Ratko Mladic Did Not Order Srebrenica Executions
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The former commander of the 10th Reconnaissance Squad of the Bosnian Serb Army, Milorad Pelemis, told Mladics war crimes trial on Monday that neither of them ordered the killing of around 1,200 Bosniak men from Srebrenica at Branjevo farm near Zvornik on July 16, 1995.
A member of Pelemiss squad, Drazen Erdemovic, admitted in 1996 at the Hague Tribunal that he participated in the executions.
But Pelemis insisted that Erdemovic was on vacation at the time and no one gave them an order to kill the Bosniaks that day.
The chief intelligence officer of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Headquarters, Petar Salapura, who was the immediate superior for the squad, did not do that either, Pelemis said in a written statement to the UN-backed court.
Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, is charged with genocide against more than 7,000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995.
Pelemis said that he was in the hospital during the mass execution at Branjevo farm because he was injured in a car accident on July 12, 1995.
During cross-examination, he again denied giving an order for the execution to Erdemovic.
I have never issued an order to Erdemovic, Pelemis said.
He argued that Erdemovic was taking revenge [on him], because I took his house and car.
How could I have ordered them, when Erdemovic said he only learned that he would execute people when he got to Branjevo? Pelemis asked.
He said that he at first did not believe Erdemovic’s confession about the Branjevo executions, but later realised it was true, although the number of victims is a bit too high. According to the witness, in cases before the Sarajevo court it was proven that 200 people at most were killed.
The prosecutor presented the witness with the DNA analysis findings that showed that at least 800-900 people were killed at Branjevo farm. No, I am not familiar with that, I do not know exactly, Pelemis replied. But he suggested that six of his soldiers couldnt have killed so many prisoners.
Mladic is also on trial for the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats across the country, which allegedly reached the scale of genocide in several municipalities, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
The trial continues.
