the Squad was established on January 13, 1995, when the first alignment took place. 

“Later on, our military service was retroactively added up together, as I was registered as a soldier on December 21, 1994,” Karajic said.

The trial is due to continue on March 26, when the State Prosecution will cross-examine this witness.