Affiliation to the Territorial Defence Command Questionable

On the fourth day of his testimony at the trial of Edhem Godinjak, Medaris Saric and Mirko Bunoza, former Chief of the Serb Police Station in Trnovo, Rade Ivanovic said that the Muslim population in Trnovo had more weapons that the Serb population, “because they had been preparing since 1991”.

According to Ivanovic’s testimony, only about 300 Serb soldiers were present in Trnovo. He said that they formed one battalion and that Trnovo brigade was not formed due to the small number of soldiers.

When Vasvija Vidovic, Defence attorney of Saric, presented the witness with a document issued by the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, in which the Trnovska Brigade was mentioned, Ivanovic repeated that he knew nothing about it and that there were simply too few soldiers to form it.

“Muslims heavily outnumbered Serbs in the municipality. I cannot accept the allegation that we were dominant in military terms,” Ivanovic said, adding that he has not heard of massacres against Bosniak civilians in Trnovo municipality.

The indictment alleges that Godinjak was Chief of the Public Safety Station in Trnovo, Saric was Commander of the Territorial Defence Headquarters in Trnovo, while Bunoza was Commander of Croatian Defence Forces, HOS, units.

Witness Ivanovic said, responding to a question by Defence attorney Vidovic, that he was not affiliated to the Command of the Territorial Defence in Trnovo. After that she presented him with meeting minutes made in May 1992, indicating that he attended the Command meetings.

“I was present in my capacity as Chief of the Police Station, but I was not member of the Command,” the witness explained.

Defence attorney Vidovic asked the witness to specify when he joined the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, but Ivanovic said that he did not remember the exact date, but it happened approximately in April or May 1992.

After that the Defence presented the witness with an SDS membership card in his name, indicating that he paid the membership fee for one part of 1991 and entire 1992.

“I do not remember this at all,” said Ivanovic, who began testifying in mid-November last year, when he said that police forces in Trnovo were divided on ethnic grounds following an attack by Muslim soldiers on a mixed police patrol in April 1992.

The trial is due to continue on February 3.