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September 16
Court was in recess.
September 17
Judges rejected the defense motion to dismiss some of the charges against Tadic, ruling that they would wait until the end of the trial to decide whether the prosecution has proven the charges against Tadic beyond a reasonable doubt.
Later in the day, the first Croat witness to testify on behalf of Tadic took the stand.
Witness U, a Croat who married to a Serb, lived in Kozarac for 42 years before the war and knew Tadic's family for some 30 years.
When Kozarac was shelled in May 1992, U sought shelter in the hills above Kozarac. He was taken out of the city with thousands of other people, mostly Muslims. Many Serb soldiers organized the exodus. But Tadic among them, U said.
U claimed that Tadic's political position after the attack was a result of his enthusiasm for rebuilding Kozarac. Tadic was elected secretary of the local commune. U insisted Tadic was given such a post because he was one of the most fervent supporters of returning to the city. U said he knew nothing about Tadic being politically tied to the Serb military or to the people who ran the prison camps in northern Bosnia.
On cross-examination, the prosecution pointed out that the board Tadic sat on was the one that decided who could come back to Kozarac. Currently, there are virtually no Muslims there and few Croats. The rest of Kozarac is composed of Serbs, many of whom live in homes once occupied by Muslims. U obtained one of those houses. At first, he said the Muslims who lived there died "in the operations." But then he recanted that statement, saying he knows nothing about what happened to the family.
Prosecutor Michael Keegan also tried to show that witness U profited from the attack on Kozarac. He accused U of owing a lot of money to the people of Kozarac. He said that when U delivered their pensions in the mail, he then would ask for loans. Keegan suggested U never paid back the money and that his creditors were searching for him. Keegan accused U and his wife of looting from their neighbors after the attack on Kozarac. U denied all of this.
September 18
Court was held for only a half day in closed session. Witness U has finished testifying and that Witness W is on the stand now. According to the tribunal press office, W will continue to testify in closed session all day Sept. 19.
The only information released about these witnesses is that they are from somewhere in the former Yugoslavia. We do not know if they are Croats, Muslims or Serbs, although it is doubtful they are Muslims. Neither the defense nor the people in the tribunal office will say if the witnesses are male or female or if they are alibi witnesses
September 19
Witness W, whose identity is being protected by the tribunal, continued to testify in closed session.
September 20
Witness W testified in closed session.
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