Adrianus Van Baal, witness at the Radovan Karadzic trial

The trial of Radovan Karadzic continues with the evidence of Dutch general Adrianus Van Baal. From 24 February to 28 August 1994, Van Baal served as UNPROFOR chief of staff in Sarajevo. The witness’s written statement, based on his previous testimony at the trials of Slobodan Milosevic and Stanislav Galic, was admitted into evidence.

General Baal confirmed in his statement that Karadzic had effective control over the VRS Sarajevo-Romanija Corps. To illustrate this, the witness said that in March 1994 some 600 members of the Ilijas Brigade surrounded the Canadian soldiers who were involved in the implementation of the agreement on the exclusion zone for heavy artillery around Sarajevo. After General Baal intervened by phone, Karadzic ordered his soldiers to withdraw and they did.

The situation in Sarajevo in February 1994 was ‘desperate and terrible’, the witness said. The witness estimated that the citizens had all lost ten to fifteen kilos and ‘fear was visible in their eyes’. Although the situation in the city improved in February 1994 after the agreement on the exclusion zone for heavy artillery was signed, the witness noted an increase in sniper incidents especially targeting persons riding in trams.

In a conversation with the witness, the chief of the VRS Main Staff Manojlo Milovanovic protested against the resumption of tram traffic in Sarajevo. According to the witness, Milovanovic told him then that he would personally ‘make sure that trams are targeted’ if they continued to run.

In the cross-examination, Karadzic noted there was a big difference between what the witness said about Milovanovic in his statement and their relationship during the conflict. Karadzic tried to prove that Milovanovic was ‘more than willing to please and not restrictive’ to the UN troops and that his relationship with General Baal was ‘amicable and full of respect’.

Karadzic illustrated his claims with several intercepted conversations in which General Milovanovic and the witness exchanged pleasantries. Karadzic also quoted parts of the conversation between the witness and Milovanovic before the former left BH. ‘There are persons I will never forget, you are one and your daughter Lana is another’, General Baal said. Van Baal then promised to relay to his successor at the post of UNPROFOR chief of staff what, according to Milovanovic, were ‘the three ugliest things in life’. As Karadzic put it, it was ‘fat women, long telephone conversations and small glasses to drink from’.

As the witness said, there ‘were periods’ when he was able to work well with Milovanovic but there were also issues that were difficult to agree on, such as letting humanitarian convoys into the protected zones. Karadzic denied this, arguing that the reason why the Serb army stopped convoys was not because it was ‘evil’, but because it ‘had the right’ to control them.

On his return from BH, the Dutch general was in charge of providing logistical support to the Dutch troops stationed in the ‘protected zone’ of Srebrenica. The Serb forces conquered the protected zone in July 1995 killing over 7,000 boys and men. In late 2002, Van Baal was appointed commander of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation and drafted a report on the events in Srebrenica, which resulted in the collective resignation of the Dutch government.

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