Gotovina et al Judgement Volume I - ICTY

38524remaining 7th Corps units. 5740 Mrkšić saw that the 7th Corps forces on the Dinara frontline were under intense artillery fire. 5741 According to Kovačević’s 9 August 1995report, the 7th Corps units abandoned their dominant positions on the Dinara, in partbecause the unaccustomed soldiers felt pressured by the Croatian artillery, and onlyparts of units occupied the unprepared positions in the depth along the axis from Igla, inKnin municipality to Crvena Zemlja to Knin, in a disorganized manner. 5742 Mrkšićtestified that Kovačević moved from Strmica, in Knin municipality, and relocated to thecommand post at Pañene, in Ervenik municipality, above Knin, to supervise the pullingout of troops. 57431500. John Hill, Commanding Officer of the International Military Police in SectorSouth from early June 1995 to 8 December 1995, 5744 testified that some days before 4August 1995, he and others went to Strmica to check on a Kenyan company positionbecause the Croats had shelled Strmica. 5745 He saw SVK tanks, APCs, and camouflagedsoldiers in Strmica, and also cannon shells from cannons which were mounted on APCs,on the road which indicated to him that they had been fired from there. 5746 Hill sawthree dug-in SVK guns in a battery position above the waterfalls north-east of Knin nearStrmica prior to Operation Storm. 57471501. Witness 56, a Serb policeman in Knin between May 1994 and 5 August1995, 5748 testified that as a result of the shelling of Strmica, the overwhelming majorityof the civilian population of the village fled to Knin and other villages further west. 5749There was a military barracks in the outskirts of Strmica towards the hills which waspartly used by the Ministry of the Interior as a storage space. 5750 Storage sites for e.g.ammunition were in Golubić in Knin municipality, in Strmica in Knin municipality, and5739 Mile Mrkšić, T. 19027, 19029.5740 D1516 (Report on the conduct of combat activities of the 7th Corps from 29 July to 6 August 1995,Slobodan Kovačević, 9 August 1995), p. 2.5741 Mile Mrkšić, T. 18926.5742 D1516 (Report on the conduct of combat activities of the 7th Corps from 29 July to 6 August 1995,Slobodan Kovačević, 9 August 1995), pp. 2-4.5743 Mile Mrkšić, T. 18879, 19030, 19035, 19104.5744 P291 (John Hill, witness statement, 23 August 1996), p. 2; P292 (John Hill, witness statement, 21January 1998), pp. 3, 93; P293 (John Hill, witness statement, 2 November 1999), p. 3.5745 P292 (John Hill, witness statement, 21 January 1998), p. 6; John Hill, T. 3898.5746 P292 (John Hill, witness statement, 21 January 1998), p. 6; John Hill, T. 3732, 3812-3815.5747 P291 (John Hill, witness statement, 23 August 1996), p. 3; John Hill, T. 3810-3812, 3815.5748 P286 (Witness 56, witness statement, 5 December 1996), pp. 1-2; P287 (Witness 56, witnessstatement, 18 September 2000), p. 1; P288 (Witness 56, witness statement, 12 June 2007), p. 1, para. 2;P289 (Witness 56, witness statement, 21 May 2008), p. 1; Witness 56, T. 3686.5749 P288 (Witness 56, witness statement, 12 June 2007), para. 8.5750 Witness 56, T. 3620-3621.791Case No.: IT-06-90-T 15 April 2011 `