Bosnian Serb Police Blamed for Attacks in Doboj
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Milivoje Simic, the wartime commander of a unit in Doboj Simic, testified at Mladic’s trial at the Hague Tribunal on Tuesday that during “cleansing operations” in the town of Doboj and the surrounding area, Serb police and paramilitaries robbed, arrested and killed Bosniaks and Croats.
“All of what happened was carried out by paramilitaries and the Police Centre… They robbed Croats and Muslims and also Serbs; I warned the police chief,” said the witness after the Hague prosecutor showed him a document stating that a military unit in the village of Civcija stole 70 kilogrammes of gold and 350,000 Deutschmarks.
Testifying about the detention of civilians from Civcija, the witness said: “That was done only by the police.”
Former Bosnian Serb Army chief Mladic is charged with the persecution of Muslims and Croats, which reached the scale of genocide in several municipalities in 1992. He is also on trial for genocide in Srebrenica, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
Milivoje testified that a unit led by a man called Veljko Milankovic which was known as the Wolves from Vucijak was guilty of crimes but was independent of the Bosnian Serb Army.
But after the prosecution showed him an order which named Milankovic as “commander of a battalion” of the Bosnian Serb Army, he said that the renegade unit was actually mostly commanded by another man, Bosko Kelecevic.
“Wherever he went with his group, there were problems,” said the witness.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
