58526 D. SESELJ's Crimes in Hrtkovci 1. Introduction 484. Hrtkovci Is a Village in the Ruma Municipality of Vojvodina, Which Is
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58526 D. SESELJ's crimes in Hrtkovci 1. Introduction 484. Hrtkovci is a village in the Ruma municipality of Vojvodina, which is the province of Serbia that borders the Croatian regions of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem. In 1990, Hrtkovci was comprised of a relative majority of Croats with significant Hungarian and Serb minorities. 1496 Relations between local Serbs and Croats in Hrtkovci were generally peaceful.I497 485. At a rally in Hrtkovci on 6 May 1992 - held during the Serb celebration of St. George's da/498 - against a backdrop of increasing ethnic tension in the village, SESELJ gave a discriminatory speech to a large audience which included local Croats, local Serbs and armed SRS/SCP volunteers. Other Croat inhabitants of Hrtkovci soon heard about SESELJ's speech by word of mouth and through the press. 486. SESELJ's public "hate speech" on 6 May 1992 directly caused a number of Croats to leave Hrtkovci. His speech also triggered and facilitated a massive campaign of intimidation, harassment and violence directed against the local Croat population, causing further displacements of Croats from Hrtkovci and surrounding areas. SESELJ physically committed persecution, deportation and forcible transfer in Hrtkovci.1499 2. Build-up 487. SESELJ and other Serbian nationalists had frequently challenged the status of Vojvodina as an Autonomous Province within the SFRy'1500 One of the key tenets of the Greater Serbia ethos was that the entire nation of Serbs, including Serbia and the two Autonomous Provinces, should be brought together within a single entity.1501 Having a Serbian majority population, Vojvodina was considered to be Serbian land, 1496 Exh.P00565, p.13 (public); [REDAC1ED]; Paulic, T.11895-11896 (open); Ejic, T.I0320-10321 (oJ?en); Baricevic, T.10598 (open). 14 [REDACTED]; Baricevic, T.10598-10599, 10756 (open); Ejic, T.I0321 (open); Paulic, T.11895- 11896 (open); [REDAC1ED]. 1498 Exh.P00547, p.l (public). 1499 See Annexes A and D.6 for proofs and victims for each of these counts. 1500 E.g. Tomic, T.2945, 3240 (open); Exh.P00164, pp.70-71(public). 1501 E.g. Exh.P0l177, pp.I-2 (public). Case No. IT-03-67-T 146 5 February 2012 Public Redacted 58525 and from the mid to late 1980s, the Republic of Serbia undertook steps to deprive Vojvodina of a separate identity and to incorporate it into Serbia.1502 By 1990, this goal had been achieved in substance, thereby ending what Serbs regarded as a discriminatory feature of the SFRY - that the Serb nation was denied a single, united 1·d ent·t 1 y. 1503 488. The events in Hrtkovci thus fall within the push for Vojvodina's Serb homogeneity. As a village with historical ties to the W orId War 11 Croatian "Ustasha" State1504 and its relative majority Croat population in 1990, Hrtkovci was an attractive target for a discriminatory ethnic campaign.1505 489. In 1991, Serb refugees began arriving in Hrtkovci as they fled from the ethnic conflict in Croatia.1506 The local commune of Hrtkovci organised temporary housing, food and financial assistance for the refugees. 1507 A second wave of refugees arrived in early 1992, and the commune again responded to the situation and provided temporary accommodation.1508 490. However, by spring 1992, it was becoming increasingly difficult to house the incoming Serb refugees and ethnic tensions began to rise in Hrtkovci. Ostoja SIBINCIC, a local Serb official who was widely considered to be an associate of SESELJ,v v 1509 provided the refugees with the addresses of local Croats who were abroad and whose houses in Hrtkovci were vacant.1510 A Serb refugee named Rade CAKMAK assisted SIBINCIC with these illegal allocations. Serb refugees soon began breaking into and occupying the vacant houses. 1511 491. The build-up of ethnic tension in Hrtkovci took place against a backdrop of increasing discrimination - as promoted by SESELJ - directed at Croats elsewhere in and outside Serbia. On 1 April 1992, SESELJ used a televised session of the Serbian 1502 AFI-27. 1503 AFI-27. 1504 E.g. [REDACTED]; Exh.P00547, p.l (public); Exh.P00550 p.2 (public); Exh.P00557 (public). 1505 Exh.P00164, pp.88-89 (public); [REDACTED]. 1506 Baricevic, T.10600 (open); Paulic, T.11896 (open); [REDACTED]; Ejic, T.I0321-10323 (open). 1507 Baricevic, T.10600, T.10675 (open); Ejic, T.I0328-10329 (open). 1508 Baricevic, T .10678-10679 (open). 1509 Baricevic, T.10602, 10621, 10623, 10674-10678 (open); Ejic, T.10540 (open); VS-067, T.15421, 15425 (open); Paulic, T.11918, 11934 (open); [REDACTED]; Baricevic, T.10713 (open), [REDACTED]. 1510 [REDACTED]. 1511 Ejic, T.I0328 (open); Paulic, T.11897-11898 (open); Baricevic, T.10604 (open); [REDACTED]. Case No. IT-03-67-T 147 5 February 2012 Public Redacted 58524 National Assembly to denigrate Croats in Serbia, to accuse the Croat population of conspiring with TUDMAN as U stasas, and to call for the expulsion of Croats from Serbia.1512 SESELJ explicitly threatened Croats in Vojvodina by declaring that "Croats in Slankamen, Zemun [towns or villages in Vojvodina] and other places will not be able to sleep a wink until they have moved out". 1513 SESELJv v pronounced: We will pack you [Croats in Serbia] up on trucks and trains, so you can try to manage in Zagreb. You will even get the addresses of deserted Serbian homes, houses, apartments, and you can move in there, the furniture and everything is still there. 1514 492. Many deputies supported SESELJ's persecutory statement. To Antun SKENDEROVIC, a Deputy of Croat descent, however, it was clear that SESELJ was calling for the forcible expulsion of Croats in Serbia: My reply concerns Mr. SESELJ's participation in the debate, when he said that the Croats should move outside the borders of this state. (Voices: They should). Thank you kindly, at least we know now where we stand. I think that Mr. SESELJ has double standards. What gives one the right to advocate, exert and approve armed pressure and attacks on the Croatian people in the Republic of Serbia, to start moving out? If this is the demand, coming from the speaker's stand, then it is only being confirmed and approved in away. Those citizens, who respect the laws of this state and who did not violate the laws of this state are entitled to live here, because they have always lived here, in their own home. On the one hand, Mr. SESELJ advocates that everyone should have the right to live and move wherever they want, but on the other, he denies the same right to the Croats. We are aware of this and that he thinks in this way, and behaves in this way, and implements such practices. However, it is good that he has said it at the speaker's stand, so even the public could know. Thank you very much. 1515 493. On 4 April 1992, SESELJ gave another speech to several thousand people at an SRS rally in Apatin, a town in Vojvodina. SESELJ told the attendees that TUDMAN had expelled several thousand Serbs from Croatia, and therefore Serbs had 1512 Exh.P00075, pp.1-7 (public); Exh.P00892, pA (public); Exh.P00893, pp.21-23 (public). E.g. Exh.P00016, p.1 (public). 1513 Exh.P00075, p.7 (public); Exh.P00893, p.21 (public). 1514 Exh.P00893, p.23 (public). 1515 Exh.P00892, pA (public). Case No. IT-03-67-T 148 5 February 2012 Public Redacted 58523 to "drive all the Croats out ofSerbia".1516 According to him: "Croats have no business in Serbia. Anyone calling for human rights and civil liberties, can look for them in Zagreb [ ... ] we will simply see them onto the buses and see them to the border".1517 494. On 7 April 1992, in a televised broadcast of the National Assembly, SESELJ agam demanded that Croats be expelled from Serbia.1518 The Chairman of the Assembly read the transcript of SESELJ's statements from 1 April 1992 and declared them to be discriminatory and contrary to Serbia's Constitution.1519 3. The Hrtkovci rally of 6 May 1992 495. On 6 May 1992, SESELJ was scheduled to speak at a political rally in Hrtkovci. The SRS played ethnically-divisive Chetnik music from a loudspeaker throughout the day.1520 Two hours before the rally, a busload of men, armed with automatic rifles and dressed in black clothing like W orId War 11 era Chetnik forces,1521 were deployed at the site of the rally and around the village. 1522 SIBINCIC was one of the organisers of the rally and remained by the stage during the speeches,1523 reinforcing his political and ideological ties to SESELJ. 496. SESELJ told the crowd, in part: In this village, too, in Hrtkovci, in this place in Serbian Srem, there is no room for Croats. Who are the only Croats for whom there is room among us? Only those Croats and their families who have shed blood together with us on the frontlines. They were called Croats in name only, anyway. Some of them served with our Volunteers. They have already awakened to the fact that they are, in fact, Catholic Serbs. They will stay here with us, while all the rest must clear out of Serbia. Including those from here, from Hrtkovci, who locked up their houses and left, reckoning, I suppose, that they would come back one day, but our message to them is: no, you have nowhere to return to. Serbian refugees will move into their houses. Serbian brothers and sisters, now that TUDMAN has expelled more than two hundred thousand Serbs, a part of them will return to the 1516 Exh.P01298, p.l (public).