Confusion over Konjic

Judge Treschel: Courtesy of the ICTY

In the ongoing International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) trial of Bosnian Croat leader Jadranko Prlic and others accused of war crimes against Bosnian Muslims, lawyers for the defence took exception to comments judge Trechsel made about “Herceg-Bosna”, the controversial entity established by the Bosnian Croats.


During questioning on 28 April 2009 of Dragan Juric, a former deputy commander of the Bosnian Croat Army, HVO, in the municipality of Konjic, Hedveg Moe, for the prosecution, presented a map “that shows the Croatian Communities of Herceg-Bosna and Bosanska Posavina in 1991” to the witness and the following exchange ensued:


Moe:  “This map shows that Konjic was part of Herceg-Bosna, doesn't it?”


Juric: “That's what it says on the map.  According to this map, the map I'm looking at, that's how it's surrounded.”


Moe: “And Konjic was part of Herceg-Bosna, wasn't it?”


Juric:  “Let me say again, that's what would follow on the basis of this map, but who drew up this map and who conceived it, I don't know.”

At this point Judge Treschel intervened:

Treschel: I'm sorry, witness, I find this a bit difficult. Are you telling us that you do not know whether Konjic, your place, was part of Herceg-Bosna or not?  Do you want us to believe that you ignore even this?

Juric: “I said that judging by this map here...”

Treschel: “Please answer my question.  I am asking you, as a high military officer who worked in Konjic, were you ignorant of the fact that the municipality of Konjic formed part of the Croat Republic of Herceg-Bosna; yes or no?  You knew or you did not know?”

Juric: “Your Honour, yes, I did know.”

At this point defence lawyer Karnavas intervened to say that it was a fallacy that the entire municipality was part of Herceg-Bosna and asked whether it was the bench’s position that the whole municipality of Konjic was part of Herceg-Bosna. Mr Treschel did not answer the question, but went on to say that “The witness has clearly answered that he knew that Konjic was part of Herceg-Bosna, full stop.”

Then defence lawyer Nozica intervened to observe that Treschel’s question “’ Do you want us to believe that you ignore even this?’... is not commensurate with this stage of the proceedings.” She added that the comment “is a conclusion that the Prosecutor may be allowed to make in his closing arguments” implying that the comments did not appear appropriate for a judge.

The defence should also have pointed out that the word “Republic” was not used in relation to Herceg-Bosna until the second half of 1993, some time after the period that was being discussed at the hearing. But what is more interesting is judge Treschel’s assumption that whether Konjic was part of Herceg-Bosna or not is a completely black and white question. This gives rise to his  questionable assertion that Juric “clearly answered that he knew that Konjic was part of Herceg-Bosna, full stop.”

In fact, there is much ambiguity about what being part of the Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna (HZHB) meant.

The document declaring the decision on 18 November 1991 to establish the HZHB declares that it:

“Consists of the following municipalities: Jajce, Dobretici (Skender Vakuf), Travnik, Novi Travnik, Vitez, Busovaca, Kiseljak, Fojnica, Kresevo, Kakanj, Vares, Kupres, Bugojno, Gornji Vakuf, Konjic, Jablanica, Prozor, Mostar, Citluk, Ljubuski, Siroki Brijeg, Posusje, Stolac, Capljina, Neum, Grude, Livno, Tomislavgrad, Ravno (Trebinje) and Kotor Varos.”

And that:

“The Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna represents a political, cultural, economic and territorial entity.”

But the fact that Herceg-Bosna consisted of a list of municipalities including Konjic, according to a very vaguely worded decision of the Bosnian Croat leadership in 1991, does not show that Konjic was thereafter unquestionably part of Herceg-Bosna; Juric’s reluctance to give a precise answer to a very imprecise question is understandable.

The belief that HZHB was a rigidly-defined territorial entity gives rise to completely distorted interpretation of the descent into war between Croats and Muslims in the Konjic area, which in reality was caused by extreme behaviour on both sides.

The descent into Croat-Muslim war in northern Herzegovina

As in the rest of Herzegovina, Konjic’s Croats and Muslims were in the early stages of the Bosnian war in 1992 united in opposition to the Serbs, who threatened to overrun much of the country. In southern parts of Herzegovina, the counterattack against the Serbs was led by the Croats, aided by the Croatian army, but in the Konjic area the Croats were much weaker due to the larger Muslim population.

According to Dragan Juric, ”Muslims attempted to have a leading role” in Konjic and in early June 1992 did not allow the equitable distribution between Muslims and Croats of weapons from the Ljuta facility which had been seized from the Serbs in April.

Relations were strained later in June by the refusal of the HVO to join an attack on Serb forces in Nevesinje, because the aim of that attack, to ease the pressure on Bosnian government forces seeking to break the Serb siege of Sarajevo, was not perceived to be in the Croat national interest, in contrast to previous joint operations between the Muslims and Croats. After this, the joint command between Muslim and Croat forces ceased to function.

The Bosnian government had appointed Zejnil Delalic, a wealthy businessman, to act as a coordinator and later commander of “Tactical Group 1” with the aim of coordinating the activities of the Croat and Muslim forces operating in Konjic to help the forces trying to lift the siege of Sarajevo.

This role was slightly contradictory, because, as we have seen, the Croats did not view lifting the siege of Sarajevo as one of their aims and for this reason there was much distrust between Delalic and the local Croats. The Croats saw him as the “so-called” coordinator.

In October 1992 the first clashes between Muslims and Croats in Bosnia occurred in Prozor, a municipality that borders Konjic to the West. At this time, Zahir Hrnjica, commander of the 1^st Klis Battallion in Konjic, failed to carry out an order from the Main Staff of the Supreme Command of the Bosnian Army (ARBiH) to escort a company from Gornji Vakuf, a municipality bordering Konjic, to the village of Parsovici on the border between Konjic and Prozor, because he did not want to provoke a conflict with local Croats. The deputy commander of the ARBiH, Jovan Divjak, ordered that the refusal to carry out the order be investigated. Divjak also signed an order on 25 October removing Salko Zerem as the commander of the Jablanica municipal defence staff for failing to carry out an order assisting ARBiH forces in Prozor.  Zerem was replaced by Safet Idrizovic.

By January 1993, tensions had heightened and the main command of the ARBiH remained suspicious of local Muslims’ cooperation with Croats in the Konjic area. On 28 January, ARBiH commander Sefer Halilovic warned the commander of the 4^th Brigade of the ARBIH, which covered Herzegovina, of “cadres” from the ARBiH and the MUP (interior ministry) in the Konjic region who had put themselves in the service of “Greater Croatian” politics. He named Rusmir Hadzihuseinovic, the mayor of Konjic, Jasmin Guska, the head of MUP in Konjic, Refik Tufo, the commander of the MUP in Hadzici, a municipality between Konjic and Sarajevo, and ARBiH 7^th Konjic Brigade commander Midhat Cerovac. He ordered the 4^th Brigade to coordinate with Zulfikar Alispago, who commanded the “Zulfikar” special purposes unit.

The view that Hadzihuseinovic, Guska, Tufo and Cerovac were collaborating with Greater Croatia is of a piece with Judge Trechsel’s assertion that Konjic in 1992 was unquestionably part of Herceg Bosna. As well as a growing role for the Zulfikar unit in military operations, this view resulted in the removal of Hadzihuseinovic as president of the war presidency in Konjic in late March and his replacement by Safet Cibo, viewed by Croats as a Bosnian Muslim hard-liner, at the behest of the Sarajevo leadership.

Safet Idrizovic, who commanded the municipal defence in Jablanica, which was also brought under the control of Safet Cibo, offered a different perspective on cooperation with the Croats when questioned in the Prlic trial. Though critical of Croat actions in northern Herzegovina, Idrizovic said that his forces did not “feel any consequences of the HVO authority” adding that “there was a parallel power structure and apparently that was unacceptable because they [the Sarajevo government] thought we had accepted HVO authority.” Describing Bosnian Muslim forces that arrived in Jablanica from outside the municipality, he said that he and his men “were terrified of those people.”

On March 23, following an order dated March 20, ARBiH forces from Konjic, Jablanica and Hadzici began attacking the HVO in Konjic with the aim, among others, of taking the “Zlatar” military facility that was under Croat control. The attack was unsuccessful, but restarted on April 14 and succeeded. On April 16, the 45^th Konjic-based Neretvica Bridgade of the ARBiH and the Zulfikar detachment attacked the village of Trusina. The commander of the Neretvica Brigade, Hasan Hakalovic, Zulfikar Alispago and others are currently on trial at the Bosnian war crimes court, accused of killing 19 civilians and three captured Croat soldiers during the attack. The commander of the Hadzici-based 9^th Mountain Brigade, which though under the control of the Sarajevo-based 1^st Corp of the ARBiH, was involved in actions in Konjic, Nezir Kazic, and the speaker of the Hadzici municipal assembly and subsequently president of the Hadzici war presidency, Mustafa Dzelilovic, are also on trial at the Bosnian war crimes court, accused of crimes against Serb and Croat captives in the “Silos” facility in Hadzici municipality.

 The day after the ARBiH attack on Trusina, April 17, the HVO attacked the villages of Sovici and Doljani  in the Jablanica municipality. Mladen Naletelic was convicted by the ICTY for war crimes committed against the Muslim population in these villages as commander of the “Convicts Batallion”, an independent unit under the direct command of the HVO main staff. The events in Sovici and Doljani are included in the indictment against Jadranko Prlic.

The full truth about the descent into war between Croats and Muslims in Herzegovina – and the involvement of political leaderships on both sides – has yet to emerge, but Judge Treschel’s uncompromising insistence that in 1992 and 1993 Konjic was undeniably “part of Herceg Bosna” does not help us arrive there.