Srebrenica Wasnt Demilitarised Zone
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Milenko Jevdjevic, a former commander of one of the Drina Corps battalions of the Bosnian Serb Army, told the Hague Tribunal on Wednesday that Srebrenica and Zepa were not cleared of soldiers and military equipment even though this should have been done after they were declared UN protected safe areas in 1993.
Demilitarisation wasnt implemented and the Muslim side continued military activities, Jevdjevic testified.
After Srebrenica and Zepa were declared safe areas, the witness said that Drina Corps units were given a strict order to stop activities since the safe areas were about to be disarmed and demilitarised.
The indictment charges Mladic with genocide over the killing of some 7,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica in the days that followed the occupation of the UN-protected enclave by Bosnian Serb forces on July 11, 1995.
He is also on trial for the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
Jevdjevic said that even after 1993, the Bosnian Army in Srebrenica and Zepa had one division with between 12,000 and 15,000 fighters who stayed in trenches with guns pointed toward Bosnian Serb forces.
From those enclaves, certain reconnaissance groups came to Serb territories and they were a serious threat to Drina Corps units and they killed soldiers and civilians, he said.
Asked by the judges why Turks were mentioned in the Drina Corps orders, Jevdjevic said that this meant members of the Bosnian Army.
Even today if the Turkish national football team plays, everyone in Sarajevo cheers them on, he insisted.
The trial continues on Thursday.
