Karadzic: Illegal Orders

Butler said this after having been asked by the indictee if he had ever seen a document by which the Republika Srpska authorities ordered a crime.

The expert witness pointed out that the Directive no. 4 gave an order to “cause the biggest possible loss to the enemy” and “force it to leave the Birac and Podrinje area with the Muslim population”.

Karadzic, former President and Supreme Commander of Republika Srpska forces, is charged with having persecuted Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1992 to 1995. Besides that, he is charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR soldiers hostage.

The indictee denied the allegation that the Directive ordered an attack against civilians, saying that it ordered an attack “on Bosnian forces only”. He suggested that the purpose of the document was to cause losses to the Army, because the civilian population wanted to leave the area anyway and the losses would force the Army to follow them.

However, the witness said that the Directive indicated that the goal was “not only to force the Army, but also civilians” to leave Podrinje.

“The only way you can cause the biggest possible losses to an army is to attack it,” Butler said, pointing out that, although the Directive did not specifically order an attack against civilians, such a conclusion could be derived from it, because it was hard to separate between the Bosniak Army and the population in that area.

Karadzic said that the Defence supported a thesis that the civilian population wanted to leave anyway and that “the organised relocation of the population” was foreseen in agreements between the conflicting parties, which were approved by international mediators.

Butler, who analysed hundreds of military and police documents issued by RS authorities, responded by saying that he had not seen those agreements. Karadzic then said that, in that case the witness had no grounds to say that the relocation of the population was illegal. However, Butler denied his allegation, saying that the Directive no. 4 and other Karadzic’s ordered, as well as the way in which the VRS executed them, were the basis for his conclusions.

While cross-examining the witness, the indictee said that Bosniak forces used to “hide behind the population” and mixed with them in Eastern Bosnia, adding that soldiers turned into civilians and vice versa, causing “severe losses” to the VRS.

The Prosecution’s military expert accepted Karadzic’s allegation that, before Srebrenica, Zepa and Gorazde were declared UN protected zones in the spring of 1993, Bosniak forces had attacked the surrounding Serb villages and killed civilians in Podrinje.

Butler was not able to confirm the indictee’s allegation that there were between 15 and 18 thousand Muslim soldiers in that area and that they killed 1,300 civilians prior to 1993, but he said that the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina had numerous forces and represented a significant threat to the VRS.

When asked if the protected zones in Eastern Bosnia were demilitarised, as foreseen under agreements, Butler said that they were not and that ABiH forces continued conducting military operations from Srebrenica and Zepa.

R.M.