1 Tuesday, 28 October 2003

2 [Open session]

3 [The accused entered court]

4 --- Upon commencing at 9.05 a.m.

5 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Nice.

6 MR. NICE: A couple of minutes of private session, with your

7 leave.

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21 [Open session]

22 THE REGISTRAR: We're in open session.

23 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Blewitt.

24 MR. NICE: Of course, he is an Australian so I suppose the phrase

25 "long stop" is not inappropriate. That's a cricketing allusion, for His

1 Honour Judge Kwon, will be raised with him I'm sure elsewhere. I will

2 raise with the long stop the possibility.

3 MR. GROOME: Your Honour, while we're waiting for the witness to

4 be brought in, if I could bring to the Court's attention the witness,

5 after reviewing the witness summary yesterday which the Prosecution will

6 be tendering pursuant to 89(F), there were six corrections that the

7 witness made, and it's attached as an addendum to the back of that

8 summary. If I can just draw the Chamber's attention to that document.

9 JUDGE MAY: Let us consider, first of all, just before we have the

10 witness, your application under 89(F). On occasion, we have had the

11 document, of course.

12 Are you intending to play any parts of the video?

13 MR. GROOME: Yes, Your Honour.

14 JUDGE MAY: You are.

15 MR. GROOME: Yes.

16 JUDGE MAY: And his evidence, in effect, is really -- most of it

17 is a commentary on that video; is that right?

18 MR. GROOME: I would say approximately 60 per cent of it. There

19 are a few portions that he was not permitted to film that he will be

20 speaking about as well.

21 JUDGE MAY: Well, it may be helpful if he deals with the matter

22 fairly fully in chief since time is not as pressing as it usually is.

23 We'll consider whether the rest of it can go in under 89(F).

24 [Trial Chamber confers]

25 JUDGE KWON: Mr. Groome, if you could tell us about the situation

1 of the disclosure and translation of those things.

2 MR. GROOME: Yes, Your Honour. Just a moment, Your Honour. We

3 are calling up the exact -- precise dates on the computer. I can say that

4 the addendum was disclosed yesterday afternoon, shortly after the witness

5 signed it. The B/C/S version of the original document was disclosed on

6 the 21st of October and the English on the 15th of October.

7 JUDGE MAY: Very well. We will admit it on the basis I think it

8 will be helpful to us to have the video played, those parts which are

9 relevant, if you would bear that in mind.

10 MR. GROOME: Yes, Your Honour.

11 JUDGE MAY: Yes. We'll have the witness, please.

12 MR. GROOME: The Prosecution calls Michel Riviere.

13 [The witness entered court]

14 JUDGE MAY: Yes. If the witness would take the declaration.

15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] I solemnly declare that I will speak

16 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

17 JUDGE MAY: If you would like to take a seat.

18 WITNESS: MICHEL RIVIERE

19 [Witness answered through interpreter]

20 Examined by Mr. Groome:

21 Q. Sir, I'd like to ask you to begin your testimony here this morning

22 by stating your name for the record.

23 A. Michel Riviere.

24 MR. GROOME: Your Honour, I'd ask that an exhibit number be

25 assigned to the 89(F) statement and that it be shown to the witness.

1 THE REGISTRAR: 573, Your Honour.

2 MR. GROOME:

3 Q. Sir, I'd ask you to take a look at this multi-page document, and

4 if I could draw your attention to the last page of that document, I'd ask

5 you, do you recognise your signature on that page?

6 A. Yes, I do.

7 Q. Have you had an opportunity to read the entirety of this document

8 prior to testifying here this morning?

9 A. Yes, I have.

10 Q. And the initial pages taken with the addendum or the corrections

11 that you made yesterday, do you verify that that is an accurate account of

12 the testimony that you are able to give before this Chamber?

13 A. Yes. These were the corrections we made.

14 MR. GROOME: The Prosecution would tender that document under

15 89(F).

16 Q. Sir, the first paragraph of that document describes -- or you

17 describe yourself as being a correspondent for ARTE television in July of

18 1992. Pursuant to your responsibilities with ARTE, were you pursuing a

19 story about the deportation of civilians from the Kozluk area of

20 Bosnia-Herzegovina?

21 A. I was in Hungary in July 1992 for another series of stories. I

22 was in Budapest at the time, indeed for the public television station

23 ARTE, and I learned that in the south of Hungary an important convoy of

24 Bosnian refugees had just arrived. I had some free time at my hand, and I

25 asked to be authorised in Budapest to go and see the refugees. I did

1 indeed find myself in the Nojata camp [phoen] in the south of Hungary. It

2 is a former camp of the Red Army. And I met a lot of people from the

3 Kozluk area, in particular the mayor of Kozluk, Fadil. He told me his

4 story that had just been happening a few days before. With a lot of

5 details, he told about ethnic cleansing and about the people who he deemed

6 responsible for the ethnic cleansing operation. I interviewed young

7 people --

8 Q. Sir, after interviewing the people from Kozluk in Hungary, did you

9 go to Belgrade to make arrangements to make a trip to Kozluk in Bosnia?

10 A. Yes, quite. I thought that these were terrifying stories. I

11 called the chief editor in Paris, and I told him that if these things were

12 true, if this testimony was true, it had to be verified on the spot. I

13 had to check the accuracy of the situation. In order to go to Eastern

14 Bosnia, the only way I could go was to go through Belgrade to ask for the

15 authorisation to go. So this is what I did.

16 Q. And where specifically did you go in Belgrade to seek

17 authorisation to enter Eastern Bosnia?

18 A. Well, in Belgrade, I had been working in Yugoslavia in 1989 and

19 1990. I knew what was the equivalent of the information ministry, I knew

20 the various organisations. Close to the Moskva Hotel in the centre of

21 Belgrade there was an old building - it must have been the building of the

22 Tanjug agency - and I was told to go there in order to get a pass to go to

23 Bosnia. I went there, I went to the building, and I was indeed informed

24 that once I had given my press card, I was given a piece of paper telling

25 me that I had to go to Pale. I was given an exact date to go there. I

1 from three to five days to get this authorisation in Pale.

2 Q. When you were seeking authorisation in Belgrade, did the people in

3 Belgrade contact the people in Pale in order to make these arrangements?

4 A. Yes, quite. I had the feeling that I had to do with journalists

5 who were in close contact with the Srna agency in Pale, and anyway, that

6 the names of the journalists were written down somewhere in a book.

7 Q. Now, sir, I'm going to be asking you to describe a video that will

8 be shown on the screen before you and the other people in the courtroom

9 here. Can I ask you at this juncture, did you and your cameraman film

10 portions of your excursion into Eastern Bosnia and into the Pale region?

11 A. Yes. I was authorised to film. My plan was to verify whether

12 what I'd heard in Kozluk was right. You know, my leading theme was what I

13 had heard about Kozluk. So I was given the accreditation to go to Bosnia,

14 but I had to cross the Drina River in the Zvornik area. I did this on the

15 20th of July. I couldn't get directly into Zvornik through the first

16 bridge because I think it was somehow under siege, but I was able to cross

17 the Drina through the second bridge. In other words, through the only

18 checkpoint that was obviously authorised at the time.

19 Q. Sir, now the screen before us has a still of the video, and I will

20 ask that it be played in a minute. It's at 1:05 in the video. Can I --

21 can I ask you to describe what it is we are looking at in this scene on

22 the video.

23 A. You see this image, and what you can see here is the second

24 bridge, the second Zvornik bridge, somewhat out of the city on the Drina,

25 with a lot of military presence. And on the other side of the bridge is

1 Bosnia, and this bridge is the delimitation, the border between Serbia and

2 Bosnia.

3 So on the other side of the bridge, on the Bosnian side, there was

4 a checkpoint where we were checked for about an hour.

5 Q. Sir, I'm going to ask now that the video be played and I'm going

6 to ask that be played up to about 2:10. Can I ask you to describe what it

7 is we are looking at during this one-minute portion of the videotape as

8 it's playing.

9 [Videotape played]

10 MR. GROOME:

11 Q. Sir, we've stopped the video at 1:30. Can you please describe

12 what it is we are looking at in this portion.

13 A. Well, this is precisely the checkpoint just beyond the bridge. In

14 other words, we are in Bosnia on the 20th of July, 1992. This is where a

15 press officer checked us, he checked whether our temporary accreditation

16 was a valid one. And on the right of this small kiosk is the Zvornik

17 town, which is where I wanted to go, and so the checks were carried out.

18 On the left-hand side, but it can't be seen on this picture, there

19 was a farm building. And whilst we were waiting, I went to that farm

20 building, and I could see that there were a number of soldiers in various

21 uniforms. And while I'm not a specialist, I must say, in this army, so I

22 can't say, but there were red berets and also apparently regular uniforms

23 and people were leaning over a table where there was a map. When they saw

24 me in civilian clothes, they were very nervous because they didn't know

25 who I was, and it was obvious that operations were being planned.

1 MR. GROOME: We will continue playing the tape.

2 JUDGE MAY: Before you do, the video should have a number.

3 MR. GROOME: I'm sorry, Your Honour, my mistake. This has been

4 marked for identification as 529. I will be seeking to tender it at the

5 conclusion of this witness's testimony.

6 JUDGE MAY: Very well.

7 MR. GROOME: My apologies.

8 [Videotape played]

9 MR. GROOME:

10 Q. Now, sir, watching some cars go by, it appears that some are

11 stopped and checked and others are allowed to pass without being checked.

12 Was that your experience or your observation during the hour or so that

13 you were there?

14 A. Yes, indeed. Each vehicle was filtered but some could pass

15 without any problems - I guess people knew each other - whilst others were

16 stopped and checked more seriously, the way it was for us.

17 Q. Now, in paragraph 7 of the summary, the 89(F) statement that's now

18 in evidence, you describe how you were eventually permitted to leave the

19 checkpoint but were made to carry a soldier with you and you were not

20 permitted to take any film of your trip to Pale. Can I ask you to

21 summarise for the Chamber any significant observations you made between

22 Zvornik and Pale.

23 A. Yes, indeed. After being authorised not to go to Zvornik but to

24 go to the left of it, I thought that I would eventually manage to get to

25 Kozluk. First we had to take with us a military man, who checked us, and

1 then we were not allowed to film. On the whole trip that was to lead us

2 to Kozluk, well it was a trip where you could see the whole chaos of this

3 war.

4 There were checkpoints everywhere. We didn't necessarily stay on

5 the main road. Every now and then we had to be taken to by-roads, to

6 small villages. We were somehow veering from checkpoint to checkpoint,

7 and I was able to observe at a given point in time on the right-hand side

8 of the road two or three types of freshly dug out graveyards on the --

9 along the roadside. And what struck me was that there seemed to be a lot

10 of provisional graves. There were pieces of wood with pieces of clothing

11 on top of them, it may have been T-shirts or shoes. I couldn't identify

12 the nature of these temporary graves.

13 So I carried on my way up to Pale in these conditions. There was

14 a lot of troop moments. There were occasional fire. There were tanks

15 checking the crossroads. And towards the late afternoon, I made it to

16 Pale where I was eventually to exchange my provisional accreditation to

17 get a press card, a press pass, that was established in the television

18 centre in the centre of Pale, and I think that's where it was.

19 MR. GROOME: Can I ask that an exhibit number be assigned to this

20 document, and I ask that this document, this identification card, be shown

21 to the witness.

22 THE REGISTRAR: 574, Your Honour.

23 MR. GROOME:

24 Q. Sir, you've just testified about going to a particular location in

25 Pale to receive credentials. Can I ask you to look at the document before

1 you, which is now Exhibit 574. Do you recognise that document?

2 A. Yes, absolutely. This is the press card, the credentials I was

3 given, with number 226, in exchange for the printed paper that I had got

4 in Belgrade and cost $50. As to my cameraman, he got number -- the number

5 before mine --

6 Q. Now, after --

7 A. -- 126.

8 Q. Now, after receiving this credential, did you and your cameraman

9 to a restaurant in order to eat some food?

10 A. Yes. There where I was in the press centre, I asked where there

11 was the closest hotel, and I was shown a kind of chalet, a lodge where I

12 went in order just to drop gear and just to have a rest after a rather

13 heavy day.

14 Q. And when you and the cameraman were in the restaurant, were you

15 approached by two men?

16 A. Yes. Well, you see, there were the two of us. I did not have any

17 interpreter with me, so there was my cameraman and myself, and we were

18 about to go and have dinner when two military men with red berets came

19 towards our table. They simply asked us whether they could sit down with

20 us. They ordered some drinks. We had ordered some food. We started

21 talking over a drink in a restaurant about which we were told that it was

22 probably kept by a Muslim because their grilled meat was good, and it was

23 in a hamlet -- in a restaurant called Koran. They said that they'd seen

24 our car in the parking lot. Since it was a French car, they thought that

25 French and Serbs always had had good connections. So that's probably why

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1 they came towards our table.

2 Q. So that we're clear, these two mean, did you ever learn their

3 names or did they ever give you their names?

4 A. No.

5 Q. Are you able to distinguish them by the type of weapon that each

6 of them carried?

7 A. Rather quickly we understood, because it was not a very sort of

8 coherent discussion, you know, and the discussion was taking place in

9 English, so very quickly we understood that they would not give their

10 names. I asked the question, and one of them replied that if we were to

11 know their real names, we might be killed.

12 I was able to identify them. One of them had a long knife, and he

13 was playing with it. So I could identify him. And the other one had an

14 automatic pistol.

15 The one with the long knife said, when I asked him -- since I

16 wanted to go to Kozluk, and when I asked him how Kozluk was, what was

17 happening there, he didn't react to the name of Kozluk because indeed

18 through ethnic cleansing there Kozluk had become Cacan [phoen]. And he

19 said that Kozluk and Zvornik, that was all over for him, that the Muslims

20 had had their throats slitted, they had not been gunned, and now that the

21 Sarajevo battle was starting. The one with the automatic pistol, throwing

22 it on the table, explained that when they were not killed with a knife,

23 were killed with a pistol. The man with the knife explained that they

24 were killed like pigs, because indeed for them --

25 Q. Just so the record is clear -- I think, because of the

1 translation, maybe some of your gestures are not being captured on the

2 record. You've made a motion across your throat. Did one of the men make

3 a gesture across -- a similar gesture; and if so, which one, the man with

4 the knife or the man with the automatic pistol?

5 A. The man who made that gesture was the man with the knife. And by

6 the way, he was the more aggressive of the two. And he was the one who

7 spoke the most. Anyway, he tended to brag a little about his actions.

8 And he was the man who also threatened my cameraman by asking him if

9 he was Turkish, by threatening him with his knife and looking at him

10 straight in the eyes. I mean, my cameraman is from the south of France,

11 and in that area they're a bit more dark-skinned, let's say.

12 Q. Can I ask you before you continue, did you have an impression

13 whether either of these men or both of these men had been drinking

14 alcohol?

15 A. I believe that the man who drunk the most alcohol was the one with

16 the long knife, and he was the one who talked most. And they kept on

17 drinking whilst they were sitting with us, whilst we were eating, and the

18 conversation lasted for about two hours.

19 Q. Did these men at some point during the conversation identify what

20 unit, or the name of the unit that they belonged to?

21 A. Well, it was ruled out that names were given. They may have given

22 pseudonyms, but they said clearly that they belonged to the White Eagles

23 and that they were carrying out operations wherever they wished, in all

24 villages where they wanted, and they were given carte blanche to do

25 whatever they wanted and that their commander was Commander Marko.

1 I was rather surprised by one thing: These two men wanted to pay

2 for our drinks. I refused to be paid for anything. I let them pay for

3 their drinks. I paid for our food, and I was very surprised to see that

4 they had bundles of banknotes, both dinars -- and they were, you know,

5 brand new banknotes or they were new dinars probably. A lot of dinars, a

6 lot of German marks. And I was amazed to see so much money. And they

7 said that they did not belong to the regular army, so that they were not

8 being paid and therefore that they were authorised in somehow to be paid

9 by the boot, that they were authorised to loot.

10 Q. Can I draw your attention back to the reference one of them made

11 to Zvornik. Can I ask you to tell us which person made a reference to

12 what had occurred in Zvornik, and can you, as precisely as you're able,

13 recall what it was he said.

14 A. Regarding the Zvornik area and the town itself, they said this:

15 "We're Serbs. We're being threatened by the Muslims. We have to protect

16 ourselves. We have to protect the West. So we have to cleanse this

17 area." I repeat what I said, but indeed his speech was the following:

18 "The Zvornik battle is over now. We've got to take care of Sarajevo."

19 And it even went further than that, but I think he was bragging, you know,

20 the way drunk soldiers do. He said, "We're not waiting for the Europeans,

21 we're waiting to fight the Americans."

22 Q. And which of the men said this, if you recall; the man with the

23 knife or the man with the automatic pistol?

24 A. All these speeches were held mainly by the man with the knife.

25 The man with the pistol was sort of translating into English whenever we

1 found it difficult to understand each other.

2 Q. And once again, if I can ask you to speak as precisely as you can

3 about what either of these men said about their purpose for being in the

4 Sarajevo area.

5 A. Well, the purpose, as stated by them to me was that the Sarajevo

6 battle was -- had just begun and that, therefore, we could think that

7 their assignment was to cleanse the areas that were, in their view, not

8 safe around Sarajevo, and they had been given carte blanche to move around

9 Sarajevo. And towards the end of the meal, they even suggested -- because

10 I had serious doubts about it all. We had happened to be there, we had

11 not planned this meeting, these people had come to see us at the table.

12 And since I was expressing some doubt, they insisted on taking us to their

13 command centre to show that that -- what they were saying was real.

14 Q. Sir, before we go to or ask you to talk about the command centre,

15 you testified that they, or one of the men, said that they were authorised

16 to keep the money from the people that they were cleansing. Did they

17 speak specifically to who it was that authorised them to do this?

18 A. No. All I know is that it was obviously a unit that had been

19 created not in the way Arkan's unit had been created anyway. By the way,

20 this man with the knife must have been in Vukovar, and he didn't get on

21 with Arkan. I think that a lot of these men were not pleased with Arkan.

22 It had to do with money. So their unit was more radical, more autonomous.

23 They purchased themselves their equipment, the uniforms and the weapons,

24 and this is why they needed money - I repeat what I said - unlike the

25 regular army that got money.

1 Q. Now, you've just testified that they offered to take you to their

2 headquarters, and from paragraph 17 from the 89(F) statement, we can see

3 that they did in fact take you to the headquarters.

4 Can I draw your attention once again now to the video monitor in

5 front of you. It's now at 2:12 of the video. Can you please describe

6 where this location is that we can now see on the video before I ask it to

7 be played.

8 A. You have this picture, and you can see the two people outside the

9 restaurant. They took us further into Pale, a few minutes away from this

10 restaurant/lodge where we had dinner. They took us to a place that looked

11 like a municipal building, and there was a large parking lot outside it.

12 Q. The scene that we can see now, is this inside that building?

13 A. Yes, yes. This is the main entrance, and just behind it on the

14 left there's the parking lot, and on the right-hand side a large room that

15 was a reception area.

16 Q. I'm going to ask that the video be played now. I will ask that it

17 be paused at several parts and I will note the time and then ask you to

18 comment. We can begin by playing the video.

19 [Videotape played]

20 MR. GROOME:

21 Q. Sir, the men that are depicted now in this portion of the video at

22 2:28, do you recognise any of the men in this still?

23 A. The man who is in the centre, you see from the back with the long

24 knife, in the back, is indeed the man we spoke to in the restaurant. And

25 on the far right you can see rather poorly, but you can see, but I'm

1 certain it's him, the man with the pistol, but I'm sure the man with the

2 knife I met is the one in the centre of these two. I didn't know the

3 other two people.

4 MR. GROOME: We'll resume the play.

5 [Videotape played]

6 MR. GROOME:

7 Q. Do you recognise anybody now in this particular portion? This is

8 now at 2:41.

9 A. Yes. On the left-hand side is the man with the long knife, and to

10 the right you have the man who was sort of toying with his pistol.

11 MR. GROOME: I ask that it be restarted.

12 [Videotape played]

13 MR. GROOME:

14 Q. Sir, in the video we can see them what appears to be loading

15 weapons. Was that the general activity of the men in the room?

16 A. Yes. This room was used by them to watch television, sort of a

17 sitting room, and there was a corridor, and I realised later that there

18 were weapons there.

19 Q. We've paused at tape at 3:19. There's a man now in a grey

20 sweatshirt on the left-hand side. Who is that?

21 A. It's me a few years before. And you can see by the way I'm

22 dressed that I was not at all prepared for this type of situation. I was

23 taken by surprise, just as was the case for my cameraman. We were meaning

24 to have dinner and then go to bed.

25 [Videotape played]

1 MR. GROOME:

2 Q. Did there come a time when you were asked or your cameraman was

3 directed to turn off the camera inside the command centre?

4 A. Yes. At various points in time, we were obliged to stop filming,

5 especially when they went to look for weapons, and we will see that

6 situation very clearly a little later.

7 Q. We are now seeing what appears to be a movie being played on a

8 television. Can you explain that to us? And that's at 4:18.

9 A. I had an impression that this was a Rambo film, and all the

10 videotapes were war, depicted war scenes.

11 Q. Did it appear to you that the men in that centre, or that

12 building, were preparing for some type of military mission?

13 A. I had the feeling that the people who were there could go on

14 mission at any point in time, and we could see that in this room most of

15 the men were equipped either to go on mission or were just returning from

16 a mission.

17 Q. Now, the video has been paused at 4:35. Can I ask you to describe

18 what it is we are looking at here.

19 A. That is a second room that was next to the room where the TV set

20 was. So it is a restroom, and the man on the left is a man who also had a

21 long knife at the back and who made the same kind of gesture as the one in

22 the restaurant, showing that he too would kill with his knife, slitting

23 throats of people.

24 Q. And we can see in this man's belt a red beret, and we can see

25 another red beret on what appears to be the window sill. Did all the men

1 inside this centre have red berets as part of their uniforms?

2 A. Yes. It was clear that that was one unit, a commando unit, and

3 that they had red berets on their heads or in their pockets. They all

4 belonged to the same unit, the same entity.

5 Q. If we could restart the tape, and I'd ask you to narrate what it

6 is we are looking at as it plays.

7 [Videotape played]

8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] That is an illustration of what I

9 have just told you. So this man too had a long knife attached in the back

10 at his belt, and he was in a kind of complicity with the other man with

11 the long knife.

12 [Videotape played]

13 MR. GROOME:

14 Q. We are now at approximately 5:15. Is the room or the place where

15 the weapons were stored, can that be seen in this picture?

16 A. Yes, to the left of this reception area and at the end of this

17 corridor was the place where people went to fetch their weapons, as we

18 will see later. And there were different types of weapons, light weapons

19 as well as some heavier weapons.

20 As we can see now, all of these weapons were at the bottom of

21 room, and obviously we were not allowed to film that. This was a

22 Kalashnikov, for instance. And there were other types of weapons as well.

23 Q. Approximately how many men altogether were preparing for a mission

24 in this room?

25 A. I think that there were about 20 persons, but I must specify that

1 up until the moment we left and I saw this bus on the parking lot, I still

2 didn't believe that we would be leaving on mission with this group. I

3 thought that this was a joke by the man from the restaurant.

4 Q. We are now at 6:50 in the video, and we can see a bus. Were you

5 and your cameraman permitted to go on the bus with them as they drove to a

6 mission?

7 A. I think that their person -- their purpose was to take us, and we

8 took this bus upon the initiative of the two men that we met in the

9 restaurant. And we see that this is a group that was fully equipped and

10 that could confront any kind of operation.

11 Q. The man that's in the foreground of this picture, another witness

12 has spoken to knowledge about this man. Can you describe who this man is

13 for us if you -- can you describe who this man is?

14 A. This is the man that carried the long knife with whom we had a

15 lengthy discussion in the restaurant. He's the one who explained to us

16 how his unit functioned, the fact that most of the people were coming from

17 different parts of Serbia, the region of Belgrade, et cetera, and he

18 explained all the mechanisms of cleansing and who in fact initiated this

19 situation, saying that he could go anywhere he wanted and that he had a

20 kind of carte blanche.

21 Q. Sir, so the record is clear, there's only one man in the picture

22 with a beard, or looks like unshaven. Is that the man that you're

23 referring to now?

24 A. Yes. It's always the same man, there's no doubt about that.

25 Throughout this clip it is the same person?

1 MR. GROOME: Please continue.

2 [Videotape played]

3 MR. GROOME:

4 Q. And this man now driving the bus, who is he?

5 A. This man is the second person who was in the restaurant with us

6 and who carried that Colt and who was more withdrawn in relation to his

7 colleague but who was an accomplice in creating this whole situation.

8 MR. GROOME: And this is at 7:29. If we could continue that

9 video.

10 [Videotape played]

11 MR. GROOME:

12 Q. Sir, the weapon that this man has, it's partially visible in the

13 video. Can I ask you to describe what you recall about this weapon to the

14 Chamber.

15 A. I think that this was a rifle with a sniper, an infrared sight,

16 and I think that at the time I had not been frequently to Sarajevo, as I

17 would be going later on, and I didn't know the kind of use that such a

18 weapon could be put to.

19 MR. GROOME: I'd ask the video continue, and this, for the record,

20 was at 7:44.

21 [Videotape played]

22 MR. GROOME:

23 Q. Now, sir, while the video is playing the bus moving, can I ask you

24 to describe for the Chamber the length of the trip and what you recall

25 about the trip that you took on the bus with these men.

1 A. The trip was in the middle of the night, about midnight, one hour

2 after midnight. It lasted about one hour. What impressed me most was

3 that there were no checkpoints or, rather, when there were any, they

4 passed without being checked. At certain places, the men would slide down

5 in their seats, and I concluded that they were passing through dangerous

6 areas that were not fully controlled by them. So they were clearly

7 proving that they could move around wherever they wanted to in this region

8 without any control or restrictions.

9 Q. Did there come a time when this bus was overtaken by an army jeep?

10 A. Yes. During this first trip, we were actually stopped by a

11 military jeep, and we were forced to make an about-turn.

12 Q. Approximately how much time elapsed between the time you left the

13 centre in the bus to the time that you were stopped by the military jeep?

14 A. I think it was about after one hour, in my opinion.

15 Q. Can you -- we're now at 9:44. Can you please describe what it is

16 we're looking at now.

17 A. After the jeep stopped us, I concluded that it must have been the

18 unit commander who stopped the bus, learning that the men had left in a

19 sort of an adventurous manner. So we returned to the command centre, to

20 this municipal hall, and there I would meet the person who was referred to

21 by his men as Commander Marko and who was going to -- who will organise

22 the next trip with the same bus and virtually in a similar sort of

23 situation.

24 MR. GROOME: I'd ask the video continue playing

25 [Videotape played]

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1 MR. GROOME:

2 Q. We're now at 9:50 and continuing. Can you please narrate what it

3 is we're looking at in this portion of the video.

4 A. We're now outside this hall. To the right we see Commander Marko.

5 We were no longer allowed to film inside, as we had been previously, and

6 we see that the man with the long knife was not allowed to go with the

7 unit again, because I imagine that the commander came to the conclusion

8 that he was not desirable.

9 So we took the same bus in a more serious atmosphere here. This

10 is the man who was introduced to us as being Commander Marko, the

11 commander of this unit or group.

12 Q. We're now at 10:44 into the video. There's only one man visible

13 in the frame at this time, who you've just identified as Commander Marko.

14 He's carrying a weapon. Can I ask you to describe what you recall about

15 that weapon.

16 A. I think that this is also a sniper rifle. Actually, we will go to

17 a place close to Sarajevo which was a place for sniping.

18 Q. On the bus on this second excursion out from the command centre,

19 how many men had sniper rifles similar to the one that we can see here in

20 this frame?

21 A. I think that there were about three people with this type of

22 weapon. Others had bazookas and others had lighter weapons.

23 MR. GROOME: I'd ask that we continue playing the video.

24 [Videotape played]

25 MR. GROOME:

1 Q. This portion of the video is pitch black. Is that an accurate

2 representation of the lighting conditions -- I'm sorry, the lighting

3 conditions at the scene where it was filmed?

4 A. At this part, we are on the heights around Sarajevo. Sarajevo is

5 in complete darkness. Everything is dark. I did not film the second

6 trip. I only filmed this small sequence.

7 So we were at a particular spot, and I came back again to the same

8 spot and found that position.

9 Q. I wanted to ask you a few questions about the night that -- or the

10 -- let me -- the night that you went on the second mission, can you

11 describe the location where you went and how far away it was from the

12 command centre.

13 A. Yes. I think it was more or less the same route. We travelled

14 perhaps a quarter of an hour longer, but all this is relative in such

15 situations, plus/minus five minutes, but I would say that the route --

16 that the trip took about one hour to reach the outskirts of Sarajevo.

17 Q. Can you recall for the Chamber what it was you observed when you

18 arrived at the location where the bus stopped.

19 A. Yes. Apart from the total darkness and the silence after the

20 noise we had heard all day of fighting, that there were casings of

21 different calibres of weapons everywhere around us.

22 Q. At this point in time, in the darkness, were you able to see what

23 it was that was in front of where you were standing?

24 A. No, absolutely nothing. It was total darkness around us.

25 Q. How long did you remain there at that location?

1 A. We stayed about ten minutes, 15 minutes. Nothing happened. And

2 then Commander Marko, as we could see on the few dark pictures, that he

3 decided to have his unit return to Pale, and we did.

4 After returning to Pale, Commander Marko, with his lieutenant whom

5 we didn't see on the picture, who is a student from Belgrade who spoke

6 good English, accompanied me to the hotel together with my cameraman, and

7 we had a lengthy discussion on the parking lot of the hotel, and there I

8 had quite a different talk to what we heard from the two men in the

9 restaurant. I would qualify it as an ideological discussion. Actually,

10 Commander Marko explained to me that he had lost the media war, that he

11 was endeavouring to win the opinion war, and that we in the West should

12 understand that their role was to defend the West even though they came

13 from all parts of Serbia, that the West needed to fight against the

14 possible invasion of Islam, and for the first time I heard mention of a

15 kind of a green belt going through Kosovo -- Turkey, Kosovo, Sandzak

16 towards Europe, and he spoke at length about the problems of Muslims in

17 France. And this was a propaganda speech which I had already heard in the

18 years 1989, 1990 during the electoral campaigns for the Presidency in

19 Serbia and Kosovo.

20 Q. Sir, the next day, then, did you and your cameraman, by

21 yourselves, find your way back to the location where you were the night

22 before?

23 A. Yes. It was enough to ask for the road to Sarajevo, and people

24 would point it out to us, and I did make this trip again. And I learned

25 two days later that I had made the same trip that I had made two nights

1 before.

2 Q. I'm going to now ask that the video resume at 11:14, and if I

3 would ask you to narrate what it is we are looking at as it plays.

4 [Videotape played]

5 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] This entire area, these are the

6 slopes of Trebevic, and once you leave Pale and the forests around Pale,

7 you are on the heights around Sarajevo. This whole area was under

8 military control, and one could see that the hotel complexes and

9 restaurants, the tourist areas which I knew before the war because I

10 visited there, that everything had been destroyed, and this whole area was

11 being held by the army, the artillery along the road, we only saw that.

12 So I filmed a few sequences, and we see very well that we are on the

13 heights around Sarajevo.

14 MR. GROOME: Can we just pause the video at 12:17 just to give the

15 Chamber a chance to take a closer look.

16 Q. Can you approximate how far was the place where you were from the

17 -- this part of Sarajevo as the bird would fly?

18 A. I think as the crow flies, it's not more than a kilometre. This

19 is a limited area covered by the camera, but I think that the closest

20 buildings were about one kilometre away.

21 [Videotape played]

22 MR. GROOME:

23 Q. This portion of the road, is this also at the location where the

24 bus was the night before?

25 A. Yes, exactly so. This is the place where there was a parking and

1 a view, and I recognised it because we stopped there, and I saw during the

2 day all the casings of different calibre, and I realised that this was a

3 sniper position which provided complete coverage of Sarajevo.

4 This was a very dangerous area, and one can hear constant

5 shooting, whether it is with light weapons or whatever, return sniper fire

6 coming in the other direction.

7 Q. While you were there with your cameraman, did you hear fire coming

8 in your direction from Sarajevo?

9 A. Yes, yes. At this spot, which was one of the hot spots for

10 snipers, we were indeed sniped at from the opposite direction. So I

11 imagine this was coming from Bosnian positions.

12 Q. Sir, I've omitted or I'm skipping over a portion of the video

13 between 13:20 and 17:20. Is that a portion of the video that was shot in

14 the Lukavica barracks that you visited on that day as well?

15 A. Yes. After that, after Trebevic and before entering Sarajevo was

16 the Lukavica barracks by Lukavica. My intention originally was to enter

17 Sarajevo. I understood that with the Red Berets and ethnic cleansing and

18 the testimony about Kozluk which confirmed all that, that we needed to go

19 to Sarajevo, and in order to do that we had to pass through a checkpoint

20 at the Lukavica barracks. And I think the UNPROFOR, at the time the

21 Canadian Battalion, would come and check journalists and other persons

22 wanting to go into Sarajevo.

23 Q. I'm just conscious of the time. Would it be fair to say that you

24 ultimately were not able to get into Sarajevo but later that day you did

25 return to the same location you were the night before and took additional

1 footage?

2 A. Yes. We were with the Hungarian television that were able to

3 enter Sarajevo, and we had to go back to Pale and to suspend this mission

4 temporarily.

5 Q. I'm going to resume the video at 17:24. Once again if I could ask

6 you to describe what it is we are looking at as it plays.

7 [Videotape played]

8 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Here we are on the return route,

9 still on the slopes of Trebevic, and the places with sniper positions

10 frequently framed by tanks. You don't see that on the picture. And one

11 can see that this whole area was very heavily armed, militarised.

12 Specifically what surprised us was that these were regular troops and that

13 the cannon were all facing in the same direction. So I think there was no

14 doubt as to the destination of the ammunition.

15 [Videotape played]

16 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Whether it is cannon or tanks or

17 machine-guns, they were all pointed towards Sarajevo. And this was a day

18 when there was a lot of shooting and bombing, and the town was shelled

19 repeatedly.

20 These are all reinforced and protected positions on the heights

21 surrounding, overlooking Sarajevo.

22 MR. GROOME:

23 Q. At 19:13, is this an artillery piece that we can see in the frame?

24 A. Yes, indeed. There were different calibres of weapons and

25 artillery. These are all artillery pieces of different calibres.

1 These are positions that were slightly more reinforced and better

2 protected. I think it is an old compound, hotel compound, in fact, and

3 that in protected areas like this there were more heavy weaponry -- there

4 was more heavy weaponry; between 120 and 240 millimetres.

5 Q. Sir, a moment ago you drew a distinction between regular soldiers

6 and the men that you had been with the night before. How is it that you

7 distinguish between the two different types of men that you encountered on

8 your trip?

9 A. I think that the bearing of these people was quite different.

10 Here we see units of the army, perhaps the ex-federal army, and they

11 weren't actually commandos, and their behaviour on conduct was different.

12 And on the way, en route, I noticed that many of those soldiers would take

13 -- make stop-offs as if they were hiking. And I don't think that many of

14 them were pleased to be in a situation of that kind in actual fact.

15 Q. Sir, we've stopped or paused at video at 21:02. Are you familiar

16 with the Sarajevo library, the old Turkish library?

17 A. Yes, quite. I did know the building. It was situated in the

18 centre of the picture, and I said a moment ago that I did visit Sarajevo

19 before the war several times, so I was well acquainted with that whole

20 general area, the old city centre of Sarajevo, Bas Carsija and the rest of

21 it.

22 Q. Is it visible in this frame; and if it is could I ask you to

23 describe which building it is for the Chamber.

24 A. We can see that it is the building in actual fact in the very

25 centre of this image and that the building is intact, the 21st or 22nd of

1 July, 1992, the building was standing. It was intact.

2 MR. GROOME: Please resume.

3 [Videotape played]

4 MR. GROOME:

5 Q. And sir, this vantage point that the cameraman is at now, where is

6 this in respect to the location that you were the night before with the

7 men in the red berets?

8 A. These are all places which, relatively speaking, were fairly

9 near. This whole stretch of ground here was about a kilometre or more

10 away, and then we went further towards the interior, the forest towards

11 Pale. So actually, all these points and locations here and all this type

12 of weaponry where the snipers installed themselves were concentrated,

13 geographically speaking, in one area.

14 Q. We're now at 21:58 on the video. Can you describe what it is that

15 is being filmed now.

16 A. Once again, we see the difference between the paramilitary groups

17 who were coming in from other regions and the regular troops which were

18 going up and down to and from the front and who were probably locals from

19 the region who were taking buses, who would normally take a bus in any

20 other situation.

21 So that's where we were, on our return route going back to Pale

22 and Belgrade.

23 Q. And for the record, we've terminated the video at 6 22:35. And

24 as the 89(F) statement, in paragraphs 44 and 45 describe, you were able

25 then to return back into Serbia generally via the way that you came to

1 Pale; is that correct?

2 A. Yes. We took the exact same itinerary and route with the same

3 types of situations. And when crossing the bridge at Zvornik, we

4 encountered the same type of fighting, and we passed from Bosnia to Serbia

5 in the night between the 23rd -- the night of the 23rd, in fact. There

6 was a lot of fighting going on even at 20 kilometres from the Zvornik

7 bridge, including during the night.

8 Q. Sir, yesterday, in cooperation with members of the Office of the

9 Prosecutor's staff, did you work on a document containing stills from the

10 video with notes made by you indicating certain important identifications

11 from the video?

12 A. Yes. Would you like me to comment on those stills?

13 Q. I'd ask you, is that the document that you worked on yesterday,

14 making your notes about what is depicted in the video at the particular

15 time indicated in the left-hand column?

16 A. Yes, that's right. It's the same document that we worked on

17 yesterday, absolutely.

18 Q. And those are the -- the video that we've seen here today, is that

19 an accurate version of the video that was taken by yourself and your

20 cameraman on the trip that you've described in July of 1992?

21 A. Yes, it is. Everything is exact, all the stills.

22 MR. GROOME: Your Honour, I would formally tender that exhibit

23 now, and I would ask that this document containing the stills and the

24 notes, that that be tendered as well, and may I suggest that we tender it

25 as tab 2 to keep it with Exhibit 529, the video itself.

1 THE REGISTRAR: Your Honour, the video would be 529. Tab 1 would

2 be the excerpts of the video viewed today, and tab 2 would be the stills.

3 MR. GROOME: And, Your Honour, if I could just note a

4 typographical error on this tab 2 of 529. In the third still, where it

5 says 3:34, that should read 4:34. That's a typographical error.

6 I have no further questions.

7 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

8 Cross-examined by Mr. Milosevic:

9 Q. [Interpretation] Mr. Riviere, the film you shot in Bosnia in July

10 1992, which we have partially been shown here through a series of

11 different stills and images endeavours to describe the atmosphere at the

12 battlefront, is that right? In that area; is that right, the area you

13 were in?

14 A. This film wasn't a film that was ordered or imposed. It's not a

15 situation that I created. It was a situation created by the Red Berets

16 themselves. Quite simply, I found some answers to the various testimony

17 that I heard in Hungary, in Kozlugi -- about Kozluk, I'm sorry. And I

18 wasn't able to include testimony from the people of Kozluk themselves, and

19 so I didn't want to doubt any of the testimonies a priori, either by the

20 people or the Red Berets. And in fact, during that period of time, those

21 two testimonies were corroborated and bore each other out. They explained

22 all the mechanisms of ethnic cleansing in Eastern Bosnia, and everything

23 that the people of Kozluk had had to go through or the people of Zvornik.

24 Q. Let's just dwell for a short time on Kozluk, because we did have a

25 witness here who was the president of Kozluk. As far as I remember his

1 testimony, the citizens of Kozluk demanded that they be allowed to leave

2 the area, and with the help of the Red Cross, through Serbia, they were

3 evacuated to Hungary, because that's what they wanted to do themselves,

4 and that is common knowledge.

5 Do you know that? Do you know about that? Are you aware of it?

6 A. The version of the inhabitants of Kozluk, and you mentioned the

7 president or, rather, the mayor of Kozluk I assume you mean - I remember

8 his first name, it was Fadil - that was something in actual fact which had

9 to be verified. But what I questioned was not that. I listened to the

10 testimony of the women from Kozluk, a lot of them, and when you hear women

11 testify, and I remember a case in point, a particular woman, what I

12 remarked there with respect to Kozluk was that she explained that her baby

13 was killed, it was only several months old, because it was taken by a

14 soldier, by its legs and killed. And others said that their sons and

15 husbands had been killed. So I don't know whether under those

16 circumstances one can speak about the people voluntarily wanting to leave.

17 So I just filmed the testimony in the raw, if I can put it that

18 way, and that's what I wanted to show. There were --

19 Q. Mr. Riviere, we have seen nothing of those testimonies. What I'm

20 talking about is what you have testified about here in the courtroom.

21 Now, this witness from Kozluk explained that all of them, unimpeded, did

22 go to Hungary --

23 JUDGE MAY: You've put that to the witness already, Mr. Milosevic,

24 and he's given you his response. That was the response that he talked to

25 people, as he put it, in the raw, and that was the response that they

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1 gave.

2 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May, I should like to dwell for

3 a moment on what the witness testified here.

4 JUDGE MAY: Yes. You can ask him. You can certainly ask him --

5 wait a moment. You can certainly ask him a question, of course, about

6 what he's said in evidence, but simply repeating questions which you've

7 already put is a waste of time.

8 Now, you've put what the witness said here. He's given you his

9 response. Now, move on to something else. Ask another question.

10 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] That's what I'm doing. I'm asking

11 him about his film, because his film represents the largest part of his

12 testimony. So the question was whether he reflects the atmosphere in that

13 war-infested area, which is where he took the shots, where he filmed it.

14 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Riviere, I don't know what that question means,

15 but I suppose you could be asked: Do you think you accurately reflected

16 the atmosphere of what was going on, you accurately reflected the sites

17 which you saw in the film?

18 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Mr. May, I'm a little surprised by

19 the question, because when one takes footage of this kind of film, one

20 doesn't film the ambience.

21 JUDGE MAY: I'm trying to put a question that he's asking, to make

22 sense of it. That's the point. So don't be offended in any way.

23 Is there anything -- put it this way: Was there anything you

24 filmed -- was there anything you didn't film which might have made a

25 difference to what you've showed or what you've talked about?

1 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. I did grasp your question and

2 the sense of it, and I wasn't taking offence in any way, but as I say, it

3 wasn't atmosphere and ambience, it was facts. The testimony from the

4 people of Kozluk that we broadcast over French television and the footage

5 recorded with the Red Berets, they weren't images or footage that was

6 artificial, created by us; they were realistic images. The weapons of the

7 White Eagles were not the weapons contrary to the video taken by Rambo,

8 and it wasn't a wild goose chase either. So this was footage of a precise

9 situation, a situation in Bosnia that existed, that was one of confusion

10 and could appear such if one came in from outside, but once one was there

11 in the locality, it became very clear.

12 So I did not ask for any testimony, I just filmed events as they

13 were progressing, improvised very often, and I filmed facts and recorded

14 what was going on without making any value judgements myself.

15 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

16 Q. Well, we saw the footage you took, and you keep mentioning Kozluk.

17 Perhaps I missed something here, but I didn't see anything that had to do

18 with Kozluk actually on your footage, or perhaps that was skipped over in

19 the footage we saw, but I really didn't see anything to connect with

20 Kozluk in the film.

21 A. The reason for my going to Bosnia in the first place was precisely

22 because I had heard testimony about Eastern Bosnia, and I can be at the

23 court's disposal and present all the testimony that was made to me; the

24 names of the people, the dates, and everything they said with respect to

25 ethnic cleansing in that period, July 1992, Eastern Bosnia being the

1 place.

2 Q. Mr. --

3 JUDGE MAY: I think we've come to time for an adjournment. It's

4 after half past.

5 Yes, Mr. Groome.

6 MR. GROOME: I would just state that we are in possession of this

7 other piece of work which is the interview of the Kozluk victims. It was

8 not the Prosecution's intention to tender that, but if the Chamber wishes,

9 I can secure a copy of that over the break.

10 JUDGE MAY: No. Thank you very much.

11 Mr. Riviere, we're going to adjourn for 20 minutes. Could I

12 remind you, as we mind all witnesses, not to speak to anybody about your

13 evidence until it's over.

14 Twenty minutes.

15 --- Recess taken at 10.33 a.m.

16 --- On resuming at 10.55 a.m.

17 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, you have one hour and ten minutes,

18 should you require it, for further cross-examination.

19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

20 Q. Mr. Riviere, quite simply, in the testimony we heard from you

21 today and the footage we saw, there's nothing from Kozluk; isn't that

22 right?

23 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Groome, perhaps you would like to repeat, because

24 it's apparent the accused didn't hear this.

25 MR. GROOME: Yes, Your Honour.

1 JUDGE MAY: It's not disputed that there is nothing from Kozluk

2 shown in court. Now, would you like to repeat again what you said before

3 so the accused can hear it.

4 MR. GROOME: That's correct, Your Honour. The witness made a

5 piece about Kozluk from Hungary which was aired on ARTE TV. I have a copy

6 of that and it's available should the court wish.

7 The second piece is the raw footage from his attempts to get to

8 Kozluk. He was never permitted go to Kozluk, as he's testified about and

9 is in the 89(F) statement. So there is no footage from Kozluk simply

10 because he was prevented from going there.

11 JUDGE MAY: Yes, Mr. Milosevic.

12 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well. We've cleared that point

13 up then.

14 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

15 Q. Now, what we can see on the film in this war-infested area, the

16 footage we saw, those were scenes from a time when there wasn't any

17 fighting going on, actually, because there's no fighting, no combat action

18 on the actual footage. Isn't that right?

19 A. There was fighting going on. All you would have to do was to

20 listen to the soundtrack of some of the footage and you would, in actual

21 fact, hear light-arms fire or fire from heavier weaponry. But in any

22 case, if you -- not throughout the film, but that's television for you.

23 We see -- we hear fairly distinctly on the soundtrack fighting going on.

24 Q. Very well. So in -- the film doesn't actually show the fighting,

25 and you can hear shots sporadically from an unspecified direction, but you

1 haven't got the footage of actual fighting, of actual combat action, have

2 you?

3 A. If by that you mean cannon shots or shots are not tantamount to

4 combat operation, what is a combat operation then?

5 Q. Well, I didn't see anywhere on this footage any cannons, any guns

6 firing, actually firing, shots of cannons actually firing; that's all I'm

7 saying.

8 Now, tell me this, please, Mr. Riviere: Am I right in observing

9 that the only combat action you actually filmed, and which was mentioned

10 in the summary, was the shooting of a bullet from the position of Sarajevo

11 towards the Serb positions? And you have that in paragraph 38 of the

12 summary, and on the videotape it is at 12:57. At least, that's what I've

13 noted down, where you hear a bullet fly past.

14 A. Yes, that's right. If you were in that position that was sniped

15 and if you take it that a sniper shot from the Bosnian side was an action

16 of war directed actually against us, against the civilians and the press,

17 we can consider that everything we heard as shots or as gunfire, et

18 cetera, throughout the period of time that we were there was really combat

19 action. But on the -- and there is no doubt with respect to the location

20 from which this gunfire, machine-gun fire came from. So we were able to

21 know which side this heavy weaponry was targeting in actual fact.

22 Q. All right. So that means that you just filmed the Muslims at one

23 point shooting at the Serbs and nothing else with respect to fighting. Is

24 that right?

25 A. If the question is this, that you're asking me whether the Muslims

1 were shooting at the Serbs, I -- my answer is I can't tell you who the

2 Muslims were. It was Bosniaks rather than Muslims and who the Serbs were

3 at a point in time when the army on the high ground -- was on the high

4 ground around Sarajevo, so one could think that there were fragments of

5 the federal army, in fact. So I really can't answer your question.

6 Q. These were parts of the army of Republika Srpska, as far as I

7 know, in those days, and not of the federal army. You do not mention any

8 federal army in your statement. Is that right, Mr. Riviere?

9 A. In my statement, I mentioned two different elements of the armed

10 forces that I was able to see on the ground. There was first what I

11 thought to be a regular army, and I was not able to identify them formally

12 except that when I was on the heights around Sarajevo, I was able to

13 notice that the weapons were turned in one single direction.

14 On the other hand, the few hours I spent with Red Berets

15 instructed me that these were paramilitaries, Serb paramilitaries. Their

16 talk -- discussions were quite explicit in that sense. I did not engage

17 in any investigation as to the forces that appeared to me to be regular

18 forces.

19 Q. The regular army of Republika Srpska, yes. However, these young

20 men that you met in the restaurant and later where they lived and slept

21 and watched television, et cetera, and in the bars, they were going on a

22 mission that never took place and came back twice.

23 According to your testimony, they belonged to the White Eagles

24 paramilitary group; isn't that right?

25 A. Yes, absolutely.

1 Q. In paragraph 12 of your summary, it says that one of the White

2 Eagles, the one with the long knife, said, "We are coming from everywhere

3 to save the Serb nation. It is our duty"; and I quote your statement.

4 Is it clear from this sentence that this was a group of volunteers

5 organised to form a paramilitary grouping that had come from various areas

6 prompted by personal feelings of duty to assist their people? Isn't that

7 right?

8 A. If you're talking about different areas of Serbia or Belgrade,

9 indeed some of the members of this group said that they came from Serbia

10 or the surroundings of Belgrade. Some were students in Belgrade. The

11 sociological composition of this group, for me, was vague. Regarding

12 Commander Marko, it was my impression that he was a career military man, a

13 captain in the former Yugoslav army, that he had quite a clear ideological

14 position, defending values which he considered, rightly or wrongly, that

15 he should defend. And the men in his group, my impression was that they

16 were not just students but that there were various social categories of

17 people in that group, and even at times my impression was that I was

18 dealing with criminals.

19 Q. Can one conclude from what you saw and from what you filmed and

20 explained here that the White Eagles were some sort of an independent and

21 autonomous paramilitary formation outside the army of Republika Srpska or

22 any other official structure?

23 A. The way they functioned, one could conclude that they did not

24 belong to a classical organised military group. When we looked at the

25 eastern part of Bosnia that I went through twice, it was impossible to

1 move around without being stopped every 30 seconds. There were

2 checkpoints absolutely everywhere, and it was impossible to move freely.

3 Therefore, to say that these groups were totally independent and were not

4 subjected to any superior authority, it's perhaps going too far. And I

5 think to allow troops to function freely like that, to punish and loot the

6 civilian population without planning and organisation, in my view, would

7 not be acceptable, and in my position, I'm simply not in a position to

8 answer this question whether there was any superior authority that

9 organised this group.

10 Q. In your examination-in-chief this morning, you said that they did

11 not belong to the regular army, but you say that they had the right to

12 loot. To me, that appears to be contradictory. Who can give anyone the

13 right to loot? Can such an expression be accepted at all, the right to

14 loot? Who could possibly authorise them to loot? And when you were asked

15 who authorised them to loot, you said you didn't know who gave them that

16 right. Isn't that right, Mr. Riviere?

17 JUDGE MAY: There are two questions there. If you can answer

18 either of them, Mr. Riviere, do so.

19 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] There is a question asking me

20 whether I knew that a superior or higher authority, an organised

21 authority, would allow this unit to carry out such actions. As to that

22 question, I maintain that I don't have enough knowledge as to say it in

23 any certified way. So I don't know regarding that.

24 As to the other point, however, this had to do with the way that

25 this unit would move about within that part of Bosnia, knowing that most

1 of the checkpoint were manned and controlled both by the regular army and

2 by the police forces. Just look at the first still at the Zvornik post.

3 You see that there is the blue uniformed forces and the army. So the

4 police forces are there. If you let Red Berets cross that checkpoint,

5 that means that they are authorised to do so.

6 So if you talk about a higher authority, if you know that, there's

7 a constant, permanent connection, a hi-fi and walkie-talkie connection

8 between them. It is obvious that the slightest movement by an individual,

9 be he military or be that a television crew, it's obvious that everybody

10 knew, that everybody had the information from one village to the other,

11 from one checkpoint to the other, from one town to the other.

12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

13 Q. Very well. I draw your attention to your summary, and in

14 paragraph 6, following on to the previous point, you say that you had the

15 impression that they were nervous because of your presence. There were

16 ordinary soldiers, other soldiers with red berets, and some others that

17 looked like paramilitaries. And then you say quite explicitly in

18 paragraph 6: "At that location Mr. Riviere's attention was drawn to a

19 Serb woman who was near the body of her son, which lay on the side of the

20 road." Isn't that right? This is what is stated in paragraph 6 of your

21 summary,

22 A. Yes, absolutely. Indeed, while we were being checked at the

23 checkpoint in -- we to wait for an hour for our accreditation to be

24 checked. However, you can't see that in the clip. You have a young Serb

25 who had just been killed. He was 18 years old. And indeed his mother

1 came to collect his body, and the press officer who checked us there

2 explained to us that he was 18 years old, he was a Serb, and that it was

3 also necessary to convey their point of view.

4 Q. Very well. In paragraph 43 of your summary, and you also have

5 this on the videotape, 21:58, it says: "This shot shows the change of

6 regular troops at artillery positions. They are significantly different

7 from the paramilitaries they met the day before. These men seemed more

8 like professional soldiers and appeared to be travelling back and forth to

9 their homes to work at the artillery emplacements."

10 That was a quotation from your summary, paragraph 43. So this

11 also indicates that the White Eagles that you met were an atypical and

12 irregular grouping as opposed to this other group of soldiers who were

13 regulars. Is that right?

14 A. Yes, yes, absolutely.

15 Q. [No interpretation]

16 JUDGE MAY: We're not getting any translation, so start again,

17 would you.

18 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I'll repeat, Mr. May.

19 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

20 Q. On the film, one can hear that some members of the White Eagles

21 speak the Ekavian dialect, which is spoken in Serbia, and the others the

22 Ijkavian dialect, the variant used in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in the

23 western part of the Serb language area. This is about two minutes into

24 the film. One of the members asks another one, "Siptar, where is my

25 shirt?" So he's using the Bosnian-Herzegovinian dialect. Judging by the

1 speech of these White Eagles members, one can really see that they came

2 from various parts of the country on both sides of the Drina River. Do

3 you realise that?

4 A. As I told you, I had indeed the impression that this was a group,

5 from its sociological composition was very diverse. I had talked with

6 some men in the restaurant. Some members of the unit came from Serbia and

7 they state so openly. Out of the 20 men in that unit who went on a

8 mission together with us, and out of the 20 men, I really talked with four

9 of them. So out of these four men, there were at least three of whom I

10 can say that they were not from Bosnia. And you mentioned "Siptar." So

11 they would have been from Kosovo, from Albania.

12 Q. That could easily be a nickname. I didn't mention Siptar because

13 he is -- somebody was from Kosovo, but I mentioned this sentence because

14 he used the word "Gde," which is a word that would not be used by anyone

15 from Serbia who speaks the Ekavian dialect. When he said "Gde" as opposed

16 to "Gdje."

17 So that I'm saying this, that one can conclude on that basis that

18 members of this paramilitary unit came from various areas on both sides of

19 the Drina River. Are you aware of that?

20 A. It seems quite plausible to me.

21 Q. Mr. Riviere, you don't speak Serbian. One can see from the film

22 that you used English in your communications in Bosnia. Isn't that right?

23 A. Yes, right.

24 Q. Did anyone later translate for you what is said in the Serbian

25 language on the tape?

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1 A. No. Let's be clear. We are talking about the tape with the Red

2 Berets; right?

3 Q. Yes, when the White Eagles unit is shown that you are testifying

4 about.

5 So what they were saying is not translated for you. So you

6 brought the film, and you're testifying on the basis of it, yet you don't

7 know what those men on film are saying.

8 JUDGE MAY: This is a comment by you. The witness has explained

9 what happened and explained what he saw. He can go no further than that.

10 Let's move on to something else.

11 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Very well.

12 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

13 Q. This paramilitary grouping, the White Eagles, as you yourself say

14 and as can be seen from the film, have red berets, and then you said in

15 paragraph 5, which I just mentioned, that at the checkpoint after crossing

16 the Bosnian border, you saw a group of men looking at a map, some of whom

17 were again wearing red berets. Were they also White Eagles?

18 A. I'd like to specify one thing. I was not the one who said that

19 this unit, this paramilitary group were the White Eagles. They said so

20 themselves. I mean, the two people I found -- I met in the restaurant.

21 Just to be clear on that.

22 Now, as to the checkpoint, there was indeed a group in which

23 people wore various types of uniforms. I had just arrived in Bosnia, and

24 I did not at all know what it was all about, who it was all about. So I

25 am not at all able to tell you whether these people with the red berets in

1 other uniforms who were leaned over that map were members of that unit.

2 All I can say is that I did not see these people when I was in Pale.

3 Q. Very well. A moment ago, you said that when you arrived at Pale

4 you went to a restaurant called Koran and that it was run by a Muslim; is

5 that right?

6 A. Not at all. Not at all. What I said is that I was told about a

7 restaurant/hunting lodge or chalet, and that when the paramilitaries came

8 to sit at our table, they told me that it was kept by a Muslim and that's

9 why we had to order their meat, because they made good meat. And that

10 place, that hamlet where the restaurant was, was called Koran.

11 Q. Very well. But you found out that the restaurant was owned by a

12 Muslim who was running that restaurant, regardless of what prompted them

13 to tell you that, whether it was because of the quality of the meat or for

14 some other reason.

15 A. Well, personally, I did not check whether he was a Muslim or not.

16 I didn't really ask myself that question.

17 JUDGE KWON: If you read paragraph 9 of your summary, you stated

18 that: "Mr. Riviere could see the restaurant owner, who he believed was

19 Muslim, get frightened by the appearances in his restaurant."

20 Paragraph 9.

21 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Yes. It was a mistake in the

22 witness statement and, Mr. Kwon, we corrected paragraph 9. So this is to

23 be found in the addendum, in the corrections, where we changed this

24 paragraph and explained that that had been said by the paramilitaries. It

25 was not me who had said so. This is change number 47.

1 JUDGE KWON: Yes.

2 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Correction number 47.

3 MR. TAPUSKOVIC: [Interpretation] Your Honours, if I may add to

4 Judge Kwon's question. True, a correction has been made, but no

5 correction was made to the statement that he noticed that he was fearful.

6 That was not corrected.

7 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

8 Q. Mr. Riviere, the correction has to do with the area, the name of

9 the area in which the restaurant is located, but nothing was changed with

10 respect to the fact that the owner was a Muslim. Isn't that right?

11 A. Well, it doesn't change anything to the fact that the

12 paramilitaries said that he was a Muslim. However, regarding the fact

13 that this man would have been afraid of the situation that was unfolding,

14 I repeat and maintain that he looked very frightened by the situation.

15 Q. Very well. But he's at Pale. In the administrative centre of

16 Republika Srpska, a Muslim is running a restaurant. So there's no doubt

17 about that, I assume, Mr. Riviere. Doesn't that indicate that in Pale,

18 which is not only the administrative but the military centre too, a Muslim

19 was running a restaurant, doesn't that indicate there was a very decent

20 level of tolerance, which you were able to witness?

21 A. I mainly noted that this man was very afraid, but I have no other

22 comment to make.

23 Q. Very well. Without going into why you went to Bosnia and

24 Herzegovina, actually, you went there after the interview with the

25 refugees from Kozluk that you had in Hungary. You didn't get there, but

1 you got to Pale. Actually, you went to Pale to get a press accreditation;

2 isn't that right?

3 A. Well, first I went to Belgrade mainly in order to get my

4 accreditation, a provisional one that would allow me to access Bosnia in

5 order to get a more lasting accreditation of some days in Bosnia, against

6 $50. So I was supposed also to get another accreditation card for my

7 cameraman. So I went to the centre of Belgrade, and it is there that it

8 was decided whether I could be accredited or not, initially speaking.

9 Q. Very well. In Belgrade itself, I assume you had no problems

10 whatsoever, but they advised you, as you were not competent for this, that

11 you had to go to Pale to get a permission for Bosnia; isn't that right?

12 A. On the contrary. I had the feeling that they were very competent

13 in this field, because the people who took me in phoned Pale, I was

14 recorded in this copybook. I wasn't the first journalist to be registered

15 in this way. So they had competence to give me a transit pass, a

16 provisional one. And indeed, once I had crossed the Zvornik bridge, this

17 paper authorised and allowed me to move about in Bosnia.

18 Q. I understand that. You explained during the examination-in-chief

19 this morning that you actually went to the news agency in Belgrade, to

20 Tanjug, that they contacted the news agency of Republika Srpska, that is

21 Srna, told them that you wanted to go there, and advised you to go to Pale

22 where the pass that you displayed here was actually issued to you. Isn't

23 that right?

24 A. Yes. This paper was issued in Belgrade by which I could move

25 about. Therefore, I concluded that there was a connection in -- by which

1 journalists could be accredited if they wanted to go from Belgrade to

2 Bosnia.

3 Q. You have here this pass or permit. It has been produced here

4 under 0347371, and it says here "Army of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia

5 and Herzegovina, Sarajevo-Romanija Corps," and then in capital letters,

6 "Permit." And it says the agency, your agency FR-3; then your name,

7 Riviere Michel; the number of your passport; and the number of the pass,

8 226. And as I can see on the stamp, the word "Sarajevo" is written on it,

9 which means that it was issued in Pale, wasn't it?

10 A. Yes, this pass was indeed issued in Pale in exchange for this

11 printed paper that had been issued in Belgrade. Without the printed paper

12 that I had from Belgrade, I don't think that I would have been able to go

13 from the Zvornik bridge to Pale only with my press card. I think that it

14 would have been impossible back in those days, given the situation.

15 Q. All right. But a permit was issued which allowed you to move

16 around and to do your job as a journalist at Pale, and that's where you

17 paid what you say you paid for your press card; right?

18 A. Yes. We can see this card that was issued in Pale.

19 Q. Now you say that after you received this permit, you went to the

20 hotel and the restaurant there and that you met two members of the White

21 Eagles who started talking to you, and you started asking about Kozluk;

22 right?

23 A. Yes, I did ask them questions about Kozluk, and Zvornik as well,

24 because in the camp in Hungary, there wasn't any refugees from Kozluk,

25 Zvornik, or around. That is to say, they weren't only from Kozluk but

1 from Zvornik as well, so I asked questions about the region. And the

2 answer was that we have finished with that region and we're now going to

3 see to Sarajevo. The answer was very clear. And when I spoke about

4 Kozluk, they made out that they didn't understand what I was talking

5 about.

6 Q. So they had nothing to do with Kozluk. Is that what that means?

7 A. I think quite the contrary. They had everything to do with

8 Kozluk.

9 Q. Very well. May we then conclude that throughout that situation of

10 war and the combat operations in which thousands of people took part, that

11 on both sides, on all sides you had this unusual circumstance that

12 although you never reached Kozluk but to Pale, quite a long way away, you

13 just happened to come across some people who had been in Kozluk and

14 explained to you by the gestures they made that they had slit the throats

15 of the Muslim population there? Is that it?

16 A. Exactly so. Very explicitly. Those were the gestures.

17 Q. Well, do you know at all the fact that the population of Kozluk

18 was not slaughtered? They left Kozluk collectively and in the capacity of

19 refugees, through the mediation of the Red Cross, they left.

20 JUDGE MAY: You have already put that. All the witness can say is

21 what he was told by the man.

22 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

23 Q. Very well. Now, tell me this, please, Mr. Riviere: As it says in

24 paragraph 9 of this summary of yours, those two members of the

25 paramilitaries, at the point in time when you met them were drunk and that

1 after talking with you for two hours, they continued to drink. Is that

2 right? I'm looking at point 9, and this is what you say: "When the

3 witness gave an affirmative answer, he asked about the car with the

4 Yugoslav number plates. He said that the French and Serbs were always

5 good friends. That's what he says."

6 And then in point 10, you say: "These two men sat down, ordered

7 more drinks, and over the course of two hours they told Mr. Riviere and

8 his cameraman many stories." Is that right?

9 That means, actually, that they arrived drunk and continued to

10 drink. Is that how it was, Mr. Riviere?

11 A. With respect to the two men, the two Red Berets who arrived and

12 sat at our table, it was quite obvious that one of the two, the one that

13 had the long knife, that he was slightly drunk, which wasn't the case with

14 the second man who had the pistol.

15 Now, throughout the discussion there, those two men did continue

16 to drink but not more or less -- actually, what I think is this: As they

17 saw French journalists and a French car, they wanted to show that they

18 were soldiers and so the discussion was -- jumped from one subject to the

19 other, wasn't very coherent. But I wanted to say in vino veritas.

20 Q. Well, that's a well-known proverb, of course, and sometimes when

21 one is drunk one says a lot of things.

22 Now, as we can see from the film that they were drunk as well.

23 For example, in the footage 7:30 to 7:35, you can hear somebody speaking

24 to one of your friends from the restaurant, the one that drove the bus,

25 and he says, and you can hear this on the footage, on the tape: "If you

1 can't drive, then don't drive. If you're not capable of driving, then

2 don't drive. You can see you're drunk. I'll take you back." That can be

3 quite clearly heard. So you're talking to two drunken men, and you're

4 testifying on the basis of what these two drunk men were telling you in a

5 bar.

6 A. Well, not only with respect to these two men. I've just told you

7 that one of the men arrived slightly drunk, tipsy, whereas the other

8 wasn't. And while we were having dinner, they had drinks with us. So I

9 would like to point out that they wanted to pay for our drinks, but I

10 wouldn't have that, I wouldn't allow it, so each of us paid for ourselves.

11 Now, during the meal, one of the men was more drunk than the

12 other. That was quite obvious. And I think that that is the reason why

13 they spoke to us so much, they talked so much, especially the one with the

14 long knife. Now, when we met up with the complete unit and Commander

15 Marko and I had the lengthy discussion that I had with respect to the

16 return from the second voyage from Sarajevo, Marko -- and his lieutenant

17 was translating in English, he was studying English and was a student in

18 Belgrade, in actual fact. The discussion was a very serious one and

19 touched upon political issues, and they explained to me in a more

20 ideological way, based on ideology, why they were undertaking ethnic

21 cleansing in that part of Bosnia. And at that point, I had absolutely no

22 reason not to understand their testimony and that they implied military

23 operations in the area as well.

24 Q. All right, Mr. Riviere. But you didn't take a footage of that.

25 You didn't record your conversations. Is that what you're saying?

1 A. As regards the latter portion, the discussion with Commander

2 Marko, whom we filmed in a portion of the footage and who was there in the

3 bus during the second trip, no, we didn't record that discussion.

4 Q. So you didn't record it. Now, you did record the conversation

5 with the two drunken men. Now, from the film can you see, Mr. Riviere -

6 and apart from the film you also felt the atmosphere and the mood that

7 prevailed - that the overall conduct of those people who you say were

8 White Eagles was not at all serious. For example, at 3:11 one of the

9 members of the paramilitaries asks where his shirt was and he was laughing

10 insanely. And at 5:55, the one with the knife stuck his tongue out at the

11 camera. Then at 7:25, he is grimacing, making grimaces in front of the

12 camera, and all this is the result of him being drunk, isn't that right?

13 And you have this on your film, on the footage you took. He's making

14 various faces, he's laughing non-stop, he's sticking his tongue out at the

15 camera. So that was behaviour that can be completely --

16 JUDGE MAY: What is the question?

17 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

18 Q. Well, doesn't this show that these were quite certainly two

19 drunken men that were playing around? I think that's quite obvious from

20 seeing that footage.

21 A. Well, one can have a different interpretation when we see men

22 carrying the weapons they had and having the means of this kind and

23 circulating around and passing through all the checkpoints without having

24 to show anything -- any passes or anything like that. Then one can easily

25 imagine what was going on in certain villages when people like that

1 arrived there as free radicals in villages running rampant.

2 So that's what I saw. I saw their behaviour. And this behaviour

3 brought out -- corroborated -- was corroborated by the testimonies that I

4 got from the people of Kozluk, from what they told me. And they were in

5 Hungary, and a lot of them were killed. And one of the women from Kozluk

6 did tell us that three whole truckloads of corpses were brought out of

7 Kozluk. So that I can only imagine that these paramilitaries, regardless

8 of the moral judgement that one can make with respect to their behaviour

9 and conduct and on the basis of the footage we made, we can easily imagine

10 that their behaviour in the villages did correspond to their conduct on

11 our film, on the footage.

12 Q. Just a minute, please. Now, apart from the fact that we can

13 clearly see that they're drunk and playing around, in paragraph 22 of your

14 summary you give us your impressions about one of these White Eagles, and

15 he says: "A man with a blue bandanna also had a big knife, and it

16 appeared that something wasn't all right with him or that he was a

17 criminal in his behaviour."

18 So in addition to these two men who were quite obviously drunk,

19 among the other paramilitaries that you were in communication with, there

20 were others that acted as if they were not normal.

21 A. Well, that's a point we can agree on. Yes, I do think there was

22 one man, one person who had drunk too much, the one with the knife, and

23 then this other one who was tipsy, and other people once again who hadn't

24 been drinking but whose behaviour was, to say the least, strange and a

25 little disquieting, worrying. So what I'm saying is that we weren't at a

1 circus there. We were at a command centre with a military unit which had

2 all the resources and weapons at their disposal, ranging from light

3 weapons to heavy weapons, and that these people could move around whenever

4 and wherever they wanted, and there was shooting all over the place. And

5 it was easier, of course, to circulate during the day than it was at

6 night.

7 So at the end of our dinner in the restaurant, the man with the

8 knife said to us, "I can take you to Sarajevo, and we can go into an

9 operation there." I personally -- not only I did not believe him, but I

10 knew that that wasn't possible. He was just joking. However, I was able

11 to note that the joking wasn't all that pleasant. So this was at the

12 limits of the psychotic. Even in the footage we took of them, the footage

13 of Rambo, this was worrying. Their behaviour and conduct was worrying.

14 And of course there were the people responsible there who allowed people

15 going round with the weapons and with that kind of ideology were not true

16 military men in the right sense of the word. So that's the question.

17 Q. Well, that's the point. They weren't real soldiers at all. Some

18 of them were drunk, others appeared to you to be psychopaths, their

19 behaviour was abnormal. So doesn't it seem to you that your sources of

20 information are, to put it mildly, strange, because you used that word, I

21 think, "strange."

22 A. My sources of information were all the less strange because they

23 weren't filtered or censored in any way. Those men were able to express

24 themselves freely. And afterwards, the discussion we had with Commander

25 Marko or the lieutenant, or actually the man who was called Commander

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1 Marko by his fellow soldiers, corroborated what others had told me. So I

2 would like to repeat that once again. So those people had real weapons,

3 they were real men in a real war situation, just as in Sarajevo the shots

4 that were being fired and that I could hear from light weaponry or cannons

5 or tanks were being fired by real men, real tanks, real cannons. Or

6 perhaps all that was just a nightmare on my part, a nightmare I was

7 having.

8 Q. Unfortunately it wasn't, no. But what I'm talking about are your

9 sources of information, people fooling and behaving as people behave when

10 they're drunk. That's what I'm referring to. And even judging by what we

11 can see on the film and by your descriptions as well, these were men that

12 were prone to fooling around, verbally and in all other respects as well.

13 So do you really think that all that was the result of their lack

14 of responsibility and fooling around and, to a certain extent, the fact

15 that you yourself observed that these were people that had something wrong

16 with them, mentally wrong, as you mention in paragraph 22 yourself, that

17 they were somewhat disturbed? Isn't that right, Mr. Riviere?

18 A. Now, if these men were abnormal to that degree, then one would

19 have to wonder why they were given the freedom to move around, total

20 freedom, like wild animals released in the wild, to do as they pleased.

21 Q. Well, that, of course, is a very big question. But doesn't it

22 seem to you, this story about the ethnic cleansing of Sarajevo, for

23 instance, and stories of that kind, doesn't that to you -- seem to you to

24 be just fooling around? Who could have talked about ethnic cleansing in

25 Sarajevo to you?

1 A. If you want me to mention previous reportages, I was in Yugoslavia

2 in 1989, 1990 - before the war, therefore - and that I followed what was

3 being said in the former Yugoslav republics. I am not referring to the

4 memorandum of the Academy of Sciences and all those other things, but I

5 think that there was indeed a political debate before this whole situation

6 in Yugoslavia, between what one could call modernity and the past, and I'm

7 not saying that modernity won in various republics, but in relation to

8 that situation, you see, I come from a family and my father was a member

9 of the resistance from the very beginning. He formed one of the first

10 resistance groups. So I am not a nationalist. My attitude, in viewing

11 all these things, was the attitude of an anti-fascist. I come from an

12 anti-fascist family in relation to our own regime, as far as my father was

13 concerned.

14 So I worked a lot in this area, and the testimony I was able to

15 collect was so frightful and that in all honesty I could only do one of

16 two things, either not go to Bosnia and verify whether those things were

17 real and true and whether men were capable of behaving in that way

18 contrary to all the laws of mankind and humanity, contrary to all the laws

19 of military logic and the Civil Code, or not to broadcast anything

20 regarding ethnic cleansing. But concerning Bosnia and what happened later

21 on only corroborated what we had done and the testimony we had collected

22 regarding Kozluk as well as the activities of these paramilitaries.

23 Q. Very well, Mr. Riviere. As you say that in 1989 you were in

24 Yugoslavia, you will probably remember that the expression "ethnic

25 cleansing" was used primarily for crimes committed against the Serb

1 population in Kosovo and Metohija in those days. That was the only

2 situation with respect to which the term "ethnic cleansing" was used in

3 1989. Isn't at that right? You are referring to your own experience from

4 those years.

5 A. I am basing my views on the experience regarding political debate

6 that was ongoing in 1989, 1990, at the point in time when Yugoslavia was

7 still a federation and before the elections of November and December 1990,

8 the first round in Serbia which brought certain teams into power.

9 So the political debate between the followers of Mr. Markovic and

10 those people who defended certain nationalist views, one had the

11 impression that this was a debate between modernity and European

12 integration, and on the other hand going back far into history, Dusan --

13 the Emperor Dusan, et cetera.

14 Q. Mr. Riviere, in 1989, had you heard of the expression of "ethnic

15 cleansing"? Did you hear the expression used?

16 A. There were schools of thought which use the word "ethnicity."

17 Q. My question has to do with the expression "ethnic cleansing" that

18 you heard in 1989.

19 A. I did not hear the term "ethnic cleansing" being used in such a

20 precise manner in the way that the mayor of Kozluk spoke about it to me,

21 including when going to Kosovo in 1989 when there was a state of emergency

22 proclaimed in Kosovo, if I remember well, in March 1989, I think it was

23 the federal army which was installed there.

24 Q. Well, the federal army was always present in Kosovo, and the

25 federal police was also sent there. The whole of Yugoslavia reacted to

1 Albanian nationalism and separatism. It wasn't just Serbia. So surely

2 you remember that, too, if you were in Yugoslavia in those days, as you

3 say. Isn't that right or not, Mr. Riviere?

4 A. Yes. I remember the situation in Yugoslavia at the time and the

5 deployment of the federal army, but I think that the debate on Kosovo was

6 a different debate in relation to the one we are having today. Today

7 we're talking about Eastern Bosnia, what happened there, who did what

8 there, how, and why.

9 Q. Yes, but do you know how many hundreds of thousands of refugees

10 from Bosnia stayed in Serbia? I'm sorry. My microphone was switched off.

11 JUDGE MAY: Yes. I'm going to question the relevance of this, but

12 you can ask the witness if he had any experience of refugees from Bosnia

13 in Serbia itself. Perhaps Mr. Riviere can help us about that, if he did

14 or not.

15 THE WITNESS: [Interpretation] Actually, when I was in Belgrade in

16 July 1992, before leaving for Bosnia, I met a gentleman, I think his name

17 was Dobrica Vidovic, who was a commissioner for refugees in Serbia. And

18 there was a Red Cross camp in Kovin outside Belgrade, and I had a long

19 interview with this person, who explained to me that there were refugees

20 coming from the previous conflict in Croatia, a conflict I did not cover,

21 and the few people that I was able to meet, this doesn't seem to have

22 anything in common with the testimony I heard about Kozluk.

23 I had an interview with Mr. Vidovic - I think that was his name,

24 if I remember well - and I did go to this camp.

25 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

1 Q. And do you know that those very refugees, as well as those who

2 didn't have the good fortune to flee but were killed there, were victims

3 of the same type of Nazism that were victimised by their ancestors during

4 the Second World War?

5 JUDGE MAY: I think we're getting well away from the evidence of

6 the witness. Now, you've got about five minutes left, Mr. Milosevic, if

7 you want to go on to something else which the witness can deal with.

8 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] I don't think that I can finish him

9 in five minutes, Mr. May.

10 JUDGE MAY: You've had more than substantial time enough with this

11 witness to ask him about a video recording. You've had more than enough

12 time.

13 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Maybe I'm not as efficient as you

14 assume I am in asking him all the questions I need, but you didn't tell me

15 that any of my questions were irrelevant.

16 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

17 Q. Mr. Riviere, you said that they didn't give you their names,

18 because allegedly if you knew their names, someone might kill you. But

19 then they let you film them. They told you the name of their commander as

20 being Marko, whom you also filmed. And throughout this film one can hear

21 them calling each other by name. I heard those names myself; Bozo,

22 Zeljko, Gaja, et cetera. So doesn't this also indicate that they were

23 fooling around when they were saying to you that if you learn our names

24 someone might kill you? You film them, they call each other by name on

25 film, they tell you the name of their commander, the commander speaks to

1 you. Doesn't this show that they were playing around with you even then?

2 A. I have only one answer to give, and that is it wasn't me who

3 created that situation. I have to repeat that. It wasn't something that

4 was commissioned or organised on my part. I had no reason whatsoever to

5 call in question their attitude or functioning. I had no judgement, value

6 judgement to make. And I didn't also call in question the testimony of

7 the people of Kozluk, so I didn't call in question their own testimony or

8 their behaviour. If they behaved in that way before the camera, it is

9 because they created such a situation and I only recorded things, that's

10 all.

11 Q. I'm just saying that they were fooling around with you. But as

12 you're not calling into question what you are being told, or you do so

13 selectively, in paragraph 55, it says that Commander Marko - and he was

14 not drunk as far as I can see from what you say - that he told you that

15 the Muslims were killing Serbs, that the Serb corpses were flowing down

16 the Drina, that they were impaling them, and things like that.

17 Is it true? Is what Marko told you -- was that true? Serbs were

18 being killed by Muslims, crucified, Serb bodies flowing down the Drina?

19 Commander Marko told you that; is that right?

20 A. If I have no reason to doubt the words of some, I also cannot

21 doubt the words of others. If we call in question what is said by

22 everyone, then I can also call in question the words uttered by Commander

23 Marko. In my view, as this was very late at night when we had returned

24 from Sarajevo and when Commander Marko lectured me ideologically, I

25 accepted those words such as they were stated, and I conveyed them in this

1 testimony in the same way. That, perhaps, was a way of justifying his

2 attitude, his presence, and his ideological options. So I wasn't able to

3 identify on the ground whether indeed Serbs were being cut up in pieces

4 and crucified in a way and thrown into the Drina. I attribute those words

5 to Commander Marko, and I have faithfully conveyed them.

6 Q. Very well. So you're faithfully conveying what you were told by

7 some and others, and you attach equal credibility to all. Can we agree,

8 then, that you attach equal credibility to what was told you by those

9 drunken men?

10 JUDGE MAY: Mr. Milosevic, you know quite well it's not the

11 witness's opinion as to who is telling the truth or not which matters.

12 He's told you what they said. Now, how drunk they were and what weight to

13 be given to it is something for the Trial Chamber to decide. It's not for

14 the witness.

15 Now, you've got one minute left, so you must ask your question or

16 questions quickly.

17 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] Mr. May, I would request a little

18 more time for examining this witness, please.

19 JUDGE MAY: One moment. We'll consider it.

20 [Trial Chamber confers]

21 JUDGE MAY: Five minutes.

22 THE ACCUSED: [Interpretation] That's very generous.

23 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

24 Q. Mr. Riviere, on the film, 16:40, 17:20, there's a building. Isn't

25 it obvious that as smoke is shown, that the smoke is on the hill and not

1 down on the town and it is on the Serb-controlled side? So will you

2 please just tell me yes or no. So the footage showing a lot of smoke.

3 A. I think that if you're referring to the picture round the Lukavica

4 barracks, indeed there was fighting when we were there, and if that is the

5 picture that you're referring to, well, there was fighting in both

6 directions at that point in time. That was the front line. The front

7 line was just behind the barracks.

8 Q. Precisely. That's what I wanted to hear; that was the front line.

9 And you also filmed a part, 19:44 to 19:45, 19:46, and it's a

10 close-up of the ruins of buildings. There's a building with the words

11 Pantheon, then another building on the combat positions, 11:48, 20:50,

12 21:20. All those ruins are on the Serb side where you were and which you

13 were able to take close-up photographs of; isn't that right?

14 A. Yes, quite, on the hills of Trebevic. So we're talking, I

15 suppose, of the slopes of Trebevic where there were houses and places that

16 were destroyed without me knowing who did what.

17 Q. Now, those ruins on the Serb-controlled side and the only combat

18 operation that you filmed and that was coming from the Muslim side, that

19 is the shots coming from Sarajevo, show that there was indeed shooting

20 from Sarajevo to areas and facilities under Serb control in the

21 surroundings of Sarajevo; isn't that right?

22 A. The shots that I filmed and that were targeted at positions on the

23 heights were coming from Sarajevo with light weapons. As opposed to that,

24 shots coming from the mountains towards Sarajevo were with heavy weapons.

25 I cannot say that I filmed shots fired from heavy weapons against Sarajevo

1 just then. However, having gone to Sarajevo frequently between 1992 and

2 1995, I did indeed suffer shots from heavy weapons towards Sarajevo, and I

3 was able to witness what such shots could provoke on the other side later

4 on.

5 Q. What you witnessed later on is not the subject of your testimony

6 now, and I'm talking about your testimony.

7 So let us now focus for a moment on the difference that you

8 identified yourself when you saw regular soldiers. You say that the

9 soldiers appeared to you to be more professional, the ones holding

10 positions. And at those positions, they took shifts. You noticed that,

11 didn't you, Mr. Riviere? They worked in shifts.

12 A. Yes, quite. When I say "more professional," I said that this was

13 an army that appeared to be regular as opposed to what I said with respect

14 to the paramilitaries.

15 Q. Quite as opposed to the White Eagles. And you said that appeared

16 to you as if they were going from their positions home and then coming

17 back to their positions. Though they were working in shifts, going to and

18 from home. Is that right?

19 A. Yes. That is the feeling I had, seeing them coming and going in

20 buses or hitchhiking sometimes. And I picked up some of them in the car

21 on the way back.

22 Q. Very well. So their homes were somewhere close by, in the

23 villages around Sarajevo; isn't that right?

24 A. Apparently so. Regarding the persons wearing uniforms of the

25 regular army or reservists, which were people of a certain age, one did

1 indeed have that impression, that this was like a working day for them.

2 JUDGE MAY: That is your last question now.

3 MR. MILOSEVIC: [Interpretation]

4 Q. Very well. In a part of the footage, among those soldiers one can

5 see armed elderly men, peasants, one in a sweater, another one in a

6 leather jacket, 22:30. This also confirms, in addition to what we already

7 said, that these were local inhabitants there, living there, waging war

8 there, living in the villages within the territory of Sarajevo; isn't that

9 right?

10 A. That was indeed the feeling I had with respect to some of those

11 people.

12 JUDGE MAY: Yes. Mr. Kay.

13 Questioned by Mr. Kay:

14 Q. Witness, I want to deal with Pale first of all. You arrive there

15 with the intention of going on a mission to film, and so you went to seek

16 permission from the local TV station; is that right?

17 A. Yes.

18 Q. You didn't have to see any Ministers or anyone else in control or

19 authority outside the TV station to obtain your permit?

20 A. No, I didn't, not at the time, because I had indeed had been given

21 this permission in Belgrade, that Belgrade had phoned Pale, so I was

22 recorded. I was registered in a copybook in which were recorded or

23 registered all the correspondents or journalists in Belgrade.

24 Q. In Pale, you were not given a minder or escort. As far as they

25 were concerned for the days filming that you had, you were able to go

1 unaccompanied; is that right? That's what it seems from the situation.

2 A. I did not have the feeling that I could film anything I wanted, so

3 much so that in Zvornik it had been prohibited. I had to take out the

4 objective of the lens of the camera, I had to put it in the boot of the

5 car. On top of that, I had a military assigned to me throughout the trip

6 precisely to prevent me from filming. That's why between the Zvornik

7 bridge and the time when I found myself in Pale I could not film anything

8 at all.

9 However, once I was given this accreditation at the television

10 centre in Pale, nobody came to check me from that television centre to the

11 hotel restaurant which had been indicated to me. That's the reason why I

12 was able to film and take some footage of the Red Berets without any

13 control whatsoever. And indeed, the day after that and the day after that

14 one, on the heights of Sarajevo, I was not accompanied, I did not have an

15 interpreter, but nobody prevented me from filming. It was a bit

16 sensitive. I did not know whether I was authorised or not to take any

17 footage, so I filmed whenever I could.

18 Q. You recollect my questions to you were about Pale, not Zvornik,

19 and that's what I'm asking you about.

20 The meeting in the restaurant of the men was then a chance meeting

21 and chance conversation that you and your cameraman had with them?

22 A. Yes. It was a chance encounter with these people, because I

23 initially intended to go to Kozluk.

24 Q. These men, at that time, perhaps you've experienced this before,

25 did you get the impression were seeking to impress you, to show off to

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