Acting in Line with Regulations at Manjaca

Radinkovic said that “nobody ever issued an order to violate the rights of prisoners of war” and that “everything was done in order to protect those rights”. Also, the Republika Srpska leadership did not order “mistreatment or liquidations” of detainees, the witness said.

Commenting on the murder of two detainees from Kljuc in Manjaca detention camp, Radinkovic said that military policemen committed it “on their own”, adding that a criminal proceeding was initiated against them and that they were “sentenced after the war”.

Karadzic, the then President of Republika Srpska and supreme Commander of its armed forces, is charged with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which reached the scale of genocide in seven municipalities. Besides that, he is on trial for genocide in Srebrenica, crimes in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

During the cross-examination Prosecutor Caroline Edgerton presented Radinkovic with findings of the International Red Cross, indicating that there was “absolutely not enough” food in Manjaca detention camp and that the general living conditions were bad.

“I would not agree. I am claiming that most of the detainees were given the best possible conditions under the circumstances,” Radinkovic said.  

He confirmed that minors and sick old men were among the prisoners. “The authorities, which arrested them, probably estimated that they too should be executed, but I do not know for what reasons…We estimated that they should leave the detention camp and go to third countries or anywhere else,” the witness said.

Radinkovic denied the Prosecutor’s allegation that civilians from Kljuc, Prijedor and Sanski Most municipalities were arrested “randomly” and transferred to Manjaca “only because they were not Serbs” and said that “nobody was arrested only because he was not a Serb”.

Radinkovic confirmed that 24 Bosniaks from Sanski Most suffocated to death in trucks when Serb police was transporting them to Manjaca in the summer of 1992 and that a certain number of detainees were killed in front of the detention camp. However, he blamed those things on civil police, whose members escorted the prisoners.

Simo Miskovic, who was President of the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, in Prijedor in 1992, testified in defence of Karadzic at this hearing. He said that he did not know about any plan for permanent removal of Bosniaks and Croats by committing crimes against them and that he “had never heard about it in SDS”.

According to witness Miskovic’s testimony, it was necessary for Serbs to take over the authority in Prijedor in late April 1992 in order to prevent “a pogrom” of Serbs. The breakout of the war, which happened a month later, was a consequence of attacks by Muslim paramilitaries.
 
Responding to questions during the cross-examination, Miskovic confirmed that the authority was taken over in accordance with instructions given by Karadzic to SDS municipal boards in December 1991.

Although he claimed that Omarska was not a detention camp, but “an investigation centre”, Miskovic accepted the allegation that it was “surprising” that none of the numerous detainees was charged with anything.

When asked if he knew about the murder of 200 detainees in Keraterm detention camp in the summer of 1992, Miskovic said: “I do not know even now. This is the first time I hear about it”.

The trial of Karadzic is due to continue on Thursday, December 19.