Mladic Witness Claims Bosnian Serb Army and Police not Related to Paramilitary Forces
A Defence witness told the trial of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic that the official army and police of Republika Srpska had no connection to the paramilitary formations.
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“The paramilitary formations worked in opposition to us, and they committed criminal acts…By the end of 1992 all paramilitary forces were forced to leave Bosnian Serb territory, and some people were prosecuted,” Simo Tusevljak, a former member of Bosnian Serb police forces said.
Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, persecution which reached the scale of genocide in several municipalities, terrorizing the local population of Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
Tusevljak said some Bosnian Serb politicians brought paramilitary forces, added police and army forces and then organized raids to arrest them. Tusevljak recalled the arrest of members of the Yellow Wasps in the summer of 1992 after their heinous crimes in Zvornik as an example.
Mladic’s defense attorney Branko Lukic presented a document which shows that the Bosnian Serb police asked for military assistance in Zvornik to deal with the Yellow Wasps paramilitary unit, led by Branislav Gavrilovic.
Tusevljak worked as a police inspector in Sarajevo before the war. He claimed that in 1991 the reserve police force served the Party of Democratic Action (SDA). He said they hired “Muslims from Sandzak and criminals.”
“Than people who were criminals came, they had criminal records and they received official legitimations, which was forbidden by law,” Tusevljak said.
According to Tusevljak, the SDA also formed the Patriotic League and the Green Berets. He said Bosniak officials in the police force tolerated the smuggling of arms into Sarajevo, and described an incident when 400 sniper rifles and ammo entered Sarajevo.
The ethnic division of the police forces, Tusevljak claimed, happened after the murder of a Serb civilian and the construction of barricades in the city. Tusevljak said the SDA and Bosniaks then “took their gloves off.”
“My colleagues and I never wanted a Serb police force, but the doors were closed in the common police forces,” Tusevljak said.
The trial continues on Monday, July 13.
