In his cross-examination, Rudi Gerritsen, former EC monitor in BH, confirmed defense arguments that the Croats were “naive”, while Muslims “knew how to play” with the international community

Bosnian Croats were “naïve” while Muslims “knew how to play the game”. When the defense counsel of the former Herceg Bosna leaders put this to prosecution witness Rudi Gerritsen, he confirmed them. Gerritsen is a Dutchman who used to be an EC monitor in BH in 1993. The witness kept agreeing with what the defense counsel put to him throughout his cross-examination.

Michael Karnavas, American attorney representing the accused Jadranko Prlic, claims that the BH Army was a past master in misleading the public about its real intentions. In this “game for the public”, as Karnavas termed it, the Muslims duped the “naïve” international community, convincing it that they wanted to protect the Croats in the Bugojno area. In the actual fact, what they wanted was to keep the Croats there in order to be able to “steal” their humanitarian relief supplies, Karnavas claims. The witness agreed with everything Karnavas said.

Although the prosecution objected to the questions about the crimes committed by the BH Army against Bosnian Croats, the Trial Chamber allowed them.

The accused Slobodan Praljak showed a video recording of Croat victims in the village of Uzdol, killed on 14 September 1993. The witness visited the scene of crime the next day, as the recordings showed.

Praljak claims that he personally ordered the Prozor imam to be put under “house arrest” after the massacre in Uzdol, in order to “protect him against any revenge” on the part of the families of the Uzdol victims. EC monitors’ reports mention the meetings with the imam in Prozor, but the witness knew nothing about Praljak’s orders.

Gerritsen agreed with Praljak that it had been impossible to establish full command and control over the HVO units in the circumstances, “despite the good will”. It takes “ten years or more”, the witness said, to bring into line an emerging army.

When he was re-examined by the prosecution, he said that he had never seen any HVO soldiers being punished for any crime. This was the third time Gerritsen testified before the ICTY.