Change of Plan

28. November 2013.00:00
While being cross-examined at the trial of Radovan Karadzic, Defence witness Milenko Todorovic sticks to his statement that the Main Headquarters of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, announced, one day after the fall of Srebrenica, that it would send captured Srebrenica Muslims to the military detention camp in Batkovic, near Bijeljina, but those captives never arrived.

As he said, the arrival of between 1,000 and 1,200 Muslim captives from Srebrenica was announced to Colonel Todorovic, the then Security Officer of the Eastern Bosnia Corps of VRS in Bijeljina, by a cable sent by general Zdravko Tolimir, who was his superior.

The witness said that, two or three days later the captives had still not arrived in Batkovic and that Tolimir told him over the phone that the plan had been given up.

The Prosecutors allege that, instead of being sent to Batkovic detention camp, the male captives from Srebrenica were transferred to the Zvornik surroundings, where they were shot by VRS members.

At that time Tolimir was Assistant Commander for Intelligence and Security Affairs with the Main Headquarters of VRS. Under a first instance verdict, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide in Srebrenica and Zepa.

Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and supreme Commander of the RS armed forces, is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Muslims from Srebrenica in July 1995, as well as persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

The trial is due to continue tomorrow, November 29, when witness Zeljko Mejakic will testify in defence of the indictee.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Mejakic, former Commander of Omarska detention camp, near Prijedor, to 21 years in prison for committing murders, torture, unlawful detention and persecution.

Radoša Milutinović