Dusko Jaksic, witness at the Radovan Karadzic trial

Professor Dusko Jaksic, director of the Institute of Economics in Banja Luka, testified at Radovan Karadzic’s trial. Karadzic called Jaksic in a bid to prove that the Autonomous Region of Krajina had been established for purely economic reasons, before even the SDS came into being. As it was stressed, the region’s establishment was fully in line with the European Union standards. Jaksic claimed that the idea of regionalization originated in his Institute, and the SDS ‘adopted’ them later. According to the witness, the purpose of the Autonomous Region of Krajina was not to break up BH but to keep Krajina within Yugoslavia.

As prosecutor Amir Zec noted in the cross-examination, the prosecution’s evidence showed that the idea of regionalization came from Karadzic and the SDS. The prosecutor recalled Vojislav Kupresanin’s statement that the ARK had been formed to ‘destroy Alija’s state’. Zec also quoted from an article published in January 1992, where Jovan Raskovic said that the Serbs shouldn’t be afraid of BH’s independence. Karadzic didn’t agree with that and advocated an option that ‘leads to a war’, Raskovic said in the article. When the prosecutor put it to Jaksic that Karadzic’s opinions prevailed in Krajina, the witness confirmed it. However, a bit later Jaksic said that Karadzic was ‘too tolerant’ in comparison with the mood that prevailed among the Serb people in Krajina following BH’s secession.

The prosecutor remarked that the idea of the creations of a united Serb land, which was advocated by Karadzic and the SDS, was implemented through the expulsion of Croats and Muslims. An excerpt from a TV program, Open screen, originally broadcast in late 1994 was played in court. In the recording, Jaksic says that there isn’t an area in Republika Srpska that has not been ‘ethnically cleansed’. The witness explained that at the time RS held 72 per cent of the BH territory under its control. Jaksic didn’t agree that the percentage was accomplished through mass expulsions. His Muslim colleagues from Banja Luka cried as they left, but they did so of their own will, Jaksic noted.

After Dusko Jaksic completed his evidence, Karadzic called Jovan Kevac from Kljuc. He will continue his testimony tomorrow.

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