Bosnian Army Could Have Intercepted VRS Communications, Says Witness
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Jevdjevic was the commander of the Communication Battalion of the Drinski Corps in the summer of 1995, when the occupation of Srebrenica and Zepa took place.
He denied the authenticity of intercepted conversations presented by the prosecution, which were allegedly recorded after the occupation of Srebrenica and Zepa in July 1995.
Jevdjevic gave a detailed description of the radio relay transmitters used by the VRS, which were connected to the communications system of the Yugoslav Army. He allowed for the possibility that the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina might have intercepted VRS communications, if they had been at the right location.
Jevdjevic confirmed that under certain conditions, it was possible to hear both interlocutors in VRS communications, even if Bosnian interceptors didn’t have separate devices for both speakers.
Jevdjevic began his testimony last week. He said that Srebrenica and Zepa were not demilitarized, although they were declared UN protected zones in 1993.
Mladic, the former commander of the VRS, has been charged with genocide in Srebrenica, as well as the persecution of civilians from that enclave and the neighbouring Zepa enclave in the summer of 1995. He is charged with committing genocide in several other municipalities in 1992.
He is also charged with the persecution of Bosnian Muslims and Croats, terrorizing the local population of Sarajevo, and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
At the end of the hearing the trial chamber refused a request by Mladic’s defense attorneys to not allow testimony by Ewa Tabeau, the ICTY’s demography expert witness, on the bodies of Bosnian Muslims found in the Tomasica mine.
Tabeau will testify when the prosecutors reopen their presentation of evidence against Mladic, pending consent from the judges. Tabeau will present evidence from the Tomasica mine, where the bodies of 500 Bosnian Muslims from the Prijedor area were exhumed.
The Mladic trial will continue on Wednesday, February 25.
