Karadzic’s Witness Says War Made People Move Out

The defence’s military expert Dragomir Keserovic denied at the trial of Radovan Karadzic that Serb forces carried out the ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Croats in Bosanska Krajina in the spring and summer of 1992.

With Keserovic’s testimony Karadzic attempted to dispute claims by the prosecution’s military expert Ewan Brown that the Yugoslav People’s Army and, after that, Army of Republika Srpska, forcibly transferred thousands of non-Serbs.

Brown testified in November 2011 that it had been done in accordance with the first strategic goal – military separation of Serbs from Muslims and Croats – which the Bosnian Serb leadership headed by Karadzic had proclaimed in May 1992.

“I believe that the population mostly moved out because the war broke out in Bosnia, there was great insecurity, and everyone tried to leave and save themselves, their families and possessions… General conditions were the key cause for their moving out,” said Keserovic, retired general of the Bosnian Serb Army.

Karadzic, former president of Republika Srpska, is charged with the expulsion of the Muslim and Croat population from 20 Bosnian municipalities, as well as other crimes committed in Bosnia. Expert witness Keserovic said that not only non-Serbs were leaving Krajina, but many Serbs too.

Keserovic also denied the claim by Brown that at the start of the war in Bosnia the Serb Democratic Party and Yugoslav People’s Army worked together on creating conditions for the separation of Serbs from other nations and their reduction “to a minimum” on Serb territories.

Having called it a “flippant qualification”, Karadzic’s military expert said that based on the same documents Brown had analysed, he concluded that Yugoslav People’s Army did everything to calm the situation, hold it under control and protect both Serbs and non-Serbs.

“In time, the Serb Democratic Party and Yugoslav Army would become closer, because the other two nations through their attacks practically pushed Yugoslav Army towards the Serb Democratic Party,” said the witness.

He accused Muslim leadership of setting Sarajevo on fire and afterwards the valleys of the Drina and Sana with attacks on the Yugoslav People’s Army at Skenderija and in Dobrovoljacka Street in May 1992 and thus virtually causing the war in Bosnia. These attacks, assessed Keserovic, the prosecutor’s expert Brown minimised, presenting them as “sporadic”, with a small number of casualties.

“I say they were triggers for later responses by the Yugoslav People’s Army… Incidents and later larger clashes were initiated by Muslim actions against the Yugoslav People’s Army,” said Keserovic.

Not denying that there were incidents in which Muslims and Croats got killed too, the defence’s expert said that it was not the official policy of the authorities and army, which “pledged for the protection of minorities and punishment of crimes.” Keserovic criticised Brown for attributing extremist stances by individuals from the Serb side to the official policy of state bodies.

The trial will resume on July 9.