Karadzic Tearing his Hair out Due to Srebrenica Offensive
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Kapetina said that Karadzic invited him to an urgent meeting during the attack on Srebrenica, adding that it happened between July 5 and 10, 1995.
The witness said that Karadzic was furious, because he was not able to get in touch with VRS Commander Ratko Mladic, other officers or the Minister of Defence, so he did not know what was happening in Srebrenica.
He struck a chair down and then kicked and struck down a seating set. He was tearing his hair out, asking himself loudly: Who needs this at this moment? Who ordered this now? Havent I told you a hundred times that the status of Srebrenica should be solved within the overall solutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that no offensive activities targeting protected zones should be undertaken?, Kapetina said, conveying Karadzics words.
Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and supreme Commander of its armed forces, is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica. Besides that, he is on trial for persecuting Bosniaks and Croats, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
During the cross-examination Prosecutor Caroline Edgerton said that the meeting did not happen at all, considering the fact that it was not written down in the itinerary kept by Karadzics secretary, but the witness stuck to his statement, repeating that Karadzic called him urgently and that such things were not written down.
After that the Prosecutor presented Kapetina with the fact that Karadzic himself confirmed, during the trial, that he ordered and approved that the VRS entered Srebrenica on July 9, 1995.
Kapetina answered that his meeting with the President of Republika Srpska could have happened on July 5 as well. It happened as I have described it, the witness said.
In his statement Kapetina said that, in late 1991 the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, had the constitutional and legal right and obligation to form crisis committee and Serbian municipalities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.
When asked by the Prosecutor which provisions of the law and constitutions allowed for establishment of municipalities and police on ethnic grounds, the witness was not able to give a concrete answer.
The trial of Karadzic is due to continue on Wednesday, July 17.
