“Units in Srebrenica Subordinate” to Mladic

Obradovic, the then Chief of the Operational Section with the Main Headquarters of VRS, said that, in addition to the Drina Corps, the 10th Reconnaissance Squad was also subordinate to Mladic.

According to Obradovic’s testimony, General Zdravko Tolimir, Mladic’s Assistant for Intelligence and Security Affairs, and his subordinate Petar Salapura, Chief of the Intelligence Administration, had direct control over the 10th Reconnaissance Squad.

Last year the Hague Tribunal pronounced a first instance verdict, sentencing Tolimir to life imprisonment for Srebrenica genocide.

Tolimir and Salapura could issue orders to the Squad with Mladic’s “permission”, witness Obradovic said.

Mladic is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica in the days that followed the occupation of the United Nations protected enclave by VRS on July 11, 1995. Also, he is charged with persecuting Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

Witness Obradovic confirmed that he “assumes” that, in principle, Mladic must have seen the Seventh Directive before the document was submitted to Radovan Karadzic, supreme Commander and Republika Srpska President, for signing.

Under the Directive from March 1995, Karadzic ordered the VRS to create “unbearable conditions of complete uncertainty without hope for further survival and life of the civilian population” in Srebrenica and Zepa.

According to Obradovic, “the participation of the Main Headquarters of VRS” in preparation of that and other directives was “inevitable, because the Supreme Command did not have the expert bodies,” which could perform that task.

Mladic’s Defence attorney Branko Lukic asked the witness during the cross-examination whether he had ever heard from his colleagues at the Main Headquarters of VRS that Mladic ordered the killing of Bosniaks from Srebrenica.

“Never, not even until the present date,” said Obradovic, who was absent from the VRS Main Headquarters on sick leave until July 17, 1995.

Defence attorney Lukic is due to complete the cross-examination of Obradovic on Wednesday, July 17.