Ratko Mladic Defence: 1992 Genocide ‘Not Proved’

Ivetic blamed the crimes that were committed on Bosnian Serb police forces and local authorities, over which Mladic had no authority.

“General Mladic cannot be held responsible for actions committed by civil authorities,” he said.

Mladic, 74, stands accused of the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in 1992 allegedly reached the scale of genocide in six municipalities – Prijedor, Foca, Kljuc, Sanski Most, Kotor Varos and Vlasenica.

He is also on trial for the genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in 1995, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising the population of Sarajevo during the siege of the Bosnian capital, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

To show that there was no genocidal intention to destroy Bosniaks and Croats as ethnic groups, Ivetic mentioned that the non-Serb population stayed in the municipality of Srbac until the end of the war.

He also said Bosniaks and Croats made up ten per cent of the Bosnian Serb Army’s members at the end of the war.

“Did they commit genocide against themselves and their own families? That is illogical, just like the prosecution’s allegations. Therefore you must free General Mladic,” he said.

According to Ivetic, on the contrary, Mladic “absolutely advocated a peaceful solution” and “did all he could to prevent escalation of violence”.

“Murders were unplanned incidents, which were neither approved nor projected by Mladic,” the defence lawyer said.

He claimed that the non-Serb population did not flee because of persecution by Bosnian Serb forces, but “chose to leave” due to the war and the lack of supplies.

Even if the Bosnian Serb Army moved people from war zones, it was done “temporarily”, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, he added.

“The evidence does not indicate that the local population in the hands of the [Bosnian Serb Army] was forcedly deported,” Ivetic said.

Commenting on the crimes committed in Prijedor in 1992, which the prosecutors described as an example of genocide, Ivetic said that Bosniak paramilitary groups caused the war in the municipality.

The Bosnian Serb Army carried out “legitimate actions” aimed at disarming the paramilitaries, although some Serbs “overreacted out of fear of a new genocide against them, like the one that happened during the Second World War, and not because of some plan made by Ratko Mladic”, he insisted.

Ivetic said that the detention centres where crimes were committed against Bosniak and Croat prisoners were set up by the Bosnian Serb interior ministry and crisis committees run by local authorities, not by the army under Mladic’s command.

Ivetic said that Mladic did not receive reports about crimes against civilians, but only reports on “legitimate actions against the paramilitaries”.

Addressing the accusation that the Bosnian Serb Army buried about 500 civilians, who were killed during an offensive in the Prijedor area, in a mine at Tomasica, Ivetic said it had also not been proved.

“According to evidence, the bodies were not buried by members of the VRS [Bosnian Serb Army], but MUP [the interior ministry], who wore similar uniforms,” he said.

The defence will complete the presentation of its closing arguments on Tuesday , and then both the prosecution and defence will both have the opportunity to rebut each other’s statements on December 15.

The verdict is expected next year.