No Plan for Deportation Existed

Milan Martic denied the existence of a joint criminal enterprise aimed at deporting Muslims and Croats from large parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in order to establish a new Serb state.
 
“I am absolutely saying that no joint criminal enterprise existed. It is just a construction created by this Tribunal,” Martic said.
 
In a written statement which the defence included as evidence, Martic said that Karadzic’s goal was to “preserve Yugoslavia” in a peaceful manner. 
 
Martic said that Karadzic, whom he described as “extremely tolerant”, did not want to create “an exclusively Serb territory” and that he did not have a plan “for the persecution of Muslims and Croats”.
 
Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, is charged with participation in such a joint criminal enterprise. Martic has been sentenced for having participated in the same joint criminal enterprise.
 
In 2008 the Hague Tribunal pronounced a second instance verdict against Martic, sentencing him to 35 years in prison for crimes in Kninska Krajina and the shelling of Zagreb. Martic was brought to the Hague from Estonia, where he is serving his sentence, in order to testify at Karadzic’s trial.
 
In his statement Martic refuted the testimony of his former associate Milan Babic, who said that the then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Karadzic had a plan for using the secession of Croatia to keep the Serb territories under their control.
 
Martic said that Milosevic and Karadzic objected to Babic’s idea of the “unification of Serbian border territories” in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
In 2003 Babic admitted guilt before the Tribunal for persecuting the Croat population from Kninska Krajina. He was then sentenced to 13 years in prison.
 
Babic testified against Milosevic and Momcilo Krajisnik, the former leader of the Bosnian Serb parliament. During his testimony at Martic’s trial he committed suicide by hanging himself in the Detention Unit in Scheveningen in 2006.
 
Testifying at the hearing today, Martic said that Babic was “a sick man” and that he suffered from “paranoia” and “narcissism”, adding that “everybody” knew that. 
 
At the beginning of cross-examination Martic confirmed to Prosecutor Alan Tieger that he was sentenced, under a second instance verdict, for having participated in a joint criminal enterprise.
 
The Prosecutor then showed Martic a photograph in which he identified himself, Karadzic, Krajisnik, Stojan Zupljanin, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic-Frenki.
 
“These are my friends,” he commented and asked if he could have the photograph, which was taken “at some celebration” in 1994, “as a souvenir”. 
 
The Hague Prosecution sentenced Krajisnik and the wartime chief of Banja Luka police Zupljanin for their participation in a joint criminal enterprise. They were sentenced to 20 and 22 years in prison, respectively, for having persecuted non-Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
Former chief of Serbian State Security Stanisic and his assistant Simatovic, who are charged with having deported Muslims and Croats during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, are awaiting the pronouncement of a verdict against them. 
 
Prosecutor Tieger is due to continue cross-examining Martic on Monday, May 13.
 
Karadzic is charged with genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.