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According to the charges, crisis committees were an instrument used by Karadzic’s authorities for rounding-off the territories it considered theirs by forced occupation of municipalities during which crimes were committed.
According to the witness, crisis committees never called for forced resettlement of Muslims and Croats, but they advocated for a reciprocal and voluntary exchange.
Brdjanin said that this could be proved by the fact that, in order to leave the area voluntarily, non-Serbs had to submit a certificate about property they left behind, so the local authorities could “secure them temporarily”.
As said by Brdjanin, Karadzic always advocated for the respect of property, Geneva Conventions and laws and customs of war.
In 2007 the Hague Tribunal pronounced a second instance verdict, sentencing Brdjanin to 30 years in prison for the persecution, deportation, forced resettlement and torture of the Muslim and Croat population.
The indictment alleges that Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and supreme Commander of its armed forces, is charged with the persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which reached the scale of genocide in seven municipalities, including a few in the Krajina region.
During the cross-examination Prosecutor Alan Tieger opposed Brdjanin’s testimony by presenting findings from the verdict pronounced against him. Under the verdict, it was determined that the Crisis Committee “coordinated the permanent deportation of non-Serbs” from 13 municipalities, “as per a strategic plan”.
“No strategic plan on resettlement existed…The situation was such that it was better to relocate people than let them be killed and suffer. Resettlement of people happened on all sides. I am not justifying it, but it was inevitable,” Brdjanin said.
However, the witness confirmed that “there was a plan for defence or how to round-off our territories, but without harming the other peoples”.
He denied that firing non-Serbs was the first discriminatory measure, adding that they were not fired, but just transferred from leading positions in public companies, where “the inflow of information was such that they could harm our defence”.
When asked if he knew that “7,000 thousands of Muslims and Croats were detained in Omarska and Trnopolje after Hambarine and Kozarac had been cleaned”, Brdjanin said that “many things were not known”.
“I did not hold prisoners. I was a civilian body…There have always been people ready to commit crimes”.
Karadzic, who is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage, is due to present his next witness tomorrow, November 19.
