“Brutal” Kidnapping of Blue Helmets

Testifying under the pseudonym RM-401, the French Officer, whose face was hidden and voice electronically altered, said that members of “Bosnian Serbs’ irregular and regular Army” intruded a “blue helmets’” checkpoint at the Vrbanja bridge in Sarajevo in early morning on May 27, 1995 and captured him and nine of his soldiers. He specified that the attack was “conducted by Slavko ‘Vojvoda’ Aleksic’s fanatics”, some of whom were dressed in “UN uniforms”. The operation was “a commando” and “brutal” one, although fire arms were not used and none of the French soldiers was injured. According to RM-401, immediately after having captured them, Serb soldiers beat the UNPROFOR members in the vicinity of Vrbanja bridge and threatened them with death. He said that they were also exposed to civilians’ rage after the VRS had suffered losses in a fight for the bridge. RM-401 said that he was forced to put on a VRS uniform and that Serb soldiers threatened him by saying that, in case anything went wrong, they would force him to go towards the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina positions dressed like that.
The witness said that the way they were treated improved once the hostages had been transferred to the military barracks in Lukavica.RM-401 said that he heard a VRS officer’s message to the UNPROFOR Headquarters, saying that they would be executed unless the UN forces fulfilled their requests. According to the charges, the VRS requested NATO to stop the air strikes, putting hostages on its buildings, which were considered potential targets. Mladic, the then Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, is charged with having taken more than 200 UNPROFOR members hostage in May and June 1995 after the NATO’s airstrikes against Serb military installations. The VRS released the French soldiers on July 30, 1995.During the cross-examination Mladic’s Defence attorney Dejan Ivetic suggested that the VRS held the UNPROFOR members as prisoners of war, not as hostages, considering the fact that “blue helmets” took the side of ABiH by requesting NATO to conduct airstrikes against Serb positions. “I was a prisoner, but actually a hostage,” RM-401 said, denying that UNPROFOR, whose task was to separate the conflicting parties, worked in favour of the Government forces in Sarajevo. Mladic’s Defence attorney responded by saying that the French UNPROFOR and Muslim forces jointly attacked VRS and regained control over the Vrbanja bridge and that this caused “human losses among the French and Serbs” on May 27, 1995. “That is not true. The French UNPROFOR regained what it had lost, the observatory point, as per a warrant by the President of the Republic. We were already humiliated enough… and we had to regain our authority,” RM-401 said. However, he said that, although it was not informed about the operation, ABiH used it to undertake its own operation against Serbs. Responding to a suggestion by the Defence, the witness confirmed that a VRS Officer told the French soldiers in the Lukavica military barracks that they would be treated as prisoners of war and read the Geneva Convention to them. The trial of Mladic, who is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and terror against civilians in Sarajevo, is due to continue on October 23.