The defense of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic tried to play down the role of the Serbian state security service in Krajina in late 1991 by shifting the blame on the former RSK president Milan Babic and the JNA. Prosecution witness Radoslav Maksic replied that Babic committed no crimes at the time, dismissing the suggestion that volunteers from Serbia fought under the command of the JNA

The defense teams of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic cross-examined retired JNA colonel Radovan Maksic in an effort to play down the role of the Serbian state security service in the events in Krajina in the fall of 1991. The witness was there at the time as a member of the Territorial Defense Staff. The prosecution has charged Stanisic and Simatovic, as the chiefs of the Serbian secret service, with exercising control over police and paramilitary units that perpetrated crimes against non-Serbs in Krajina and other parts of Croatia and later in BH.

Stanisic’s defense counsel Jordash blamed the crimes in Krajina on the late president of the so-called RSK Milan Babic, reminding the court of his plea agreement, in which Babic described his role in the Krajina events. The witness however said that during the three months he stayed in Krajina in late 1991, Babic ‘surely didn’t commit any crime’.

In his examination-in chief and in his earlier evidence at the trial of former RSK president Milan Martic, witness Maksic claimed that the Serbian MUP provided help to the Krajina police. The defense counsel put it to him that it was ‘limited to technical support’. The retired colonel replied that he had seen Krajina police officers with long-range radio stations, of the kind used in Serbia. When Maksic visited Belgrade, a man from the Belgrade SUP told him that the equipment had indeed been sent to their colleagues in Krajina. Bringing the cross-examination to its end, the defense counsel suggested that the witness didn’t know why Stanisic was in Krajina on the two occasions when the witness saw him. Maksic agreed.

Simatovic’s defense counsel Mihajlo Bakrac put it to the witness that his client was not in Krajina in the fall of 1991 when the witness purportedly saw him there twice. Maksic remained firm, saying that he saw a man with glasses, who was a head taller than him.

Defense lawyer Bakrac then tried to shift the blame for the events in Krajina on the JNA. To corroborate his argument, Bakrac showed a series of documents which say that ‘Arkan’s men’ and ‘other volunteers fought under the command of the JNA’s 9th Corps’, but the witness stuck to his previous claim that in action, the volunteers were ‘not subordinated but operated in concert’ with the JNA, which means that they were assigned their own axis of attack where they operated independently.

The crimes against Krajina Croats that the former Serbian security service chiefs are charged with were committed mostly in the fall of 1991, while the witness was in that area. Asked if he heard about the attacks on the Krajina villages of Saborsko, Skabrnja, Bruska, Vukovic, Bacin and Cerovljani, Maksic said that he didn’t, much to the defense’s astonishment. Hundreds of Croat civilians were killed in those attacks.

As the hearing drew to a close, the prosecution called its next witness who will give evidence in closed session.

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