Kondic et al.: Command’s Orders

Milorad Hrgic, a former member of the Territorial Defence, TD, from Kljuc, told the Court that, “some time in 1992” he heard “a call via a public address system”, inviting all adult men to report to the city stadium. This happened following several incidents in the vicinity of Kljuc. 

“150 or 200 people gathered at the stadium. The group was of the size of a battalion. We were sent to the school center. All those people from the TD Command had already been there. I remember seeing Bosko Lukic, who was the TD Commander. At the school building they formed companies and squads. From there they sent us to other locations to intervene,” Hrgic recalled.

The State Prosecution charges Lukic, Vinko Kondic and Marko Adamovic with having participated in organizing a group of people and abetting them to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the course of 1991 and 1992.

The indictment alleges that Lukic was Commander of the TD Staff in Kljuc Municipality, Kondic was Chief of the Public Safety Station in Kljuc “for a certain period of time”, while Adamovic was Deputy Commander of the TD Battalion in Kljuc.

Hrgic said that a few days after having been deployed to the school center he went to Prhovo village to perform an intervention, “as per an order received from the Command”.

“They told us that a soldier had been killed there, so our soldiers started shooting, killing some Muslims. Our task was to secure the funeral, so we were deployed around the place. We did not see or hear anything. We took with us some Muslims, who buried those men. It was about one o’clock in the afternoon when they finished. We then went back to the school building,” Hrgic said, adding that he did not know whether the killed Bosniaks were civilians or soldiers.

The indictment alleges that “the Serb Army” killed at least 45 people in Prhovo village on June 1, 1992. Their remains were found in “Ciganska dolina” mass grave and in the Prhovo area. The other men were questioned and taken to “Nikola Mackic” school building and the Public Safety Station in Kljuc and from there to Manjaca detention camp.

Hrgic said he noticed that a certain number of houses in Velagici and Pudin han, which were Bosniak villages, were “destroyed or set on fire” in that period of time, but he added that many Bosniaks had still not left Kljuc Municipality.

“It was only later that policemen started detaining Bosniaks in the Police Station of the elementary school playground. Some were sent back home, while others were sent to Manjaca if they were guilty of something, but I do not know if all of them were,” the witness said.

The second Prosecution witness, Radenko Kuburic, told the Court that in May 1992 he was mobilized by the TD Battalion in Kljuc, adding that, as per an order issued by Marko Adamovic, the unit to which he belonged participated in “tasks performed at Vukovo brdo”.

“Our task was to check whether people had weapons, but nobody did any harm to them. Whoever had a gun, we asked him to take it to the school building in Humici. Adamovic approached me and asked me to go to Vukovo selo and make sure that women and children were not harmed,” Kuburic said.

The indictment alleges that, starting on May 28, 1992, the Muslim population were forced to leave their houses while some men were sent for questioning during the course of operations conducted by the army and police with the aim of “cleaning” Humici, Vukovo selo and Prhovo villages.

The next hearing is due to take place on Wednesday, June 10, when the Prosecution will continue examining witness Kuburic.