Peacekeepers as Prisoners of War or Hostages

Testifying at Ratko Mladic’s trial at The Hague, British general Jonathon Riley says that, in late May 1995 the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, captured and kept UNPROFOR members, who were under his command, hostage.

Riley, who commanded the British UNPROFOR Battalion in Gorazde and had the rank of lieutenant colonel at that time, said that the relations with the VRS dramatically worsened following the first NATO air strikes on May 25, 1995.

According to the charges, Mladic, former VRS Commander, is responsible for taking “blue helmets” hostage. The indictment alleges that, following the NATO air strikes, Mladic’s forces held more than 200 UNPROFOR members hostage, tying some of them and using them as “human shields”, in May and June 1995.

Riley said that, on May 25, 1995 VRS officer Radomir Furtula warned him about an order by Commander Ratko Mladic to shell the British Battalion in case NATO airplanes continued with the attacks.

General Riley said that, on May 28, 1995 Serb soldiers forcedly captured 33 members of his Battalion on observatory positions around Gorazde. After that the Prosecutor presented the witness with an order by the then Chief of the VRS Main Headquarters Manojlo Milovanovic, saying that UNPROFOR soldiers should be arrested and taken to the vicinity of military buildings, which were potential NATO targets.

The witness said that, while his soldiers were held by VRS, they were treated in accordance with Milovanovic’s order. “They were taken, in groups of various sizes, to military installations in the area about 200 kilometres around Gorazde,” Riley said.

The Prosecution presented, as evidence that “peacekeepers” were captured as per an order from the VRS top, a report by the VRS Main Headquarters submitted to Supreme Commander Radovan Karadzic on May 28, 1995, saying that “27 Englishmen have been captured”. 

General Riley first said that his soldiers “were Welshmen” and that they would “be much offended by being called Englishmen”. He then said that, after having been captured, six more members of the British Battalion were injured in a car accident. According to the witness’ testimony, the VRS treated all captured British in a good manner, except for parading them next to their buildings. The “blue helmets” under Riley’s command were released on June 2, 1995, as per general Mladic’s order following an agreement reached between him and the then UNPROFOR Commander Rupert Smith.

The British Officer pointed out that, by taking the UNPROFOR members hostage, Serb forces wanted to stop further NATO air strikes. Mladic’s Defence attorney Branko Lukic said, during the cross-examination, that the “blue helmets” were “prisoners of war”, not “hostages”. “We were not a conflicting party, so we could not be prisoners of war,” Riley said, confirming that Serb officers informed his soldiers that they would treat them as prisoners of war.

“However, they were peace keepers, so they must have neither been taken prisoners nor hostages,” the witness pointed out.
Riley rejected a suggestion by Mladic’s Defence attorney, who said that the capturing of “blue helmets” was a consequence of the understanding of the VRS Command that they took the side of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, and said: “It could be their perception, but it neither had to be true nor reality”.

Riley said that it was true that his troops prevented further penetration of VRS through the protected zone of Gorazde until ABiH arrived to the defence positions. The witness explained that this was done in order to protect the civilian population. Responding to a question by Defence attorney Lukic, the British General confirmed that four members of special units, whose task was to navigate the airplanes to VRS targets, were among his soldiers. The witness said that no airstrikes were conducted in Gorazde in May 1995.

Mladic is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which reached the scale of genocide in seven municipalities and terror against civilians in Sarajevo by long-lasting shelling and sniping in the period from 1992 to 1995.

Mladic’s trial is due to continue on October 28.