Testifying under Risk

Tomislav Kovac, former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, RS, said that, in July 1995 he received an order to transfer some units of the Special Police Brigade from the Sarajevo battlefield to the Srebrenica area. He said that he did not agree with this because he considered that those units were needed in some other area.
 
When asked whether he followed the situation regarding those units, the witness said that he did not, because he “had problems on the Sarajevo battlefield”, but also because the units were given to the Republika Srpska Army.
 
“The units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were subordinate to the Army. Those units were under the command of the Army until their very last activity on the Srebrenica battlefield,” Kovac said, testifying via video-link from Belgrade.
 
The witness said that he arrived in the Srebrenica area on July 14, 1995. As he said, during his trip to Srebrenica he saw buses, transporting captives. When asked by the Defence whether he met indictee Saric in the Srebrenica area in July 1995 at all, he answered negatively.
 
“He could not have moved trough that area at all. I cannot remember exactly whether we spoke to each other, but we certainly did not speak about Srebrenica. We may have had a telephone conversation only, but it was about the Sarajevo battlefield,” the witness explained.
 
Saric, former Commander of the Special Brigade with RS police, is charged with having deliberately assisted in the commission of genocide, which resulted in the forced relocation of 40,000 Bosniak residents and murder of more than 7,000.
 
Kovac said that, in April 1995 he formed police forces Headquarters in Pale with the aim of coordinating police forces in the Sarajevo surroundings. He said that the indictee was not a permanent member of the Headquarters, because, in that case, he would “not have been usable in the field”. He confirmed that he personally issued an order to Saric to be responsible for the Srednje area only.
 
“The Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other forces were conducting a huge offensive against the positions in Srednje. Saric was brought to that location, because those positions had fallen,” he said.
 
Prior to the beginning of this hearing the witness pointed out that he “has never come across Saric’s name in relation to Srebrenica”.
 
When asked by the witness if an investigation was conducted against him, Prosecutor Ibro Bulic answered affirmatively and said that it covered the happenings in Srebrenica. Although the Trial Chamber offered to him after having found out that an investigation was conducted against him, not to testify without a legal advisor, the witness said that he would testify.
 
“I accept to testify even under the danger of being without a lawyer. I accept the risk,” he said.
 
The trial is due to continue on January 14.