MAY 29
Mirsad Mujadzic continued to describe how the government in Bosnia-Herzegovina was slowly destroyed by the Serbs.

He began before the 1990 elections when it became clear that Serb nationalism was rapidly increasing. At first, Serb officials apologized for the misconduct of some who were tearing dwon opposition placards abnd spewing natiionalist rhetoric.

But after the SDS (Serb party) lost most of the electionss in Prejidor, the Serb party leaders seemed ready to discard democracy and ready to arrogate power by force. In all of the elections, the SDA (the Muslim party of which Mujadzic was a high-ranking official) gave the SDA more than they deserved based on the election results. The Serbs wanted control of at least 50 percent of the republic's government. Eventually, Mujadzic said he was even willing to give in to that unfair and anti-democratic request. He was told by Radovan Karadzic and others that there would be grave consequences if the Muslims tried to stand in the way of the Serbs.

His testimony concluded with more about Karadzic's threats leading up to the Serb takeover.

MAY 30
Misrad Mujadzic continued to descrobe how the Serbs took over cities in Bosnia-Herzegovinia by force.

There were some intersting points in his direct testimony.

@ Having no idea that the Serbs were poised to take control of Prejidor, he dined with a Serb colonel and other Serbs the night before they took the city.

@ Unlike other witnesses, Mujadzic escaped Serb beatings. He and some relatives and friends fled to the forest after realizing that they would be targeted by the Serbs. They dug a hole and stayed for a month. After hearing that the Serbs were planning to clear out the forest, and after coming under fire, he swam to safety in Bihac.

@ When recalling the Serb takeover of Prijedor, he said it reminded him "of films about the military in Latin America," He said he was thinking the the same way people in other European countries think now and have thought in the past: "it couldn't happen here."

In the most contentious cross-examination yet, defense attorney Stephen Kay tried to show that the Muslims were well-financed fighters. More than half of his cross-examination focused on how much Germans had helped fund the SDA.

Kay also attacked Mujadzic's account of an incident where two Serbs were killed at an SDA checkpoint. The witness had said that it began when Serb extremists fired on members of the Territorial Defense. "How on earth," Kay asked, could the witness know who shot first since he did not actually see the shooting? Kay went as far as to say, "you were quite happy for these killings to take place...weren't you?" Mujadzic denied any bias in his depiction of the story.

MAY 31
History was made when the Dusko Tadic trial began. It was a first -- the process began and so history was made. Well, a more definitive historic milestone was passed today -- it was something concrete, an outcome and the closest the tribunal has come towards achieving accountability.

Drazen Erdemovic, a 24-year-old ethnic Croat who fought for the Bosnian Serb army, pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity for shooting civilian Muslim men outside Srebrenica in July of 1995. After his guilty plea, the alternative charge of violations of the rules and customs of war was dropped.

Srebrenica had been declared a U.N. "safe area" in 1993. Nevertheless, on July 6, 1995, the Bosnian Serb army mounted an attack on Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and thousands of Muslim men were eventually killed. On July 16, Erdemovic and others shot and killed hundreds of men in groups of ten at a field in Pilica.

Erdemovic broke down in tears as he told the court that he forced under the threat of death to shoot the civilians. It was shoot or be shot.

"Your honor, I had to do this," he told the presiding judge, Claude Jorda of France. "If I had refused, I would have been killed together with the victims."

Erdemovic will be sentenced in July. He could be sentenced to life in prison for his role in the massacre.

Meanwhile, a witness testified behind closed doors in the Tadic trial.