Court Told What Tolomir Knew of Srebrenica
Prosecution witness speaks of alleged intercepts of conversations between Bosnian Serb army officials.
Court Told What Tolomir Knew of Srebrenica
Prosecution witness speaks of alleged intercepts of conversations between Bosnian Serb army officials.
The trial of ex-Bosnian Serb army general Zdravko Tolimir this week heard the conclusion of testimony from military analyst Richard Butler, which dealt with the fate of Bosniak men following the fall of Srebrenica.
Butler started his testimony last week and told the court about alleged Bosnian Serb plans to imprison Bosniak men after the eastern Bosnian enclave was taken in July of 1995.
Tolimir served as the assistant commander for military intelligence and security in the Bosnian Serb army, VRS, and reported directly to the recently apprehended Ratko Mladic, then the Republika Srpska, RS, military’s highest authority.
Tolimir is charged with a total of eight counts, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Bosniaks in Srebrenica and the neighbouring enclave of Zepa, in July 1995.
This week's testimony began with prosecuting lawyer Peter McCloskey presenting documents to the witness, including alleged intercepted conversations of various senior VRS officials.
"These documents prove how the relevant security officers, Drago Nikolic from the Zvornik brigade, Vujadin Popovic from the Drina corps and Ljubisa Beara from the [VRS] main staff, coordinated the operation of extermination of Bosniaks," said Butler, a prosecution witness.
Some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were executed by Bosnian Serb forces following the capture of Srebrenica.
Beara, described by Butler as a "direct subordinate of Tolimir by virtue of being in charge of security within the [VRS] main staff" and who was convicted by the tribunal of genocide and crimes against humanity, is allegedly quoted in one of the conversations as having asked Radislav Krstic, himself found guilty by the tribunal of aiding and abetting genocide, “to provide him more personnel, since he had 3,500 packages to distribute".
Asked by McCloskey what this sentence means, Butler explained that "packages could mean nothing else than [Bosniak] prisoners, and 'distribute' meant to execute them".
Butler stated that "on the basis of the applicable [VRS] rules of service, it would be unimaginable that Tolimir didn't know what the officers from the security and intelligence units of the VRS were doing in July 1995", adding that these "units were indeed subordinate to him".
The witness continued to testify about what he thought Tolomir must have known following Srebrenica’s capture.
"He also certainly must have had at least basic knowledge about the operation of re-digging mass graves and reburial of victims on other sites, since this operation was carried out by intelligence and security officers of the VRS,” Butler said.
"In addition, the discovery of the mass graves may have meant grave consequences for the RS military and political leadership", so therefore Tolimir must have known of the events, the witness added.
During cross-examination, Tolimir concentrated mostly on a document named "Strategic goals of the Serb people", which Butler had used in his analysis, and which outlined alleged objectives such as the separation of Serbs from other ethnic communities in the country, the establishment of a joint "Serb people's territory" and the division of Sarajevo. The document, adopted on May 12, 1992, was claimed by Butler to have been a basis for VRS strategic action.
"This was merely the result of a discussion by deputies in the Serb people's assembly on current political issues," Tolimir said, vehemently denying the claim that the alleged goals were in any way relevant to RS military action.
"They were never formally adopted," Tolimir said, pointing out that they were only ever published in the RS official gazette in November 1993. "In addition, former RS parliament speaker Momcilo Krajisnik defined them as a mere negotiations platform for the Serb side."
To this claim, Butler replied that "even if one could accept the claim that the 'strategic goals' were never formally adopted, it is also true that [military] directives and accompanying orders of the VRS follow the contents of these goals in a very up-to-the-point manner".
"The intent of these goals somehow found its way into the VRS strategic planning process," Butler said.
Tolimir, who was arrested in May 2007, pleaded not guilty to all counts in December 2009.
The trial continues after a three week summer recess, when Tolimir will continue cross-examining Butler.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo.
