Groups out of Control
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Jurisic, former Chief of the Municipal Committee for Nationwide Defence, blamed “the Muslims’ Territorial Defence” for provoking conflicts in Kljuc municipality in the spring of 1992.
The witness said that about ten Serb soldiers and policemen were killed in several ambushes.
According to Jurisic’s testimony, Serb forces responded by conducting an operation aimed at disarming paramilitary forces, cleaning the terrain and establishing a security system.
As he said, during the operation individuals and groups, which were not under the control of the Army or police, used the opportunity to pillage and set houses and other buildings on fire.
“The occasionally committed murders, like, for instance, in a school building in Velagici village,” the witness said.
Jurisic said that the crime perpetrators were identified, arrested and handed over to the Prosecution in Banja Luka immediately after having committed the crimes.
According to the charges, Serb forces killed 77 Muslim men in the school building in Velagici on June 1, 1992.
The indictment alleges that Karadzic, the then President of Republika Srpska, RS, and supreme Commander of the RS armed forces, is charged with the persecution of non-Serb population throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH. Kljuc is one of the seven municipalities, where the prosecution reached the scale of genocide.
Jurisic said that the municipal crisis committee ordered the protection of all local residents and their property, irrespective of their ethnicity.
When asked by Prosecutor Carolin Edgerton whether an investigation was conducted against him in BiH at present due to crimes against humanity committed in Kljuc, including the persecution of 16,000 Muslims and mass murders in Velagici and Prhovo village, Jurisic answered affirmatively.
Prosecutor Edgerton wanted to know whether it was true that the witness confirmed to investigators in BiH that actions undertaken by the Serbian Territorial Defence prior to May 27, 1995, when Serb forces began its operation aimed at disarming Muslim paramilitary forces, was in line with orders issued by higher levels of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Jurisic responded by saying that “whatever was done at that time, was done in accordance with orders issued by higher level commands”.
The trial of Karadzic, who is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage, is due to continue tomorrow, February 14.
