The former deputy head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitutional Order, Zdravko Mustac, told the Zagreb County Court on Tuesday that Tomislav Mercep was mentioned in a report by the Security and Intelligence Agency (SIS) as commander of a police reserve unit and that the report described "criminal methods" used by the unit.
Testifying at the trial of Mercep for war crimes against Serb civilians, committed in the Zagreb, Kutina and Pakrac areas in 1991, the witness said that he had never seen any document stating that Mercep was formally a commander, but that he had been treated as a functional commander.
Mustac said he did not think he had seen the word "murder" in the SIS report, but torture, extortion of statements, violence, and arbitrary behaviour. He said the unit had a great autonomy of behaviour that verged on autocracy, which stood apart from the usual military organisation.
Mustac said he did not know if anyone was officially the chief of that unit or who was superior to Mercep, who served as an adviser in the Ministry of the Interior. He could not say if there were any other people in the chain of command between Mercep and the minister of the interior.
According to Mustac, the members of the unit were assembled spontaneously in the war and in Mercep they found a man they could follow.
The SIS report was signed by Assistant Defence Minister Josip Perkovic, but the witness did not know if any action had been taken based on that document. He said that that was within the authority of the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitutional Order, Josip Manolic, adding that Manolic could have done something in agreement with the president of the republic and the minister.
Mustac said he had seen Mercep in the lobby of Manolic's office, but did not know if that was before or after the SIS report came in.
Another witness, Ivan Tomsic, former deputy director of the Zagreb Trade Fair Centre, where the unit was based, said that one of the unit's members, Stipe Mandjarelo, whom he had known from before, told him that their unit was commanded by Mercep. He said that he had met Mercep several times at the Trade Fair Centre, adding that Mercep wore a camouflage uniform and treated the unit's members as their commander.
Milutin Cicvara, one of the people who had been arrested by the unit and who had been detained with his daughter for two days in Pakracka Poljana, said that he had seen Mercep there. He said that after he was released Mercep wrote down his telephone number on his pass. While in Pakraca Poljana, the witness met his cousin, Mirko Cicvara, who was beaten and frightened. He saw the body of Pero Rajcevic, but did not know if he was dead.
The next hearing is set for Friday.
