Reynaud Theunens, witness at the Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic trial

Franko Simatovic’s defense continued the cross-examination of prosecution military expert Reynaud Theunens, in an effort to challenge his findings. In his report, Theunens concluded that the Serbian state security service had ties with volunteer paramilitary units that perpetrated crimes in Croatia and BH from 1991 to 1995, as the indictment alleges. Former chiefs of the Serbian State Security Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic are charged with organizing, training, resupplying and controlling those units.

Simatovic’s defense tried to shift the blame for the crimes committed by ‘Arkan’s men’ on the JNA. Defense counsel Bakrac showed several documents which indicate that Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan’s unit was subordinated to the army and not the police. A video recording was played in the courtroom, showing Arkan saying his unit fought under the command of the Territorial Defense of Eastern Slavonia. The Territorial Defense was in turn subordinated to the JNA. The Belgian military expert didn’t comment on the recording because the defense counsel was not able to say when and where it was made. Theunens stood by his claims in his report that ‘Arkan’s men’ were subordinated to the army only in combat. Otherwise they were ‘controlled or in other way supported by the Serbian MUP’; the State Security Service was its part.

Defense counsel Bakrac then showed a news report from the RTV Belgrade, broadcast in November 1991, where the commander of the JNA Novi Sad Corps Andrija Biorcevic addresses captured Croatian soldiers. The defense counsel noted that Arkan was seated next to Biorcevic and asked the witness if it might indicate Arkan was subordinated to the JNA even out of combat. Theunens didn’t challenge the fact that Biorcevic and Arkan were on good terms, but the fact that they were seated next to each other says nothing about the chain of command in the Serbian armed forces.

The defense counsel went on to contest Theunens’s conclusion that the notorious Scorpions unit was among the units controlled by the Serbian MUP. To corroborate the argument, the defense counsel showed a document to the effect that in 1993 the unit was part of the military post in Djeletovci as part of the Krajina army. The witness said there were no military installations in Djeletovci which could be considered as a military post: there were oil fields the Scorpions were securing, the witness explained. As the witness added, the Scorpions joined the army as part of the strategy of the Krajina authorities to create an impression of demilitarization. The existing units in the field were transformed into special police units and then into the Serbian Army of Krajina, the witness explained.

The witness agreed with the defense lawyer that the volunteers run by Ljubisa Savic Mauzer and brothers Vojin and Dusan Vuckovic, leaders of the paramilitary unit Yellow Wasps, didn’t have any contacts with the Serbian police. As Theunens said, in the voluminous documentation he had inspected as he wrote his report, he didn’t find anything that would point to such ties.

The cross-examination of Reynaud Theunens will be completed tomorrow in the morning. After that, according to the schedule, protected witness JF-052 will began his testimony via video link in the afternoon.

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