¹⁰⁹⁹² Monday, 7 October 200

[Open session]

[The accused entered court]

--- Upon commencing at 9.06 a.m.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Nice.

MR. NICE: I trust that the Court has been informed briefly that there was a problem -- is a problem with the witness schedule for today. Mr. Samardzic, as obvious to those of us dealing with him yesterday, that although he was resolute about his willingness to give evidence as soon as possibly required, he was suffering some ill health, and on his return to his hotel it became absolutely clear that he was indeed unwell. Various domestic arrangements have to be made for him. I expect he will be fit -- well, it's in the nature of the man to say that he's fit -- as soon as possible. I expect that he actually will be fit comparatively soon - one would hope tomorrow - but nothing can be certain, and we'll have more information later this morning or probably later today. Once it became obvious to us that he shouldn't try to give evidence today, we made arrangements to see whether Mr. Matovina could be available, and he could. I was unable to contact the accused by any means other than ultimately direct contact through the head of the Detention Unit, and I understand that he will have told the accused at probably sometime after 7.00 last night that this change was a possibility. Accordingly, we would ask that Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff takes Mr. Matovina next. As to Samardzic, as the Chamber knows, I'm not going to be back until probably quarter to ten or 10.00 tomorrow morning. I ¹⁰⁹⁹³ would prefer, if he's fit tomorrow morning, and we shan't know that of course until this afternoon, to take him if the Chamber's prepared to accommodate us.

Apart from him, there are two other witnesses available for some time this week although neither of them is going to be available first thing tomorrow morning because they will not have arrived until just about then.

I'm not sure whether Mr. Matovina will take all of today's hearing time or not.

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Matovina deals with Slatina. Again, a map would be helpful.

MR. NICE: Can I just intervene on the topic of the map?

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

MR. NICE: So far we have provided someone, and I can't remember where it is now, with a road atlas. I don't know if it found its way to the Bench. It's got a lot of other material in it other than a road atlas and was rather heavier and thicker than the similar document in Kosovo. Have you seen that?

JUDGE MAY: It had been shown to me. I don't know whether anybody else has seen it.

MR. NICE: I don't know if that's the sort of document, in the absence of anything more focused, that would be helpful. If it is, we will -- we will --

JUDGE MAY: We'll look at it.

MR. NICE: We'll go and get some more so the Chamber can have one ¹⁰⁹⁹⁴ each, along with everybody else.

JUDGE MAY: That would be available, would it?

MR. NICE: I think so. I think that or something similar. There must be road atlases. Frankly, I'd prefer to try to find a road atlas that covered both Croatia and Bosnia in the same volume because I think that would be pretty helpful, and the combined geographical area is not so large as to make that improbable.

It's an index which is, of course, most useful for the Chamber, I suspect, amongst other things.

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE MAY: We will have this, if it is available, that is.

MR. NICE: I'll check on its availability. And if it or something broadly similar to it is, I'll acquire enough copies for everybody to have one.

JUDGE MAY: Thank you. Now, how long do you approximate Mr. Matovina will be in chief?

MR. NICE: Two hours in chief is Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff's calculation.

JUDGE MAY: He produces quite a lot of exhibits, I see.

MR. NICE: Yes.

JUDGE MAY: I notice for some reason that mine begins -- seems to begin at tab -- I may be wrong about that. Tab 1. Yes, I see. Yes. And the accused would not have found out about the change until last evening.

MR. NICE: No.

JUDGE MAY: So he really won't have had any time to prepare his ¹⁰⁹⁹⁵ cross-examination, or very little.

MR. NICE: No.

JUDGE MAY: On the other hand, the hope is that Mr. Samardzic should be ready tomorrow morning.

MR. NICE: That's the hope, and we'll wait -- simply have to wait and see. We've prevailed on him to see a doctor. He's, again, the sort of person who, despite all his problems, is minded just to press on, but we've prevailed on him to see a doctor today.

JUDGE MAY: And you would have available the next two witnesses - I'm looking at the list - K-1 and Trbojevic.

MR. NICE: But not first thing tomorrow morning. Later on; Wednesday.

JUDGE MAY: Wednesday.

JUDGE KWON: When was the accused given the statement of Mr. Matovina?

MR. NICE: A long time ago. Oh, Thursday.

JUDGE KWON: Last Thursday.

MR. NICE: Yes.

JUDGE MAY: It had been disclosed before.

MR. NICE: It had been disclosed before but it was redisclosed because he was maintaining he couldn't find it.

JUDGE MAY: So as far as the order is concerned, the statement was disclosed some time ago and you're in compliance.

MR. NICE: Yes, absolutely.

JUDGE MAY: But the more immediate problem, of course, is his ¹⁰⁹⁹⁶ preparation. Well, there seems to be no objection to hearing Mr. Matovina at least in chief or in direct. He seems now to be called. We'll hear Mr. Milosevic about cross-examination.

Mr. Milosevic, you've heard the position that the first witness is ill. He clearly can't be ready today. Are you in a position to cross-examine Mr. Matovina this morning or are you going to ask for more time? It may be simplest, in fact, to hear Mr. Matovina and then to consider the position as to whether you need more time to cross-examine him.

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic, what do you say?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I have no requests or demands, Mr. May.

JUDGE MAY: Very well. Thank you. Yes. Let's call the witness.

[The witness entered court]

WITNESS: DZURO MATOVINA

[Witness answered through interpreter]

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Let the witness take the declaration.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I solemnly declare that I will speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

JUDGE MAY: If you would like to take a seat.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Thank you, Your Honour. ¹⁰⁹⁹⁷ Examined by Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff:

Q. Good morning, sir.

A. Good morning to you too.

Q. Please state your name, age, and place of birth.

A. My name is Dzuro Matovina. I was born on the 22nd of March, 1949, in Slatina.

Q. What is your ethnicity?

A. I'm a Croat.

Q. What is your profession?

A. I am a criminal investigator.

Q. For how long did you work as a police officer?

A. Thirty years.

Q. Where did you work during the years 1990 to 1992?

A. In Podravska Slatina.

Q. Where is it situated? Is that in Western Slavonia?

A. Podravska Slatina is located on the main road from Virovitica to Osijek. It's 100 kilometres away from Osijek and 30 from Virovitica. It is in the Bishopric of Podravska.

Q. We do not need so detailed information. I just wanted to know, it is in Western Slavonia?

A. Yes, in the area of Western Slavonia, bordering on Eastern Slavonia.

Q. What was your rank in the years 1990 to 1992?

A. I was a police inspector.

Q. Were you in fact the acting chief of police in Slatina? ¹⁰⁹⁹⁸

A. Yes, until 1989. Until just before the war.

Q. During the events, did you continue to be in the police? I mean the war.

A. Yes. I remained on the police force, and I was assistant chief of the police station.

Q. Did you get involved in the fighting?

A. No. My job was in Slatina, and I coordinated the work of the police in law enforcement in the area of Slatina and further afield. I did not take any part in the fighting.

Q. What was the ethnic composition of Podravska Slatina in 1990, before the outbreak of the war?

A. On the territory of the former municipality of Podravska Slatina, there were 56 or, rather, 57 percent of Croats, 36 per cent of Serbs, and the rest was a mixture of other ethnic groups.

Q. Was the relationship between the ethnic groups good before the war?

A. Relations among ethnic groups before the war were tolerable. However, after the first multi-party elections were held following 45 years of communist rule, when the first multi-party Croat parliament was elected, inter-ethnic relations became very complicated.

Q. Was a branch of the SDS party founded at some point in time in Slatina?

A. That is correct. A branch of the Serbian Democratic Party was founded in Slatina on the 9th of June, 1990. However, just before the party was established, there was a series of provocations in Slatina ¹⁰⁹⁹⁹ leading to ethnic tensions, and the leadership and the founding committee of the SDS carried out propaganda and psychological activities which contributed to these ethnic tensions. That happened on the 31st of May, the night between the 31st of May and the 1st of June, 1990, when in Batici, Donji Melani, Spanat, Medinci, Sladojevci and a number of other neighbouring villages, the facades of many buildings were marked by graffiti which were actually slogans expressing ethnic slurs and hatred. Some of this graffiti said, "We will kill Tudjman," and others said, "Serbia is from here to Karlobag," or "Serbia all the way to the Una River." There were also drawings of four Cyrillic "S" symbols. Vuk Draskovic's name written on buildings.

Q. Witness, let me stop you here. We would not need so many details. Therefore, I would ask you to just answer my questions briefly. Was there a founding rally in -- of the SDS in Slatina?

A. Yes. The rally was held on the 9th of June, 1990, in a clearing, from 4.00 to 7.00 p.m., and it was attended by about 5.000 Serbs from Slatina and the neighbouring settlements.

Q. At this rally were there also people from outside of Western Slavonia or Slatina?

A. Yes. There was a number of people from the neighbouring villages, and there were also people with strange appearance who were not familiar to us in Slatina. There were Jovan Raskovic, Mr. Opacic, and other speakers invited to the rally.

Q. Jovan Raskovic and Jovan Opacic, who were they? Where did they come from? ¹¹⁰⁰⁰

A. They were leaders of the Serbian Democratic Party. They had come at the invitation of the founding committee of the SDS for Slatina, and they were the main speakers at that rally.

Q. Turning to Mr. Raskovic, you said he was the main -- one of the main speakers. During his speech, did he speak about the situation of the Serbs in Croatia? And if so, what did he say?

A. Jovan Raskovic's speech was another speech of hatred, inciting hatred between the Serbs and Croats living in that area. Among other things he said, I remember one. He said that there is no future for Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia, that another Ustasha government is in power, that if Serbs want autonomy and ask for it, they should have it. And he ended his speech with the words, "Serb brothers, see you in Krajina. You will have no happiness in the Ustasha state."

Q. What does that mean, "See you in Krajina"? What did he refer to?

A. Well, according to what followed later, this was supposed to mean in an area that would secede from the Republic of Croatia and that would later be annexed - the way it turned out, according to the referenda that were held - that would be annexed to Serbia and Montenegro.

Q. Did he address that already in the speech?

A. His speech and the speeches of the members of the initiative committee showed it quite clearly what this was all about and what the intention was of that particular rally and all other activities.

Q. Did any of the speakers mention whether the Serbs and the Croats would live together in the future? Was that addressed at all?

A. It was mentioned that Serbs could no longer live together with ^{11001 BLANK PAGE 11002} Croats in an Independent State of Croatia.

Q. During the speech, did he -- did Mr. Raskovic or other people, did they refer to the position of Slatina, what Slatina would be in the future?

A. President of SDS of Slatina, Milun Karadzic, who was elected there, he also spoke at this rally. After the rally, members of the SDS were spreading a feeling of fear among the population that Slatina should actually become the Slavonian Knin, the centre of the rebellion in Slavonia.

Q. You mentioned Mr. Karadzic, Milun Karadzic. Who else was a leading figure in the SDS, the local SDS in Western Slavonia?

A. Well, there was Ilija Sasic, then Simpraga Vladimir, Rajko Bojcic, Jovan Bojcic.

Q. Let me stop you there. That should be enough. The speakers, did they make any references to Mr. Milosevic?

A. Mr. Milosevic was not mentioned, as far as I can remember. However, what was dominant was the paraphernalia, including pictures of Mr. Milosevic and several persons unknown. Actually, several unknown persons were wearing the flags of the Republic of Serbia like scarves, and others were wearing cockades on their caps, and that was reminiscent of the Second World War.

Q. In the time period following this founding rally, were referenda organised?

A. Yes. Three referenda were organised in the second half of 1990. All three were organised whenever the Croatian parliament organised ¹¹⁰⁰³ referenda with regard to the status of the Republic of Croatia within the former Yugoslavia. That is to say that these referenda were held before the other referenda, which additionally complicated things for the public or, rather, inter-ethnic relations.

The first referendum was held on the 26th of August --

Q. Let me stop you here. We do not go into the details of the -- of this because it was already addressed with another witness, but can you tell me, could the Croat population participate in these referenda that were held by the Serbs?

A. No. Croats did not take part in these referenda because they were illegal. Because the first referendum was held in the following way: Activists of the SDS went to various houses, and the others were held in public places, that is to say in offices.

Q. Does it -- what -- I would like to know, were the Croats not interested in voting or were they not allowed to vote?

A. They were not even invited to vote in the referendum. As I've already said, the referenda were illegal. Croats and other Serbs who accepted the government in the Republic of Croatia went to the referenda that were organised by the Croatian parliament.

Q. Did the police or any Croatian institution try to prevent or interfere with the referenda that were held?

A. No. The Croatian police did not intervene because it had instructions not to aggravate inter-ethnic tensions, because these referenda were illegal anyway and did not carry any force of law.

Q. Did the police disturb the work of the SDS party before the war? ¹¹⁰⁰⁴

A. Never, either of the SDS or other parties.

Q. Did your police station ever receive an instruction to arrest or even kill radical Serbs?

A. On the contrary. Instructions always came in to act in a pacifying manner, in a tolerant manner, to engage in conversation rather than any other means, because the expectation was that the situation would calm down.

Q. Are you aware that such an order, that means to arrest or kill radical Serbs, was given to any other police station?

A. I don't think so. I'm not aware of any such thing, and I did not go any further. I did not go out of Slatina. As far as I know, no, there were no such instructions.

Q. Did anything happen on the 2nd of October, 1990?

A. That was the first attack against the police station. That was carried out around 1900 hours by about 800 to 1.000 militant Serbs who were armed and who had assembled in Slatina.

Q. Do you know who organised this gathering in Slatina?

A. According to what we saw, it was the top people of the Serb Democratic Party that brought the masses there. They were headed by Milun Karadzic, then Ilija Sasic, Momcilo Subotic, and other top people from those ranks.

Q. You said that it was an attack on the police station. What did those gathering there want to do? What did they want?

A. They wanted to enter the police station at any cost, to obtain the weapons from there and to establish their own government in Slatina. This ¹¹⁰⁰⁵ attack took place after the police station in Knin had been taken over. Also, some police stations in Banija. The station in Petrinja had already been attacked. Also in Pakrac. And right after the attack on the police station in Pakrac, this attack on the police station in Slatina took place.

So the objective was to take over the police station, to seize the weapons, and to establish government there. And the ultimate objective was to cut the Podravina road and also to cut off Eastern Slavonia in this way from Croatia.

Q. How do you know that? Did they actually say such things or how do you know?

A. Well, that was quite clear from the actual chronology of the events concerned. Knin, Banija, Petrinja, Pakrac, all of this was along this imagined corridor of Karlobag-Karlovac-Virovitica where the border was actually supposed to be, the border of a Greater Serbia, or as it was said then, of Yugoslavia.

Q. Were you present when this happened in the police station?

A. Yes. I led the defence of the police station. I engaged about 20 policemen who were ethnic Croats, there were also Serbs who at that time still accepted Croatian authority, and with a great deal of effort, we did manage to defend the police station.

Q. Did you speak with these Serbian -- the leaders of the SDS that were present? And if so, what did they say?

A. The leaders of the SDS did have contact with me because I was at the entrance into the police station. However, they went to speak to the ¹¹⁰⁰⁶ chief of the police station, Kresimir Libl. Afterwards, I found out that they had come to stop weapons from being taken from the police station because they were afraid that the weapons would not be taken. And at that time at the police station, we had 150 rifles for the reserve force and for the active force. All the weapons were there, and there was no need to attack the police station.

Q. Maybe you can explain something to me. From the transcript, I see that you said, "I found out that they had come to stop weapons from being taken from the police station." Who came to stop weapons being taken from the police station?

A. Well, according to the claims of the leadership of the SDS, they came to do that, and citizens did, although we did not expect an attack on the police station. I don't see why 1.000 armed citizens would attack the police station and ask for weapons from the police station. And of course, according to the actual establishment, these weapons belonged to the police station.

Q. You said you -- you could defend the police station. Was there actually a fight, or how did you defend the police station?

A. We placed a cordon of policemen in front of the police station, and they prevented the masses from entering the police station. At that moment, Mato Mesaros came through this crowd. He was in his own car and the masses were beating his car and shouting at him, and it was very hard for him to get through this crowd because he was in a hurry to pick up his wife from the health centre.

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff, please. ¹¹⁰⁰⁷

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Story.

Q. We do not need so many details. Was anyone hurt? Was anyone hurt while this incident took place? And don't describe all the details, please.

A. When this citizen was returning with his car again through the crowd, his car was overturned. He was stabbed. He was wounded. His stomach was cut so his intestines spilled out onto the road. We made an ultimate effort to save his life.

Q. This violent incident, did it actually bring the matter to an end?

A. No. After we escorted the wounded man to hospital, in front of the building, the top people of the SDS were making speeches. Again they were flagrantly insulting the Croatian state, the Croatian people, they were inciting violence. And as the masses were dispersing, they fired hundreds of gunshots into the air and in this way disturbed law and order.

Q. Was there a JNA barracks in Slatina?

A. Yes, right by the police station. And it was about 50 metres away.

Q. While this incident occurred while there was this attacking, did the JNA ever intervene and try to stop the crowd?

A. At that time, the JNA did not intervene. On the 4th of August, 1991, they attacked us, though, with heavy weapons.

Q. We come to this later. At -- you mentioned already that at that time the police force in Slatina was mixed Croats and Serbs. Did this composition change after the events that you just described?

A. Well, until that event at the police station in Slatina, about 80 ¹¹⁰⁰⁸ to 85 per cent were Serbs and the rest were Croats. Immediately after this event, part of the policemen who were ethnic Serbs started leaving the Croatian police. The Ministry of the Interior, of course, started manning the station with other people.

Q. Did the Serb policemen leave on their own or were they dismissed?

A. Quite voluntarily. Nobody was dismissed.

Q. Where did these policemen go? What did they do afterwards?

A. At first they went to their homes; and later on, when reservists who were ethnic Serbs were getting weapons - and that started in April 1991 in the area where the insurgency was - then everybody joined these paramilitary formations.

Q. Did you make any observations regarding the arming of these -- of the Serb population?

A. We noticed, as I've already said, that as of April 1991, the Serb Democratic Party or, rather, the JNA, started training and arming the Serb population or, rather, the reservists. They called them up into the barracks in Slatina and Nasice.

Q. Were all males called in for military training or only Serbs?

A. Only Serbs were called up. Mostly those who had undergone reserve officers' training in the former JNA, those who had a commission and those who could organise and man units. Not a single Croat was called up.

Q. You said the JNA also armed Serbs. What -- what did you notice to this effect? How did they do that?

A. Those who completed their training at the barracks in Slatina and Nasice immediately went to the area where the insurgency was, with their ¹¹⁰⁰⁹ weapons, and in the month of June, from the barracks in Nasice, the police had received instructions to escort a convoy of over 40 trucks that were loaded with weapons from Nasice to Mikleus. And then further on, the police could not go any further, they could only take the highway. After that, the convoy of the JNA with weapons went to where the insurgency was, towards Vocin.

Q. Let me clarify. This convoy with weapons, did this convoy come from a barracks or where did it come from?

A. From the barracks.

Q. And did it go to another barracks or where?

A. No. It headed to the area where the insurgency was that was later organised by the Serbs. That is to say, towards Vocin and towards Sekulinci, where the weapons were unloaded. And the same night, they started distributing weapons to the Serb population.

Q. When was that?

A. That was in the month of June 1991. A Serb who did not want to accept a weapon, when he went to Slatina, when he tried to report that to the police, he was killed by the cemetery in Ceralije, and the police from Slatina was there to carry out the on-site investigation.

Q. You said that you, the police, had to escort this weapon convoy, and you said you only were on the road and later could not follow. Why not?

A. Well, this convoy was escorted by the police from Nasice, by a police escort from Nasice. And they were in a position to do so only to the petrol station in Mikleus where the road starts that leads to the area ^{11010 BLANK PAGE 11011} that was occupied later. The policemen who were in this escort reported to us later that members of the JNA stopped them there and gave them the following orders: That they would not be allowed to escort the convoy any further.

Q. Did the -- did you see the convoy return?

A. I did not see the convoy return. However, I did see the report that said that the convoy returned the same evening and that the load remained at the area where the insurgency was?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: With the help of the usher, I would like to put to the witness the Exhibit 327, tab 13.

JUDGE MAY: What is this? Is this a --

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: This is an exhibit that we used already with the Witness C-037, and this witness will be asked a few additional questions that the previous witness was not able to answer.

JUDGE MAY: If we have exhibits in these large bundles, given the logistics here, it's very difficult for us to get to them. So -- it's difficult for us to get them, so we need copies if you're going to refer backwards and forwards out of the bundle.

Is it in a new bundle, do I understand?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes. Yes, it is.

JUDGE MAY: Very well.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: You have it in the witness binder. Just use the Exhibit number that it has now been assigned.

JUDGE MAY: Let us not get into a muddle. This is in -- you have exhibited, re-exhibited here. It will be removed in due course from this ¹¹⁰¹² particular binder. In due course, we will get on to the witness -- the binder of this particular witness, but let's deal with the exhibit now.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes.

Q. Witness, after you -- these documents -- these documents, do you know them? Have you seen that before?

A. Yes, I know these documents. They were found at the command of the paramilitary units at Zvecevo after the units withdrew between the 12th and the 13th -- or, rather, on the 14th of December, 1991. I think that these documents were found there, as well as other documents, and they show the entire establishment of the so-called Territorial Defence, all the units involved, the Papuk detachment, and the lower-level units within.

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I think that this is becoming totally senseless. We've crossed the line of absurdity with these exhibits. An attempt is being made to tender a document here that was compiled in the Virovitica Podravina police administration, the third police station of the Croatian authorities, and it says "List of Serbo-terrorist Unit Members." This is not a document at all. It cannot be treated as a document. It is not a list that could have been found at some places, let's put it this way, where these Chetniks that he's referring to left them.

JUDGE MAY: You can make these points when you come to cross-examine. We've dealt before with this particular issue of documents, and in fact we've dealt with this document or, rather, the ¹¹⁰¹³ binder this document came out of, when we dealt with the last witness. As we've told you, we admit documents here as hearsay. We decide what weight to give them.

Now, the point which you appear to be making about this one is that it refers to members of a Serbo or something terrorist units. Is that the point?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May, isn't it clear to you that this kind of document could not be found any Serb office, as the witness put it and the way this is being introduced here? Can't you see that this is a Croatian document? After all, this is no document. Even a police document would have to have a date and a signature. It is not a document at all. This is no document. These are simply two sheets of paper.

JUDGE MAY: This is a challenge to the authenticity of the documents. It's already been admitted, of course, by the last witness. Just -- don't interrupt. It's already been admitted. You've heard the challenge, Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff. It's a matter for you to deal with it. It's said it's plainly a Croat document from the heading, and, therefore, it may be not of particular use to us.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Your Honour, I intend to speak about this document with the witness because he dealt with this.

JUDGE MAY: Very well.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: And he can explain.

JUDGE MAY: Let us hear about that.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. Witness, you said that these documents were found in Zvecevo, and ¹¹⁰¹⁴ you said it was on the -- after the withdrawal. When were these documents found; in which year?

A. Well, let's settle the dilemma. The first two pieces of paper are merely a list, a list of documents and units. The rest are photocopies of original documents. Therefore, it is true that this is a list which was compiled by the police, and all the rest are original documents or, rather, photocopies of them. Those and numerous other documents were found, as I've already said, in the command, the headquarters of Zvecevo, after the area was placed under the control of the Croatian army. And from this, it is clearly evident how the Papuk detachment was set up and all the others were established, with their concrete duties, assignments, names - first names, last names - the types and numbers of the weapons. And in addition to these documents, I've already said we also found many others.

Let me also mention that the command headquarters and the entire recreational centre, once these units had withdrawn, were set fire to and completely destroyed.

Q. Who found the documents, the police or another body?

A. Members of the Croatian army found them. And then later on, they were handed over to the police.

Q. And in your work as a police officer, did you have to handle these documents? What did you do with it?

A. All those documents, along with the notifications sent to the District Court and public prosecutor were sent as reports, files.

Q. And when you look at the first -- ¹¹⁰¹⁵

A. They were attachments to criminal reports.

Q. When you look at the first two pages, who compiled these pages?

A. I can't see from this because there's no signature. Probably somebody in the third police station, which later on processed these documents and looked into the case and sent in the documents to the Ministry of the Interior or, rather, to the Tribunal.

Q. And when you look at the then following documents, they all have a stamp on there, a Croatian stamp. Do you know who made this stamp?

A. The stamp was placed by the officer completing the case in the files and it was placed there in order to authenticate it because they were photocopies. So to show that they corresponded to the original.

Q. You mentioned the place Zvecevo. What -- what kind of a place was it? Was it a headquarters? Was it a JNA post? What was it?

A. The Zvecevo location was made up of a number of hotels owned by the Rade Koncar enterprise from Zagreb, and it had all the necessary attending facilities for sport and recreation. The members of the paramilitary units and the Papuk detachment took it over and set up its command headquarters there.

Q. When you say "paramilitary units," what do you mean exactly?

A. Well, I mean the Papuk detachment which was established following the 12th Slavonia Shock Brigade that was a participant of the war -- during World War II, and all the subsequent units that were under the Papuk detachment and which made up the so-called Territorial Defence, which was not actually Territorial Defence because the Republic of Croatia had its own Territorial Defence and the established formations that were ¹¹⁰¹⁶ inherited from the former Yugoslavia and whose weapons it had -- whose weapons had been confiscated by the JNA because that -- those weapons were stored in the warehouses of the JNA, and the army gave the weapons to the rebel Serbs.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Where can we find this Zvecevo headquarters, please?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: With the help of the usher, I would like to show the witness -- it's actually the map Exhibit C338.

JUDGE MAY: Exhibit 325.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: This is already -- it's already in --

JUDGE MAY: 325. MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF.

Q. Can you put it on the ELMO and actually point out where Zvecevo is? You have to look at the map, not on the screen, sir.

A. [Indicates]

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Your Honours, the witness is pointing at the place with his finger.

JUDGE MAY: It's described as Novo Zvecevo on the map.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes.

Q. As we are already with the map, can you point out where Vocin is.

A. [Indicates]

Q. Yes. Thank you. And what is the distance between Zvecevo and Vocin, approximately?

A. About 15 kilometres.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Thank you. That is enough with the map. ¹¹⁰¹⁷

Q. Witness, do you recall when this Zvecevo place, when it started to function as a post of the Serbian TO?

A. While that area was under the control of the rebel Serbs, throughout that time, Zvecevo was the centre of the command and the headquarters, right up until the 14th of December, 1991, until it was placed under the control of the Croatian army. Otherwise, this area was under the temporary occupation, that is to say from the 18th of August, 1991.

Q. We do not need to go into all the details of the structure of the TO because there is no time to do that. I would like to address just a few documents from this exhibit.

The first one is actually document number 57 in the index list and also marked accordingly on the document.

JUDGE MAY: Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff, can I just go through this. We must produce these exhibits in an orderly way. Yes. You must introduce them to us. Invite us to -- you want us to look at this bundle.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes. And there is an index on top of it, and the index actually has numbers, number 1 to --

JUDGE KWON: Attachment numbers.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes, attachment numbers. And you'll find those same numbers in the documents, both in the translation and in the B/C/S. So if you follow simply those numbers which are in -- which are on top --

JUDGE MAY: Yes, we have that, of course. We can see that. But in each case, when you produce a new bundle or a new exhibit, we must ¹¹⁰¹⁸ pause while a number is assigned to it. You have your numbers, your Prosecution reference numbers. These are of no use to the Court. They may be of use to you and helpful for you to find your way around, but obviously, once a document is exhibited, it must be referred to by the court number.

Now, we'll have an exhibit number for this particular bundle now.

[Trial Chamber and registrar confer]

JUDGE MAY: The registrar seems to think we have given this an exhibit number.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes.

JUDGE MAY: If so, then it has completely eluded me. When did we give this a number? What was it?

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE MAY: Kindly explain the position to us.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes. Your Honour, this document was discussed already with the witness 37 and on this occasion got Exhibit number, the court Exhibit number 372, tab 13.

JUDGE KWON: 327.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. We've dealt with that one.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes. And this document contains a lot of documents, and internally this document has got an index number according to the index on top of the document. And when I refer to a number 57 or 58, it's meant just the order of this document. It's not another exhibit or not another exhibit number to be assigned, just help to find your way through that extensive document. ^{11019 BLANK PAGE 11020}

JUDGE MAY: So is this all Exhibit 327, tab 13?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes, Your Honour.

JUDGE MAY: Again. Right. Now we have it. Could you, before you begin with this sort of exhibit, just explain to the Court what you're up to and then we will be able to follow.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes.

JUDGE MAY: Very well. Now we have it.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Your Honour, in the index list, if you find the -- mentioned the attachment 57, and in the index, it says, "Unit command and members of the Zvecevo unit." It's the English translation of the index list.

MR. KAY: For my part, I can't find an attachment 57 or where it is. I just have a single sheet.

JUDGE MAY: You'll find it. Just keep going through the bundle, you'll come to it.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: It's after the extensive list of names. To assist you --

JUDGE MAY: You know, we're in early days of this part of the case so we need to get these things right. For a start, it is misleading to say it's exhibit to be tendered through Mr. Matovina, as it's headed here, when in fact it's an old exhibit, as it transpires. So once we have an exhibit, refer to it always by the exhibit designation. The other point is that in the other parts of the case, we've had numbered dividers, I suppose you would call them, as opposed to these attachments, which is very difficult to see as you go through. I mean, ¹¹⁰²¹ you can find 57 simply by going through it, but if you can have the dividers with the numbers, it would be much easier for us to find our way round it. And as I say, once you've got an exhibit number for it, always refer to it by that exhibit number and then there will be less confusion. Mr. Kay, have you got 57?

MR. KAY: Yes. I've worked it out.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. Witness, if you look at this document -- the document 57, it refers here to the municipal staff of Slovanska Pozega, Zvecevo detachment, and it refers to -- it says here: "For your further use, attached find a list of fighters, detachment Slovanska Pozega municipal staff, support technical staff in the Zvecevo facility." Who signs it, do you know, for the commander?

A. The signature is the commander's, Commander Munja, and on the list it says that it is Commander Borivoj Lukic, Captain First Class.

JUDGE KWON: Mr. Witness, are you recognising the name by his signature in B/C/S?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Judging by the signature on the attached document, no, but this document clearly shows that the accompanying document and the principal document were signed by one and the same person.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. And by saying that, you refer to the list attached to this document which is also signed, or what do you mean?

A. Yes. On the list, we see the same signature as we do on the ¹¹⁰²² attached document.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Your Honour, the witness is referring to the list attached to this cover letter.

Q. Do you know who is Munja? Is that a proper name?

A. It's a pseudonym, and I think that under the name Munja was the person of Commander Borivoj Lukic.

Q. Why do you think that?

A. Well, I think that through the other lists, although 11 years has gone by since that time, that pseudonym cropped up. However, in some other documents, we also found that Veljko Vukelic would sign himself using the nickname Munja, or pseudonym.

Q. Did you know that at that time or how did you learn about this fact that Mr. Vukelic also operated under "Munja"?

A. Later on, from the numerous witness statements that were given after that area was placed under the control of the Croatian authorities and when this whole case of the armed uprising was discussed, then people in their statements did mention Veljko Vukelic and he was to be found in the documents as well. He was one of the leaders of the Serbian Democratic Party for Western Slavonia.

JUDGE KWON: Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff, I think I've found the name Munja on page 12 of 17 in the English translation, and I could find it in the B/C/S version. Thank you.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. Witness, looking at the list of fighters, you have as the first person here Commander Borivoj Lukic, Captain First Class. Is that the Mr. ¹¹⁰²³ Lukic that you refer to?

A. Yes, that's right. That's the captain. He was in command of that detachment, the Zvecevo detachment.

Q. Boro Lukic, who was he? Was he a JNA person? Was he a local person? Can you tell us something about him?

A. He was born in Vocin. After the -- before the war, he was a maintenance man for the machinery in the Gaj Slatina enterprise. He completed the school for reserve officers and had the rank of captain first class.

Q. Was he an SDS member? Do you know that?

A. He joined the SDS in its very first days.

Q. Do you know him personally?

A. Yes, I do. I've known -- I've worked with him -- I worked with him for a number of years in the Gaj enterprise, and I know him personally from our day-to-day meetings. We would see each other on a daily basis.

Q. What was his attitude towards Croats? Can you tell us?

A. He was an Orthodox. He was intolerant, and he was among the first to leave Slatina. First of all, he went to the Sekulinci stock where the infrastructure existed for training the reserve members of the army, reserve soldiers. We knew about that because he was out of town for quite some time. And whenever a reservist would leave, we knew that they were leaving in fact to join his detachment.

Q. When did you -- what information did you get that he was the commander? Did you know it at that time already or just through these documents? ¹¹⁰²⁴

A. We knew this straight away, as soon as he left. And at that time -- I think it was May 1991, in fact. As I say, at that time, we still communicated with that area which was later under provisional occupation so that we learnt that he was training people up there. They said he was training the Territorial Defence members.

Q. These other people that are listed on -- as fighters and -- on this list attached to the document we are discussing, were you aware at that time that they had these positions? Could you help us if that is a correct picture of the TO structure?

A. Yes, that was the correct picture of the TO structure. We knew about some of the people and we learnt of others later on, once the documents had been uncovered. But quite a number of people from this list I know personally.

Q. I would like now to turn to the last document that is in this bundle named 57. If you just turn the pages, you come to a document dated 5 November 1991.

JUDGE MAY: Is it in attachment 57, is it, Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Oh, sorry. I just heard that this is actually a document related -- it's numbered 58. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I had it misplaced in my version. It's a document with the number 58 on it.

Q. Witness, this is a document, an authorisation dated the 5th November 1991, signed by Munja, and there is a handwritten remark on it saying, "Veljko Vukelic is the one hiding behind Munja." Do you know how this handwritten note came onto the document? ¹¹⁰²⁵

A. That's what I was talking about a moment ago, that I had seen somewhere in the documents this kind of note. And this was probably written in by one of the duty officers because there were a number of officers working on the case, and when in talking to the witnesses and those who had taken part in the uprising, they learnt that behind "Munja" was the person whose name was Veljko Vukelic.

Q. So this handwritten note was then written, if I understand you correctly, by a Croat policeman and was not on the original when it was found.

A. No. This was written after the knowledge that we had amassed, the information that we -- had been collected.

Q. Veljko Vukelic, is he from Slatina?

A. Yes, he's also from Slatina. He was the secretary of the committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and just before the war, he was Secretary for National Defence in Slatina.

Q. The duties of the Secretary of National Defence, what was it? What did that include?

A. Well, the Secretary of National Defence keeps the records of all recruits and sends out newcomers to do their military training. Reservists are called up. That is one of the duties of the secretariat, to call them up for additional training - they are sent to schools for reserve officers - and they have an overall insight into matters of this kind, all the civil matters with respect to defence.

JUDGE MAY: The time is now half past; time for the adjournment. We're going to adjourn now for 20 minutes. Mr. Matovina, would ¹¹⁰²⁶ you please bear in mind not to speak to anyone about your evidence until it's over during these adjournments, and that does include the members of the Prosecution team. Would you be back, please, in 20 minutes.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you.

--- Recess taken at 10.30 a.m.

--- On resuming at 10.55 a.m.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Thank you, Your Honour.

Q. Witness, before the break, we were speaking about Mr. Vukelic and actually about his position as the Secretary of the Defence -- the National Defence department in Slatina. As a secretary in this position, would he have to work with -- closely with the JNA?

A. Well, he had very close ties to the JNA and cooperated with them very closely.

Q. Because of this position or -- I mean, what do you mean? The duty, the duties of a Secretary of Defence, National Defence, does that include close work and cooperation with the JNA or not?

A. Precisely. His duties included this cooperation, and as far as I could see, his ties with them were very close and his cooperation was on a daily basis.

Q. The Secretary of National Defence in a municipality, would he have working relations with federal organs or republican organs in his work?

A. Well, the secretary had ties strictly with the republican organs and through them received instructions from the federal organs and carried out the policies of the Federal Secretariat for National Defence. ¹¹⁰²⁷

Q. You said that Mr. Vukelic was in this position as secretary before the war. When did he leave this position? Do you know that?

A. I think it was sometime in April 1991, in the very first days of armed insurgency or, rather, the distribution of weapons to the Serbian population.

Q. And do you know what position he took after he left Slatina?

A. I don't know. All I know is that he went to Western Slavonia and that he was one of the leaders of the Serbian Democratic Party, which was in charge of all these affairs, including the arming of the population, establishment of units, and the entire armed insurgency.

Q. This document that we just discussed where there is this handwritten remark on it referring to Mr. Vukelic, it is a document, as we saw, from the municipal staff Slavonska Pozega. Is this place Zvecevo in the municipality of Slovanska Pozega?

A. Yes. It is part of Slavonska Pozega in territorial terms, but this area is closely interlinked by communications.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: I want to put the geographic data more visible to you. We have a municipality map. The problem with this municipality map - we have copies for everyone - but we have reduced it to a format that you can see the municipalities clearly but not so much -- you have to have eagle eyes to see the villages. We have the huge map for purposes here in the courtroom, and we will also provide you all with a huge map but we don't have it yet.

JUDGE MAY: Very well.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: At the moment, we have only the small one, ^{11028 BLANK PAGE 11029} for you to see the municipalities.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Let's see those. Let's give it an exhibit number before we move on. This is both Croatia, is it right, and also Bosnia and Herzegovina?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes, Your Honour.

THE REGISTRAR: Your Honours, this will be marked Prosecutor's Exhibit 333.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Actually, the big -- for the usher, the huge format has to be put on the ELMO. And I can fold it for you so that you have the right part in it.

Q. Witness, can you point out to us the two municipalities we spoke about, that is, Slatina and Pozega. On the map, please, not on the screen.

A. [Indicates]

Q. The witness is pointing at the municipality Pozega. And now can you turn the map a little bit down. Yes. And now the witness is pointing at the municipality Slatina.

A. [Indicates].

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: And could the focus be so that we can more clear -- see more clearly. Focusing on the two municipalities, please. Yes.

And can you now point out to us -- yes. That's fine. Thank you.

Q. Can you now point out to us where Zvecevo was? Zvecevo where we spoke about.

A. [Indicates] ¹¹⁰³⁰

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes. The witness is pointing at the -- almost at the border between the two municipalities.

Q. And now Vocin. Vocin, please.

A. [Indicates]

Q. The witness is pointing at Vocin. And you also mentioned a place Sekulinci. Could you show us Sekulinci?

A. [Indicates]

Q. Yes, thank you. That's enough. Thank you. Witness, speaking of Sekulinci, do you know what was in Sekulinci during the war?

A. During the war and during the temporary occupation of that area, in this depot of Sekulinci, in this area of Sekulinci, there was a camp through which dozens of Croats passed. They were tortured there, mistreated, and two of them were killed, their corpses later found in a clearing.

Q. How do you know that? What is your information on this?

A. There are witness statements from people who had been kept there, tortured, detained for ten days to two months, and we have a statement from one female witness who had been kept there in a metal container, tortured and raped repeatedly.

Q. Did you get this information in your work as a police officer? Were you involved in this investigation?

A. Yes, through the interviews conducted with people who had been detained in those camps and who had managed to survive and reach the free territory. And there were also people who had been exchanged during that ¹¹⁰³¹ temporary occupation. They were exchanged for people from territories under the control of Croatian authorities. Those were mainly kinsmen of high-ranking commanders, and they were exchanged for people, detainees, from the Sekulinci camp.

Q. At what time did this Sekulinci camp exist?

A. From the very beginning of the occupation of that area, that is from the 18th of August, 1991, until the territory came under the control of Croatian authorities. The commander was Zoran Miscevic.

Q. And when did you speak to witnesses and when did you conduct the investigation? At what time?

A. Back in the time when this territory was not under Croatian control, we talked to people who had come from the area of Vocin after an exchange. And after the liberation of this area, all the surviving detainees gave statements, and they are still on record, on file.

Q. And if I understand you, that's December 1991?

A. Yes, December 1991. But not only. There are statements dating back to earlier times.

Q. Turning back to the document that -- the exhibit that we are discussing, I would like to move to the exhibits belonging to attachment 58. It's a list of volunteers of Serbian Radical Party going on leave from the 9th of December, 1991.

JUDGE KWON: And in terms of the proofing summary, what paragraph are we in, please?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: We are in the document -- in the paragraph 21 and 22, actually. TO formations. It's all TO formations, and we are ¹¹⁰³² speaking about the Papuk detachment.

JUDGE KWON: So we haven't gone far, to paragraph 29 --

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone for Judge Kwon, please.

JUDGE KWON: We haven't gone far, to paragraph 29, which the witness stated just a moment ago.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: No, Your Honour.

JUDGE KWON: Okay. Sekulinci. Thank you.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: We're still dealing with the TO formation, as it is in 20 to 23.

JUDGE KWON: Thank you.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. Witness, this list of -- this list of volunteers of the Serbian Radical Party is signed by a person, Rajko Bojcic. Do you know this person and his position during the war?

A. I know Rajko Bojcic personally. He was assistant to Boro Lukic. He has signed here as the commander of the municipal staff of Territorial Defence. Otherwise, he used to be a teacher by occupation who worked in Slatina. However, in the first days of the insurgency, he left for the area where the units of the so-called Territorial Defence were set up, and he served as assistant to Boro Lukic, commander of the unit.

Q. Were you aware that volunteers of the Serbian Radical Party were in the region of Podravska Slatina?

A. We became aware of that towards the end of October 1991 when some persons were exchanged from the territory under occupation. More precisely, they came to Slatina after being exchanged. Those people were ¹¹⁰³³ Croats who had remained up there when the area was cut off from Slatina, and the other territory under Croatian control. These persons confirmed for us that towards the end of October, volunteers of the Serbian Radical Party arrived in Vocin. They were so-called White Eagles. There were about 300 to 400 of them. Some witness statements even mentioned a figure of 600. Several people said, however, that they were 300 to 400.

Q. Did you personally see those volunteers arrive or leave or in between?

A. That was 25 kilometres away from Slatina. We had no way of knowing what was going on in the area. However, eyewitnesses confirmed that these volunteers left the area on six buses towards the end of occupation, and these 300 or 400 volunteers were the last to leave after that massacre in Vocin.

Q. And was there -- are you aware that any other volunteer groups than those from the Serbian Radical Party were in Slatina? Any other volunteers from Serbia than those?

A. I know nothing about any other groups. I know only about this one for which I have a partial list which was found together with other documents in the command headquarters in Zvecevo.

Q. And as the last document from this row of -- from this exhibit, I would like to turn to the exhibit that is marked as attachment 60. Witness, I just want you to have a look at the person signing this document. Do you know this person? Can you tell us who signs it and what his position was?

A. We see here the signature of the command of the area staff of ¹¹⁰³⁴ Territorial Defence, and judging by some other signatures, I believe this is the signature of Boro Radosavljevic, who was also one of the SDS leaders and at the very top of the military chain of command.

Q. Was he a professional soldier?

A. No. He too was a reserve officer of the JNA.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: We can now leave this document, Your Honour. This is actually all I wanted to discuss in relation to this document with the witness. Just for your reference, when you look at number 62, the attachment number 62, you see actually the same -- one of the documents shows the full name of the person we just discussed, Boro Radosavljevic. With the help of the usher, I would like to address with the witness briefly the exhibit - and this is now a new exhibit not yet introduced - it's Exhibit 2775, and it would need -- it's tab 2 in your binder.

JUDGE MAY: How are we going to exhibit the remainder of this witness's exhibits? There seem to be, is it right, another ten exhibits to go --

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes, Your Honour.

JUDGE MAY: -- Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff? Would you like those exhibited together as a separate number and then various tabs within it?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes.

JUDGE MAY: Very well. We'll get the next number.

THE REGISTRAR: That will be Prosecutor's Exhibit 334.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. Witness, this document is a note of the Virovitica Podravina ¹¹⁰³⁵ police administration listing several documents, and if you look at the last two items, they refer to documents -- refer to volunteers from Serbia, a list of volunteers from Serbia. Those documents are signed by police officers. Do you know whether these police officers were working in the police station and dealt with these particular items?

A. Yes. We see the signatures of police officers Miroslav Gumbarevic and commander Mirko Kostelac. The former was on this case from the very beginning, and the list contains an overview of all documents that were made available to the investigators of this Tribunal. The date indicated is the 22nd February 2001, when I was no longer working in the police.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Your Honour, we just submit this document to show how we got it, actually.

Q. Let's now move to the next document in the binder, and it is the Prosecution Exhibit C4328, and it's tab 3 in the binder. Witness, this is a report on the TO staff of Western Slavonia, and I would like you to look at the entries related to the municipal staff of Podravska Slatina. And we find here Boro Radosavljevic, whom you just mentioned, and there is also another person. Do you know -- can you tell us the name -- the correct spelling of this person, this second person listed as commander?

A. The name of this second person is Dragomir Keleuva, K-E-L-E-U-V-A. He worked in the defence secretariat of Slatina, and he too left for the insurgent area at the very outset and carried out various duties, such as commander of the battalion, as we see here. Generally speaking, he was an expert in communications, radio devices. ¹¹⁰³⁶

Q. Thank you. That's all in relation to this document. And we would have to have a -- oh, it's part of the bundle. Sorry. Witness, did -- do you -- do you know a person, an officer, Trbojevic?

A. No, I don't know him. I know he is a colonel of the JNA who arrived in the insurgent area from Novi Sad accompanied by an officer by the name of Simic with a task of consolidating the defence and, as a military expert, strengthening the military component of the units that had been established.

Q. And how -- what information did you get in this regard? How do you know that?

A. Again, through interviews with people from Vocin who know Colonel Trbojevic personally because he is originally from that area.

Q. Witness, you mentioned earlier, in the beginning, actually, of your testimony, you mentioned that the JNA attacked the Slatina police station. When did that happen and what happened?

A. That second attack on the police station in Slatina happened on the 4th of August, 1991, around 2300 hours. From the barracks, 50 kilometres away from the police station, the JNA used heavy weaponry and two BOV armoured vehicles to attack the premises where a transition of duties was being carried out. However, this ceremony took part a little earlier, thus avoiding a catastrophe, because there would have been dozens of dead policemen if the transition of duties took place just a little later.

Q. Did the police officers or -- yes. Did the police officers ^{11037 BLANK PAGE 11038} provoke this JNA attack? Had they done something before that could have provoked them?

A. The attack was not provoked. The attack was not expected either, although for days the guns of the armoured vehicles were aimed at the police station from inside the barracks. The policemen from the police station went to their regular preventive duties in town, and from the nearby hill that was already under the control of the insurgents, several shells were fired at the police station and the military barracks. So in that way, the attack was provoked.

The objective of this attack was for it to take place exactly at 2300 hours when the transition of duty takes place, and --

JUDGE MAY: You've told us that.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] -- when the largest number of policemen are present.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. Let me just clarify something. You said that from the nearby hill there was firing at the police station and the military barracks. Who did that; Croats?

A. No. This was done by the rebel Serbs who came to that area. Later on, we obtained the exact names of the persons who had done that, because --

Q. We would not need the details. Thank you. Did the JNA ever take over Slatina?

A. No, never.

Q. What happened to the JNA barracks in Slatina? Was it taken over ¹¹⁰³⁹ by the Croats at some point in time?

A. After this incident, it became clear that the JNA did not have good intentions vis-a-vis the police and the people in town, the town where they had lived until then without any problems whatsoever. As for the members of the Croatian army, a few days later, they carried out a blockade of the military barracks. And on the 16th of September, the military barracks were handed over to the Croatian army without any fighting and without any casualties or anything. This was done in a peaceful way.

Q. And did the JNA then leave Slatina, those in the barracks?

A. Well, members of the JNA who were doing their military service were allowed to go home. The officers were also released. One of them actually returned on the following day and said that he had forgotten his pistol, and he went looking for it in the barracks. After that day, there was no more JNA in Slatina.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: With the help of the usher, I would like to have put to the witness again the Exhibit 338, the map with the red zone. Witness, this region -- this part of the map that is indicated in red, is that the territory that the Serbs controlled during the war?

JUDGE KWON: Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff, we don't follow the number 338.

THE REGISTRAR: Your Honours, that's Prosecutor's Exhibit 326, tab 2.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Sorry. I used the old --

JUDGE KWON: Thank you.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: ¹¹⁰⁴⁰

Q. If you look at this red zone, is that the territory that was controlled by the Serbs during the war at some point in time?

A. The area is properly marked on the map. That is the area concerned.

Q. How did the Serbs take over this territory? Did they really fight their way into it?

A. No. After they armed the population, after they made sure that they had a proper military establishment, they placed roadblocks on all the roads leading to that area. Quite simply, they did not allow the institutions of Croatian government to function there any longer.

Q. Did the Croatian authorities try to get it back with force?

A. In the period during which the area was under temporary occupation, there were several initiatives of the Croatian authorities for this area to be integrated peacefully into the constitutional system of the Republic of Croatia. Certain people went there, messages were dispatched, and every effort was made to resolve the problem by peaceful means. However, the Serb insurgents did not agree to this at all, although people were aware that most of the population would have agreed to it. However, military groups and the military establishment did not allow this at all.

So after the massacres in Cetekovac and Vocin were carried out and after all the crimes they had committed between the 12th and the 13th of December, 1991, these units indeed forced the population to act according to their wishes. So together with the population, they withdrew to the Pozega-Kamensko-Pakrac line where, afterwards, the UN protected area was ¹¹⁰⁴¹ established. So this was the area in the direction of the Pakrac.

Q. Let me stop you here, and let's turn to the Exhibit C2685, and it is tab 4 in the binder.

THE REGISTRAR: Your Honours, that's Prosecution Exhibit 334.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. Witness, this is an investigative file related to a massacre that you just referred to. You mentioned already Cetekovac, and I would like to discuss a few details from this file. Did you yourself deal with this incident in Cetekovac, Balinci, and Cojlug?

A. Yes. I personally coordinated the activities of the officials who worked on collecting the information and evidence connected to this first major massacre that was carried out at the very outset of the insurgency of a certain portion of the Serb population. I was at the actual scene of the massacre. I saw the victims. I took part in retrieving their bodies and compiling all the information needed for this case.

Q. Were these villages Cetekovac, Balinci and Cojlug, were these Croatian villages?

A. Cetekovac was purely a Croat village. As for Cojlug and Balinci, the population was mixed. All three villages are practically interconnected and they are all along the road that leads to Vocin.

Q. When did the massacre happen?

A. The massacre happened on the 4th of September, 1991, around 9.00, in all three of these villages.

Q. Were Croatian military forces in these villages?

A. No. There were only civilians there. As for the persons killed, ¹¹⁰⁴² there were two policemen who happened to be in the village then because it was their day off, and they were from that village.

Q. How many people were killed?

A. Twenty-two civilians were killed and two policemen. This number includes three women.

Q. How were they killed?

A. They were killed by firearms from close range. There were victims who were stabbed by knives as well. Most of the corpses were massacred later, and two bodies were set on fire.

Q. In your investigative file, you have listed the 24 victims, and you also list a lot of perpetrators. To which unit did those identified perpetrators belong? Do you know that?

A. This was the first charge sheet that was filed after the massacre. These are members of a special platoon that operated within the Papuk detachment. It is actually -- the number involved is actually larger, but this was the first information that we had obtained when talking to witnesses.

Q. You said that you were actually on the scene and present and saw bodies. Were the villages also destroyed? Do you know that? Could you see that?

A. Most of the houses were torched and blown up. Houses were shot at from heavy weapons, mortars. In Cetekovac, practically half of the village and even more was destroyed.

Q. Do you know whether JNA soldiers were involved in this attack?

A. No. As far as we know, the JNA did not take part in this attack. ¹¹⁰⁴³ It was only the local people, including those from the surrounding area.

Q. Let's now move on to Vocin. Did you investigate the -- what happened in Vocin as well?

A. Yes. Again, I was involved in the coordination of the activities of some 20 officials who were engaged in this case, because this was a rather large-scale task, and it came just after the area was brought under Croatian control.

Q. Was it a Croatian village or was it a mixed village?

A. Vocin was a mixed village.

Q. Did Croats leave this village when it came under control, under Serb control?

A. A smaller number of Croats were forced to stay up there. Actually, they could not leave the area. During the occupation, a number left the area either illegally or through exchanges. Otherwise, for the most part, there were Serbs there.

JUDGE KWON: Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff, before going too far, it's about the events in Cetekovac.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: No. This is --

JUDGE KWON: Yes, we are in Vocin, but before we go too far. Are those events included in the indictment? You said -- according to the summary, it's crime base, but could you clarify that matter.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Cetekovac is not included in the indictment as a charge, I only refer to this incident with the witness to describe that there was a widespread systematic attack occurring in various places. Therefore, I also did not go into many details. The crime base is ¹¹⁰⁴⁴ actually Vocin, and we will speak now about Vocin and then can actually conclude this testimony.

JUDGE KWON: That's very helpful. Thank you.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. You said that Croats were forced to stay. How were they forced to stay?

A. Well, they couldn't leave the area because all communications were under the control of armed Serbs.

Q. Were they not allowed to leave? Did someone force them to stay and not let them out?

A. Yes. On the day when the police station in Vocin was taken by the rebel Serbs, that is to say the 19th of August, 1991, all Croats were gathered in one place from the streets where they predominantly lived in Vocin and beyond, and they were told that from then on, they had to recognise the authority of the SAO Krajina, that the regulations of the Croatian state were no longer in force and that they had to remain in the area of Vocin, where they were given work duty. Because in addition to the military authorities there, there was also the civilian authorities that had been established too.

Q. You said that some Croats left illegally. What do you mean by they left "illegally"?

A. Well, during the night, they got into the woods and came to Slatina where they testified about all the terrible things that happened up there during the temporary occupation.

Q. What happened up there? What did -- what was done to the Croatian ¹¹⁰⁴⁵ population?

A. The day the police station was taken, all Croats who had weapons with permits, that is to say hunting guns, pistols that they had had from earlier on, all these weapons were taken away from them. Their houses were searched. They were looking for about 50 rifles with which they had allegedly been armed by the Croatian authorities. They were shooting at these people's houses. They were intimidated, and there was systematic mistreatment. Individuals were taken to Sekulinci camp. They were mistreated there, beaten. Some persons even went missing. Until the present day, six persons from that area are missing. No one knows where they are.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: With the help of the usher, I would like to put to the witness the Exhibit C2684, and it is tab 6 in the binder.

THE REGISTRAR: Your Honours, that's Prosecutor's Exhibit 334.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. You just mentioned -- you just mentioned Sekulinci camp, and this is a document related to a person -- medical document, actually, related to a victim Mr. Zdravko Volf. Did you have dealings with this victim Mr. Volf?

A. No. I have a document of Darko Bozickovic, a policeman, that's what I have here in front of me.

JUDGE KWON: He was an accompanying person.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes. Oh, sorry. Yes. Yes. Sorry.

Q. Do you know about this case, that the patient was beaten on the 22nd of August in Sekulinci and Macute? ^{11046 BLANK PAGE 11047}

A. Yes, this is policeman Darko Bozickovic. Zoran Miscevic took him to Sekulinci, and over there he was beaten up, tortured, and then released. Subsequently, he joined the Croatian police in Slatina. He is one of the four policemen who were Croats who, when the police station in Vocin was taken over, was disarmed and then they were expelled from the police.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Want the help of the usher, I would like now to put to the witness the Exhibit C2687.

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] In tab 6, I only have a list with four names on it, of four local persons from Slatina and who were sent to the JNA. I don't have any of the documents that the other side is referring to.

In the case of the previous witness, I had some documents that were completely different, not the ones that the other side was referring to.

JUDGE MAY: We'll make sure you got a copy. Between now and the adjournment, between now and the adjournment, Mrs. Uertz-Retzlaff, could you make sure the accused has a copy of tab 6.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Mr. Milosevic has, actually, the documents but they are, unfortunately, in a different order given to him. So I'm sorry. I just hear that. He has -- the reason for this is that the -- he got the exhibits in advance, and actually when I prepared for this testimony, I slightly changed the order and it was, unfortunately, not reflected. ¹¹⁰⁴⁸ The accused actually has it, but we can --

JUDGE MAY: He can't find it if it's in a wrong place. Could you make sure he gets a copy in the same order as we have.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes, Your Honour.

JUDGE MAY: And if on any occasion you give us exhibits in a different order, you might as well give him a copy too.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: The problem arose actually on the weekend when we found out that Mr. Samardzic could not come, and therefore we could not adjust the documents for the accused. So today is a little bit out of the usual.

However, I would like now to turn to the document C2687, and it's tab 7. And to assist Mr. Milosevic, we are actually speaking about three medical documents related to Vocin. They should be one after the other.

Q. We have here a document related to a victim Antun Simic, and it says that he was beaten on the 19th of August, 1991, in Vocin. Are you aware of this incident?

A. I know Antun Simic personally, and I know exactly when this incident took place. He was one of the people who managed to get away from the occupied area by taking to the woods, and he saved his life in that way. But he has serious and lasting adverse effects from the beating, and he now feels all those adverse effects from everything that he lived through at the Sekulinci camp.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: With the help of the usher, I would like now to put the document 2688, and that's tab number 8, to the witness. And it refers to a victim, Kresimir Doric, who, as it says on the document, was ¹¹⁰⁴⁹ beaten up on the 29th of August, 1991.

Q. Are you aware of this incident?

A. Yes, I am. There is a statement by Kresimir Doric pertaining to the event which took place on the 29th of August, 1991. And here we have the medical records as well. He is in Slatina today. He's working there as a driver, and he also suffered adverse effects.

Q. You mentioned the Vocin massacre. When did it happen?

A. The massacre happened between the 12th and 13th of December, 1991, which is to say the last day that the rebel Serbs held the area under their control, as well as the paramilitary units.

Q. Who -- what happened and who did it?

A. Well, when the withdrawal took place, the special purposes unit of the most extreme group of men, and according to the witnesses they say between 60 and 80 of the White Eagle members were with them, and they perpetrated the massacre of the civilian population. And to all intents and purposes, they destroyed the whole of Vocin.

Q. When you mention "White Eagles," what does it mean? Is that the unit -- is that what we spoke about before, volunteers of the SRS party, or is this another group?

A. Yes. They were the volunteers that we mentioned earlier on. It was a group of men which was set up together with the special purposes unit, and they carried out that massacre in Vocin. Another larger group one day -- one or two days before that, had left the area.

Q. How many persons were killed?

A. According to what we were able to establish on the basis of ¹¹⁰⁵⁰ documents, because the massacre was not carried out only in Vocin but there were massacres in a number of localities around Vocin, the total number of people killed was 45, and most of them or, rather, all of them were civilians.

Q. Did you bring your investigative file with you when you came to The Hague?

A. Yes. I brought my notes with me, and I can explain the other localities where massacres took place apart from the one in Vocin.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Your Honour, we did not have this investigative file beforehand. The witness brought it with him. And we do not intend to tender it because it's not translated, but I think it would be helpful if the witness could use his file so that we just can go through the names of the victims as they are in the indictment. It would --

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: -- probably assist him if he could do that.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. And do we have it exhibited at tab 9 of whatever it is, Exhibit 334?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: No, Your Honour, because we didn't have it.

JUDGE MAY: What have we got at tab 9, since I've got it open?

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Tab 9 is actually the people who were expelled from Vocin.

JUDGE MAY: Very well. Thank you.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: We do not have the file and also not the list of victims. What we want to exhibit here is actually the annex to the ¹¹⁰⁵¹ indictment. This is what we would like to become an exhibit, because we have on this -- in this annex, we have the names of the victims.

JUDGE MAY: Very well. If the witness can confirm it, of course.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes.

JUDGE MAY: Yes. Could we have the copy, please.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: I would like to be put to the witness the Annex I of the indictment with the list of victims from Vocin. And at the same time, I would ask Your Honours to allow him to consult his notes.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, of course, if they were notes made at the time. Were these notes part of the investigation, Mr. Matovina?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. Yes, they were.

JUDGE MAY: Very well.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Those notes were part.

JUDGE MAY: You can refer to them when you're giving this part of the evidence.

And Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff, we must have a copy, please, in due course, of this exhibit for our files.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes, Your Honour. And we actually have provided a copy of this investigative file to Mr. Milosevic so that he can follow. We just didn't want to enter it because it's not translated.

Q. You can use your file, sir. Mr. Matovina, you can use your investigative file that you have with you.

A. Thank you very much.

Q. On number -- on pages 20 to 22, you have a list of victims. Just look at this. And it's also a help for Mr. Milosevic, it's on page 20 and ¹¹⁰⁵² the following two.

And let us look at Annex I of the indictment. Could you confirm that those listed in the Prosecution annex, if you go through the names, are these names --

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Please. In what you've just provided me with, I have under this tab just seven pages with a list of individuals.

JUDGE MAY: Coming up is the list. Yes.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. If you go through the list from the first name, Simic, Jaga, through to Ivankovic, Drago, were these people killed during the Vocin massacre in December 1991?

A. Yes. As far as I was able to count them, there are 31 victims here, 31 people who were killed in Vocin. However, when we dealt with the Vocin case, our final numbers were -- that is to say between the 12th and the 13th of December, 1991, when this massacre took place, our final count included several other locations one or two days before or perhaps on the same day when a number of people were also killed. So that in the village of Hum, for example, which is four kilometres away from Vocin, Marko Vukovic was killed, born in 1934. And then there was Djuzel Marijan. 1931 was his date of birth. Roman Ridl, born in 1932. And that body was burnt. And Ivo Banovac, born in 1934.

In the village of Kraskovic on that same day when the withdrawal took place, the Kovac family was liquidated. Zlatko Kovac, born in 1966; ¹¹⁰⁵³ in Djuro Kovac, born in 1922; Ana Kovac, born in 1927; and Pista Kovac, born in 1953.

Then we come to Zvecevo, which is where the Slavko Perisic family was killed. He was born in 1914. And Ana Perisic, born in 1920.

Q. What about -- what about a Bokane?

A. In Bokane, three bodies were found. Stojan Nenadovic was killed. He was born in 1914. He was a Serb who did not wish to leave when the rebels wanted force him to leave. And then the married couple, Tomislav Martinkovic, he was born in 1939, and Katica, his wife, was born in 1936. Their bodies were found buried in Vocina. The bodies had been buried but the heads were found in fertiliser bags and were brought to the headquarters Tutavalije [phoen] by the White Eagles, and they were handed over to the duty officer at the headquarters. His name was Ninko Djukanovic later on he testified, or rather, he's mentioned in the witness statements.

Q. And let's turn to the annex, this annex of the indictment. When you compare this, your investigation, the list of the victims with the annex of the indictment, is the annex correct?

A. Yes, the annex is correct. All I wish to mention is that the unidentified individual was thought to be like Zeljko. And later on, through the witness statements, he was in fact identified. He was a member of the Croatian army who was imprisoned at the police station in Vocin. He was held in detention there, and his body was found with handcuffs on his hands and the body was partially -- had partially been burnt. ¹¹⁰⁵⁴

JUDGE MAY: Let the list be exhibited. We have a copy now.

THE REGISTRAR: Your Honours, that's Prosecutor's Exhibit 335.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. Just -- I'd like to ask you about two persons on the list. The first person is Branko Medic. Is that the correct spelling?

A. Yes. I think it is Branko Medic, yes.

Q. I ask you, would you please check your own investigative file on page 20. There is a Branko Nedic, born 1959.

A. It is Medic with an "M". I think it was Medic, "M," Branko and not Nedic "N."

Q. And if you also have a look at Marija Matanci. Is that correct?

A. Matanci, Franjo, and Matanci, Marija.

Q. I ask because in your investigative file you have Marija Majdancic, born 1990. I just want to confirm, what is the correct name of the victim Marija?

A. Majdancic. M-A-J-D-A-N-C-I-C.

Q. Yes. Thank you. That would -- this is, then, correct in the list, in the annex. Thank you.

These people listed in the annex, were they civilians or are there any soldiers among them?

A. All of them were civilians except Zeljko Laik who had been held in detention in Vocin.

Q. And that is, as you said, the unidentified person on the annex.

A. Yes, at the time the list was completed, but he was identified later on as being Zeljko Laik. ^{11055 BLANK PAGE 11056}

Q. Thank you. The bodies, were you involved in the finding of the bodies?

A. After we learnt of the massacre and when the Croatian army arrived in the area, that is to say when the rebel Serbs and their units had retreated, the day after that happened, we started pulling out the dead bodies, and most of the corpses were in the houses, although some of them were outside in the open, and eyewitness identification on the spot was carried out and then post-mortems were conducted. The bodies were transferred to Slatina. Some of the bodies were taken to Osijek for the post-mortem to be held there, and I think that some of them -- for some of them, the hospital in Virovitica conducted the post-mortem examinations.

Q. Moving on --

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF:

Q. Moving on from what happened in Vocin, you said in the beginning that the municipality -- you told us about the ethnic composition in the municipality. How did it change after the war?

A. Well, the war quite certainly caused migratory processes, not only in the locality of the former Slatina municipality but further afield as well. In the Slatina municipality in the throes of the war, when we were systematically bombed by JNA planes and when more than 400 shells were dropped, quite a number of refugees came into the area, about 4.000 refugees from Kosovo, expelled Croats from there, over 5.000 refugees who came in from Bosanska Posavina, and then also in Slatina a convoy of refugees were stopped which was expelled by the JNA from Ilok. Part of ¹¹⁰⁵⁷ the refugees from Vukovar as well had to be put up in Slatina, and to add to all this, refugees from Vojvodina and Serbia turned up, Croats which were -- who were exposed to pressure there so they came to seek accommodation in Croatia.

So this enormous influx, this column of refugees, remained largely in the Slatina area. And it was at that time, if I may say so, that it created a humanitarian catastrophe. This was an enormous problem, how to put up all the refugees that had come in and how to ensure that they all had a roof over their heads.

After the war --

JUDGE MAY: Now, just pausing there so we can understand this. These refugees were Croats; is that right?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Exclusively Croats, yes. After the war, some of the Serbs who had taken part in the armed uprising exchanged their houses for the houses of Croats who had come in from Vojvodina province. Some of them had come in from Bosnia and the Republika Srpska. Some of them sold out their properties to state agencies, and this process is still ongoing, this process of selling one's property or exchanging one's property for somebody else's, depending on where the people finally decided to stay.

So these were migrations that were taking place as a result of the events that had come to pass and the war, and they without a doubt influenced the ethnic composition not only of Slatina but in the district and further afield as well.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: ¹¹⁰⁵⁸

Q. I actually forgot to put one exhibit to you, and I would like to now. This is Exhibit C2691, and it is tab 9 in the binder. If you please have a look at this exhibit and tell us what it refers to.

A. This document refers to Croats who were refugees and had come from Vocin after the massacre was committed up there, after almost the whole of Vocin had been destroyed so that they had nowhere to live. And they came to Slatina, and this list tells us which families they were put up with until the infrastructure was set up to accommodate them and until they were able to go back to their own homes.

Q. Does that mean that Vocin was destroyed, the Croatian homes were destroyed?

A. Almost entirely. The church was shelled of Our Lady of Vocin. That was shelled to the ground. And there were several tonnes of explosives released. This enormous explosion led to the destruction of hundreds of other houses where the roofs were shattered. And for example, the roof of that church was thrown two kilometres from the church itself as a result of the explosion. The whole infrastructure was destroyed; the health centre, the bus station, the fire engine department, and many, many other buildings, and Vocin resembled Hiroshima.

JUDGE MAY: Just help us with one matter which I would like clarified, Mr. Matovina. You're dealing with Vocin. You said that after the Serbs withdrew, "We pulled out the bodies," and most, you said, were in the houses. Who did you mean by "we," and did it include you?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No. I was in Vocin the second day. ¹¹⁰⁵⁹ But when I said "we," I meant the police officers, workers in the police force who went out to conduct an on-site investigation. And also the members of the Croatian army who assisted them when these bodies were found.

JUDGE MAY: Thank you. Ms. Uertz-Retzlaff, are you coming to an end with this witness? It's almost time for the adjournment.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: Yes. I actually only have one question left.

Q. And it refers to your investigations. Did you file charges against persons suspected to have committed the crimes in the Vocin area and Cetekovac? And if so, what became of the charges?

A. After the crime processing had been conducted and all information collected, criminal reports were filed with the District Court and prosecutor's office in Osijek, and the prosecutions in question undertook an investigation. However, most of the individuals, especially those who were involved in organising the armed uprising and indeed those who were the ringleaders of all the events that took place, were not accessible, either then or now to the Croatian courts because they are located on the territory of Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, et cetera. And a small number, a far smaller number of individuals who played a peripheral role in the armed uprising have been held accountable and punished, however, some of these were exchanged. So that to all intents and purposes, nobody was actually held responsible for these events.

In the meantime, the Croatian Sabor, or parliament, and the Croatian state passed a law forgiving them. And most of these crimes were ¹¹⁰⁶⁰ qualified -- they were amnestied and most of these crimes were classed as an armed uprising, and this was incorporated by the amnesty that was proclaimed. So that it was only from the area of Slatina, the former municipality of Slatina that over 1.600 people were amnestied by the law that was passed.

Q. And those amnestied, were the soldiers actually the TO members or were they higher ranking?

A. Well, they were members of the TO from the lists that we have just been looking at, and many of them did hold higher ranks as well. All this was shown to be a more mitigating form for purposes of tolerance. It was a gesture on the part of the state, in fact, to amnesty --

JUDGE MAY: We really don't want any political comment of this sort. It's not going to assist the trial. If Mr. Milosevic chooses to ask you about it, then you can answer, but it doesn't assist at the moment.

MS. UERTZ-RETZLAFF: These are all the questions of the Prosecution.

JUDGE MAY: Thank you. We will adjourn now and sit again in 20 minutes.

--- Recess taken at 12.22 p.m.

--- On resuming at 12.45 p.m.

JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic. Cross-examined by Mr. Milosevic:

Q. [Interpretation] Mr. Matovina, is it true that in -- until 1990s you were one of the prominent members of the League of Communists in your ¹¹⁰⁶¹ area?

A. No, that is not correct. I was a member of the League of Communists or, rather, the Social Democratic Party just as the majority of those who were on the police force at the time. It was then called the militia, of course.

I was not a leading member.

Q. All right. But you were a member of the League of Communists. For how long?

A. Well, perhaps for 15 years.

Q. Fifteen years. In your statement, you said that you were acting chief of the Secretariat for Internal Affairs in Slatina in 1989 and 1990.

A. From 1988 to 1990 when the former chief was appointed president of the municipality, and the same Communist Party did not give me approval on moral grounds to become chief.

Q. As far as I understand, you were replaced by the HDZ, not the Communist Party.

A. They did not replace me because I had never been appointed. I was acting chief very briefly before the new chief that we discussed was appointed.

Q. All right, then. This new chief who took your place, was that Stjepan Gujmerac?

A. Yes. He took the job in 1990, and his predecessor was Kresimir Libl.

Q. So Stjepan Gujmerac, who was a member of the HDZ, took your job?

A. I don't know if he was a member of the HDZ. ¹¹⁰⁶²

Q. While you were chief, you were engaged in public security jobs.

A. That's correct.

Q. Tell me, how many Serbs were there in 1989 and 1990 in Slatina?

A. I have already said something about the ethnic composition in the former municipality of Slatina. It was 57 per cent of Croats, 36 per cent of Serbs.

Q. I'm not -- I'm talking about the town itself.

A. Well, in the town of Slatina, I believe the ratio was a bit different, something like 48 per cent of Croats and 40 -- I can't really remember how many Serbs there were in the town itself.

Q. They were in the majority in town, weren't they?

A. No, they were not.

Q. And what was the security situation while you were chief?

A. I have discussed that too. I said that with the first democratic elections, the security situation became more complex with every day, mainly in terms of propaganda and psychological activities that emanated primarily from the leadership of the SDS and some of the insurgent Serbs who refused to accept the results of the election and the introduction of the democracy because, under communist rule, they used to have the upper hand in politics, defence, economy, and occupied all the leading positions, although they were in the minority in the area of Slatina.

Q. You said it became more and more complex. Do you mean to say that after the elections, the situation deteriorated?

A. Yes. Yes.

Q. All right. Is it true that after the HDZ came into power, you ¹¹⁰⁶³ became one of the vehicles of violence against the Serbs; illegal arrests, violence, seizure of property, expulsions, et cetera?

A. That is not true. Back then, and today as well, I had many friends among the Serbs, and they could always find in me a good collaborator on the job, a good colleague, and a friend. If you are talking about tolerance and broad-mindedness, I believe I have these qualities, and I believe hundreds of Serbs from where I come from can testify to that.

Q. All right. Tell me, is it true that you played a prominent role in the arrests of over 400 Serbs and their detention in the investigative prison in Osijek? Those were mostly prominent intellectuals and renowned people who were arrested for the only reason that they were Serbs. Do you know that there are witnesses who can testify to that, that you --

JUDGE MAY: Remain on the point.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. -- tied them --

JUDGE MAY: The question you were asked was, first of all, this: It says you played a prominent role in the arrest of over 400 Serbs and their detention in prison in Osijek. Can you help us with that as to whether that's right or not.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No, that's not true. Over the past few years, when work was done on investigation of the armed insurgency, I didn't do all the work. A lot of material was gathered in the investigative centre. Sixty to 70 persons were detained, and after being processed, they were either released or exchanged. I don't know exactly ^{11064 BLANK PAGE 11065} what happened to them, but they were turned over to the judiciary, and I didn't handle these investigations myself. I didn't touch the hair of one single Serb's head.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. When you say "taken into custody," that means arrested, doesn't it?

A. I mean persons who participated in armed insurgency and about whom we had evidence that they had been members of the units that we have already mentioned.

Q. I asked you whether "taken into custody" means arrested.

A. They were brought before the investigative judge in order to give a statement, following regular procedure. There are documents about that compiled by the police, again following procedure.

Q. All right. Is it true that among those people who were detained, there was Milan Jorgic, who is now director of the elementary school in Backi Brijeg, Tine Jorgic, and Mica Bozo Jovic and others? Is that true?

A. I'm not familiar with these names, although as far as this Jorgic is concerned, I know him, but I don't know that he had ever been arrested or taken into custody. But if it had been done, it was done according to procedure, legal procedure, and this must be on record in the Prosecutor's office. There is appropriate evidence.

Q. Is it true that Ivan Fekete also took part in this violence against the Serbs? This man frequently beat Serbs who were tied up in a lavatory that was turned into a prison.

A. That's not true. Ivan Fekete is a police inspector who simply ¹¹⁰⁶⁶ doesn't behave in that way. I know that man personally.

Q. All right. Is it true that Milan Jorgic used to work in the elementary school in Slatina but due to being beaten up and attacks by your group, he had to leave Croatia although he wished to stay?

A. I'm not aware that Milan Jorgic was ever beaten up or that any pressure at all was brought to bear upon him.

Q. Fine. Is it true, according to statements of refugees from Slatina, that you were one of the organisers of the ethnic cleansing against Serbs in that area?

A. Of course not. If I had any say in it, there would never have been a war in the first place. My world views are entirely different from what you are trying to suggest.

Q. All right. You are claiming that Serbs in the area of Podravska Slatina did not have much education. Is that what you're saying?

A. No, it is not. I was only saying that the extremist wing of the SDS skilfully indoctrinated and used some Serbs - not all of them - for their own purposes and made their actions so radical that it had an impact on the further course of armed insurgency.

Q. So you are saying that they manipulated these people who were mostly poorly educated?

A. They did manipulate a certain number of people. I never generalised anything, and I never spoke about collective responsibility or anything else in collective terms in relation to any nation at all.

Q. Do you know that it was precisely in Slatina, speaking of intellectuals, there were many more intellectuals among Serbs than among ¹¹⁰⁶⁷ Croats?

A. Well, I never counted intellectuals in either group, but it is a fact that all managers in larger enterprises were Serbs. For 45 years after the previous war, the chief of the police station in Slatina could not be a Croat. Heads of departments in the national defence secretariat were always Serbs. All the key positions in the town and in the territory of the former municipality of Slatina were occupied by Serbs. Furthermore, Croats could not be officers except for very few in the JNA. You get my drift, I believe.

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Do you mean to say that after the new government came into power, the key positions continued to be occupied by Serbs, including the police, the army, public services?

A. Yes. And there is evidence of that. In all key positions and in the majority of state organs in the economy and government, you only had Serbs. For instance, in Krapina, for 30 to 40 years a Serb was the chief of police. Customs officers and the head of the customs office, all of them were Serbs.

Q. Do you know about other places except Krapina? Do you know how many Slovenes held such positions on boarder crossings?

A. I didn't count. It is a matter of common knowledge. These issues were widely written about in the press in Croatia, in Bosnia, in Slovenia. That was common knowledge all those years. And as the years went by, the issue came to the fore. ¹¹⁰⁶⁸

Q. When you say "the press," you mean propaganda.

A. Well, not all of the press is propaganda.

Q. All right. Let us not engage in a general debate. Tell me, do you know a prominent citizen of Slatina, a Serb, a lawyer by profession, Milan Vukovic?

A. I don't know the man personally. I believe he's from Orahovica, but I never had any personal contact with him. I don't know where he is nowadays.

Q. All right. But is it true -- you were in the police, after all, at the time; is it true that before the war he was president of the Municipal Court in Orahovica and, after that, president of the District Court in Slavonska Pozega?

A. I don't know the positions he occupied because he came from the area of Orahovica and I never had any contact with him.

Q. Do you know that in 1991, after the HDZ came into power, he was replaced from the position of president of the District Court in Slavonska Pozega and opened his own law office returning to Slatina where you were chief of the SUP?

A. I told you what position I occupied before the war and for how long. But that doesn't matter now. I have already answered that I had no contact with Milan Vukovic, and I don't even know that he is in Slatina today.

Q. Do you remember that in August 1991, by a group from the ZNG and a group of citizens from Rostas, he was arrested and taken to your police station? ¹¹⁰⁶⁹

A. No. I don't know about that. I never heard about the event, nor did I ever see him on the premises of the police station.

Q. Is it true that it was precisely you who attended his torture in the SUP when he was threatened with a knife, left to lie on the bare concrete floor and cigarette butts were thrown onto his body? Is that true?

A. No, and I can swear to that. It never happened. I never witnessed anything like that, nor did I do anything like that, nor could I have done anything like that, and I am prepared to swear to it on my life.

Q. According to my information, it was precisely in your police station that he as a peace-loving citizen, a lawyer, former president of a court, a model citizen --

JUDGE MAY: The witness has said it is not true. Let's move on.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. So do you know that he was systematically beaten and that he could not walk for months? From his toes up to the top of his head, he was beaten up all over.

A. I don't know about that. And I certainly do not know anything about this. In my life, I did not even torture an animal, let alone a human being.

Q. All right. Is it correct that Ante Simara was president of the municipal committee of the HDZ in the period that you referred to in your statement?

A. Yes. He was in charge of the government and he was president of the HDZ. ¹¹⁰⁷⁰

Q. All right. Since you held the position that you did, I assume that you have to know that this man was the main protagonist of systematic intimidations and an entire series of crimes against the Serbs in the area of Slatina. Is that correct or is that not correct?

A. I don't know what you mean. I know that he was an MP, that he was the deputy of the government when six members of the Executive Council who were Serbs walked out of the Executive Council and in this way blocked the work of the Assembly and the Executive Council. At that time, the government had to appoint a special deputy to be in charge and he was the one. I don't know about what you've been referring to, these intimidations, tortures, and I can't remember what else you said. I don't know about that. I cannot confirm that. That certainly is not true, though.

Q. All right. Do you know what happened to a local Serb, Nikola Kosic, who was then employed at the Jugobanka branch office in Slatina? You'd have to know in all probability that this man was killed in the autumn of 1991.

A. Yes. And this crime was investigated. Persons were brought in for questioning and were even convicted subsequently. Court proceedings were initiated and carried out. That is to say, both the police and the court acted.

Q. Are you trying to say that the perpetrators of his murder were actually sentenced?

A. They were, and there are also valid legal judgements to prove that. ¹¹⁰⁷¹

Q. Give me the names of the perpetrators who were actually convicted and sentenced.

A. I don't know exactly. There are several persons who were tried, and later on, when there was abolition or, rather, when a large number of citizens who were ethnic Serbs were abolitioned for the crimes they had committed, then a number of members of the Croatian army were also included in this abolition by the Croat authorities. But for a while they were in prison, and they had been convicted.

Q. All right. Does that mean that --

JUDGE MAY: Your reference to "abolition," is that to amnesty?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes.

JUDGE MAY: So the murderers of Mr. Kostic you say were convicted but in due course they were amnestied. Is that the point?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] After having been in prison for a while, their sentences were reduced or, rather, they did not serve their entire sentences, the ones from the judgement that had been passed.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. All right. Since you were in the top echelons of the police, I assume that you would have to know about the killing of Milutin Gunjevic, which was committed in September 1991.

A. Yes.

Q. Were his murderers ever brought to justice?

A. In that period, as I already said, it is true that several murders were committed. The Croatian authorities condemned this rigorously, and this was done during this general turmoil when the town was full of ¹¹⁰⁷² refugees, when massacres took place, killings, shellings, and when during this general commotion during the war the police could not prevent all these cases. However, as far as all these cases are concerned, there are relevant files, on-site investigations were carried out, and all these files were submitted to the public prosecutor's office. So some investigations are under way until the present day, and some perpetrators were brought to justice.

Q. All right. But the killers of Milutin Gunjevic were never brought before a court of law; is that right?

A. They were not found.

Q. Oh, they were not found?

A. They were not identified.

Q. All right. Tell me who killed -- or, rather, was the killer of Gojko Oljaca ever captured?

JUDGE MAY: We cannot go through every single event, serious as though they may be, and murder cases. We are dealing with a much broader spectrum here of events. What the witness has said is that there were murders, he accepted that, during the turmoil, as he put it, and the police couldn't prevent all the cases. Now, we cannot deal with every single incident in Slatina during this time.

If you want to put it, put it in a general way.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, Mr. May, what I mean is that if we're talking about a very small place like Slatina, if this witness was chief of police, he would really have to know about an entire series of murders of prominent Serbs from his town. ^{11073 BLANK PAGE 11074}

JUDGE MAY: Very well. How many Serbs are you suggesting, prominent Serbs in Slatina, were murdered? Just give us the overall figure and we'll put it to the witness.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Mr. Matovina, how many Serbs were killed, then, in Slatina?

A. I don't know the exact number. There were killings of both Serbs and Croats. All of this happened, as I already described, during this general turmoil that prevailed during war. And I said that had the police not acted to the extent it had acted, it is certain that there would have been even more murders, primarily because all these people who came to the area without a thing in their hands came with all their frustrations as well. They were outsiders. They were refugees from Vukovar and Ilok. They were ex-police from Kosovo and Vojvodina, not to mention the fury that was escalating day after day because of all the massacres and killings that were taking place in the occupied area.

Q. Tell me, please; you claim that somebody was expelled from Serbia. Do you know that that is not correct and that no one was expelled from Serbia? From Kosovo to Vojvodina, nobody was expelled from Serbia.

A. I don't know, then, why all these refugees came from Kosovo, why they all came to Croatia. Also, I don't know why Croats from Vojvodina, from Hrtkovci and from the other villages there, those people who came with tears in their eyes and little shopping bags in their hands, why did they come to look for houses in Slavonia so that they could exchange their own? Why did they talk about pressures that were exerted against them in Serbia? Grenades were thrown into their yards, they were threatened with ¹¹⁰⁷⁵ murder, and there were other forms of exerting force that can actually be carried out.

Q. Do you know of a single case of a murder? Are you aware of any murder of any Croat in Serbia? Were any of their houses torched or were they beaten up or any such thing?

A. There were thousands of refugees, hundreds of them that were coming in. I did not carry out all the investigations on my own. I did not summarise all this information by myself, but all the information is there, and it is certain that they did not come of their own free will. And how did this happen to occur during the war and during the armed rebellion that Croats came from Vojvodina --

JUDGE MAY: This is all a matter of argument, Mr. Matovina, and in due course, we're going to have to decide. As far as you're concerned, you can go no further than saying that these refugees arrived in Slatina, and no doubt this is what they told you.

Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Tell me, do you have an explanation as to why the well-known anti-fascist Stanko Garaca was killed in Slatina, a holder of the 1941 Partizan Memorial Medal. I'm sure that you knew him.

A. I assumed that he was killed by perpetrators unknown during those first days of the conflict. We carried out an extensive investigation, however, the perpetrators were never found. This case is still being dealt with by the public prosecutor's office.

Q. However, Mr. Matovina, all these killings of Serbs who were ¹¹⁰⁷⁶ residents of Slatina is something that you do know about, being chief of police there. Do you claim that you could not have done a thing in order to establish who the perpetrators of the killings were and to bring them to justice?

A. As for certain murders, we did find the perpetrators, and also for certain incidents that were a safety and security problem, namely the burning of houses, damaging houses, et cetera. We certainly didn't resolve all the cases, but for those that we did know about, we did not conceal anything, and we did take measures.

Q. But without any results; is that right, Mr. Matovina?

A. You are talking about murders that took place during the war. Do you think -- I mean, I think that as the architect of this war, you would have had to know that --

JUDGE MAY: No. Mr. Matovina, we can't really go into this argument. Just deal with the matters that you can give evidence about, please.

Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Mr. Matovina, are you trying to say that Slatina was a theatre of war and that in this war that was waged in Slatina, there were killings of these Serbs?

A. It is certain that Slatina was a theatre of war because systematically from the occupied area, it was shelled. I said already that there were over 400 artillery attacks, also aircraft attacks. Also there were infiltrations of persons from the occupied area. Then also ¹¹⁰⁷⁷ there was a case when a railway was blown up, a railroad, when a train was supposed to pass through there during the night. All these killings and massacres that I have referred to, I think that at that time a person had to be in Slatina in any position in order to realise what war really meant and what wars brought along with them.

Q. All right. Do you know precisely in Slatina that these Ustasha group of Tugomir Benes and Sinisa Kosutic carried out many torchings and expulsions of Serb houses precisely in the territory of your municipality where you headed the police. Is that right or is that not right?

A. It is certain that various localities were blown up and we tried to prevent this from happening. And if it did happen, we brought the perpetrators to justice. Also with this small number of policemen that we had, we made a maximum preventive effort in order to reduce the number of such cases to the greatest possible degree.

Q. How many such cases that you referred to, and there were few of them according to your records, how many of them were there actually, Mr. Matovina?

A. I told you that I did not carry out all the investigations by myself. And as you say -- I mean, I told you that I held a particular position, but I did carry it out with full responsibility and with all my other co-workers to the extent possible during a war.

Q. Are you saying that you do not know how many houses were blown up, torched in the area where you were chief of police and so on and so forth, in addition to the murders that you did not manage to resolve?

A. I cannot give you the exact number, but there are precise figures ¹¹⁰⁷⁸ at the police station. That is to say that these cases were dealt with.

Q. Give us an approximate number.

A. I cannot, because I would be misquoting the figure involved.

Q. Is it three houses or 300 houses or 3.000 houses?

A. It's not three, it's not 300, it's not 3.000.

Q. So approximately we're talking about which order of magnitude?

A. I said I cannot tell you the number. I would be giving you wrong information.

Q. All right. Can you deny the fact that entire Serb villages, for example, Gornji Miholjac, Somborje, Greda, Medinci, Aleksandrovac [phoen] were totally destroyed, levelled to the ground?

JUDGE MAY: When? When, Mr. Milosevic, are you putting that this happened so that we may understand your case? Did this happen before or after the war, as it's been called? Before or after December 1991?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] It is precisely in the time that this witness is talking about, Mr. May. That is to say, the year is 1991. That's the year that we're talking about.

JUDGE MAY: Very well. Let the witness deal with that.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] It is not correct. These villages still exist. People live there and one can go and take a look.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. So it's not correct that these villages were levelled to the ground? These are Serb villages. Who lives there now?

A. They're not levelled to the ground. People live there. The same people who lived there, or those who exchanged houses or bought houses ¹¹⁰⁷⁹ depending on the circumstances involved how people resolved questions pertaining to their status.

Q. How many Serbs are there in these villages now, Mr. Matovina?

A. I don't know exactly. You're asking me too much. I did not keep such records.

Q. All right. Do you know who is behind these crimes of destroying these Serb villages?

A. The perpetrators --

JUDGE MAY: No. Just a moment. You cannot misrepresent the evidence, Mr. Milosevic, something you're guilty of frequently. The witness just said the villages weren't destroyed, so you can't then put a question saying that they were.

But one of the things which the accused put earlier, Mr. Matovina, was this, that there was what he called a Ustasha band who was responsible for crimes. Against Serbs, that is. Was there such a band or something like it? Were there people going around committing these crimes?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] That's not correct. Sinisa Kosutic, that Mr. Milosevic mentioned, was in the military police. He's an ethnic Serb. How could he go around blowing up Serb houses?

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. What about this other group of Tugomir Benes?

A. Tugomir Benes was also on the reserve police force. He was never involved in such things, as far as I know.

Q. So neither Kosutic nor Benes. And you claim on the basis of what Mr. May just said due to the best of his understanding, that the villages ¹¹⁰⁸⁰ I mentioned to you were not destroyed. That's how he understood you.

A. The villages were not destroyed. Some houses were blown up in some of these villages.

Q. All right. And am I mistaken if I say that in none of these villages was there ever a single member of the TO or was a single bullet fired or were there any war operations, these villages that I referred to? Is that right or is that not right, Mr. Matovina?

A. Some members of the TO were precisely from these villages, and after these massacres were carried out, there was the possibility of revenge, of retaliation by certain persons, and everybody was fully aware of it. So we acted in a preventive fashion so that such things would not happen in these villages, or at least to the least extent possible. That is the instructions on which the police operated.

Q. All right. But you did not answer my question. But is it true that there were no war operations in these villages or that there were no armed formations of any kind in these villages? Is that right or is that not right?

A. That's right. There were no operations in these villages.

Q. But there was this destruction, and you say that it was only partial, not complete throughout these villages. Was this out of revenge, or how do you explain this?

A. Well, probably it was out of revenge. I spoke about all the atrocities that took place, and it is quite possible and true that there were individual radicals and that it was difficult to leash them in, radicals against whom the police and the authorities were energetic in ¹¹⁰⁸¹ combatting.

Q. All right. Tell me this: Do you know about the fate of the villages Djurji [phoen], Sekulinci, Kometnik, Lisicine, Drenovac, Pusina, Krasovic? These are all Serb villages. Do you know what happened to them?

A. These villages, just like all the other ones, when the paramilitary units withdrew, the villages were damaged. As I've already said, the village of Cetekovac, Vocin, Hum, et cetera, Zvecevo and all the other villages in that area.

Q. And who were the perpetrators who did this?

A. Who did it? Well, this was done by the paramilitary units, the ones which were withdrawing. And quite certainly there were individuals as well on the Croatian side against whom we were struggling against and trying to prevent them from doing things like that.

Q. Now, do you claim that it was the Serbian paramilitaries who destroyed all the Serbian villages that I just enumerated, that I just read out?

A. Well, in part, yes. Who destroyed Vocin, for example, Hum, Cetekovac, Zvecevo, those villages?

Q. Well, that's what I'm asking you. Who did do that?

A. Well, I've given you an answer.

Q. So it was the Serbian paramilitary units which destroyed the Serbian villages; is that what you're saying?

A. Well, they destroyed everything in their path. They set fire to everything and killed the people who didn't want to join them and leave ^{11082 BLANK PAGE 11083} with them.

Q. Yes. I heard you say a moment ago -- you mention the name of a Serb a moment ago who had allegedly been killed because he refused to go with them. Is that what you're claiming?

A. Yes, it is.

Q. Now, tell me this, in view of the fact that this is a very specific question: How many attacks on the JNA barracks were launched? The JNA barracks were right beside your police station, weren't they, in Slatina? So you can tell us that.

A. There was not a single attack, and for our part, we had very good relations with them and didn't expect an attack at all. We didn't expect the attack that was to come to pass on the 4th of August, 1991. We considered that there were no grounds for that, no reason for an attack of that kind, because we thought that the army was going about its business and that there was no danger coming from the barracks, from that quarter. However, as I have already said, the intention was that when the transference of duty took place, that both the police shifts were to be destroyed, both those people going to take up their duties and take over.

Q. All right, Mr. Matovina. From what you have said with respect to these actions, it would seem that only one policeman was injured in all that melee. Is that true?

A. Yes, that's right.

Q. Why, then, are you talking about destruction and two shifts of the police force if only one policeman was wounded?

A. I've already said that on that particular occasion, the shift took ¹¹⁰⁸⁴ place half an hour before the usual time of 2300 hours, and the gunfire from the heavy weapons and the armoured vehicles were directed to the premises where this takeover of duty was taking place, and this -- there were no policemen there, but this particular police officer, the one who was injured, was providing security for the building. The other policemen had left to perform their duty elsewhere.

Q. Well, from what you've just said, it would appear that they weren't informed. Were they inside? Were they not inside? How could they not have been informed if you yourself say that they were 50 metres away from the police station? And now say that the policemen had left the police station to carry out their duties on the ground. Do you really imagine that they weren't able to see from a distance of 50 metres that the policemen had left the station?

A. Well, the building was in darkness, and during the attack, they probably were not aware of the facts. As the attack was conducted precisely at that time when this shift taking over was to be conducted, the intention was clear.

Q. All right. So what you're saying is that from a distance of 50 metres, they weren't able to see that the policemen had in fact left. Tell me this now: How long were the soldiers kept in the barracks under siege without food or water?

A. The soldiers had food and water the whole time they were kept there. The siege of the barracks followed on from the attack. It came after the attack launched at the police station or, rather, after the massacre had been committed in Cetekovac, because that particular ¹¹⁰⁸⁵ massacre, the one we talked about a moment ago, was perpetrated on the 4th of September and the barracks were taken over on the 16th of September. So this was one week prior to the takeover of the barracks when the blockade was effected, because it was clear what the intentions were of the army. It was quite clear that in the barracks, preparations of the reservists had been conducted and that the weapons of the Territorial Defence which was in the warehouses within the compound --

JUDGE MAY: You're going a long way from the point, Mr. Matovina. Yes, Mr. Milosevic. Your next question.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Mr. Matovina, you say that the siege went on for a week, until you took over the barracks. Just one week; right? So you kept the soldiers there without any electricity or water in those barracks; is that correct?

A. The soldiers did have electric power, water. Food was brought in to them at regular intervals. They had everything they required except for the fact that the telephone communications had been cut.

Q. All right. Mr. Matovina, didn't you say during your examination-in-chief a moment ago that there was no JNA near that place called Cetekovci and everything that happened there, that you did not have any information with respect to a clash with the JNA?

A. I told the truth, and I am telling the truth. I said what the role of the JNA was in the training of the reservists and the distribution of weapons, and I also talked about the attack on the police station and how this course of events took place and how it -- the barracks came to be taken over. ¹¹⁰⁸⁶

Q. Didn't you yourself say that there was no fighting, that the soldiers left the barracks when you took it over? Isn't that right?

A. Well, the soldiers went to their own houses, the rank and file, whereas the officers were allowed to leave. They were taken to Bjelovar, in fact, and they gave back what they were issued. And I said that one of the officers came in his own car. He was able to move around freely, and he came to pick up the pistol that he had left in the barracks. So nothing happened to any of them.

Q. So there was no clash with the army, and the army left; right? And the fact that they opened fire on that particular day, that was to caution you, in fact, to warn you not to keep them in a blockade and that they didn't kill anybody. Is that so or not, Mr. Matovina?

A. No, Mr. Milosevic. That was on the 4th of August, and the blockade followed after the 4th of September, that is to say after the massacre in Cetekovac had taken place.

Q. And the army had nothing to do with that. You said that too, didn't you?

A. What I said was that it took part in the training of the reservists, that it distributed weapons, transported the convoy, and took the weapons around.

Q. So you personally, Mr. Matovina, know nothing except the fact that all the recruits were trained from all parts of Yugoslavia, all those who were doing their military service; isn't that so?

A. Yes, recruits are trained. However, it was unusual that it was precisely from the Slatina area and the area around Slatina that the ¹¹⁰⁸⁷ reservists were called up, reservists of the Territorial Defence who were exclusively Serbs. They were called up for training in the barracks. That was unusual. And after the training had been completed, they took weapons off with them and went to the insurgent areas.

Q. And how do you come to know that?

A. Well, why wouldn't I? There was testimony from those officers or, rather, members of the TO who later returned and lived quite freely. They returned to their own houses and lived in their homes. I spoke about the law on amnesty as well, I mentioned that. And the return of the people who had previously left the region. So of course, all that later on became evident.

Q. All right. Let's cut this short. Is it true that the attacks launched on the Serbs, against the Serbs and members of the army were conducted in general by paramilitary units of Ivica Belami and the other man Dzuro Decak? You must have known that as the chief of police, chief of SUP.

A. No, they are not from Slatina and they have nothing to do with that.

Q. Well, you're talking about things that don't concern Slatina alone. I'm not only asking you about that case in point, the one that took place in Slatina, but I'm asking you whether these units, the Belami and Decak units, whether you knew what they were engaged in, involved in.

A. Well, I said that I spent the entire war in Slatina. I said that a moment ago. And I also said loud and clear what jobs I performed during that time. So the Croatian army, at that time, was being established, and ¹¹⁰⁸⁸ units, each in its own region, were responsible for the state of affairs, no doubt, and the assignments they were issued.

Q. All right, then. So you know nothing about the activities of these paramilitary formations of Belami and Decak; is that what you're claiming?

A. What do you mean "paramilitary"?

Q. Well, call them whatever you like. What I'm asking is do you know anything about the activities of those units? You say you know nothing. Is that what you're saying?

A. I don't know what you're referring to. I don't know of any specific case in concrete terms.

Q. I'm asking you in quite concrete terms what you know about the activities of the Belami and Decak units.

A. All I know is that in Virovitica, the problem there was the occupation of the barracks. The barracks were taken over by the National Guards Corps. That's all I know.

Q. Well, was this perpetrated by the two of them?

A. Not only the two of them but others as well. Other officers too. The Home Guard Corps, the ZNG, when the armed conflict broke out in Croatia with the JNA and when the JNA was threatened, then these units quite certainly blocked the JNA barracks and prevented them from going into action.

Q. Well, all right. But you know when the order was given to block all the JNA barracks, that the JNA did not attack anybody and that it was in its own barracks on the Croatian section of its territory. Isn't that ¹¹⁰⁸⁹ right, Mr. Matovina?

A. Well, I don't know. All I do know is that the JNA took the side of part of the insurgent Serbs. It armed them. It bombed and shelled towns from the sea and from the air. And another thing I know is that, during that time, the entire Croatian people were proclaimed as the aggressor people.

Q. Do you know how many Croats were members of the JNA at the time and how many Croatian generals were in the JNA and other high-ranking officers from Croatia? How many of them were members of the JNA, the JNA being composed of all the ethnic groups living in Yugoslavia, all the nations and nationalities?

A. Well, I don't know how many Croats there were. All I do know is that the ethnic composition was not proportionate to the population in the area of the former Yugoslavia, and I know who played the dominant role therein.

Q. In your statement, you mention that according to the memorandum issued by the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, there was some fabricated border of a Greater Serbia, that this is something that cropped up and stretched along the Karlobag-Karlovac-Virovitica line.

JUDGE MAY: He's not given evidence about this. We've heard a great deal about this line from other witnesses, so I don't think we're going to be assisted by asking something he has not given evidence about. He hasn't mentioned it in his evidence.

Now, what is the point of going on about something -- just a moment -- something which he hasn't given evidence about? What are you ¹¹⁰⁹⁰ trying to prove by this?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'm not trying to prove anything, Mr. May. All I'm trying to do is to demonstrate to you here that the witnesses have learnt their little songs very well by heart, taught them by the other side, and this is absurd. Now, whether he testified to this or not, this is what he says on page 2 of his statement. "According to the memorandum --"

JUDGE MAY: No. I'm not going to let you give evidence about something in his statement unless there's some relevance to it. Now, he hasn't given evidence about this, and it's his evidence you should concentrate on, not something in his statement.

Now, what is the point of this question? You say it's to demonstrate something or other, using terms and making wild allegations against the Prosecution.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Are you forbidding me to ask the witness something that he wrote down in his statement?

JUDGE MAY: Yes, unless you tell us the reason for it. What is the reason?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, my reasons are to show that the witness is not telling the truth, A; and B, that the witness doesn't know what's talking about. That's my second point.

JUDGE MAY: You claim that it is showing bias. Is that the point?

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Well, I don't even need to emphasise that. That is so blatantly obvious.

JUDGE MAY: Very well, you could put the point, but explain in ^{11091 BLANK PAGE 11092} future, shortly, why you're doing it. You don't have carte blanche to ask any question you want. Now, go on. Ask the question shortly.

THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May, despite all your bias and prejudice, you did not succeed in preventing me from asking the witness --

JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, you will not make those sort of wild allegations. I've told you before. Now, if you want to conduct this cross-examination and not waste any further time, ask the question you want to.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Mr. Matovina, in your statement, on page 2, you claim that: According to the memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Art and Science, the imaginary border of a Greater Serbia stretched along the line of Karlobag-Karlovac-Virovitica, which was an unfortunate circumstance for the Croatian population living in the region. Those are your words. For this idea of a Greater Serbia to be put into practice, this area was populated with rural Serbs from Bosnia, the rural Serb population from Bosnia. The Yugoslav central government through local politicians would implement the population of these areas. There were a lot of empty houses for these rural Serbs in this area, and that's what you say in your statement. Isn't that so?

Therefore, you are claiming that these ideas were ones that you had seen in the memorandum put out by the Serbian Academy of Science. Have you read the memorandum that you're talking about? And which portion of the memorandum speaks about the Greater Serbia that you're talking about? ¹¹⁰⁹³

A. Well, this is a generally known point and platform when the armed uprising began of part of the Serb population in Croatia. That was common knowledge. And in all the -- all the leaders of the SDS refers to the Historical Border of Karlobag-Karlovac-Virovitica, that particular line. And even Dr. Raskovic on one occasion said that if the Croats wanted to have a state of their own, they would have to -- they would be able to see it from the top of the cathedral in Zagreb or that it would be a state which you would be able to tour in half a day on your bicycle.

JUDGE MAY: Yes.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. All right. You claim that it's what it says in the memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science; is that right?

A. No, that's not what it says in the memorandum. Rather, the memorandum was carried out in such a way as to change the ethnic composition of the population. Once upon a time, there was a Croat majority in Ceralije and Bokane, for instance. As Croats resettled ever since the previous war, Serbs were brought in in larger numbers. As far as I know, that's also what happened in this corridor that we mentioned.

Q. All right. Since it doesn't say so in the memorandum, do you know when this memorandum was written at all, in which year?

A. Well, I never dealt with it in great detail.

Q. But you are testifying about it.

A. I read it, and I know that the entire platform was in fact based upon it.

Q. Are you sure you've read it? ¹¹⁰⁹⁴

A. I have.

Q. All right. I'll ask you tomorrow to show me the quotations from which you derived these conclusions.

JUDGE MAY: We won't be going into that. We're not playing some complicated game like that.

Now, move on to something else.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. Please tell me, what do you imply when you say "rural Serb population from Bosnia," as I just quoted to you from your statement? Who do you mean? What is "rural population from Bosnia"?

A. The people who were resettled were mainly peasants from villages in Bosnia, and they were moved into villages which stood vacant, into houses which were empty, with sale signs in front of them. That was the general intention.

Q. Tell me, since you say that the central Yugoslav government populated this area via their local politicians, how was it done? In which way, and who headed this central government? Who composed this government and when did this resettlement programme begin?

A. Perhaps this formulation in the statement is not quite correct. I allow for that possibility. But it is well known who did this, and it is also well known that the process took part gradually ever since the previous war.

Q. So you're talking about the time following the Second World War; 1945, 1946 onwards?

A. Yes. That's the time period we're talking about. From the World ¹¹⁰⁹⁵ War to until the armed insurgency.

Q. So from 1945 to 1990, the Yugoslav government resettled peasants from Bosnia in that area?

A. Well, not all the time. You are trying to twist my statement in a different way.

Q. So what time are we talking about since you say it's not all the time?

A. Well, we can say that the process never really stopped throughout the time, but it was more pronounced from 1980 onwards when it was already clear that Yugoslavia would disintegrate.

THE INTERPRETER: Microphone, please.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. So from 1980, there was intensive resettlement of people, in accordance with the policy of the central government, of peasants from Bosnia, Serb peasants from Bosnia?

A. Yes, partly Serbs from Bosnia. For instance, certain villages were populated only by them.

Q. From 1980 onwards.

A. Yes. Before 1980 and after 1980.

Q. All right. All right. You say it was a strategic plan using rural population from Bosnia, a plan of the central government of Yugoslavia, who found it easier to manipulate these --

JUDGE MAY: No need to repeat it. Now, let's move on to something which is more relevant than what we've been dealing with.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation] ¹¹⁰⁹⁶

Q. All right. Tell me, then, what government are we talking about? Let us at least establish that much. Could you at least tell me who the Prime Minister was or the name of any cabinet member?

JUDGE MAY: No. We're not going into this sort of game. Yes. Let's move on.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. All right. Mr. Matovina, would you be so kind as to tell me who explained to you all these things about the memorandum, the Yugoslav government who had this fatal plan, this demonic plan they carried out after the Second World War and especially after 1980? Who explained all this to you in the first place?

A. Well, I suppose that even as a man in the street, let alone a person who was personally involved in all these events, I was able to work out for myself what was going on and what the objective of the memorandum was.

Q. All right. Mr. Matovina, do you have any idea at all when Serbs came to settle in these areas that you mention? Do you know that they --

JUDGE MAY: No. We're not going into a history lesson here. Mr. Milosevic, deal with something more immediate.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. All right. Mr. Matovina, are you aware, for instance, of the fact that after the proclamation of the Independent State of Croatia and Slavonia -- correction, from Slavonia 105.000 Serbs were expelled, people who had lived there since 1900? One hundred five thousand of them, and most of the them were from the district -- ¹¹⁰⁹⁷

JUDGE MAY: The question is: Are you aware that 105.000 -- or is it the case, to be fair -- it's being put in a thoroughly tendentious way. Is it the case that 105.000 Serbs were expelled from Slavonia when the Independent State was declared? Can you deal with that? And then we shall adjourn.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] No. I'm not aware of this figure, and I don't even know which Independent State of Croatia Mr. Milosevic is aiming at. Does he mean the one established in 1990 after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, or he means the one which existed during the World War II?

JUDGE MAY: This will be the last we question. We're dealing with the modern, up-to-date, relatively up-to-date matters. In the period that we're dealing with or afterwards, were any Serbs expelled from this area, that you know of, the area of Slavonia?

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] As far as I know, they were not expelled, and I don't know about this figure.

MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

Q. All right, Mr. Matovina --

JUDGE MAY: All right. We're now getting --

[Trial Chamber confers]

JUDGE MAY: Can I remind everybody that we're sitting tomorrow at 9.30 until 4.00 or so. The same hours on Wednesday. The cross-examination, Mr. Milosevic, you will have the first session, if you need it, to continue your cross-examination of this witness. We'll then go on to the next witness. I gather that he's better; is that right? ¹¹⁰⁹⁸

MR. NICE: The prospects are very good. He's better today, and we have every reason to believe he'll be here tomorrow.

JUDGE MAY: Is that the view of the Prosecution or the view of the doctors?

MR. NICE: The view of the witness and with whom the Prosecution has spoken. The doctor is being seen just to check.

JUDGE MAY: All right. Very well. Mr. Matovina, would you be back, please, at half past nine tomorrow morning.

THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Thank you. I will.

--- Whereupon the hearing adjourned at 1.57 p.m., to be reconvened on Tuesday, the 8th day of October, 2002, at 9.30 a.m.