Mladic Ordered Liquidation of Srebrenica Residents

Obrenovic admitted guilt, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, for participating in the crime in Srebrenica. After that he was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
 
In his statement presented by the State Prosecution Obrenovic said that he first heard about a military operation to attack Srebrenica in June 1995.

As he said, he was aware of the fall of Srebrenica on July 11 as well as the situation in Potocari later on and a line of members of the 28th Division, walking towards the territories controlled by the Army of BiH. He said that he undertook a series of actions in order to block the way to the line of soldiers, who, as he said, represented a danger.

Testifying at the Hague, Obrenovic said that Drago Nikolic informed him that captives from Srebrenica were being taken to Zvornik in order to be liquidated and that Mladic personally had ordered that.

According to a verdict against Dragan Obrenovic, former Chief of Headquarters and Deputy Commander of the First Zvornik Infantry Brigade of the Drina Corps, on July 13, 1995 Ratko Mladic issued an order to take a part of the captured men from Srebrenica to Zvornik and shoot them, which was eventually done.

Mladic is on trial at The Hague for genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes in BiH.
 
According to the statement read in the courtroom, on the basis of telephone conversations with various officers, Obrenovic got an information that “Beara, Popovic and Nikolic wuld take care” of the captives. Later on he found out that Nikolic participated, in collaboration with Gojko Simovic, in the execution committed in a school building in Orahovac.

In 2010 The Hague Tribunal pronounced a first instance verdict, sentencing Ljubisa Beara and Vujadin Popovic to life imprisonment for having participated in genocide in Srebrenica and a second instance verdict against Drago Nikolic, sentencing him to 35 years in prison for having assisted in and supporting the commission of genocide.

As he said at The Hague, Obrenovic found out that the Tenth Sabotage Squad participated in murders of captives on a dam in Petkovci and in Pilica. Obrenovic said that he was familiar with the locations at which the bodies were buried and that the bodies were relocated in September 1995.

The Prosecution of BiH charges Aleksandar Cvetkovic, former member of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad of VRS, with the murder of more than 900 Bosniaks committed on Branjevo military farm in July 1995.  

The Defence of Cvetkovic said that the Defence’s basic right to cross-examine a witness and have a fair trial was jeopardised.
 
Had he appeared in the courtroom, the Defence would have asked Obrenovic whether he was aware of the forced resettlement of civilians from Srebrenica, whether he considered the Srebrenica operation a legitimate military task and whether he saw the indictee in Srebrenica in July.

A statement given by Dutch Major Leen Van Duin will be read at the next hearing scheduled for July 15.