106
(b) The Culpability of the Appellant in the Present Case
230.
In the present case, the Trial Chamber found that the Appellant participated in the
armed conflict taking place between May and December 1992 in the Prijedor region. An
aspect of this conflict was a policy to commit inhumane acts against the non-Serb civilian
population of the territory in the attempt to achieve the creation of a Greater Serbia. 293 It
was also found that, in furtherance of this policy, inhumane acts were committed against
numerous victims and “pursuant to a recognisable plan”. 294 The attacks on Sivci and Jaski}i
on 14 June 1992 formed part of this armed conflict raging in the Prijedor region.
231.
The Appellant actively took part in the common criminal purpose to rid the Prijedor
region of the non-Serb population, by committing inhumane acts. The common criminal
purpose was not to kill all non-Serb men; from the evidence adduced and accepted, it is
clear that killings frequently occurred in the effort to rid the Prijedor region of the non-Serb
population.
That the Appellant had been aware of the killings accompanying the
commission of inhumane acts against the non-Serb population is beyond doubt. That is the
context in which the attack on Jaski}i and his participation therein, as found by the Trial
Chamber as well as the Appeals Chamber above, should be seen. That nobody was killed in
the attack on Sivci on the same day does not represent a change of the common criminal
purpose.
232.
The Appellant was an armed member of an armed group that, in the context of the
conflict in the Prijedor region, attacked Jaski}i on 14 June 1992. The Trial Chamber found
the following:
Of the killing of the five men in Jaski}i, the witnesses Draguna Jaski}, Zemka [ahbaz
and Senija Elkasovi} saw their five dead bodies lying in the village when the women
were able to leave their houses after the armed men had gone; Senija Elkasovi} saw that
four of them had been shot in the head. She had heard shooting after the men from her
house were taken away.295
The Appellant actively took part in this attack, rounding up and severely beating some of
the men from Jaski}i. As the Trial Chamber further noted:
293
See Judgement, paras. 127-179, which outlines the background to the conflict in the op{tina Prijedor.
Case No.: -94-1-A
15 July 1999