Mladic: Siege of Vlasenica

The defence of Ratko Mladic, who is charged with genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in its cross-examination of witness Ibro Osmanovic points out that the Susica camp near Vlasenica was in summer 1992 ran by policemen and not the Army of Republika Srpska.

Witness Osmanovic, who during his testimony said that Bosniaks imprisoned in Susica were abused and beaten to death, confirmed that the warden and chief of security in the camp were members of the special police brigade of Republika Srpska.

“Chief of security Dragan Nikolic known as Yankee was often saying that the warden is the undisputed authority… They were coming to Susica as they pleased, both in regular army and camouflage uniforms, to take prisoners to forced labour. They were also wearing blue uniforms, but none of them was from the regular police, none of them were people who were policemen before the war,” said Osmanovic.

Dragan Nikolic in 2003 pleaded guilty before the Hague Tribunal for the crimes committed in Susica and was sentenced with a second instance verdict to 20 years of prison.

Mladic, former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, is charged with the expulsion of Bosniak and Croat civilians across Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, according to the indictment, in seven Bosnian municipalities, including Prijedor, reached a level of genocide.

He is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terrorising Sarajevo citizens, and taking international soldiers as hostages between 1992 and 1995.

Miodrag Stojanovic, Mladic’s lawyer, contested the claim of the witness that Bijeljina restaurant owner Ejub Smajic was killed in the Batkovic camp near Bijeljina, but Osmanovic stuck to his original statement.

Stojanovic presented to the witness the indictment filed in Bosnia and Herzegovina against perpetrators of the crime in Batkovic, which specifies that Smajic was “severely wounded”. Osmanovic replied that Smajic was killed in the camp.

After Mladic’s lawyer showed him the statement which Smajic himself gave to the investigating bodies, Osmanovic allowed a possibility that he was not talking about the same man, but still stood by his original claim.

Lawyer Stojanovic dedicated a better part of the cross-examination to the events in Vlasenica before the Serb authorities arrested Osmanovic, which is why presiding judge Alphons Orie warned him to return his attention to the witness’s statement.

In response to questions, the witness said that the Yugoslav People’s Army, JNA, in April 1992, carried out a “classical siege” of Vlasenica, acting as a Serb army, because it was distributing weapons to Serbs and banned movement of other nationalities.

Osmanovic said that after the Serb forces had taken control of the town of Vlasenica in 1992, his younger sister, two brothers and 33 distant relatives were killed.

The trial will resume on Monday, September 24.
R.M.