Klickovic and others: Not Effective Controle

Gojko Klickovic, indicted for crimes in Bosanska Krajina, testifying for a sixth day, said he did not have “effective control” in the area, and that he and the other two indictees condemn the murder of a group of men that took place in the “Petar Kocic” school building.

“As a human being I can say that any war is hideous, and participating in one is hideous as well. The priority of the three of us was to save human lives. In regard to the text of the indictment, I could not have participated in that, nor have any effect on those events, since I did not know they took place,” Klickovic said.

The BiH Court indictment accuses Klickovic, Mladen Drljaca, and Jovan Ostojic of participating in crimes against humanity committed in the Bosanska Krupa area in the course of 1992.

Among other things the indictment states that a person by the name of Joja Plavanjac in the first half of August 1992 came to the “Petar Kocic” school building where he killed a group of male prisoners using a rifle.

“All that I know in regard to that incident is what I have heard during the trial, and that is a stain that none can justify. I, along with the other two inductees, condemn such an act of cowardice,” Klickovic said.

Klickovic said that a number of “military prisoners of war” were held in the Krupa area during 1992 in the school and in the city, and that they were treated by “methods with which he does not agree”.

“These civilians who are mentioned in the indictment were mostly military conscripts who were caught on the right bank of the Una River during the conflict, and I stress this since at that point there were no civilians in that part of the city as the Prosecution witnesses have also agreed. I do not wish to discuss the issue of the imprisonment in schools since none of us three indictees were there,” said Klickovic.

The civil authorities, he said, did not take care of the prisoners, as they did not have “effective control” in that area.

“We had the intention of fighting for our physical survival, as we did. I am accused of everything that took place there although I was not a participant. I am burdened with participation in a joint criminal enterprise that had effective control, which is too extensive an indictment even for a group of people, not to mention an individual,” Klickovic said.

The three are charged with participation in a joint criminal enterprise which began in the summer of 1991, with the aim of creating a Serb municipality of Bosanska Krupa which would be mainly inhabited by Serbs.

Klickovic is accused of being “completely aware” that by pursuing the joint criminal enterprise, crimes would be committed in the Krupa area by his subordinates, over whom he had effective control.
 
Klickovic said the conflicts in BiH occurred because of the ambition of creating national options which the law did not allow. He added that he was not present in the city of Krupa when the conflict started on April 21, 1992.

The trial is due to continue on Tuesday, May 12, when Klickovic will be cross-examined.