Karadzic: Mladic’s Threats

A former member of the Dutch Battalion with the United Nations, says, at the trial of Radovan Karadzic, that Ratko Mladic, former Chief of the Main Headquarters of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, “threatened” Bosniaks following the occupation of Srebrenica.

Evert Rave, former Dutch officer, told The Hague Tribunal’s Chamber that he was in Srebrenica in July 1995 and that he attended a meeting of Mladic, representatives of Srebrenica civilians and UN Command held in the Fontana Hotel in Bratunac in the evening on July 12, 1995.

According to Rave, Mladic “guaranteed life” to all Bosniaks, who “handed their weapons over”, one day after his forces had occupied Srebrenica on July 11, 1995 and told them that they should decide if they wanted to stay in Srebrenica or leave. Rave said that Mladic’s attitude was “pure intimidation” and that he actually threatened Bosniaks by telling them that they would disappear unless they left the town.

Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of VRS, is charged with genocide in Srebrenica. According to the charges, the VRS systematically shot more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys and deported tens of thousands of women and children. Besides that, Karadzic is charged with the persecutions committed throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UN soldiers hostages in the period from 1992 to 1995.

Mladic, who was arrested in May this year, is awaiting his trial before The Hague Tribunal to begin.

At this hearing The Hague Prosecution reproduced video recordings taken during the meeting in Bratunac in July 1995, depicting a UNPROFOR officer and Mladic discussing the possible evacuation of thousands of Srebrenica civilians. Witness Rave pointed out that he VRS had already had a plan to separate Bosniak men from their families and “deport” all of them from Potocari separately.

“When we returned to Potocari after the meeting, we saw that the separation of men was already underway. Buses arrived on the following day, although Mladic asked us the evening before to provide buses. This made me conclude that the separation of men and deportation of the population had been organised in advance,” Rave said.

According to Rave, VRS held Bosniak men aged between 17 and 70 in “a white house” in Potocari prior to deporting them by buses towards Bratunac . Rave told the Court that Mladic knew about it for sure, given the fact that, while they were in Potocari on July 12, 1995, he told him that he was working on finding soldiers among the men.

During the cross-examination of witness Rave Karadzic said that the UNPROFOR soldiers, not Mladic, requested the evacuation during the meetings held in Bratunac . Rave said that this was “not realistic”, adding that Bosniaks “did not actually have a choice”.

“Srebrenica had already been emptied. The entire population was in Potocari. There were two possibilities – either for the VRS to withdraw its forces from Srebrenica or for the civilians to leave,” the witness said.

Karadzic dedicated the most of the cross-examination to operations conducted by the 28th Division of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Srebrenica, repeating his earlier allegations that its members continuously attacked the VRS and Serb villages. Rave confirmed that there were “soldiers” in the enclave, but he “did not see any organised army”.

The trial of Karadzic is due to continue on Thursday, December 1 this year.