Mladic: Big Crimes in Small Village

He said that, during an attack on his village of Brisevo on July 24, 1992, the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, killed 68 Croat residents, including his father, 14 women, two young males and four disabled people.

The witness said that those crimes were committed by members of the Sixth Krajina and Fifth Kozara Brigades of VRS.

Mladic, the then Commander of VRS, is charged with the persecution and genocide against Croat and Muslims in Prijedor municipality. Also, the indictment charges him with genocide in other municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, genocide in Srebrenica, terror campaign against the local population in Sarajevo and taking international soldiers hostage.

Witness Atlija said that, following the attack, he was taken to a detention centre in Prijedor, along with tens of other men. After having been released, he participated in the collection and burial of bodies of killed civilians in several Croat hamlets in the vicinity of Brisevo. As he said, women from this area were the victims of sexual violence.

“Brisevo did not have any strategic importance for anybody… those couple of hills… It is a shame that so many people died for nothing,” said Atlija, adding that all houses and a Catholic church in the village were destroyed during the attack.

The witness then described attacks by the Serb Army on the nearby villages of Hambarine and Kozarac, which he witnessed at the end of May 1992, saying that hundreds of refugees from those villages came to Brisevo.

Atlija said that he discussed the crimes in Brisevo with Serbian Democratic Party, SDS official in Prijedor Vojo Kupresanin on several occasions, but he just promised that he would “intervene” and speak to general Momir Talic, the then Commander of the First Krajina Corps of VRS, in order to “make them stop”.

As he said, Atlija negotiated about the departure of the Croat population from Prijedor with Milomir Stakic, the then Chief of the SDS Crisis Committee, who offered them to “move into Muslim houses, which have not been destroyed”, in another village, but the Brisevo residents refused this.

The Hague Tribunal pronounced a second instance verdict against Stakic, sentencing him to 40 years in prison for ethnic cleansing and crimes committed in Prijedor. Talic was charged before the Tribunal, but the trial was discontinued, because he died in 2003.

The witness said that Croats and Muslims from that area were allowed to leave in November 1992, after having signed statements, leaving their property “voluntarily” to Serb authorities. No Croats have permanently returned to Brisevo as of yet.

Mladic’s Defence attorney Branko Lukic began cross-examining the witness today. The cross-examination is due to be continued tomorrow.

During the cross-examination of previous witness Sefik Hurko presiding judge Alphons Orie ordered the indicted general not to make gestures during the testimony of the witness, saying that it was inappropriate. The judge said that Mladic would otherwise be removed from the courtroom, just as he was last week.
R.M.