UN official testifies at Croatian generals' trial

Edward Flynn, head of the UN Human Rights Action Team, has started testifying at the trial of Croatian generals charged with crimes in Operation Storm. Between August 7 and September 17, 1995, he witnessed the looting, arson, destruction and discovery of bodies of civilians killed in Sector South in Krajina. UN official testifies at Croatian generals' trial “It would be fair to say that Krajina is on fire," read the report by the UN Human Rights Action Team (HRAT) on August 13, 1995. The author of the report, Edward Flynn, testified yesterday at the trial of Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac, indicted for crimes committed during Operation Storm and its aftermath. That day, Flynn recounted, he was on his way to Benkovac via Kistanje. He saw dozens of burned down houses and fields, with at least ten “smoke clouds rising high above Benkovac.” Members of the UN mission to Krajina, Flynn said, were worried because the scale of the destruction and the area it covered were so large that it was turning into a systematic campaign. Flynn’s report went on to conclude that “the authorities are still not taking any measures to stop it.” Edward Flynn is now a high-ranking official in the UN Security Council’s Anti-Terrorism Committee. From August 7 to September 17, he headed one of the UN mission’s HRAT teams in Knin. He saw the looting, arson, destruction and the discovery of bodies of civilians killed in the region, and he reported those incidents to his superiors on a daily basis. More importantly for the Tribunal, Flynn also informed the Croatian authorities of these events. His primary contact was Cermak, who was the Knin military governor at the time. More than twenty of his daily or weekly reports on the looting, arson, destruction, killing and other atrocities he witnessed in the forty days of his tour of duty in Krajina were tendered into evidence. Video footage and photographs of burned down houses and dead civilians taken during his patrols were among the exhibits. On their visit to the village of Grubori in the Plavno Valley on August 25, 1995, Flynn’s action team was accompanied by a UN cameraman who filmed the burned down houses, bodies of dead civilians and crying women who didn’t know what had happened to their husbands and other relatives. That day, Flynn saw two bodies, while his colleagues discovered the bodies of another three victims the next day. Flynn immediately informed Cermak’s principal deputy about this, expecting the authorities to conduct a crime scene investigation. Several days later, the accused informed the HRAT that the civilians had been killed in fighting in the village of Grubori, which was “a Chetnik stronghold.” An investigation would follow, Cermak said. Two weeks later, Flynn visited the village again. He saw two bullet casings that were still in the room where he had seen the body of a man, leading him to conclude that there had been no serious investigation in this case. The HRAT report of September 8, 1995 noted that the issue of looting, arson and murder had been raised during a meeting with Cermak. The accused had replied that “he couldn’t deny there is serious anarchy in the sector,” adding that the authorities were taking appropriate measures. He also asked the UN official to keep him informed about crimes. To Flynn, Cermak’s words were “belated, insincere and implausible.” The Croatian general was regularly informed by the HRAT about what its patrols had found, and that if he had wanted to, he could have easily seen for himself what was going on in the territory under his command.

UN official testifies at Croatian generals' trial

“It would be fair to say that Krajina is on fire," read the report by the UN Human Rights Action Team (HRAT) on August 13, 1995.

The author of the report, Edward Flynn, testified yesterday at the trial of Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Čermak and Mladen Markač, indicted for crimes committed during Operation Storm and its aftermath.

That day, Flynn recounted, he was on his way to Benkovac via Kistanje. He saw dozens of burned down houses and fields, with at least ten “smoke clouds rising high above Benkovac.”

Members of the UN mission to Krajina, Flynn said, were worried because the scale of the destruction and the area it covered were so large that it was turning into a systematic campaign. Flynn’s report went on to conclude that “the authorities are still not taking any measures to stop it.”

Edward Flynn is now a high-ranking official in the UN Security Council’s Anti-Terrorism Committee. From August 7 to September 17, he headed one of the UN mission’s HRAT teams in Knin. He saw the looting, arson, destruction and the discovery of bodies of civilians killed in the region, and he reported those incidents to his superiors on a daily basis.

More importantly for the Tribunal, Flynn also informed the Croatian authorities of these events. His primary contact was Čermak, who was the Knin military governor at the time.

More than twenty of his daily or weekly reports on the looting, arson, destruction, killing and other atrocities he witnessed in the forty days of his tour of duty in Krajina were tendered into evidence. Video footage and photographs of burned down houses and dead civilians taken during his patrols were among the exhibits.

On their visit to the village of Grubori in the Plavno Valley on August 25, 1995, Flynn’s action team was accompanied by a UN cameraman who filmed the burned down houses, bodies of dead civilians and crying women who didn’t know what had happened to their husbands and other relatives. That day, Flynn saw two bodies, while his colleagues discovered the bodies of another three victims the next day.

Flynn immediately informed Čermak’s principal deputy about this, expecting the authorities to conduct a crime scene investigation. Several days later, the accused informed the HRAT that the civilians had been killed in fighting in the village of Grubori, which was “a Chetnik stronghold.”

An investigation would follow, Čermak said. Two weeks later, Flynn visited the village again. He saw two bullet casings that were still in the room where he had seen the body of a man, leading him to conclude that there had been no serious investigation in this case.

The HRAT report of September 8, 1995 noted that the issue of looting, arson and murder had been raised during a meeting with Čermak. The accused had replied that “he couldn’t deny there is serious anarchy in the sector,” adding that the authorities were taking appropriate measures.

He also asked the UN official to keep him informed about crimes. To Flynn, Čermak’s words were “belated, insincere and implausible.” The Croatian general was regularly informed by the HRAT about what its patrols had found, and that if he had wanted to, he could have easily seen for himself what was going on in the territory under his command.