Klickovic et al: Inviting couples from mixed marriages

The State Prosecution continued presenting material evidence at the trial of the three persons, charged with crimes committed in Krupa. It presented the Court with some documents pertaining to the participation of patrolling services in maintaining public peace and order on the territory of Krupa. The Defence claims that those pieces of evidence are in its favour.

Gojko Klickovic, Jovan Ostojic and Mladen Drljaca are charged with having participated in a joint criminal enterprise with the aim of creating territories, exclusively inhabited by Serbs, as well as a number of other crimes committed in Bosanska Krupa municipality.

As indicated by Prosecutor Philip Alcock, members of the Public Safety Station in Krupa participated, in the course of 1992, in “an extreme control of the city”, checkpoint controls and the capture of Bosniaks.

The State Prosecution presented more than 90 orders to the patrol services in 1992, which indicated that the Public Safety Station implemented activities in the town as per orders given by the “wartime presidency of the Serbian municipality of Krupa”.

The Defence claims that the actions, undertaken by the civilian authorities, were in line with laws, adding that it was “not part of a joint criminal enterprise or result of an illegal operation”.

“I am glad to hear that the Prosecutor claims that the authorities acted in line with the laws, which is certainly good for the Defence, as their activities were not illegal,” said Milorad Trbojevic, the Defence attorney of Drljaca.

The Prosecutor said he did not question the legality or otherwise of the wartime Presidency, but the fact that this body issued direct orders to the police, which executed them.

An order, issued by the wartime Presidency in July 1992, alleges that the Public Safety Station in Krupa invited, “for security reasons”, all persons in mixed marriages to come for an interview, and, if they wanted to do that, it told them that they could leave the area individually or together.

Drljaca’s Defence objected the presentation of Patrol Service Report of May 1992 due to its questionable authenticity, because the document had allegedly been sent from the Hague, but it was stamped in a municipality in Sarajevo.

The trial is due to continue on Tuesday, November 4.