Geneva Conventions Respected at Manjaca Camp, Mladic Witness Says

At today’s hearing of the Ratko Mladic trial, a former intelligence officer of the Bosnian Serb Army said that Muslim and Croat prisoners held at the Manjaca camp in 1992 were treated according to international conventions.

Former Bosnian Serb Army chief Ratko Mladic is on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for the persecution of non-Serbs in Bosnian Krajina, which reached the scale of genocide during the Bosnian war.

He is also on trial for his role in orchestrating the Srebrenica genocide, terrorizing the population of Sarajevo, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

According to Radomir Radinkovic, the former intelligence officer, prisoners at the Manjaca camp were treated according to the Geneva Conventions and were regularly visited by members of the Red Cross.

In a written statement Radinkovic had previously given, he said that investigations were opened against guards who mistreated prisoners. He confirmed that “unfortunately” prisoners had more injuries than expected, and that as a result, obligatory medical examinations of prisoners were introduced.

“We had a situation where prisoners came from a camp hungry and suffering. Bare skin and bones…We wrote that in our journal,” Radinkovic said to the court.

Radinkovic’s statement said that a medical technician and at least one doctor took care of the prisoners’ health.

During cross examination by prosecutor Caroline Edgerton, Radinkovic said he took part in interrogating prisoners at the Manjaca camp. He said he saw many prisoners who didn’t belong in the camp, because they hadn’t taken part in the fighting and didn’t have any weapons.

Those prisoners were mostly old, sick, and young, said Radinkovic.

After Radinkovic said those persons were exchanged, judge Alphons Orie asked him why they weren’t simply released.

“We couldn’t release them because we didn’t bring them,” Radinkovic said. He said they were brought in by the police and the army on suspicion of arming others or preparing to fight.

Radinkovic added that individual releases were impossible, because of the ongoing fighting in the area. “How could we release them if they could be killed by either side in five, ten minutes?” he asked.

Radinkovic confirmed that 1430 Muslims were brought to Manjaca from Prijedor in August 1992. He added that they were transported in only eleven buses.

Those prisoners, Radinkovic said, spent half the night in the busses in front of the camp. The camp would not accept them without lists of their names, which the police had failed to acquire. It was later discovered that many of those prisoners didn’t belong in the camp, he said.

Mladic’s trial resumes tomorrow.