Mladic’s Junta against the President

Milinic, who was Karadzic’s advisor for security at that time, works as Minister-Counselor with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He said that “a few”, or actually “several hundreds” of Muslims “might have been shot” and that it was done by “some stupid Serbs”.

Milinic said that the accusation that the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, shot about 7,000 Muslim men was “Muslim propaganda”.

Karadzic, the then President of Republika Srpska and supreme Commander of its Army, is charged with genocide against Srebrenica Muslims and forced resettlement of the local population.

“I still do not believe in those murders – it was a big Muslim propaganda,” Milinic said, denying that the VRS forcedly relocated thousands of women, children and the elderly from Srebrenica.

When asked by the Prosecutor during the cross-examination whether the information from international sources about the murder of a large number of captives from Srebrenica was available to him, Milinic said: “I was not interested in the international community’s jabbering. They were against Serbs anyway.”

At the same time the witness said that the Main Headquarters of VRS was “practically a military junta, which used the President as cover.”

“The Army worked independently without the President of the Republic. That is the key,” Milinic said, adding that it was “an absolute disrespect” of Karadzic by his officers.

“The generals’ clan wanted to take over the authority,” Milinic said, adding that VRS Commander Ratko Mladic “said a few times that he would like to become president of RS.”

Nedjo Nikolic, former Director of the Brick Factory in Bratunac, testified in defence of Karadzic at this hearing. He confirmed that VRS officers contacted him on July 14, 1995 and asked him whether they could accommodate captured Muslims from Srebrenica in the factory. They gave up their plan.

Witness Nikolic denied that the possibility of shooting the captives in the Brick Factory was mentioned during their conversation. He confirmed that he handed over a backhoe to the VRS officers.

“I had been asked to provide machines for the cleaning of terrain before… I knew that they were being used at the time. There was war, so it was normal,” the witness said.

Nikolic confirmed that, in September and October 1995 the Brick Factory’s backhoes were used for exhumations from mass graves in Glogova, where victims from Kravica had been buried, and the transfer of those bodies to secondary mass graves.

Karadzic then presented the former President of Zvornik Municipality Government Jovan Ivanovic as his Defence witness. Ivanovic said that paramilitary formations led by Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan and others committed the crimes against Muslims in the spring of 1992, adding that the local authorities were not able to prevent them due to “the chaos and anarchy.”

The trial of Karadzic, who is also charged with persecuting Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage, is due to continue on June 13.