Bosnian Serb Army ‘Treated Prisoners Humanely’

Savo Sokanovic, who was in charge of moral and religious issues at the Bosnian Serb Army’s main headquarters during wartime, told Mladic’s trial at the Hague Tribunal on Monday that efforts were made to prevent crimes during the 1992-95 conflict, especially in prison camps.

“Even though it was not in our jurisdiction, we warned the need to respect prisoner rights and enabling visits of the Red Cross,” the witness told the UN-backed court.

Asked whether the main headquarters, which was under Mladic’s control, persecuted non-Serbs, Sokanovic replied: “No.”

Mladic is charged, as the commander of the Bosnian Serb Army’s main headquarters, of organising the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats, which allegedly reached the scale of genocide in some municipalities. He is also on trial for the Srebrenica genocide, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

Asked how the main headquarters responded to information about war crimes, Sokanovic said that it issued “warnings and directions for future conduct”, and left the prosecution of individuals to other institutions.

He said he could not name a war crime case in which the main headquarters took action: “I cannot give an example. That was in the jurisdiction of prosecutions and courts,” he said.

He added that the main headquarters “did not do investigations”.

“We only warned about the consequences of such possible negative acts,” he said.

Mladic’s lawyer Branko Lukic quoted one such warning, which said that “looting, burning and retaliation against civilians must be stopped”, because it is not “customary for members of the Bosnian Serb Army”.

The trial continues on Tuesday.