Mladic Witness: ‘Disloyal Muslims’ Faced Expulsion

Defence witness Nenad Davidovic, a dentist who was the chief of the medical service in the Sanska brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army during wartime, said that the Serb crisis staff in the Sanski Most area wanted “disloyal” and “extreme” Bosniaks to be expelled, while “those who were loyal should be protected”.

Davidovic said that people who voted for an independent Bosnia and against remaining inside Yugoslavia were considered disloyal.

“Safety guarantees were mainly provided for the locals, not the extremists… Extremists were ready to go into battle, the disloyal ones [were] those who did not listen,” he said.

He confirmed that he wrote in his notes from a crisis staff meeting that “everyone who objects to the Serb authorities must be expelled along with their families”.

However he said he didn’t know if the plan was implemented. “Those were proposals, and the decisions were made in the inner circle,” he said.

According to the indictment against former Bosnian Serb Army chief Mladic, the persecution of non-Serbs in Sanski Most reached the scale of genocide.

The judge asked the witness if disagreement with the authorities was a democratic right.

Davidovic replied: “It was already state of war and democracy was not up for discussion.”

When asked if non-Serbs were expelled, Davidovic said that he “did not have such information”.

Mladic is also on trial for genocide in Srebrenica, terrorising the population of Sarajevo, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

The trial continues.