Bosnian Serb Political and Military Ties Probed

Velma Šarić

IWPR-trained journalist

Friday, 21 January, 2011

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An expert witness in the trial of former Bosnian Serb police officials Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin this week continued his analysis of documents which the prosecution at the Hague tribunal claim show cooperation between Bosnian Serb military and political leaders.

Stanisic and Zupljanin are accused of crimes committed between April 1 and December 31, 1992, in 20 municipalities throughout Bosnia and are alleged to have participated in a joint criminal enterprise in 1992, the goal of which was the permanent removal of Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats and other non-Serbs from the territory of an intended Serb state.

Prosecutors say that this criminal plan was led by Bosnian Serb president and Hague indictee Radovan Karadzic, former Bosnian Serb parliamentary speaker Momcilo Krajisnik, ex-Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic and Bosnian Serb wartime commander General Ratko Mladic.

Zupljanin, who became an adviser to Karadzic in 1994, is accused of extermination, murder, persecution, and deportation of non-Serbs in northwestern Bosnia between April and December 1992.

Stanisic is charged with the murder, torture and cruel treatment of non-Serb civilians, as well as for failing to prevent or punish crimes committed by his subordinates.

Military expert Ewan Brown, a British army officer, worked on intelligence and strategy between 1986 and 1996. From 1998 to 2008, he was employed by the Hague tribunal, including four years in the prosecutor's office.

The prosecution witness discussed documents he used during his compilation of reports on military action in Republika Srpska, RS, during 1992, which speak of meetings between the Bosnian Serb military and political leadership, the unification of Serb lands and the creation of the Bosnian Serb Army, VRS.

The witness also referred to excerpts from Mladic’s wartime diaries from May and June of 1992.

The journal extracts belong to material seized by Serbian authorities last February from family members of Mladic, the commander of the main staff of the Bosnian Serb army from 1992 to 1996, who is wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

At the beginning of the trial, prosecutor Joanna Korner pointed out “directive number two”, a long document from July 22, 1992.

Among other things, the prosecutor said that the document described how a “significant military and diplomatic victory had been achieved”; how conditions were created for the establishment of the political and military leadership; and how “by the establishment of a corridor in eastern Bosnia and the Bosnian Posavina, the centuries-old striving for physical unity between Serbs from Bosnia and from Srpska Krajina [in Croatia] with their motherland of Serbia, had become true”.

In her introductory statement in September 2009, Korner had argued that evidence showed there was close cooperation between the Yugoslav army, JNA, the VRS and the Bosnian Serb police, as well as between various members of the Bosnian Serb and Yugoslav authorities.

The witness said this week that there had undoubtedly been cooperation between Belgrade, the JNA and the VRS during 1992, adding that “it particularly related to the army” and included discussions on issues such as weapons, ammunition and finances.

The prosecutor presented Brown with several excerpts from Mladic’s wartime diaries from May and June 1992, which described meetings between military and political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs and spoke of the creation of an army for the RS and “the unification of Serb lands”.

The prosecutor told the court that, after he had looked into the excerpts from Mladic’s diaries, the expert witness compiled a report, which was this week included onto the record.

“You clearly state that the documentation you reviewed included not only [Mladic’s] diaries, but also certain other documents which you considered relevant and important for certain questions,” said the prosecutor, asking, “What exactly are these diaries and why was an officer supposed to have such a diary?”

“I think that [high-ranking] JNA officers were supposed to have diaries of such or similar nature,” Brown replied. “I had seen them on many times, they mostly contained notes, mentions, lists and comments of activities, such as in General Mladic’s case,” answered the witness.

The prosecutor then mentioned a meeting described in the diary which took place on the evening of May 16, 1992, between Karadzic, Krajisnik, former defence minister Blagoje Adzic and a group of generals from Bosnia.

According to the diary, the discussion included “general staff problems, government seats, uniforms”.

“What is this about?” Korner asked. “It must have been one of the first meetings on the establishment and formation of the Republika Srpska Army, and senior generals from Bosnia were meeting the political leadership of the SDS [the Serbian Democratic Party] to discuss [its] organisation,” the witness said.

The prosecutor then asked whether Mladic had quoted Karadzic as saying “we will soon be one state and one army, we will unite with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but we will not add anything to Serbia”.

The witness confirmed this.

“The next page says, ‘We are on the threshold of achieving our centuries-old dream to create a state without many internal enemies’ – is this the topic that kept repeating, and appeared six days later at the assembly session?” Korner went on to ask.

“Yes, in fact, the same phrase was used at the assembly session and I noticed it in several other places, although less so in military documents,” the witness answered. “Do these discussions between political or, strictly speaking, civilian persons appear on many occasions in these diaries?” asked the prosecutor.

“Yes, there are many references to some very low-level meetings Mladic had had, for example on the municipal and regional level, it seems he took care to hold meetings with all these people,” the witness replied.

The trial continues next week.

Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.