The defense of the two former Serbian State Security Service chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic imply that JNA was the main culprit for the attack on Bosanski Samac and the crimes perpetrated there. Witness Sulejman Tihic contends that the ‘Serbian specials’ played the dominant role in the attack and the crimes


In the cross-examination of Sulejman Tihic, former chairman of the SDA in Bosanski Samac, the defense of the two former chiefs of the Serbian State Security Service Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic tried to blame the crimes in the town on the local troops and the JNA.

In his examination-in chief, Tihic claimed that the Red Berets – ‘specials from Serbia’ – played the key role in the crimes in Bosanski Samac and the attack on the town on 17 April 1992. According to the witness, the Serbian specials were ‘the masters of life and death’.

Stanisic’s defense counsel put it to Tihic that he had no direct knowledge that the units operating in Samac were actually the special units from Serbia. According to Stanisic’s counsel, Tihic said so because the local population called them ‘specials’. Tihic replied, ‘nobody ever told me his name’. Nevertheless Tihic could tell that they were from Serbia based on ‘their speech’, uniforms and the fact that they arrived in Samac in a helicopter. A day after they took over town, the witness was arrested. He was detained in Samac, Brcko, Bijeljina, Batajnica and Sremska Mitrovica. On 14 August 1992, Tihic was exchanged. He said that he underwent the worst torture in Samac where he was constantly beaten by the ‘specials from Serbia’.

As his cross-examination drew to a close, Stanisic’s defense counsel put it to the witness that he had never mentioned the Serbian MUP was in charge of the ‘special units’, before giving evidence at the trial of the two Serbian State Security Service chiefs. According to the defense, Tihic never mentioned that in his evidence in the four trials or in his statements to the OTP investigators. Now, the defense counsel noted, Tihic did say that, but ‘based on the claims made by third persons’ and on the book Crucified in The Hague by Simo Zaric. Zaric was convicted of ethnic cleansing in Bosanski Samac and sentenced to 6 years. Tihic said that he ‘could only assume’ where the specials belonged, adding that he knew that they ‘reported neither to the local units nor the army’.

Franko Simatovic’s defense counsel argued that the JNA had the ‘dominant’ role in the attack on Bosanski Samac. To confirm it, Simatovic’s defense lawyer showed the witness the daily operative reports sent to the 17th Corps command on 17 and 18 April 1992. The reports state that the attack on Samac was launched by the Serbian Territorial Defense, the police and an element of the 17th Corps tactical group, noting that the ‘command was ordered to secure success’. Tihic replied that the command may have issued the order to ‘maintain the status quo’ after Samac was captured, adding that he didn’t know who ordered the attack on the town.

Simatovic’s defense counsel went on to imply that a series of different units operated at that time in the area; they all called themselves the Red Berets. ‘One unit was quite enough’, Tihic replied, meaning the unit he had a close encounter with in Bosanski Samac in 1992.

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