The Missing Minutes of the War Presidency

The “Making” the New B&H History in the Hague

AIM, Sarajevo, September 19, 2001

A number of B&H Presidency members from the time the war broke out in B&H claimed that they bore no responsibility for any of the things that had happened at the beginning of the war because, irrespective of the fact that the Presidency was the supreme commander of the B&H Army, they had had no bearing on the military decisions being taken at that time. According to some of them, they simply let themselves be “excluded”, i.e. behaved as a mere voting machine, a “decoration”, and a privileged group. Was it really so and could this confession on their non-interference in their own duties bring them before the Hague judges? Even without a positive answer to these two questions, it is good for the public of Bosnia and Herzegovina to learn what it elected representatives in the authorities did at the outbreak of the war although some of them are not far removed from power even today or are still participating in the authorities, but in different functions.

It took an entire month to collect the answers/admissions which the current B&H Presidency needed to compile the minutes from the Presidency sessions held in the period from December 1990 to February 1993, as requested by the Chief Prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, Carla del Ponte. Even after such thorough preparation of the requested documentation, the “package” for the Hague was incomplete – some ten minutes have unexplainably disappeared from the files, while others from late 1992 and early 1993 simply do not exist (?!). The offered official explanation was that “due to frequent electricity blackouts in Sarajevo at that time, Presidency session were not recorded and consequently the minutes were not taken”. Witnesses say that even Del Ponte, during her recent visit to Sarajevo, “took” this explanation with an open sneer.

Secretary General of the Presidency from those times, whom the Tribunal might contact regarding the whereabouts of the minutes, retorted that he was currently an official of the OSCE Mission to B&H and that the Tribunal could not simply call him to account, that there were rules of communication with the OSCE Mission staff and that he had nothing to say about the minutes, etc. At that time the Presidency Members were: Alija Izetbegovic all the time served as the first among his equals, also at the very beginning it included Fikret Abdic, Biljana Plavsic, Nikola Koljevic, Franjo Boras, Nenad Kecmanovic, Ejup Ganic, Nijaz Durakovic, Stjepan Kljuic, Ivo Komsic, Mirko Pejanovic, also initially Jure Pelivan and Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, as Republican Prime Minister and Vice Premier respectively, followed by Haris Silajdzic in the same office, and, also in the beginning Sefer Halilovic, as Commander in Chief of B&H Army and Jusuf Pusina as the first man of the Ministry of the Interior. They were succeeded in these positions by Rasim Delic and Bakir Alispahic. Finally, there were Mariofil Ljubic and Miro Lazovic as Presidents of B&H Assembly.

The story about the Hague's request leaked to the public rather shyly several days after (voluntary) surrender of the then highly placed officers of B&H Army: Generals Mehmed Alagic and Enver Hadzihasanovic and Colonel Amir Kubura. The Split daily “Free Dalmatia” (Slobodna Dalmacija) was the first to carry information about this request, with Sarajevo media following suit in an attempt to verify its truthfulness in the Presidency. The first written statement on the request was that of the Secretary General of the B&H Presidency, Ante Grbic, who said that he could not “confirm or deny anything, because he saw no request, but heard rumours in the Presidency”. Some fifteen days later, the Bosniac Member of the current B&H Presidency, Beriz Belkic said that he had received this request and that the Presidency had made a mistake by not informing the public of it immediately because B&H was under the obligation of cooperating with the Hague Tribunal. On that same occasion Belkic explained that this was a time-consuming task. Namely, it was said later that some 175 Minutes on approximately 17,500 typed pages were involved, which had to be copied, signed, authenticated, etc.

However, apart from unsatisfied curiosity as to what was the Tribunal looking for in the Minutes (the legalisation of the Mujaheddins' entry into B&H, crimes committed against the Serbs in Sarajevo, responsibility of the commanding officers for the overall situation, a key for understanding the logic behind the behaviour of B&H authorities in that period, clashes with B&H Croats, more details on the causes of the disintegration of the first war multi-ethnic authorities in B&H, Biljana Plavsic's involvement or some other details) reactions of the then Members of the B&H Presidency (which was at the same time the Supreme Command of B&H Army) were extremely interesting. They all claimed that no had asked them about or involved them in any important decision-making of military character that the entire command was in the hands of one man – i.e. Alija Izetbegovic! Thus, Nijaz Durakovic was the first to state that he didn't “feel any responsibility because as Member of the Presidency I did not make any essential military decisions nor was asked to give my opinion about that”. Stjepan Kljuic's comment was almost identical: “I am not sure that there is a single document that is compromising for the B&H Presidency It never discussed any activities of B&H Army as these things were decided outside the PresidencyThe Army was in the hands of one manUnfortunately, most of the Members accepted such a status which is easy to see from the Minutes” Asked whether he thought that such a stand actually pointed to the responsibility of Presidency Members for failing to do their job, Kljuic answered that it was undoubtedly significant. “However, it was great to enjoy those benefits at that time, to be an Ambassador in the name of the Presidency or an official in various positions and all that in addition to the basic function in the Presidency”

In that same statement Kljuic mentioned that on several occasions he personally asked for the Minutes from the Presidency sessions, but could not get them and that Izetbegovic allegedly explained that their recording was too expensive and time-consuming and that the Presidency did not have the money. “We never got the Minutes”, said Kljuic. Those Members of the Presidency who tried to hide their identity claimed that they never knew with which high military officers Izetbegovic used to secretly meet in his office. One of them even said that waiters working for the Presidency were often bribed with boxes of cigarettes so as not to disclose whom Izetbegovic was meeting with and what they were discussing!

Naturally, according to Izetbegovic the B&H Presidency could not be held responsible for anything: “The Presidency and I personally prevented any crimes from being committed whenever we could and were rather successful in that. That was our policy. Nevertheless, I would like to point out that I would gladly share the fate of my Generals, with whom I defended and partly managed to defend Bosnia and its people”. Izetbegovic also said that it was good that the Hague Tribunal was doing its job as the “most authentic history of B&H during the aggression is being recorded there. This history is not without errors, but will certainly be more accurate than any other people might write”.

During this month there were those who, like Rasim Kadic, who was in the opposition in those times, thought the claims of the then Presidency Members of not knowing anything to be “hypocritical and immoral”. How was it possible that serious men who held the most responsible positions in the state during its hardest moments thought that their confession that they did not “meddle” in their own work, i.e. that they did not do it absolved them of any responsibility. Beriz Belkic, Member of the current Presidency also said that he could not but wonder how did these men agree to something like that, how was it possible that they accepted some issues without forcing them into the open, clarifying and settling them once and for all ”If the Presidency was the Supreme Command, then it was illogical to sit in that institution totally disregarding one's task. I truly fail to understand this, same as I do not understand why did the men whom, as they said - no one asked about anything, remain in the Presidency all that time?” wondered Belkic. At the same time he reminded that the former state leadership and commanders of B&H Army were obliged to prosecute crimes and criminals. Failure to take such an attitude implied the responsibility of the chain of command: “In that case echelons of higher command are held accountable, but not specific criminals”, explained Belkic.

Could some of the Presidency members be exonerated by the well-known 1995 letter by which five of them: Durakovic, Ljuic, Mijatovic, Komsic, Pejanovic and Kljuic opposed the Islamisation of B&H Army? Allegedly, at that time the commanding officers at the front obeyed only the orders coming from Izetbegovic and, possibly Ganic, refusing to recognise the Assembly with Lazovic at its head, being suspicious of commanders like Jovan Divjak and Stjepan Siber because they were not Bosniacs. Could this letter be interpreted as the culmination of impotence in opposing the policy and method of work of the B&H Presidency at that time? The then Chief of General Staff of B&H Army, Safet Halilovic was at the same time member of the war Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (R B&H). He claimed that “Members of the Presidency got information on what was happening on the ground whenever they wantedmost frequently just before the session or as the first item on the agenda they were supplied with information on the situation in the war theatre. By their constitutional function they were the Supreme Command and Izetbegovic President and Supreme Commander. Naturally, he was more interested than the others and tried in every possible way to be the only one maintaining this communication with the Army”. Halilovic also explained that he had spent hours with Pejanovic, Tatjana Ljuic-Mijatovic, Ganic, both individually as well as at Presidency sessions: “The Presidency was well-informed and made decisions”, claimed Halilovic.

What is then all this about? According to the available data none of the mentioned Presidency Members sat there just for the sake of sitting on the Presidency. At the time of intensive offensives and military operations Durakovic was touring Australia, during two and a half years he stayed on the Presidency Komsic received about 200 per diems for trips abroad, it was rumoured that Lazovic travelled more than the current Foreign Minister, etc. And all that time Alija Izetbegovic was truly in command of the Army. According to some sources he sent away his “ikebanas” or, as he once said for other Members of the Presidency, his “voting machine”. It is hard to say did this make it easier for him to control the situation on the ground or he truly did not trust them or, perhaps, those men were not up to their task or simply disinterested to take over the command .

The Hague Tribunal, i.e. the history that is being written there will supply answers to all these questions.

Rubina CENGIC (AIM, Sarajevo)