Deportation of Srebrenica Residents Organised in Advance

Dutch UNPROFOR Officer Evert Rave says that the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, under Ratko Mladic’s command “deported” and “forcibly relocated” thousands of civilians after having occupied the Srebrenica enclave in July 1995.

Rave, who was a Sergeant Major at the time, said that he witnessed the separation of Muslim men from women and children in the vicinity of the United Nations, UN, Base in Potocari, where thousands of civilians had gathered seeking shelter.

The witness said that General Mladic threatened both Muslims from Srebrenica and the UN’s “blue helmets” during meetings held in the Fontana hotel in Bratunac.

According to the charges and past verdicts pronounced by The Hague Tribunal, after having occupied Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, the VRS shot about 7,000 Muslim men and deported women and children to territories controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH.

Sergeant Major Rave said that, by opening mine-thrower fire on both sides of the road on the Srebrenica occupation date, the VRS “intentionally directed” thousands of refugees towards Potocari.

Rave said that, on that same day he attended Mladic’s meeting with Dutch UNPROFOR Commander Thom Karremans in the Fontana hotel.

“Mladic was mad… I wondered if we would be taken outside and shot… Mladic asked Karremans whether he ordered the NATO air strikes on VRS…He threatened a lot,” the witness said.

As an example of his threats, he said that, while giving him a cigarette, Mladic told the Dutch Officer: “this is not your last cigarette” and then asked him if he “wanted to see his family again”.

According to Rave, after Mladic had taken a more relaxed stand towards the Dutch later on during that meeting, “it became clear to us that we were not their target, but the Muslim population was.”

During another meeting in Fontana that same evening, which was attended by Nesib Mandzic, representative of Muslims from Srebrenica, a VRS soldier slaughtered a pig beneath an open window. Rave said that this act was “a clear threat”.

“Their message was: this can happen to you too. Not to UNRPOFOR, but to the Muslim population,” the witness said.

At that same meeting, General Mladic “guaranteed life” to all Muslim men “who handed over their weapons”, saying that Srebrenica residents “could either survive or disappear”.

Although Mladic and UNPROFOR officers discussed “the evacuation” of Muslims during those meetings, Rave said that, on the following day, July 12, 1995, he saw that the VRS was already implementing a plan for the “deportation” of civilians and the taking of previously separated men from Potocari.

According to the witness, the separation of men from women and children began in the evening on July 11. He said that buses and trucks for the deportation of the population appeared at around noon on the following day, although Mladic had asked Colonel Karremans, just before that, whether he could provide vehicles.

“This led me to conclude that the deportation of the population was organised in advance,” said Rave.

He specified that Serb soldiers separated all able-bodied men and held them in “a white house” in Potocari prior to taking them away by buses.

Rave told the Tribunal that he asked General Mladic in Potocari on July 13 where the VRS was taking the captives to, adding that Mladic responded by saying that the men would be taken to Batkovic detention camp, near Bijeljina, and then exchanged.

Mladic is also charged with the persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo by artillery and sniper activities and taking UN “blue helmets” hostage. 

Mladic’s wife Bosiljka was among the audience following this hearing before The Hague Tribunal.  

The trial is due to continue on April 24.