Karadzic: Crimes Blamed upon Paramilitary Forces

During the course of cross-examination of witness Mirza Karabeg, Karadzic cited a document issued by the Public Safety Centre in Banja Luka on August 14, 1992, which says that “the paramilitary forces, which have gotten out of control, cause explosions in buildings owned by non-Serbs and attack, rob and kill Bosniaks and Croats in order to force them to leave Sanski Most”.

The indictee suggested to the witness that the documents indicated that the Serb authorities “were not able to control the paramilitary forces”.

“You are now saying that all that happened. And, what about the things they did from May 1992 onwards….But, you have denied those things up to now,” said Karabeg, who was President of the municipal Government in Sanski Most as a delegate coming from the Party for Democratic Action, SDA prior to his arrest in May 1992.

Karadzic said that the document implied that “the Serb authorities confirmed that paramilitary forces were rampaging for two months and called for their dismissal”.

Indictee Karadzic said that the Serbian Defence Forces, SOS, which, as the witness said, were responsible for a series of bomb attacks on buildings owned by Bosniaks and Croats, left the town in late May 1992, after having been “pressured and forced by the authorities to leave”.

However, Karabeg stood by his statement that official Tomo Delic, member of the Serb Democratic Party, SDS, led the SOS forces, adding that he “deceived” SDA members during their meetings by telling them that extremists would be coerced.

Radovan Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, RS is charged with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats from Sanski Most and 19 other municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina that included forcible resettlement, unlawful detention, mistreatment and killing.

Besides that, Karadzic is charged with genocide in Srebrenica and eight other municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising Sarajevo’s citizens through artillery and sniper attacks and taking UN staff members hostage.

Karabeg began his testimony on September 13, when he said that the Serbian forces deported Bosniak and Croat citizens from Sanski Most and the surrounding villages. The witness described the unlawful detention and abuse of non-Serbs in the Police Station in Sanski Most and Betonirka and Manjaca detention centres, where he was held from June to October 1992.

During the course of cross-examination Karadzic repeated his earlier statement that SDA officials in Sanski Most worked on the secret arming of Bosniaks and the establishment of the Green Berets as of September 1991.

Karabeg confirmed the the Green Beret forces existed in Vrhpolje and Hrusto villages, adding that those were actually the Territorial Defence forces formed through the “self-organization” of Bosniaks.

When Karadzic said that the Green Berets “conducted offensive attacks on Serb villages”, the witness said: “But you attacked the entire Sanski Most, you cut it and declared it Serbian Sanski Most”.

Karabeg asked the indictee to give him the name of “one Serb who was killed in Sanski Most and I will name tens and tens of Bosniaks who were killed”. At some point, the witness said that 758 non-Serb citizens were killed in that town.

When Karadzic read to him a list of killed Serb soldiers, the witness said: “Those are your documents and your hearsay information”.

After having been told by Karadzic that, according to information available to Serbs, “the Muslim forces” had mine-throwers, snipers, artillery and infantry units on the left bank of River Sana, Karabeg said that “it is not true”.

While claiming that Serbs were the majority in most of the villages in Sanski Most, Karadzic kept saying that the establishment of the Serb municipality meant that Bosniaks and Croats would also have their municipality, adding that their parties had reached an agreement about that.

Karabeg denied his allegations by saying that the Serb municipality of Sanski Most was proclaimed at the beginning of April 1992 and immediately annexed to “the autonomous region of Bosnian Krajina”.

“Police forces were divided, the Serbian flag put up, everything was Serbian, everything…Why was the Serb police formed, when there was the legal police of Bosnia and Herzegovina?,” the witness asked.

The trial will resume on Thursday, September 15.

R.M.