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Testifying at the trial of Radovan Karadzic, Mico Stanisic, former Minister of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, says that crimes against Bosniaks in Eastern Bosnia in 1992 were committed by “paramilitary and parapolice forces” from Serbia, most of whom were invited by Biljana Plavsic.
Stanisic, whom The Hague Tribunal obliged to testify, said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP of RS, “did not have the capacities to deal with those groups” at that time and that he therefore invited, via Karadzic, a unit of the Federal Secretariat for Internal Affairs, SUP, of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in July 1992 in order to help them.
“I issued a clear and unambiguous order – all paramilitary formations should be eliminated and arrested,” Stanisic said, adding that the order was carried out in Brcko, Bijeljina and Zvornik, and then also in Visegrad. The arrested perpetrators were “handed over to Serbia”, from where they had originally come, Stanisic said.
Last year The Hague Tribunal pronounced a first instance verdict, sentencing Stanisic to 22 years in prison for having committed persecutions and other crimes against the non-Serb population in 1992.
The indictment charges Karadzic, the then President of Republika Srpska and supreme Commander of its armed forces, with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Zvornik is one of the seven municipalities, where, according to the charges, the persecution reached the scale of genocide.
Stanisic pointed out that the paramilitary forces were invited by Biljana Plavsic, the then member of the Republika Srpska Presidency, who “sent letters to Cossacks, Draskovic and Arkan, asking them to send their volunteers in order to protect the Serbian people and Republika Srpska”.
“Most of the people, who came, were inclined to committing crimes or had already committed them,” Stanisic explained.
However, the then leader of Republika Srpska police suggested that those paramilitary forces were not under the authority of MUP of RS, because they first reported to military units and “then seceded from them and committed crimes”.
“Due to Plavsic’s pressure not to persecute those forces of hers, it had not been put on the agenda sooner,” Stanisic said. In 2003 Plavsic admitted guilt, before The Hague Tribunal, for the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
When asked by Karadzic whether anybody requested him not to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against non-Serbs, Stanisic said: “No, nobody made such request to me”.
“Did we have a joint plan or agreement to deport Muslims and Croats,” Karadzic asked. “No,” Stanisic responded, adding that, in his capacity as Minister of Internal Affairs, he “worked within the framework of law” and requested punishment of war crimes perpetrators irrespective of their ethnicity.
The trial of Karadzic, who is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war, is due to continue on Tuesday, February 4, when prosecutors will cross-examine Stanisic.
