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At today’s hearing of the Ratko Mladic trial in the Hague, defense witness Vinko Nikolic blamed Bosnian Muslims for the breakout of war in Sanksi Most in 1992. He also denied that Serb forces had expelled Bosnian Muslims from the area.
According to the indictment against Mladic, the former Commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, Sanski Most is one of the locations where the persecution of Bosnian Muslims and Croats reached the scale of genocide.
Similar to previous defense witnesses, Nikolic said that Bosnian Muslims refused a proposal to ethnically divide the municipality and police forces, adding that they forcibly occupied both the municipal government and the police.
Nikolic, a former member of the Crisis Committee and Serbian Defence Forces, said Serb forces expelled Bosnian Muslims from the area and disarmed Bosnian Muslim paramilitaries in May 1992.
Nikolic blamed “the chaotic situation” and Serb refugees from Croatia for the burning of houses, looting, and killing that occurred during those operations.
Nikolic said that on the last day of May, Serb forces issued a statement to non-Serbs, informing them that they would “enable them to leave, if they wanted to.”
According to Nikolic, “most of the Muslims had evacuated their families much earlier, probably acting on their party’s instructions.”
“Neither the Crisis Committee nor the political leaders in Sanski Most wanted to prevent their decision. It was left up to each individual to decide,” Nikolic said.
In his testimony, Nikolic said Serb forces protected law-abiding citizens, while the others were arrested, questioned, and sent to a detention camp at Manjaca.
“Neither the authorities, the police, nor the army planned, abetted and ordered a permanent removal of Muslims,” Nikolic said.
Nikolic said that he had heard later on about crimes against non-Serbs in Sanski Most. He had also heard that most of the perpetrators had been criminally charged.
In response to Nikolic’s assertion that 8,000 Muslims stayed in Sanski Most until 1995, prosecutor Amir Zec said that the number was actually 950.
“I meant both Muslims and Croats,” Nikolic responded.
When reminded by judges that he only mentioned Muslims in his written statement, Nikolic said: “I still stand by that statement”.
Prosecutor Zec then read from a document issued by the leadership of the Serbian Democratic Party, which alleged that “Serb authorities wanted Sanski Most to be a Serb town” and that this had been accomplished by a mass expulsion of non-Serbs from the area.
In response, Nikolic said that he “was not an SDS member.”
“The Crisis Committee never discussed the mass expulsion of Muslims,” Nikolic said. He added that “the aim was to preserve human lives even if it meant that people had to be moved away from Sanski Most.”
Mladic’s defense attorneys will examine their next witness on Monday, February 9.
Mladic is also charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terror against the local population in Sarajevo, and taking UNPROFOR soldiers hostage.
