Stanisic Trial Restarts Without Him

The delayed trial of two former members of the Serbian state security service, DB, began this week in the absence of the main accused Jovica Stanisic – who said he was too ill to follow proceedings.



Prosecutors told judges at the Hague tribunal that Stanisic and his co-accused Franko Simatovic were behind several special units which committed crimes against non-Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia during the Nineties war in the former Yugoslavia.



Between 1991 and 1995, the two provided support to well-trained and well-equipped Serb units that had a “licence to clear lands and a licence to murder”, alleged the prosecution in court this week.



“This case, in its simplest terms, is an examination of the conduct and responsibility of two people for funding, equipping, [and] training members of the Serbian DB to commit grievous crimes on the territory of Croatia and Bosnia,” prosecutor Dermot Groome told judges.



According to the indictment, Stanisic and Simatovic are accused of committing atrocities between 1991 and 1995 that caused “the forcible and permanent removal of the majority of non-Serbs, principally Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina”. They are both charged with responsibility for crimes of persecution, murder, deportation and other inhumane acts.



The indictment says that Stanisic was head of Serbian state security between December 1991 and October 1998, while Simatovic was in charge of its special operations unit during the period relevant to the charges.



Prosecutors allege that the two defendants provided logistical support for Serb paramilitary units – including Arkan’s Tigers, the Red Berets, the Scorpions and Martic’s militia – which committed crimes against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.



Delivering the prosecution’s opening statement before judges this week, Groome explained that the official authority invested in Stanisic and his “his most trusted subordinate” Simatovic, during the war, was to gather information relating to the safety and security of Serbian citizens.



However, according to the prosecution’s case, the defendants took it upon themselves – through the use of special paramilitary units – to provide support for perpetrating some of the “most grievous crimes” administered by the government of Serbia.



While they were responsible for monitoring any perceived threats to Serbia from outside its borders their mandate did not “provide for any forcible intervention outside the country”, said Groome.



“The laws of Serbia prevented them from deploying their personnel outside Serbia’s borders in Croatia and Bosnia,” he said.



“How did it happen that a group of armed and dangerous men dared to shape the destiny of an entire nation?”



He went on to explain how Stanisic and Simatovic were part of a joint plan, “a collective criminal effort,” as he put it, headed by the late Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, to remove non-Serbs from large swathes of Bosnia and Croatia.



Milosevic himself faced trial in The Hague for war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, but he died in his cell in 2006 before the completion of his case.



“Stanisic and Simatovic were willing members in a core group of persons who shared the intent to remove large populations of non-Serbs, mostly Muslims and Croats, from their homes and land by force, doing this by perpetrating the crimes of murder and persecution,” said Groome.



“The genesis of the special units was the day Slobodan Milosevic charged Stanisic with establishing a covert fighting force, not bound by the law but by the dictates of Milosevic,” added Groome, pointing to an unspecified day in the spring of 1991.



Groome explained that areas of Bosnia and Croatia were targeted either because they were where Serbs comprised a majority of the overall population or where the land was necessary in order to bridge together two separate Serb populations.



The prosecutor quoted a speech made by Milosevic to a private meeting of his deputies following a period of increased tension in the region in March 1991.



“The government has been tasked with creating suitable units that will make us safe at all times, that is capable of defending the interests of our republic and also the interests of Serbs outside Serbia,” Groome quoted the late president as saying.



Stanisic established these units in the state security department and set up 26 training camps in Bosnia and Croatia to train a covert fighting force, and then passed the day-to-day running of the operation to Simatovic, alleged Groome.



“In this break-up [of the former Yugoslavia, the defendants] would ensure that Serbs came out on top, regardless of which republic those Serbs were [in] and regardless of the cost or harm to other ethnic populations in Yugoslavia,” said Groome.



Groome also emphasised the covert nature of the alleged joint criminal plan. He demonstrated Stanisic’s “ever-present concern for secrecy” by playing recordings of alleged intercepted conversations in which he asked his political colleagues not to identify him.



Comrades within the DB units only knew each other by nicknames and were forbidden to ask one another’s name in order to create confusion about who was behind the unit, said Groome.



Secrecy was also maintained because members of the core group knew that their work in Croatia and Bosnia was going to be criminal, he said.



“They realised at the outset what the world would come to understand as the tragedy unfolded: you cannot forcibly remove large civilian populations from their homes without committing grave crimes against them,” Groome told judges.



Prosecutors went on to present evidence of specific crimes committed by the units from the summer of 1991in what became Serbian autonomous regions, such as the Krajina in Croatia.



In September 1991, Serb forces backed by the defendants took

control of several villages in the region, burning the houses of the Croat inhabitants and using them as human shields against the Croatian armed forces who were forced to withdraw, prosecutor Doris Brebmeier-Metz told judges.



She also described how “Croat civilians were deliberately and intentionally murdered”, pointing to a specific incident in which Croats, including women and elderly, were dragged from their homes and shot.



“[Serb forces] lined them up against a wall and simply shot them. Another man who was too ill to leave the house was shot by Serb forces while still in bed,” she told the court.



The prosecutor described acts of looting household goods and cattle as well as the burning of houses in the town of Saborsko where 20 Croat men were also executed. Croats were later forcibly taken from the town by bus and released in Croatian territory, she said.



The prosecution’s opening statement went ahead this week despite a request from Stanisic’s lawyers to adjourn the hearing until next week.



Due to his continued ill health, Stanisic has failed to attend court or follow proceedings via a video link that has been set up for him at the United Nations prison where he is in custody.



In spite of this, judges ruled this week that there were “no objective medical reasons” preventing the accused from following the trial via the video link.



Following their decision to proceed with the opening statement this week, judges offered Stanisic a second chance to use the video link, but the defendant declined and waived his right to follow proceedings.



Stanisic’s poor health has caused the trial to be repeatedly delayed since it first began over a year ago.



Prosecutors gave an opening statement in April last year only for the trial to be adjourned two weeks later, on May 16, due to Stanisic’s various ailments, which included kidney stones, osteoporosis and severe depression.



While his medical condition has improved and the doctor at the UN prison has declared him fit to face trial, there is still concern about his mental condition and his complaints about back pain which he said prevents him sitting up for more than ten minutes at a time.



According to the reporting medical officer at the UN prison, Dr Michael Eekhof, Stanisic said this week that he was too ill to watch the proceedings via the video link because he could not walk from his cell to the video conference room to view the trial.



Eekhof, who spoke to the parties via the same video link, said he could not see any changes in Stanisic’s condition from which he had previously concluded that he was fit to stand trial.



However, he had to give Stanisic’s latest complaints “the benefit of the doubt” pending further assessment, he said.



Judge Orie asked Eekhof how Stanisic was able to get to the smoking room in the UN detention unit but not the video conference room. Eekhof said he was not aware of this but noted that the defendant has the use of a wheelchair.



Judges denied the defence’s request to adjourn proceedings, but requested that the accused be examined by a psychiatrist and the resulting report be sent to them.



Prosecutors are expected to call their first witness on June 29.



Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague