Mladic’s Witness Claims Serbs Didn’t Control Paramilitaries

Defence witness Svetozar Cvetkovic told Mladic’s trial at the Hague Tribunal on Thursday that there were armed groups and individuals in Foca in 1992 who menaced and robbed Bosniaks, but the army led by the defendant was not responsible for them.

“There were units that arbitrarily persecuted and looted people,” Cvetkovic testified.

He said that the Bosnian Serb Army’s brigade in Foca was established only at the beginning of July 1992, but the paramilitary units did not want to be under its command. He said that the brigade commander tried to contact the paramilitaries, but he was ignored.

The prosecution presented a document from the local parliament in Foca which said that Pera Elez, who was the leader of a paramilitary unit, participated in the war as part of the Bosnian Serb Army from April 6 until December 10, 1992.

The witness replied that many fighters got such certificates for length of service, but the prosecution pointed out that Elez died in December 1992.

Cvetkovic, who said he worked for the local Serb crisis staff providing food and equipment for the population of Foca, also testified that Bosniaks left the area because of a rumour about the imminent arrival of “5,000 Chetniks [Serb nationalists] from Montenegro”.

Mladic is charged with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats from the municipality of Foca. According to his indictment, Foca is one of seven municipalities, where persecution of non-Serbs reached the scale of genocide.

He is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

The trial continues on October 13.