Jovica Stanisic in the courtroom

The defense of the former chief of the Serbian State Security Service Jovica Stanisic continued its case today with the testimony of a protected witness. The witness testified with image and voice distortion under the pseudonym DST-043. Despite recent warnings of the Trial Chamber, the defense lawyers didn’t read out the public summary of the witness’s statement at the beginning of the hearing. It was therefore difficult to follow the witness’s evidence, which proceeded for most part in closed session. It is unclear what the witness’s role and function were in Krajina in 1990 and 1991, during the time he was talking about.

The parts of the evidence that were heard in open session indicated that the witness was close to the Krajina authorities in the early 1990s. The witness’s claims run counter to the evidence of the former Krajina Serb leader Milan Babic. Testifying in three Tribunal’s trials, Babic claimed that Krajina was ruled from Belgrade by ‘the parallel structures’ headed by Slobodan Milosevic; Jovica Stanisic, Franko Simatovic and Milan Martic all played a part. The transcripts of that testimony were admitted into evidence at the trial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic. In his evidence, the witness argued that Milan Babic and his loyal minions were the real movers and shakers in Krajina.

The witness contends that Babic, as the president of the Knin municipality, was in charge of the local Warning Center which controlled the Serb civilians and police officers manning the roadblocks during the so-called log revolution in the summer of 1990. Later, as the defense minister and prime minister, Babic was responsible for the work of the Krajina Territorial Defense, the witness claims. Babic found prominent posts for his ‘friends and neighbors’ in the Territorial Defense, because he wanted to establish his control over the police ‘through his minions’. Babic wanted to eliminate Milan Martic’s influence.

The prosecution contends that the accused organized the shipments of arms from Serbia. The witness says that that the arms were distributed to the Krajina Serbs from the local police and the Territorial Defense depots. Some of the weapons were distributed in the special units training camp in Golubic near Knin, the witness added. Milan Martic was one of the people who took part in the effort.

In parts of the hearing in open session the witness didn’t say a word about the role of the accused and the Serbian State Security Service in the events in Krajina on the eve of and during the war. Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic are charged with participating in the preparations for the war of the Serbs in Krajina and Bosnia. Stanisic and Simatovic established, trained, equipped and controlled the police and paramilitary units in Croatia and BH, the prosecution alleges; these units committed a number of crimes against non-Serbs in those areas from 1991 to 1995, in an effort to implement the goal of a joint criminal enterprise: ethnic cleansing of large parts of Croatia and BH.

Protected witness DST-043 continues his evidence tomorrow morning.

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