Joanna Korner, prosecutor at the Zupljanin and Stanisic trial

All Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin did or failed to do calls for a life sentence for both of them, the prosecution insisted at the end of its closing argument at the trial of the former Bosnian Serb police leaders.

The prosecution contends that Stanisic, the first RS police minister, and Zupljanin, former chief of the Banja Luka region police, ‘deliberately did everything in their power’ to implement the joint criminal enterprise whose final goal was to eliminated non-Serbs from the territories the Bosnian Serb leadership considered as their own. Stanisic and Zupljanin were indicted for the crimes committed by the Serb forces against Bosnian Croats and Muslims in 1992.

As prosecutor Korner stressed, the accused did the exact opposite of what their duty dictated: they were supposed to protect all the citizens regardless of their ethnic background. This failure meant that they had in effect ‘joined the persecutions and murders’. They did not expel or kill anyone personally, but they in effect played a more important role: they ‘issued orders and set norms of conduct’.

Prosecutor Joanna Korner noted that the massacre of about 200 Muslim civilians at Koricanske Stijene on 21 August 1992 includes all the elements the prosecution dealt with during the trial: unprovoked attacks on non-Serb territories, detention of unarmed civilians in detention facilities, organized transportation of civilian detainees out of the Serb territories, mass killings, followed by the deliberate failure on the part of the accused to do anything about the murderers in the police ranks whose identities were known to them.

The prosecution devoted most of its time today to the responsibility of Mico Stanisic. According to the prosecution, Stanisic was involved in the effort to establish RS and the Serb MUP from very early on. In 1994, Stanisic was once again tapped to become interior minister. This, the prosecution contends, shows that the Bosnian Serb authorities appreciated Stanisic’s contribution in 1992. In 1994, when he joined the government for the second time, Stanisic again ‘didn’t do anything to punish those persons who committed or covered up criminal acts, something he admits he was aware of’, prosecutor Hannis concluded.

The defense argued that because of the influence of local crisis staffs Stanisic didn’t have any control over his subordinates. The prosecution allowed the possibility that the municipal authorities did appoint some local police chiefs, but Stanisic nevertheless never used his authority to dismiss the people appointed by the SDS. The defense claimed that it would have been ‘dangerous’ to attempt to dismiss those people. Responding to that claim, the prosecution asked who would have been endangered, since the police were obliged by the law to put public security above their own. By deciding not to do anything, Stanisic endangered the lives of many non-Serbs in the towns and villages where he failed to dismiss the police chiefs who went on to commit crimes. Stanisic also did nothing to punish these police officers.

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