No Ethnic Cleansing in Kotor-Varos

Vojislav Krsic, a former officer in the Kotor-Varos Light Infantry Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, testified in Mladic’s defence on Wednesday that no ethnic cleansing was attempted in the north-west Bosnian area and that his brigade never fired a single shell on civilian targets during wartime.

In Krsic’s written statement, which Mladic’s defence attorney Branko Lukic read in the courtroom, he also claimed that “army personnel were not involved” in the killing of a number of Bosniaks in the village of Grabovica in November 1992, a crime listed in the indictment against Mladic.

Former Bosnian Serb military chief Mladic is on trial for the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats from municipalities under Serbian control, one of which was Kotor-Varos. He is also accused of genocide in Srebrenica and several other municipalities, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

Milorad Sajic, wartime commander of the Serb-led Territorial Defence force in Banja Luka, also told Wednesday’s hearing that ethnic cleansing wasn’t a strategic objective of the Bosnian Serbs.

Sajic told the court that he “didn’t know there were forced eviction” of Bosniaks and Croats while he was in Banja Luka.

The trial continues on Thursday.