Everybody Knew about Shooting of Srebrenica Residents

Former Chief of the Intelligence Directorate with the Main Headquarters of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, Petar Salapura confirms, testifying at Ratko Mladic’s trial, that most members of that Headquarters knew that Serb forces shot Muslims who had been captured after the occupation of Srebrenica, in July 1995.

Salapura repeated that he heard about those mass murders in late December 1995 or at the beginning of January 1996, when Milorad Pelemis, Commander of the 10th Reconnaissance Squad with the Main Headquarters of VRS, confirmed to him that members of that Squad had participated in the killing of Muslim men.

When asked by the Prosecution what he did in order to initiate an investigation of those findings, Salapura said that it was not his duty to initiate it, adding that security bodies should have done that. He said that he did nothing, because he believed that most members of the Main Headquarters of VRS had already known about the murders.

“Yes, it is true. I heard about it from operation officers… Everybody knew about it. The entire town knew, let alone the Army. I considered that a process was conducted,” Salapura said.

When asked whether he knew at the time that General Mladic too knew that members of a VRS Main Headquarters’ unit had shot prisoners, Salapura said that, at that time he “did not think about whether he knew about it.”

When the Prosecutor suggested to him that it was his duty to inform Mladic about his discoveries, he said that he discussed that with his superior officer, General Zdravko Tolimir, who was Mladic’s Assistant for Intelligence and Security Affairs.

Earlier this year, The Hague Tribunal pronounced a first instance verdict sentencing Tolimir to life imprisonment for genocide in Srebrenica.

Mladic, the then Commander of VRS, is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Srebrenica Muslims, as well as other crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

While being cross-examined by Mladic’s Defence attorney Miodrag Stojanovic, Lieutenant Colonel Salapura said that, according to what Commander Milorad Pelemis told him, after the occupation of Srebrenica members of the 10th Reconnaissance Squad were granted leave, adding that only those “who had nowhere to go” stayed in the enclave surroundings.

“I asked him if he had issued the order, but he said no. I asked him if he had anything to do with it, but he said no. I responded by saying that I was no longer interested in the subject and that those concerned should deal with it,” the witness said, describing his conversation with Pelemis.

Salapura said that Pelemis had to inform the security bodies of the Main Headquarters of VRS about the participation of his soldiers in the crime, so they could initiate a process against them. 

The witness confirmed that he requested the Minister of Internal Affairs of RS to issue personal identification cards, or, in order words, “false identities”, for members of the Squad who participated in the shooting of Muslims. When asked by the Defence attorney whether they requested him to do it, he said:

“No, but we assessed that it was necessary to do it”.

In the request, which the Prosecutors presented in the courtroom, Salapura indicated that those persons had been charged by The Hague Tribunal.

Salapura is due to complete his testimony as Prosecution witness at Mladic’s trial on June 21. Immediately after that he will testify in defence of former RS President Radovan Karadzic, who is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica.