KARADZIC PREPARING A TRIAL AGAINST THE TRUTH

TWO SWISS CITIZENS AWAITING VERDICT

AIM, SARAJEVO, April 27, 1995 "Sierra 4", this is how members of the UNPROFOR "baptized" this point. For Sarajevans and their friends from the entire world, the UNPROFOR "Sierra 4" is the ill-famed barricade between Sarajevo and the airport illegally held by Karadzic's soldiers, which is located at a part of the road which should be entirely controlled by the UNPROFOR. The "blue helmets", unfortunately, do not control it. On the contrary! People "disappear" from their very transporters. Tens of Sarajevans and foreign guests were arrested and took somewhere at this bloody point held by Karadzic's men, and here the vice-president of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Governemnt, Hakija Turajlic, was shot. Arrival and departure from Sarajevo, due to this illegally held Serb point becomes a by far more risky lottery than flying by UN planes which are often shot at. It is sufficient to have the misfortune and, instead through Dobrinja, to have to cross the road from Sarajevo to the airport with a member of the UNPROFOR whose turn it is to drive by Kasindol street - where, without failure, Karadzic's men open all UN vehicles, search the passaengers' belongings and take away everyone who appears "suspicious" to them.

Just in the past month, Ludwig Kraus, an official of the humanitarian organization of a German-Bosnian association, five workers of the French humanitarian organization "Pharmacists without Frontiers", and two Swiss citizens, Marie Vernel-Matic and Simon Gerbais (????), were all kidnapped and taken away to Serb prisons. About the latter two, the spokeswoman of the UNPROFOR, Miriam Sosacki (???), said at a press conference that "Simon and Marie (who is a Croat born in B&H and who has a double Swiss and Croat citizenship, remark of the author) were kidnapped by force from a UNPROFOR vehicle and taken to the Serb police station at Ilidza, and the officer of the UN who tried to contact them was not allowed to do so".

The Swiss citizens had come to Saeajevo under the auspices of the UNESCO, in a mission of Swiss-Bosnian cultural exchange. They worked on strengthening of the radio-bridge between their country and Sarajevo, wishing to establish links between people engaged in culture in Sarajevo and the citizens of the city under siege in general, with the citizens of Switzerland. Besides these activities, the Swiss friends of Sarajevo and B&H were guests of the Bosnian Institute for Investigation of War Crimes, which played the crucial role in their kidnapping by those who bear the greatest responsibility for the crimes committed in B&H. Since the Hague Court for war crimes decided to seek (and prove) that the reponsibility for the whole brutality in the war in B&H is with those who had projected the crimes, it is obvious that Karadzic's clique recognized in Marie and Simon an additional threat that their misdeeds would be revealed. That is exactly why, in an attempt to hush up the truth, the latest information coming from Pale was: the Swiss citizens will be tried in Pale for "spreading anti-Serb propaganda"!?

Namely, according to the latest statement of the UNPROFOR which is based on a talk with the representatives of the regime in Pale, "preliminary investigation is obviously completed and a decision reached that they be taken to court, where they will probably be accussed of spreading anti-Serb propaganda". But, although more than twenty days have passed since the kidnapping of the two Swiss citizens, none of the representatives of the UNPROFOR managed to get in touch with Marie Vernel-Matic and Simon Gerbais. All that is possible to find out from the UN forces is that Marie and Simon were kidnapped from a Danish armoured vehicle, that they were on their way out, and not into Sarajevo, and that, allegedly, they were carrying documents of the Sarajevo Institute for war crimes together with an order for translation into English, which Karadzic's "court" takes as "material evidence" for its charges. But, this too is taken with reserve here.

We tried to find out what the Swiss citizens were actually carrying with them, and what were the papers they had in a conversation with the Director of the Institute for Investigation of War Crime, Smail Cekic, who said for the AIM:

• Marie and Simon are my great friends and friends of Bosnia who are very concerned about the truth on Bosnia & Herzegovina reaching Europe and the world in a true and objective manner. We met in Bern at the session of the Tribunal on the Nations of Former Yugoslavia where my paper titled "Causes, Objectives and Proportions of Aggression against B&H", and then discussions and replicas to stances of certain Belgrade scholars had great effect. Namely, I claimed that Serbia and Montenegro carried out an aggression against B&H and I documented this by quotations from original documents. Members of the Tribunal were very interested in my book "Aggression against B&H and Genocide of Boshniaks in 1992-93" and asked to see it. I explained that the book was not translated into English, because we have no means to have it translated, and that is when Marie, her husband and Simon offered to help financially translation of the book and the paper presented in Bern. During this visit of theirs to Sarajevo, I gave them a copy of the book and the already translated paper in English, and they signed a contract on translation of the book into English with the Institute for Investigation of War Crimes. Therefore, they were not carrying any documents with them, but my book and my paper! The book is a publication, not a secret document. I am embittered because Karadzic's supporters have dared try people who are not guilty of anything, who were just carrying somebody else's book with them! And I am sure that the criminals have gotten hold of the book as soon as it was published.

• I am in contact with representatives of our authorities, Cekic continues. - We have not made any public statements although we are deeply concerned about the destiny of our Swiss friends, but we fear that we could make their already difficult situation even worse by any public move. Since they are great humanists, I expect that the Swiss Government will intervene in their behalf. It would in fact, be enough if the Swiss authorities threatened that they would block the banking accounts the leaders from Pale have in their country, and the destiny of Marie and Simon would have by far better prospects. The Serb lobby in Switzerland is very strong and constantly in contact with Pale, so it is possible to do much more for our friends in their homeland than here. It is impossible to take these people to court just because they were carrying somebody's book with them, and what's more, to have those who are suspected of having committed war crimes and genocide try them!

According to the statement of the UNPROFOR, around the middle of April, civilian representatives of UN forces have met with an officer from Pale who is in charge of this case, but despite "our repeated attempts to get a permit to visit the Swiss citizens, the Serbs are not allowing us to do so. Marie Vernel-Matic and Simon Gerbais are awaiting trial in the Serb prison in Lukavica".

Based on such scanty information, it is difficult to come to a conclusion about the destiny of the two Swiss citizens. Karadzic is preparing a savage court for them where counsel for the defence is certainly not provided for. Marie and Simon have obviously been "condemned" by Karadzic the minute they had decided to help those he had intended to destroy. Therefore, one should not expect anything from his court. The only ones who could make a move now are international institutions and diplomacy, if they wish to rescue Mrs Vernel-Matic and Mr Gerbais from the clutches of the suspected war criminals.

MIRSADA BOSNO