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Kirudja said that the Serb authorities in Bosanski novi forcibly moved Bosniaks from that town in order to “create territories, where no non-Serbs would be present”.
Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, is charged with the persecution of the Bosniak and Croat population on the territories claimed by Serbs throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Karadzic is charged with genocide in Srebrenica and seven other Bosnian municipalities, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo by long-lasting shelling and sniping and taking members of international forces hostages.
During 1992 Kirudja was Civil Affairs Officer with the UN Mission in Croatia based in Dvor na Uni. He said that Serb officials from Dvor na Uni and Bosanski novi put pressure on him in May 1992, requesting that the UN organise a convoy for 5,000 Bosniaks, who allegedly wanted to leave Bosnia and Herzegovina “voluntarily”.
“When I asked the President of the Crisis Committee from Bosanski novi why anyone would leave his home voluntarily, he said that Bosanski novi was a part of the new reality called the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that Bosniaks did not want to sign statements, expressing their loyalty to Serb authorities, and disarm themselves,” Kirudja said.
According to this witness, Serb paramilitary formations endangered Bosniaks and forced them to leave. Kirudja said that UNPROFOR soldiers, who were based on the Croatian side of River Una, noticed that non-Serb men were held at Mlakve stadium in Bosanski novi in the summer of 1992.
Kirudja told the Court that, in July 1992 Croatian authorities and the UN agreed to enable the passage of a convoy from Bosanski novi, adding that nine thousand Bosniaks were transported to Austria with that convoy, although Serb authorities announced earlier that the convoy would consist of four thousand people only.
During the course of cross-examination indictee Karadzic said that it was “a voluntary evacuation”. He said that Bosniaks asked to be evacuated to Austria and Germany .
The witness denied his allegation, pointing out that the Chief of the Crisis Committee from Bosanski novi told him that “Serbs and Muslims could no longer live together” and admitted that “Muslims were not leaving voluntarily”.
Karadzic insisted that their departure was voluntary, but Kirudja said that the Bosniaks themselves told him that they had not left the town voluntarily.
The trial of Karadzic is due to continue on Wednesday, November 16 this year.
R.M.
