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A defence witness told Ratko Mladic’s trial, which has restarted after the Hague Tribunal’s holiday break, that “Muslim extremists” were guilty of starting the conflict in Prijedor in 1992.
Zdravka Karlica, the president of the Association of Victims’ Families, Missing Persons, Detained and Killed People from Prijedor, told the former Bosnian Serb military chief’s war crimes trial on Monday that her husband Zoran was killed by “Muslim extremists” in the summer of 1992.
Karlica said that her husband participated in negotiations on the disarmament of “paramilitary units” in mainly Bosniak village of Kozarac in May 1992.
“The moderate arm of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, agreed on disarmament, but the extreme part did not and the conflict erupted,” she said.
During cross-examination, Karlica confirmed that she knew about the “resettlement” of Bosniaks and Croats from Prijedor, but also said that “a large number of them left before the war”.
Mladic is charged with genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats across the country, which allegedly reached genocidal proportions in seven other municipalities, as well as terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
According to the indictment against Mladic, Bosnian Serb forces killed, unlawfully detained, tortured, abused and expelled thousands of Bosniak and Croat civilians in villages in the Prijedor municipality.
Karlica told the court that she learned from victims’ families six or seven years ago that “256 women and 10 girls were killed” in the area, which was “shocking news” for her.
Before her testimony, there was a brief status conference, during which presiding judge Alphons Orie said that Mladic’s defence will last the entire year and will also continue in 2016.
Orie said that Mladic’s defence had so far questioned a third of its 300 witnesses and that it had spent “less than a third” of the time it was allloted.
Mladic’s wife Bosiljka will also testify, Orie said.
According to the defence lawyer Branko Lukic, Bosiljka Mladic will testify about his stay in Belgrade from July 14 until July 17, 1995, when forces under his command executed around 7,000 Bosniak prisoners from Srebrenica, according to the indictment.
Defence attorney Lukic said that defence will prove with the testimonies of Bosiljka Mladic and other witnesses that Mladic could not have commanded Bosnian Serb troops during the massacres while he was in Belgrade.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
