Klickovic et al: One Land With Three Landlords

On the third day of his testimony Gojko Klickovic, who is charged with crimes committed in Bosanska Krupa, said that the local authorities were predominantly concerned about the lives of civilians in the town during 1992. He said the decision on the “evacuation of the non-Serb population” was a matter of life and death.

“In the past war there were not so many victims in Bosanska Krupa, because human lives were of utmost importance to us. More Serbs were killed in the course of May, June and July 1992 than in the rest of the war, which goes to show that we were not organized,” Klickovic said.

The first indictee told the Court that “the evacuation of people” was done according to law, adding that those people were not deported, but evacuated in accordance with “decisions pertaining to their future”. 

Among other things, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Klickovic, Mladen Drljaca and Jovan Ostojic with participation in the murder, detention, torture, rape and pillaging of property belonging to non-Serbs from the Bosanska Krupa area in 1992. The three men are charged with participation in a joint criminal enterprise which began in the summer of 1991.

The indictment alleges that in May 1992 all civilians from Arapusa, Velika Jasenica, Veliki Dubovik, Zalin, Potkalinje, Krupa town and Zaluge, forcibly left their homes “as per an order issued by Klickovic”.

Klickovic said that Serbs were recruited by the Territorial Defence, TD, which represented legal forces, adding that crisis committees and wartime presidencies were “ways of functioning and they did not represent local authorities”.

“The first conflicts that broke out in Krupa were related to the division of police forces, because the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina was controlled by the Party of Democratic Action at that time. Each political option needed an armed force to help it achieve its goals. There was one land with three landlords,” Klickovic said.

He said that, “by the power of the Constitution”, he was appointed President of the wartime Presidency in Krupa, also mentioning the Instructions for Organization and Action of Serb authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in extraordinary circumstances, dated 1991, referring to it as “a key document”.

“This document has been most frequently misused in indictments. It actually refers to the fight for life and biological survival of Serbs. The Instructions aimed at waking the Serb people from some sort of lethargy and warning it about what was going to happen,” Klickovic said.

Prosecutor Philip Alcock objected to this part of Klickovic’s testimony, saying that there was no need for the indictee to make speeches, adding that he did not want to be blamed for misusing the Instructions issued in December 1991.

“I have also read many indictments. To a certain extent one could say that the Instructions were exploited. The first indictee is testifying as some kind of an analyst as well,” Trial Chamber Chairman Zoran Bozic said, rejecting the Prosecution’s objection.

In the course of his testimony Klickovic spoke about crimes committed in the Krupa area during the course of World War Two, as well as the fall of Yugoslavia.

The trial is due to continue on Wednesday, April 15, when the direct examination will continue.