Bosnian Croat Ex-Official Denies Mass Prisoner Abuses

Berislav Pusic, the head of the wartime Bosnian Croat prisoner exchange commission, appealed against his conviction, arguing he was not responsible for crimes against Bosniak detainees in 1993 and 1994.

Berislav Pusic’s defence lawyer told the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague on Monday that his client was not responsible for grave crimes against Bosniaks, for which he was sentenced in 2013 to ten years in prison.

Defence lawyer Roger Sahota said Pusic had no authority over detention facilities like Heliodrom, Dretelj, Gabela and Ljubuski, where Bosnian Croat forces committed mass crimes against Bosniak prisoners in 1993 and 1994, as determined by the first-instance verdict.

However, Hague Tribunal prosecutors pointed out that Pusic was the president of the commission for exchange of prisoners and for supervising these detention facilities.

They claimed that he “made a significant contribution” to a joint criminal enterprise aimed at expelling Bosniaks from the parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina claimed by the leadership of the Bosnian Croat wartime statelet, Herzeg-Bosna.

According to the verdict, the goal of the joint criminal enterprise was to establish “a Croat entity, which would partially follow the borders of the Banate of Croatia from 1939”, through forcible and permanent deportation of the Bosniak population from eight municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Pusic’s defence lawyer denied the existence of such a criminal enterprise, as well as his client’s alleged participation in it.

He dedicated a significant part of his presentation to insisting that it had not been proved that Pusic had the authority to send Bosniak detainees to the front line, where many of them were either wounded or killed while having to do forced labour.

“Military personnel was in charge of forced labour,” Sahota said, referring to the Croatian Defence Council, the Herzeg-Bosna military force.

He added that Pusic “had no role” in making decisions about detainees, because he “was not anyone’s superior”.

While accepting the existence of evidence proving that reports on the deaths of Bosniak detainees in detention camps and on front line were submitted to Pusic, his lawyer suggested that it “does not mean that the content of those reports was known to Pusic”.

“He was not authorised to undertake any actions,” the lawyer said.

He further denied that Pusic had the authority to transfer prisoners from one camp to another, or release them if they agree to leave Bosnian Croat-controlled territories.

Sahota called Pusic “an officer who just issued papers” and could not make decisions.

In her response to the defence claims, prosecutor Melissa Barset rejected the idea that Pusic was “an unimportant figure”.

“During 1993 and 1994, the Bosnian Croat leadership gave Pusic more and more authority – from issuing orders to being named the president of a commission to exchange prisoners,” she said.

She insisted that Pusic “exchanged and released Muslims to achieve the aims of the joint criminal enterprise”.

Pusic did not attend the appeal, since he has almost served the ten years to which he was sentenced.

Under the first instance verdict in 2013, Pusic and five other Herzeg-Bosnia leaders were found guilty of taking part in a joint criminal enterprise led by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.

Pusic, Jadranko Prlic, Brono Stojic, Milivoje Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic all held senior political or military roles from 1992 to 1994.

Prlic was the Herzeg-Bosna prime minister, Stojic was its defence minister, Praljak was chief of the Croatian Defence Council’s Main Headquarters, Petkovic was the deputy commander of the Croatian Defence Council and Coric was former commander of the Croatian Defence Council military police.

Under the first-instance verdict, Prlic was jailed for 25 years, Stojic, Praljak and Petkovic for 20 years each, Coric for 16 years and Pusic for ten years.

The other five men delivered their appeals last week and the prosecution will set out its appeal on Tuesday, hoping to convince the court to increase all six men’s sentences.