Adamovic and Lukic: Indictee Had No ‘Concrete Tasks’

Court expert Slobodan Kosovac, who was invited to testify by the Defence of Bosko Lukic and Marko Adamovic, said that the Headquarters of the Territorial Defence, TD, in Kljuc did not have any subordinate units, adding that territorial defence units in Republika Srpska, RS, were abolished by a decision on the establishment of the RS Army on May 12, 1995.

“Lukic waited for a concrete task to be assigned to him, but it never happened and so the time passed,” Kosovac said responding to State Prosecutor Dzemila Begovic’s questions during the course of cross-examination.

Lukic and Marko Adamovic are charged with having participated in the organisation and execution of an attack against the Bosniak and Croat civilian population in Kljuc municipality from April to December 1992. The attack resulted in murders, extermination and forcible resettlement.

The indictment alleges that Lukic was Commander of the TD Headquarters and Adamovic was Deputy Commander of the TD Kljuc Battalion. According to the charges, both of them were members of the Crisis Committee in Kljuc.

“When I say that the municipal TD Headquarters did not have its own units, it becomes clear that its mandate was of a symbolic nature,” the court expert said. He began presenting his findings on March 21, 2011.

The court expert explained that following the establishment of the 17th Light Infantry Kljuc Brigade, Lukic was appointed the Chief of Headquarters of the unit, adding that he performed the function of assistant commander for morale at the same time.

Kosovac said that a deputy commander could act as chief of headquarters, but only in a technical sense, which means that he could not issue orders for combat activities.

The court expert said that the unit in which Adamovic performed the function of deputy commander was not called the Kljuc TD Battalion, but the Third Infantry Battalion with the First Partisan Brigade.

“In my view, the document on the establishment of the brigade is a valid proof of this allegation. Many VRS and JNA members often used colloquial terms, because they were uninformed,” Kosovac explained after he was presented with a document in which the Kljuc TD Battalion was mentioned.

On the basis of the documents he reviewed, the court expert determined that the Third Infantry Battalion did not perform any combat operations in the Kljuc area.

When asked by Prosecutor Begovic why he failed to analyze the indictees’ roles as members of the Kljuc Crisis Committee, the court expert said that “the crisis committees had one role only and that was to enable their members to share information amongst themselves”.

The Defence of the indictees completed the presentation of their evidence with the examination of the court expert.

As per a Prosecution’s proposal, witness D will be examined during the continuation of the trial. In addition, the Prosecution intends to introduce additional pieces of material evidence and revise the indictment.

The trial is due to continue on Monday, April 13.

M.T.