Mladic Demands Acquittal Halfway Through Trial

Halfway through his war crimes trial at the Hague Tribunal, former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic’s defence asked the court to drop all the charges against him.

Defence lawyer Dejan Ivetic asked the trial chamber on Monday to drop all counts of the indictment which charges Mladic with genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which reached the scale of genocide in seven municipalities, of terrorising civilians in Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

Ivetic said that there was “no evidence” that Mladic had “genocidal intent” to destroy Bosniaks from Srebrenica as an ethnic group, adding that the prosecution had failed to prove that Mladic participated in a joint criminal enterprise which aimed to exterminate and expel the Bosniak population.

He also said that there was no evidence that Mladic ordered the execution of about 7,000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995, arguing that there was no proof that Mladic was present at any of the execution sites listed in the indictment, and adding that the military chief was in Belgrade from July 14 to 16 that year.

Mladic’s defence also claimed that he could not be found guilty of the killings of boys and men from Srebrenica at the end of July 1995 in the Trnovo area, because that crime was committed by the members of the Scorpions paramilitary unit, who were under the control of the Serbian state security service.

“There is no evidence that Mladic gave any criminal order to the perpetrators of those crimes,” said Ivetic.

Ivetic quoted Mladic’s orders for the disarmament and removal from the battlefield of paramilitaries who were not under his command, such as Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan’s ‘Tigers’ unit.

He also said that there was no “genocidal intent” because Mladic removed a sentence from the operational directive for action in Srebrenica in the spring of 1995, which ordered Bosnian Serb troops to create intolerable conditions of complete insecurity with no hope for further survival for the Muslim population in the area.

Referring to the charges of genocide in seven other municipalities, the defence referred to the findings of demography expert Ewa Tabeau, who testified during the trial that two per cent of Bosniaks were killed during the war.

Ivetic meanwhile dismissed the allegations that Mladic participated in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at permanently and forcibly removing Bosniaks and Croats.

He said that Mladic opposed the adoption of the Bosnian Serb war aims which included the separation of Serbs from the other two ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and cited the military chief’s stated view that he did not think “that Muslims should be expelled”.

“We oppose and object to the charges and prosecution evidence entirely,” said Ivetic.

He said that Mladic and his defence “cannot wait” to start presenting its evidence on May 13 and to reveal “all the lies” of the prosecution and its witnesses.

“When he presents the truth, General Mladic will show that he is innocent,” Ivetic said

“He acted honourably defending his country and his people,” the lawyer added.

The prosecution will reply to Mladic’s request for release on Tuesday.