Voluntary Departure from Ilidza

Defence witness Slavko Mijanovic appears at Ratko Mladic’s trial and denies that Serb authorities expelled Muslims and Croats from Ilidza in 1992, claiming that they “departed voluntarily”.

“They were not expelled from Ilidza. Ilidza did not expand its territory,” said Mijanovic, a former municipal official.

Mijanovic allowed the possibility that “there were other municipalities from which” Muslim and Croat civilians “were deported”, but, as he said, “both Serbs and non-Serbs moved out” from Ilidza, because they were afraid of war.  

Mijanovic, who dealt with housing issues in the Serbian Ilidza municipality, said that Serb refugees were given abandoned apartments “for temporary use”, but they did not become owners of those apartments.  

According to Mijanovic’s testimony, “the right of occupancy and the property” were returned to the owners after the war, which did not happen in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH. When asked whether the owners had returned to their apartments, he said they had not, because they “did not have the elementary living conditions”.

Mladic, a former Commander of the Main Headquarters of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with persecution of the non-Serb population from municipalities controlled by Serbs, one of which was Ilidza.

Besides that, he is on trial for genocide in Srebrenica and several other municipalities, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

While being cross-examined by Prosecutor Adam Weber, Mijanovic confirmed that apartments were also given to Serb volunteers, like members of the Serbian Radical Party, as well as Tomislav Kovac, who, later on, became Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP of RS.

“To me, they were VRS soldiers or members of the MUP of RS, in accordance with the book of regulations,” the witness explained.

Responding to a prosecutor’s allegation that Muslims and Croats were expelled from Ilidza and that they did not leave voluntarily, Mijanovic said: “I know that they were not expelled from Ilidza”.

As a proof for the existence of persecution, Prosecutor Weber quoted what Nedjeljko Prstojevic, the then Serb leader in Ilidza, said during some intercepted conversations.

Among other things, Prstojevic said that “all Muslims should be killed” and that he “does not want to see any Muslim capable of serving the military alive”.

As the Prosecutor presented him with a Serb authorities’ document, prohibiting the return of the Muslim and Croat population, the witness commented: “That is what is says, but I do not know why they would have wanted to return to that chaos”.

Dusan Todic, a former member of security of the Main Headquarters of VRS, testified in Mladic’s defence at this hearing, but he did not say one single word except for introducing himself.

In his written statement, which was included in the case file as evidence, Todic said that Mladic had never ordered any attacks on civilian buildings in his presence and that he had not even done it when they jointly watched Muslim forces setting the house of Mladic’s parents on fire. According to Todic, Mladic always insisted on lawful treatment of prisoners of war.

The Hague Prosecution had no questions for Todic.

The trial of Mladic is due to continue on Wednesday, November 26.