Dermot Groome, prosecutor at the Jovica Stanisicand Franko Simatovic trial

As prosecutor Groome started cross-examining the protected witness DFS 014 called by Franko Simatovic, he contested the witness’s claim that the Serbian State Security Service did not play an active role in Krajina in the early 1990s. The prosecutor put to the witness that the service headed by the accused Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic operated secretly and he was therefore not aware of its activities. The position the witness held was not disclosed in order not to endanger him, but the witness indicated he had worked in Benkovac and reported to the Croatian central authorities in Zagreb and Sibenik. The witness claimed that they would have warned him about the Serbian State Security Service presence in Krajina.

In the examination-in chief, the witness claimed that the SVK commanders sent their soldiers to Captain Dragan Vasiljkovic’s training center in Bruska. The prosecutor showed the witness a document of the Krajina army Main Staff from 24 February 1993. The document stated that ‘the soldiers are leaving the front line and going to Bruska for training without leave’. The witness said the document was correct, except for the timing: this happened earlier in the year. At a later stage, the Krajina soldiers and officers were sent to undergo special unit training on the orders of their superior command, the witness explained. The witness also claimed that Captain Dragan was formally placed under the Knin Corps command in June 1993, but was de facto subordinated to the army even before that.

Simatovic’s defense counsel wanted to corroborate the link between Captain Dragan and the Krajina army and disprove that the Serbian State Security Service had any influence over him. In the re-examination, the defense counsel showed several military reports from1993 which talk about the activities of the special unit training center in Bruska. According to the witness, this means that Captain Dragan and his soldiers were subordinated to the army, because, as he insisted, the documents mention only Serbian Army of Krajina units and the center in Bruska.

Presiding judge Orie joined the discussion. As he said, the fact that the center in Bruska is mentioned in military reports does not necessarily imply that it was controlled by the military. Presiding judge Orie asked the witness if he could determine where precisely Captain Dragan was in the Krajina military chain of command. The witness replied that Vasiljkovic arrived in Krajina in early 1993 during a Croatian offensive and there was no time to ‘discuss administrative issues’. Everything was done on the go, the witness said. The witness explained that the specials from Bruska received arms and ammunition from the 92^nd Motorized Brigade stationed in Benkovac. The witness first claimed they were subordinated to that unit, but after some time admitted that there was no clear military chain of command in Krajina at the time.

The indictment alleges that Captain Dragan’s special unit from Krajina was one of the units operating in Croatia and BH during the war under the control of the Serbian secret service and its chiefs, Stanisic and Simatovic. The two are charged with the crimes the units under their control committed against the non-Serbs from 1991 to 1995.

Protected witness DFS 014 completed his evidence today. Simatovic’s case will continue next Tuesday.

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