Defending Serbian People’s Living Space

Colonel Dragicevic, former Assistant Commander for morale, religious and legal affairs with the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of VRS, said that Serb forces engaged only in defensive actions on the Sarajevo battlefield and that their strategy was to “defend the Serbian people’s living space” from the enemy, who outnumbered the VRS forces. According to Dragicevic’s testimony, the city was not under the siege, because there was a tunnel underneath the airport. He said that the Serbian Army blocked the First Corps of the Army of BiH, not the civilian population.Dragicevic said that he had never heard that Serbs had a plan to divide Sarajevo.Mladic, former Commander of the VRS’ Main Headquarters, is charged with having terrorised the local population in Sarajevo by conducting artillery and sniper attacks, committed genocide in Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, persecuted non-Serb civilians and taken UNPROFOR members hostage.Dragicevic denied the allegations that, in the spring of 1995 the VRS took UNPROFOR members hostage, using them as human shields from NATO’s airstrikes. He said that “blue helmets” were “prisoners of war”, because they “took the enemy side”.Dragicevic said that the capture of the international soldiers was ordered by the Main Headquarters of VRS. During the cross-examination he accepted the allegation that taking UNPROFOR members hostage was against international war laws, but he insisted that, in the concrete case, they “were not hostages, but prisoners of war”. “Taking hostages is not in accordance with the international war laws, but taking prisoners of war is,” the witness said, adding that he “has never heard that any members of the VRS Main Headquarters ordered the taking of hostages.”When asked if tying the “blue helmets” to VRS buildings, which were considered potential targets for NATO air strikes, was in accordance with the laws of warfare, Dragicevic said that he “knew that it was not in accordance with the international war laws” when he “found out about it from the media”.According to Dragicevic’s testimony, “one could not trust” the international community and its forces in BiH, because they were “on the Muslims’ side”.The trial of Mladic is due to continue on Wednesday, July 9.