Captives’ Fate Was Sealed on July 13

As he continues testifying at Ratko Mladic’s trial, former Republika Srpska Army officer Momir Nikolic says that, when he asked Mladic about the fate of captured Muslims two days after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, Mladic responded by making an abrupt hand gesture, from which one could realise that they would be killed.

Nikolic said that he met General Mladic on the road between Bratunac and Srebrenica, near Konjevic Polje, on July 13, 1995, while Muslim men, who tried to get to Tuzla through the woods, were coming out of the forest and surrendering to the VRS.

“Mladic spoke to Muslim captives. He told them not to worry, adding that everything would be fine and that they would be transferred to their desired destinations…When he headed towards his car, I followed him and asked him what would really happen to those people. Not even then did I believe that they would go wherever they wanted… General Mladic laughed. He said nothing, but just made a hand gesture from left to right and left the place,” Nikolic said.

He demonstrated Mladic’s gesture in the courtroom, abruptly moving his hand from left to right with his fingers extended and palm facing the ground.

Mladic, the then Commander of VRS, is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Srebrenica Muslims.

After having admitted guilt before The Hague Tribunal in 2003 for having persecuted Muslims from Srebrenica, Nikolic, a former Security Officer with the VRS Bratunac Brigade, admitted guilt and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

He described his meeting with Ljubisa Beara, the then Chief of Security with the Main Headquarters of VRS, on July 13.

As he said, Beara ordered him to go to Zvornik and convey an order to Lieutenant Drago Nikolic, Security Officer of the VRS Zvornik Brigade, to prepare buildings for the accommodation of thousands of captives from Bratunac, who would then be killed.

“Lieutenant Colonel Beara told me that Muslim captives would be detained in those buildings temporarily and that they would be killed afterwards,” Nikolic said, adding that he went to Zvornik and conveyed the message to Drago Nikolic.

When he returned in Bratunac, where the situation was “totally chaotic” due to the presence of the captives, on that same evening, Nikolic attended a meeting at which Lieutenant Colonel Beara quarrelled with Miroslav Deronjic, President of the Serbian Democratic Party in Bratunac.

According to the witness’ testimony, contrary to the order given to him earlier that day, Beara advocated for keeping the captives in Bratunac, while Deronjic fiercely opposed him, requesting that all captives be relocated and saying that he did not want them to be killed in Bratunac.

Nikolic said that Deronjic called on an order issued by RS President Radovan Karadzic, while Beara called on his “boss”, in other words, General Mladic.

“At that moment, late evening on July 13 or early morning on July 14 nobody questioned the fate of those Muslims, as it was known that they would be killed. They discussed whether they would be executed in Bratunac or Zvornik,” Nikolic said.

All the captives were transferred to the VRS Zvornik Brigade’s zone of responsibility the following morning. According to the charges and previously pronounced verdicts, they were shot at those locations.

The Hague Tribunal pronounced a first instance verdict against Beara, sentencing him to life imprisonment for genocide in Srebrenica, while Drago Nikolic was sentenced to 35 years for having assisted in, and supporting the commission of genocide.

Miroslav Deronjic admitted guilt for the murder of Muslims in Glogova village, near Bratunac, in May 1992. He was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Testifying at the hearing today, Momir Nikolic confirmed that he participated in the transfer of bodies of killed Muslims from a grave in Glogova village to other graves on the territory of Srebrenica in September 1995.

At the end of his testimony Nikolic apologised to “all victims” and “all families, who survived the horrible crime” in Srebrenica.

“I am very sorry. I feel terrible…I made a mistake for not running away when I became aware of the fact that crime would be committed. I am sorry for having participated in that horrible crime,” the witness said.

The cross-examination of Nikolic is due to continue on June 5.