Unlawful Directive against Civilians

Testifying at the trial of Ratko Mladic, witness Manojlo Milovanovic says that the Seventh Directive, under which supreme military Commander Radovan Karadzic ordered the VRS to “create an unbearable situation of complete uncertainty without hope for further survival and life of civilian population” in Srebrenica and Zepa, was unlawful.

General Milovanovic, the then Chief of the Main Headquarters of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, said that the Directive “means that the activities are targeted at aggravating the living conditions for the local population, so people would leave Srebrenica and Zepa due to the bad conditions.” 

“According to the Geneva Convention, the civilian population is not a lawful military target…This was an unlawful order and political decision,” Milovanovic said. 

The indictment charges Mladic, former VRS Commander, with genocide against about 7,000 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in the days that followed the occupation of the UN “protected zone” by the VRS on July 11, 1995. 

Milovanovic explained that VRS was not able to implement Karadzic’s “political decision” in the field until General Mladic put it in the form of an order and sent it to subordinate units.  

According to the witness, Mladic did not do that, but he removed Karadzic’s unlawful sentence about the attacks against the enclave population from his order, known as Directive 7.1.  

“General Mladic omitted the sentence related to unbearable conditions… He accepted the responsibility for not executing all aspects of Karadzic’s Directive and not putting pressure against the population,” Milovanovic said. 

Milovanovic said that the fact that Karadzic’s Directive was forwarded to lower-ranking commands prior to the issuance of Mladic’s order was a mistake. 

Responding to detailed questions by Prosecutor Dermont Groome about the structure, members and the way of work of the VRS Main Headquarters, General Milovanovic confirmed that the Headquarters and its Commander General Mladic had continuous command and control over the Bosnian Serb Army during the entire war. 

“When it comes to commanding, everything went from the upper to lower levels, while reporting was done in the opposite direction,” said Milovanovic, Mladic’s former Deputy. 

According to the witness’ testimony, the Main Headquarters had detailed information about the consumption of ammunition and grenades by all subordinate units, including the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, and responded to their requests for additional supplies of that material. 

Mladic’s Defence is due to cross-examine Milovanovic on September 19.