Klickovic et al: Evacuation From Ghost Town

Djordjo Jez spoke about the two indictees, adding that Jovan Ostojic was “a very good professional and an extremely good person”.

“All Krupa residents know Gojko Klickovic. The mere fact that Serbs and Bosniaks alike were his godfathers and friends implies that he could not have been the creator of the divisions in the town. I think he tried to find some ways of avoiding the conflict. (…) I used to hang out with Ostojic. We would drink together and sing,” said Jez, a former member of the 11th Krupa Light Infantry Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.

Gojko Klickovic, Jovan Ostojic and Mladen Drljaca are charged with crimes against humanity committed in Bosanska Krupa during 1992. Among other things, the indictment alleges that roughly from May 1 to August 21, 1992 at least 70 men were detained in the “Petar Kocic” school building, where they were mistreated, beaten, questioned and taken to other locations to perform forced labour such as digging trenches, cleaning Krupa town or removing corpses.

“I do not know if we could say that the school was used as a prison, but a working squad consisting of Bosniaks who had stayed in Krupa, and Serbs who had not joined the Army, was based in it. I do not know what happened to the squad, although some people said it was transferred to Drvar. When we had briefings in the Command we did not discuss the issue. However, had Ostojic known what was happening there, he would have done something about it,” Jez said, adding that Ostojic was “not present in the Command” those days.

The Prosecution claims that indictee Ostojic was Commander of the 11th Krupa Light Infantry Brigade as of July 14, 1992. It further claims that he participated, in collaboration with Klickovic and Drljaca, in a joint criminal enterprise at the state level, which began in the summer of 1991.

This witness spoke about the arming of “Muslims units”, adding that a few incidents that happened in 1991 prefigured the conflicts in the Bosanska Krupa area. Jez told the Court that residents of Arapusa chose to leave their homes on May 1, 1992.

“The situation was weird, because groups of extreme nationalists started arriving to the town. Even Serbs ran away from them. Nobody believed the total evacuation would happen. In 1995 Serbs left Krupa. I know the situation was chaotic at the time. I saw relays, cattle and tractors on the road…” Jez said.

The indictment alleges that residents of Arapusa, Zalin, Potkalin, Veliki Dubovik and Velika Jasenica were “forcibly resettled” to the Sanski most area, in line with “a written order issued by Gojko Klickovic”, on May 1, 1992.

Mladen (son of Gojko) Strbac, who appeared as the second witness for Gojko Klickovic’s Defence, said that Bosniaks left the Arapusa area for security reasons, adding that he tape recorded their departure.

“This was the best thing to do, because those people were unprotected. My family also left Krupa town for our own safety and because we feared genocide which had happened in that area during World War Two. In 1995 all Serbs left the area on foot. Bosniaks had taken with them whatever they could earlier on. Krupa was a ghost town at the time,” Strbac said.

The trial is due to continue on November 11.