Prosecution Proving Defendant’s Role in Jablanica Crimes

Presenting 35 items of physical evidence, the prosecutor, Vesna Budimir, said that the document of the Igman operative group of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina proved the presence of Bojadzic in Jablanica as of the second half of April, 1993.

The document, she explained, specified that a part of the Zulfikar unit under the defendant’s command was going to a Jablanica territory in order to recapture the lost territories.

The evidence, code-named Green Folder, and obtained from The Hague Tribunal, said Budimir, proved Bojadzic’s power and influence in Jablanica.

“The file includes observations from the Jablanica civilian police and Bojadzic’s refusal to succumb to the authority of the civilian police,” she said.

The prosecutor believed that orders from the headquarters of the Sixth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, stationed in Jablanica, issued in August 1993 indicated that the defendant was a significant figure in the army.

“It is obvious that Bojadzic can enter the Sixth Corps headquarters without discarding his personal weapon,” said Budimir.
The defence will state its opinion on the evidence at a later date.

Bojadzic, former deputy commander of the Zulfikar detachment of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is charged with beating, sexual abuse and rape of Croatian prisoners held in the Battle of Neretva Museum in 1993.

Towards the end of the hearing, the defence lawyer Vasvija Vidovic addressed the Trial Chamber, saying that the defence’s thesis is that Bojadzic was not in Jablanica on July 28, 1993, but in Sarajevo at official police and army meetings, but in order to prove that they needed access to the archive of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina which is in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence.

Bojadzic is also charged with raping a prisoner taken out of the museum on the same day.

“You will do great injustice if you do not help us access those archives,” she said.

On the other hand, the Trial Chamber responded that it did everything it could to make it possible for the defence’s investigator to access the archive. Two months ago Bojadzic’s defence filed criminal charges against Bosnian Defence Minister Zekerijah Osmic, because he failed to allow them access to the war archive, although they got permission from the State Court.

It was said at the hearing that the defence can define the document it wants, state this to the person in charge from the Department of Criminal Defence, who would then enter the archive. However Vidovic dismissed this as unacceptable.

“How can I define it when I don’t know what they have? The case will be dismissed for this alone,” said Vidovic.

The trial will resume on September 5.