Karadzic Speaks of Army Problems

Rachel Irwin

Senior Reporter

Saturday, 19 June, 2010

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Radovan Karadzic contended this week that Bosnian Serb forces were a “people’s army” suffering from inadequate training and a lack of discipline.

“[There is] an impression of a huge, well organised force fighting an undefended city… that is not the case,” he told judges at the Hague tribunal. “The [Sarajevo Romanija Corps] did not operate properly and had lots of problems.”

Karadzic, who continues to represent himself, made these comments while cross-examining military analyst Richard Philipps, a former intelligence officer in the British army who holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Philipps testified about the structure of the Bosnian Serb army, in particular the Sarajevo Romanija Corps, SRK, which operated in that city during the war.

As president of the self-declared Bosnian Serb entity known as Republika Srpska from 1992 to 1996, Karadzic had ultimate control over the entire Bosnian Serb army and is charged with overseeing the 44-month-long sniping and shelling of Sarajevo that left about 12,000 people dead.

During the two days of cross-examination, Karadzic produced numerous documents which he said showed “weaknesses” within the SRK.

“Do you see that … in 1994 at lower command level, they are still short of trained staff and these officers would have to be trained [during] the course of war?” Karadzic asked.

Philipps responded that he couldn’t think of any point during military service when one is not being trained or training others.

“This is something ongoing and continuous in military units,” he said.

Karadzic then presented documents which outlined how to address the problem of drunkenness and other inappropriate behaviour in the SRK.

“Does this look like a people’s army that needs quite a bit of discipline?” Karadzic asked.

“You might expect under those circumstances that there might be problems with behaviour,” said Philipps, adding that it is common for armies to have very strict rules about drinking alcohol.

“This is the continued effort of the command to maintain standards of military discipline within unit,” he continued.

Karadzic read from other documents which described “ineffective command control at almost all levels” and that despite army seminars, people “agree in talk but in practice everyone does what he wants”. The document also talks about measures taken “to prevent negative occurrences”.

“Does this show that this was a people’s army and it was hard to coordinate it?” Karadzic asked.

“Again, I think this is showing that [the command staff] recognises problems that are occurring and certainly methods are being used to improve that,” Philipps said.

In response to various other documents, Philipps maintained that the SRK command was “addressing problems they felt they had”.

“There was good command and control,” Philipps said. “[They were] looking at problems and training people to improve.”

Karadzic also spent time asking about the aims of war.

“Do you agree that war is always waged with a purpose or objective?” he asked.

“That’s almost a philosophical question outside my abilities,” Philipps responded. “War is waged for all sorts of reasons and I wouldn’t want to make a general statement.”

“It would be nice to think that it was though,” interjected Judge Howard Morrison from the bench.

Later, Karadzic asked Philipps about the term “siege”, which is commonly used to describe what Bosnian Serb forces did to Sarajevo during the war.

“Did we agree that siege would not be the right word?” Karadzic asked.

“I don’t use the word siege relating to Sarajevo because it’s not a military term currently in use,” Philipps said. “I would say battle for Sarajevo, or encirclement, or blockade, but I don’t use [the word] siege. It’s not a modern military term.”

Karadzic then asked if the SRK’s “blockade” of Sarajevo was “understandable and justified”.

“If one army can blockade or hold down part of another army, that gives that army an advantage,” Philipps responded. “From a military point of view, blockading or encircling other forces is of military value.”

Philipps completed his testimony this week, and the court will next hear testimony from John Wilson, a former military officer with the United Nations Protection Force, UNPROFOR, in Bosnia during the war.

In other recent news, Karadzic officially responded on June 14 to the prosecution’s motion to add notebooks said to be written by the Hague indictee Ratko Mladic - former commander of the main staff of the Bosnian Serb army and Karadzic’s close associate - to their exhibit list at trial.

The notebooks – totaling over 3,000 pages - were seized from Mladic’s wife’s home in February and scanned copies were provided to Karadzic on April 12.

However, Karadzic writes in his filing that he will not be able to review the notebooks until the court’s summer recess, starting in late July. He asks to be given additional time, until August 23, to fully respond to the prosecution’s request to add the diaries to their exhibit list.

He further requests that the appearance of a protected witness be postponed until after the summer recess “because of the relationship between these notebooks and the testimony” of this witness.

Karadzic also appealed against the judges’ decision to hold court hearings four days per week, instead of three days, which had been the practice until the end of May. Judges rejected his request to stay the proceedings entirely while the appeal is being decided.

In the appeal, Karadzic writes that he has “stretched his resources and personal strength to a maximum to comply with the arduous requirements of the trial chamber since the presentation of evidence began, not missing a day in court or a single filing.

“However, he is only human. To require him to do this job alone on a four day a week basis jeopardizes not only the fairness of the trial, but his own health.”

The trial continues next week.

Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.