Witnesses Deny Testimony Given by Momir Nikolic at Mladic Trial

The witnesses denied allegations made by key prosecution witness Momir Nikolic, a former officer of the Bosnian Serb Army, who plead guilty to the persecution of Bosniak civilians in the summer of 1995.

Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, is on trial for his role in orchestrating and carrying out the Srebrenica genocide, in which over 7000 Bosniak men were killed in the days following the takeover of the enclave by Bosnian Serb forces on July 11, 1995.

Nikolic, a former security officer of the Bosnian Serb Army, plead guilty to the persecution of Bosniak civilians from Srebrenica at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 2003. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, a sentence he is currently serving. He has testified in several other cases against suspected perpetrators of the Srebrenica genocide, including Ratko Mladic.

While testifying at the Mladic trial in the summer of 2013, Nikolic had said that Mladic went to the headquarters of the Zvornik Brigade on July 13, 1995. On that day, Mladic allegedly told him that thousands of Bosniak prisoners would be transported to Nikolic’s zone of responsibility the next day. It was understood that the prisoners were to be executed.

Former military police officer, Mirko Peric, challenged a statement previously given by Nikolic regarding a gesture Mladic had made at a checkpoint near Konjevic Polje on July 13, 1995, the day of their alleged meeting and two days after the fall of Srebrenica. According to Nikolic, Mladic’s gesture was meant to signal that all the Bosniak captives should be killed.

However, Peric said that he didn’t see Mladic or Nikolic on that day at the Konjevic Polje checkpoint.

“I have never seen general Mladic in real life,” Peric said.

Peric said at that time he only saw Nikolic twice. He said he saw Nikolic when he took a captive called Resid Sinanovic away from Konjevic Polje. He said Sinanovic was later found dead.

Peric said he also didn’t see Nenad Deronjic at the checkpoint on that date. Nikolic had previously claimed that Deronjic had attended his meeting with Mladic. While testifying in Mladic’s defense in July 2014, Deronjic had said he wasn’t in Konjevic Polje on July 13, 1995.

Nebojsa Jeremic also testified in Mladic’s defense at today’s hearing, and attempted to disprove Momir Nikolic’s previous testimony.

Jeremic said he was on duty at the gate of the Zvornik Brigade’s headquarters on July 13, 1995, and said Nikolic was not at the headquarters on that day.

Mladic is also charged with the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats – which reached the scale of genocide in some municipalities – and also with terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

The trial will continue on April 9.