Unilateral Moves

Testifying as the Prosecution’s expert at Ratko Mladic’s trial at The Hague, historian Patrick Treanor says that Serb leaders undertook a series of unilateral moves in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1991 and 1992 with the aim of establishing their own state.

Treanor made a report on the establishment and development of Serbs’ institutions. During a brief examination of the expert the prosecutors touched upon a few issues only.

Confirming that the Assembly of the Serbian People in Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed on October 24, 1991, Treanor said that this was a final step towards the establishment of a separate state entity.

The Prosecution’s expert said that, under the Constitution, Republika Srpska was defined as a state of the Serbian people on Serbian territories, including those “on which genocide was committed during the Second World War”. 

“Those territories were centralised by September 1992,” Treanor said.

According to the witness’ testimony, a proclamation on establishment of a separate Serb Ministry of Internal Affairs was one of the unilateral moves by the Serb leaders. The proclamation was submitted by Assistant Minister Momcilo Mandic to all members of the unified Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 31, 1992. 

“They expressed their intentions very openly,” the expert said.

Commenting a decision on establishment of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, adopted by the Assembly on May 12, 1992, Treanor said that, by this decision, the Territorial Defence, as an armed formation of the former Yugoslavia, was turned into an army “appropriate for an independent state”.

The indictment charges Mladic, former Commander of VRS, with genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, which reached the scale of genocide in seven municipalities, terror against civilians in Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

During the cross-examination Mladic’s Defence attorney Miodrag Stojanovic insisted that, according to the Constitution of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, SFRJ, it was not possible to change borders without the consent from all of the republics.

“That was in force in 1991 too, but the developments in the field undermined that provision,” Treanor responded.

Responding to a Defence attorney’s suggestion, the expert confirmed that general Mladic was not member of the Supreme Command of the RS armed forces.

Mladic’s Defence is due to complete the cross-examination of Treanor on December 3.