by Esad HECIMOVIC
Two by two: Every following morning, the court summoned another two suspects. For each one of them, after a questioning, the investigative magistrate was supposed to make a decision whether to keep them in custody until the end of the judicial proceedings, as is specified by law covering war crimes investigation conducted by the local courts in Bosnia-Hercegovina, based on the permission from the Hague Tribunal Prosecutor's Office. "I submitted a petition for the recusal of the investigative magistrate, president of the court, and all judges of the Cantonal Court in Zenica. My client, Ivo Lozancic, and another 10 suspects agreed with the petition. My client could not respond to the court summons because he is today in Strasbourg, at the session of the Council of Europe Assembly, as a member of the Bosnian delegation. He is neither on the run, nor in hiding. Immediately before the departure, he visited Zenica," Stijovic stated.
In Strasbourg, a few hours after the scheduled start of the investigation for war crimes in the Zenica court, a meeting and debate on the topic "Democracies facing terrorism" started. "Eight hundred million Europeans are horrified by recent terrorist attacks against the USA," said the introduction of the proposed resolution which lists measures for European struggle against terrorism and terrorists. Ivo Lozancic attended the meeting in Strasbourg as a "special guest". His accreditation for that status was presented to the Council of Europe at a meeting held on June 22, 2001, together with accreditations for other members of the Bosnian delegation. At that meeting the Council of Europe accepted Mediha Filipovic (Party for Bosnia-Hercegovina), Ivo Lozancic (New Croatian Initiative), Sejfudin Tokic (SDP), Momir Tosic (SDS), and Goran Turjacanin (SNSD) as special guests. If anyone's status is challenged, that case automatically goes in front of two committees of the Council of Europe. No one challenged Lozancic's appointment, although he should have been in prison, under investigation for war crimes.
Lozancic was saved from being taken into custody in Zenica only by a crisis in the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office and Cantonal Government. The investigative magistrate for the first time scheduled investigation in early June, 2001, but at that point there were no prosecutors left in the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Zenica. The judge consequently cancelled the first investigation. New hearings were scheduled starting with September 24. A request for investigation against Perica Jukic, Ivo Lozancic, and others, was filed by the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office as early as late March 2001, while the investigation still hasn't started, six months later. In the last attempt, instead of a start of investigation in Zenica, the complete file was taken to the Supreme Court in Sarajevo, which rejected the petition of the defendants for the recusal of the judges in Zenica.
In his request, attorney Stijovic wrote that he submitted a petition for the recusal "of the president of the court, investigative magistrate Hilmo Ahmetovic, and all the other judges". "It is well known that a grave conflict between Bosniaks and Croats took place in this region. Therefore, it is totally justifiable that the suspects have the right to doubt the neutrality of the court in Zenica. The fact that the Cantonal Court in Zenica does not employ a single ethnic Croat judge raises even more doubt in the neutrality of the court. According to their and my opinion, because of the doubts regarding the neutrality of the court in Zenica, the trial should be moved to the Cantonal Court in Mostar."
Judges cannot be neutral: Zijada Alihodzic, president of the Cantonal Court in Zenica, and judge Hilmo Ahmetivoc informed the public at an afternoon press conference that the complete case file was submitted to the Federation BH Supreme Court. They expressed their conviction that attorney Stijovic, in his petition for the recusal of Zenica judges, did not sufficiently explain doubts of his client and 10 suspects who joined the request. Attorney Stijovic responded to the direct question regarding his explanation of the doubts regarding neutrality of the judges from Zenica by saying: "If they are accused of committing war crimes against Bosniak and Serb civilians and prisoners of war, they cannot be tried by judges from the same ethnic group as the victims. It could be that some of the judges suffered their own personal, family, and other losses in this conflict. Consequently, they cannot be neutral."
Such a request by Ivo Lozancic, HVO general and deputy president of the NHI, was expected. On August 30, 2001, in a statement given to Jutarnji List, Lozancic said that he was "prepared for cooperation with the Hague Tribunal", but that under no circumstances was he prepared to "deal with 'biased courts', as for example the court in Zenica, according to Lozancic". Lozancic claimed that "it is not true that Carla Del Ponte will bring indictments against him because he is a representative in the state parliament; if he were really a war crimes suspect, the OSCE, OHR and Sarajevo office of the Hague Tribunal would have already reacted."
Earlier, in an interview published in Hrvatska Rijec (issue 346, April 7, 2001) Lozancic confirmed that he knew who had demanded that he be indicted. "Anyone can request that an indictment be issued. I think that Irfan Ajanovic is somewhat more moderate in that business, compared with the HDZ leadership, certain local priests and people from Zepce. I know exactly who demanded that. Thanks to cooperation between the SNS [Bosnain Croat secret service] and AID [Bosniak-Muslim secret service], camp inmates were paid to speak to the media. I understand Irfan Ajanovic. He is a totally frustrated individual, he had been through a personal Calvary, and those who at that time commanded 111th XP brigade of the HVO share responsibility. I do not see anything special in that. Hundreds of individuals have been through prisons, camps, Calvaries, and now so much fuss is made about this because Irfan Ajanovic was in prison. He was not imprisoned by Croats, but by Serbs. Soon, I'll invite Irfan Ajanovic to talk. All those who lived here, know that there were no prisoner camps in this area. There were two prisons, which makes sense if one considers how many soldiers were here and what sort of maltreatment was prevented, as much as was possible in a horrible wartime environment. We had mass exchanges of prisoners and everyone, from the International Red Cross, over the UNPROFOR, to European observers, praised our conduct and emphasized that we were the most disciplined army here. There was a group, and its members are today high-ranking officers, which refused to obey my commands and continuously tried to cause trouble. It is true that we were in a dire situation and that we withstood attacks by both Serbs and Bosniaks. I am proud that I managed to help people. Those who profited the most in the war today spread lies about me. That is obvious; it is enough to walk through the town [Zepce]. Everything is open, including that the Hague may get involved in the investigation of the wartime events in the Zepce municipality, as far as I am concerned. No one need arrest or put me under surveillance. Those are simply crazy games by the SNS and AID," Lozancic spoke in April 2001.
Conspiracy and responsibility: Ivo Lozancic believes that indictments are a conspiracy against him concocted by his Croat and Bosniak opponents, and that Bosniak judges in Zenica are biased. The Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Zenica, in the investigation request accuses Lozancic of "committing war crimes against civilian population, war crimes against wounded and prisoners of war". Proposing plentiful evidence and numerous witnesses for the investigation, prosecutors claim that Lozancic, as a wartime commander of the 111th XP HVO brigade is responsible for ethnic cleansing, persecution, torture in prison camps, murders and plunder of Bosniak and Serb property in the Zepce region. Dani reported about the charges against Lozancic in August 24, 2001 issue of the magazine. The Hague Tribunal has given its approval for initiation of an investigation against all 15 suspects by the Zenica Cantonal Court. The Tribunal classified the case in A category, meaning that suspects should be kept in custody until the end of the trial. Perica Jukic, president of the wartime presidency of Zepce and president of the assembly of the Croat Republic of Herceg-Bosna, Ivo Lozancic, commander of the 111th XP HVO brigade, Drago Dragicevic, commander of the intelligence service of the HVO Zepce Headquarters, and Bozidar Tomic, chief HVO police operative in Zepce, are charged based on command responsibility. The remaining ten suspects (Luka Babic, Mirko Jakovljevic, Esad Corlak, Ivo Mrkonjic, Anto Jozic, Viktor Markanovic, Slavko Spajic, Alojz Vrbic, Marinko Martic, Marinko Jakovljevic) are charged with issuing orders for war crimes or for personally committing war crimes.
Given that the Supreme Court on Tuesday made the decision confirming the jurisdiction of the Cantonal Court in Zenica regarding this case, judge Ahmetovic could order that all suspects be taken into custody. If the Cantonal and Federation BH police fail to find and apprehend the suspects, the court should issue arrest warrants for all of them. Keeping in mind that the Hague Tribunal has officially agreed with the prosecution of all suspects, the Interpol would accept these warrants and they would not be safe in Croatia or anywhere else.
"I warned them of such a possibility. I advised them to use numerous benefits they could have if they responded to the court summons and showed up today in the Cantonal Court in Zenica. But they chose differently and I do not want to have anything to do with this case anymore. Now they will be hunted like animals, because neither Croatia nor anyone else will be able to protect them from Interpol's warrants. By signing the petition for recusal they in practice already accepted the jurisdiction of the Zenica Cantonal Court. Now everything is simply the matter of procedure specified by law. One cannot accept Federation BH and Cantonal authorities when participating in them, but reject them when indicted for crimes," a Croat legal source, knowledgeable about the preparation of defense in this case, says.
Ivo Lozancic has immunity from prosecution as a representative in the parliament, but judges are formally-legally not aware of it. Only when he makes an appearance before the judges, Lozancic will get a chance to use, or refrain from using his immunity.
If he does claim immunity from prosecution, judges will initiate the procedure for repeal of the immunity. By pure coincidence, these days in Strasbourg, Lozancic had an opportunity to attend another debate about security and prevention of crime in European cities. The Council of Europe demanded quick action and practical solutions from political authorities because of growing sense of insecurity. When in the spring and summer of 1992 in Zepce Serbs were afraid, very few Bosniaks and Croats were concerned. When Bosniaks got concerned, exposed to persecution in Zepce in the summer of 1993, Serb and Croat warriors in this area started to cooperate. The basic difference between European and Bosnian politicians is that European politicians are concerned about the safety of their citizens, while during the last ten years Bosnian politicians were mostly concerned about safety of their nations.