Posted on 09/22/2007 7:56:22 AM PDT by joan
THE HAGUE, 21.09.2007.
General Sead Delic, former commander of the BH Army 2nd Corps, testifies at the trial of Rasim Delic. In September 1995, Sead Delic was in charge of carrying out a part of an operation, code-named Hurricane, on the Ozren-Vozuca front. The prosecution tenders a video recording of Alija Izetbegovic visiting that part of the front
General Sead Delic, former commander of the 2nd Corps, is testifying at the trial of Rasim Delic, former commander of the BH Army Main Staff. He is testifying about an operation the BH Army launched on the Ozren-Vozuca front in September 1995. The codenames of the operation were Farz and Hurricane.
The witness happens to have the same name as the accused, as he explained, but they are not related. He personally drafted a part of the plan for an attack on Vozuca codenamed Hurricane. The 3rd Corps unit were tasked with carrying out the other part of the operation, codenamed Farz.
In the examination-in-chief, Sead Delic said taking the Vozuca pocket was of great strategic importance for the BH Army because it meant that Zenica could be reached from Tuzla by road. According to the Main Staff guidelines signed by Rasim Delic, tendered into evidence by the prosecution, other key strategic tasks of the BH Army in 1995 were lifting the siege of Sarajevo and capturing territory on the fronts facing the UN protected areas of Zepa and Srebrenica.
The prosecution tendered into evidence a video recording made on 11 September in Vozuca, after it was taken. It shows Alija Izetbegovic, president of the BH Presidency, visiting the units that had taken part in the fighting. The witness confirmed that the footage was taken in Vozuca, a day after the operations began. He was able to identify some of the BH Army officers. Two members of the El Mujahid Detachment are also visible in the footage.
The witness confirmed that in Visoko in late August 1995, the accused Delic signed maps for operations Farz and Hurricane. However, in the cross-examination, he clarified that he himself made the plan for the engagement of the 2nd Corps. Rasim Delic’s signature merely meant that ‘the operation could begin’, allowing the corps to get the ammunition they needed. He himself commanded the operation, he claims.
The defense also tried to prove that the accused Delic could not know on the basis of the maps he had signed what units, subordinated to the 2nd and 3rd Corps, would take part in the planned operations. The witness confirmed that the commands of the brigades those units were part of would decide on that. He also confirmed that only summaries of the reports the corps received from their subordinate commands would reach the Main Staff.
Kadir Jusic, a previous prosecution witness, testified that the members of the El Mujahid Detachment participated in Operation Farz, subordinated to the command of the 35th Division. Jusic was the chief of staff in the BH Army 3rd Corps, which carried out a part of this operation.
The prosecution claims Delic knew about the crimes that the members of the El Mujahid Detachment committed against about 60 VRS soldiers and some Serbian civilians in the course of operations Farz and Hurricane. The defense challenges that allegation. Delic is charged with failure to prevent or punish the crimes committed by the Mujahidin, on the basis of command responsibility.
ping
He did. He approved Iranian (and other) weapons for the Muslims while he and the media propagandized these Muslims as peaceful, multicultural, and multiethnic Bosnia. The media pushed and still pushed the Bosnian Muslims as different than the reality on the ground.
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