Armed Groups Weaker than VRS

While being cross-examined at Ratko Mladic’s trial, a Hague Prosecution’s military expert says that he is “not diminishing the incidents” that preceded the events in municipalities in Bosanska Krajina occupied by the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, from which most of non-Serb residents were taken to detention camps.

“What I am saying is that a whole series of incidents did happen in the context of previously planned situations for occupation of territories, in order to take over the control. Incidents did happen, but they happened in non-Serb villages,” military expert Ewan Brown said.
 
Presenting a number of documents, Defence attorney Branko Lukic asked Brown if he analysed the military operations conducted by Muslim and Croat forces, which were active in the Krajina area. Brown responded by saying that this was not the focus of his analysis, explaining that documents issued by Krajina Corps, which he used when preparing his findings and opinion, mentioned armed groups.
 
“The Krajina Corps documents do not mention the number of members or composition of the armed groups, but the fact that the VRS could use the weapons of the Yugoslav National Army, JNA, and take over the control leads to a conclusion that the eventual armed groups could not have been particularly strong and armed in comparison to the VRS,” Brown explained.
 
Lukic then presented a series of documents, indicating that captives must not be mistreated. Brown said that he had not had some of those documents, while preparing his findings and opinion, but his conclusions would, nevertheless, be the same.
 
During the direct examination Brown said that the pattern of operations was “disarmament of Muslim paramilitaries” by conducting attacks on villages during which the non-Serb population was moved and a number of local residents taken prisoners. 
 
Also, the Prosecution’s expert said that the movement of Bosniak civilians and detention of many people in detention camps in the vicinity of Prijedor was part of achieving the goal to separate Serbs from the two other peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
The indictment alleges that Mladic, former Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which reached the scale of genocide in seven municipalities. Besides that, he is on trial for committing genocide in Srebrenica, terrorising citizens in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
 
Showing a document, Lukic asked if it said that Muslims and Croats were moved out under the condition that the moving of Serbs out of the Central Bosnia was allowed. Brown confirmed that it said that “people were allowed to leave”.
 
“It refers to other places too, which is a reflection of what was discussed at the sixth Assembly session. I did not understand this as a temporary solution of the problem, but as an insurance that there would not be a large number of people and that it was something that would be permanent,” Brown explained.
 
When asked by the Trial Chamber if the moving out was permanent, Brown said that it was “the tone of the entire debate at the Assembly session and it was not focused on organising the return”.
 
Lukic asked him whether he saw a document in which Radovan Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, said that forced resettlement and other illegal measures should be prevented. Brown responded by saying that he had not seen that document. When asked if that order was diametrically opposite to the conclusion he made, the expert witness said that it was “in case it is read literally”.
 
The Defence then presented a document issued by the Krajina Corps Command in 1993, which said that the Muslim population in villages in Sanski Most surroundings, which the International Red Cross wanted to visit, was disturbed and that a military police squad intervened in those places. The expert witness said that he could not remember that document.
 
The expert witness said that he did not think that the goal was to protect the civilian population in the Krajina Autonomous Region, because it showed that Muslims, whom the International Red Cross wanted to visit, were there. Brown said that he would have to read the document thoroughly in order to provide more details about it.
 
The cross-examination of expert witness Brown is due to be continued on Friday, November 22.