Klickovic et al: Court formed to deal with mobilization
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On the ninth day of testifying in his own defence, Gojko Klickovic, the first indictee for crimes committed in Bosanska Krupa, spoke about the examination of prisoners of war before the Temporary Court Martial, presided over by indictee Mladen Drljaca.
“We formed the Court to serve our needs, prior to the arrest of those people. I was not into predictions, so I did not know that those people would be examined and arrested. I did not plan the conflict. The purpose of the Court was to deal with people who failed to respond to mobilization calls,” Klickovic explained.
The first indictee said that the Court was formed on April 21, 1992, “when conflicts began in Bosanska Krupa”, adding that the military forces arrested and detained “Muslim prisoners”, bringing them to the Court in Jasenica.
The State Prosecution contends that Klickovic, Drljaca and Jovan Ostojic participated in a joint criminal enterprise and a range of crimes in the Bosanska Krupa area in the course of 1992.
Among other things, Drljaca is charged with having been aware of the fact that several tens of Bosniaks were detained in the school building in Jasenica, where they were held in inhumane conditions and taken out in order to be examined before the Temporary Court Martial, over which he presided, in the period from April 21 to May 4, 1992.
Klickovic said that it was not the division of Bosanska Krupa Municipality that led to the conflict, but rather “breaking of the coalition between the Party of Democratic Action and the Serbian Democratic Party”.
“The Serb municipality of Bosanska Krupa was formed in 1991. The conflict began in April 1992. As of the second half of 1991 relations in Krupa were not harmonious or tolerant,” Klickovic said.
The first indictee explained that people in Krupa did not plan to create “an ethnically clean environment”, because Serbs and Muslims lived jointly in that region.
“Us, members of the SDS, and members of the SDA advocated for division of the municipality on the eve of the elections in 1991. We had a joint programme. I consider that we were close to achieving it,” the indictee said.
The trial is due to continue on May 26.
