October 28
Under questioning by defense attorney Steven Kay, Dusko Tadic's continued to tell his version of the events leading up to and following the fall of Kozarac in 1992. Once again, Tadic stated that the town changed in the spring of that year, particularly after the SDS takeover of Prijedor on April 29.

The SDS is the Bosnian Serb political party led by Radovan Karadzic, who is accused by the tribunal of genocide and other war crimes.

At the end of the day, Tadic was still undergoing direct examination. On Tuesday he is expected to face prosecutor Alan Tieger's cross-examination.

Tadic, who was so calm when he took stand on Friday, seemed a little more excited today. Several times, Kay had to tell him to slow down because the translators couldn't keep up with him. Sometimes he wanted to give more information than was warranted by a question, forcing Kay to guide him back to the issue at hand.

One could see people with weapons everywhere in Kozarac in 1992, Tadic said, describing a sense of desperation settling over the area as people grew to question whom they could trust. But he chose to remain in town, operating his coffee bar, even though his wife, daughters, and mother left.

Tadic said he was asked to join a delegation of Kozarac citizens who went to Prijedor to negotiate with the new Serb authorities. In Prijedor, Tadic met Simon Drljaca, the new Serb police chief, who issued an ultimatum that all policemen had to sign a loyalty pledge and wear a Serb insignia on their uniforms. Those who chose to resign were ordered to turn in their weapons.

Tadic claimed that several Muslim policemen in Kozarac were willing to sign the pledge. But threats of "liquidation" by others in town dissuaded them. By May 23, he said the time had come for him to get out of Kozarac. He got a ride with a neighbor to Prijedor, where he took a train to Banja Luka and rejoined his family.

Tadic's version of two return trips to Kozarac in early June matched those of his brother, Ljubomir, who testified a few weeks ago. He said he and his brother returned the first time to find most of their belongings intact. But when they came back with a truck, most of what they owned had been looted. Tadic denied having any role in the ethnic cleansing of the town, claiming that virtually no one was there by the time he and Ljubo arrived.

The defendant's account of his being mobilized into the Prijedor reserve traffic police also matches the testimony of others. He said he started his new job on June 16, at which time he was assigned to the Orlavci checkpoint. Tadic insisted that he never missed work when he was stationed there. Following his reassignment to guard the bus and railway station in Prijedor, Tadic was finally transferred to the Kozarac police in September of 1992.

Tadic testified in detail about his election as secretary of the local Kozarac commune and his assumption of the presidency of the Kozarac SDS. He downplayed both moves, saying his only goal was to save the town after authorities called for it to be razed.

Asked if he had ever been to Omarska, Keraterm, or Trnopolje, the prison camps where prosecutors say he brutalized and killed inmates, Tadic said, "No," except for one visit to Trnopolje with defense witness Jovo Samardija, to help him locate his sister.

October 29
Defendant Dusko Tadic completed his testimony after undergoing several hours of cross-examination as prosecutors tried to deliver a knock-out punch.

Prosecutor Alan Tieger began by asking Tadic about his involvement in the expulsion of Muslims from Kozarac. Tadic denied knowing anything about it.

Rather than being contentious, Tieger spent much of the time contrasting Tadic's direct examination with what Tadic told German authorities and tribunal investigators. Tieger pointed out several discrepancies, particularly the dates relating to the period when Tadic was first mobilized into the Prijedor reserve traffic police.

The defendant never denied that he'd given conflicting accounts. Every time he was asked if he'd given a particular statement in the past, he said it was possible. He stressed that the story he has told is true but admitted that he has always been unsure of exact dates. When he first spoke to German authorities, he said he assumed that he didn't need to be precise because he supposed that work records from this period would back him up.

Other questions arose:

The Rifle: Much was made of a certificate allowing Tadic to have possession of a semi-automatic rifle. It is dated from the beginning of May 1992 -- before the fall of Kozarac -- and it indicates that the weapon was issued to Tadic as a member of the territorial defense. According to the defendant, he was given the gun by a deserter from the war in Slovenia. He obtained a blank certificate from his brother and filled it out himself. But in an earlier interview, the defendant seemed to indicate that he had received the certificate from someone in Prijedor. Tadic's explanation: he actually had two fake certificates and was confused as to which one the earlier investigators were asking him about.

The Uniforms: Tadic has given varying estimates of how many uniforms he owned and which ones he wore. He testified that he wore a blue police uniform as a traffic police officer at the Orlavci checkpoint. But he conceded that he may have worn a camouflage uniform there -- but only when his regular uniform was being laundered. Some prosecution witnesses have placed Tadic in prison camps wearing camouflage. Tadic admitted he told German authorities months ago he never owned or wore a uniform.

The Work Report: A lot of time was devoted to a letter or "work report" the defendant wrote in August of 1993, which was recovered from his home in Germany at the time of his arrest. Tieger referred again and again to portions of this document, which he claimed is, in part, an autobiographical account of the defendant's actions prior to the fall of Kozarac. According to the prosecution, Tadic does the following in the letter:

• He denounces Serbs who cooperated with Muslims or failed to vote in his plebiscite;

• He claims he was active in the securing of weapons and other preparations before the takeover;

• He professes himself to be committed to the Serb cause and the establishment of Republika Srpska.

Tieger accused Tadic of intending to send this document to SDS authorities in Prijedor, including Radovan Karadzic.

Not surprisingly, Tadic's explanation is quite different. He claims most of what is contained in the letter is not his opinion. Instead, it is taken from reports he had access to as secretary of the local Kozarac commune. He implied that it was prepared to aid him in his struggle against the military's continuing efforts to mobilize him, even though he was supposedly exempt because of his work in Kozarac.

With that, Dusko Tadic's cross examination came to a close.

October 30
After twenty-six days and forty witnesses, the defense in the war crimes trial of Dusko Tadic ended its case- in-chief. The last two witnesses it called were used to undermine the credibility of previous prosecution witnesses.

Dragan Petrovic, an investigator from Belgrade, identified photographs he took in Kozarak. The first set of photos he identified depicted the "triangle" -- sometimes referred to as the "square," even though it only has three sides -- in the center of Kozarac, down the main street from the Tadic family home. Several prosecution witnesses have described seeing the defendant in this area as Muslims were surrendering to Serbs following the shelling of the town. These photographs, however, seem to suggest that it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to see some of the things these witnesses have described.

Petrovic also identified some photos of light poles near the Serb Orthodox Church in Kozarac. He testified that the pole closest to the church does not have a working lamp. He said the priest at the church told him the light has been out since before the war. This evidence may be intended to refute the June 14 testimony of Nihad Seferovic, who claimed he was hiding across the street from the church when he saw Tadic slit the throats of two Muslim police officers. Seferovic testified that he hid in an plum orchard. Petrovic said he didn't see any orchard at that site.

The cross-examination of this witness was fairly brief, and mainly concerned the type of camera lenses used to take the photos in question and the possible effect the lenses might have on perceptions of distance or depth.

The final witness, Thomas Deichmann, a freelance German journalist, was called as an expert on German media. The defense hopes to persuade the tribunal that many of the witnesses who claimed they recognized Tadic as the man they saw in Serb-run prison camps actually remember him from seeing him on television or in newspapers and magazines.

According to Deichmann, the media in Germany covered the Tadic case extensively, particularly at the time of his arrest, his first hearing, and the beginning of his trial. In all, Deichmann said his research suggests that the major German television stations aired at least 59 reports mentioning Tadic between February 1994 and October 1996; a minimum of 27 of those pieces included video or photographs of the defendant. These totals don't include references to the case in documentaries or video magazine pieces. Deichmann played an excerpt from one such documentary, "War Criminals in Germany."

With that, the defense rested. The prosecution rebuttal is scheduled to begin Nov. 5.