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Simic described this meeting with Mladic, which allegedly took place in August 1995. According to Simic, at this meeting Mladic said, “Brothers, something terrible happened, something which shouldn’t have happened – without my knowledge and without an order, 2000 people were killed.”
“I didn’t understand who did this,” Simic said.
Bosnian Serb Army commander Mladic is charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia with orchestrating and ordering the Srebrenica genocide, in which approximately 7000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica were executed.
The indictment alleges that the killings took place after the occupation of Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb Army forces on July 11, 1995. Mladic is also on trial for the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
During cross examination, the prosecution claimed that the meeting with Mladic never took place and claimed that was the reason why Simic had never spoken of it before.
Simic maintained that the meeting did take place.
“I was there, it happened,” he said.
At the time of the alleged meeting, Simic said he already had heard claims from Sarajevo and Tuzla that a genocide had taken in Srebrenica, and that 8000 people had been killed.
“What he told us was that 2000 people had been killed without his knowledge,” Simic said.
Simic said he believed “someone worked against Mladic, against the Serb people, and against Serb forces in an organized and secret manner.” Mladic did not explicitly state this, Simic said.
When asked by the judges if Mladic had mentioned Srebrenica, Simic said that Mladic did say that the killings took place in Srebrenica.
Simic also said Mladic was in Srebrenica at the time of the killings.
“He told us this horrible thing happened. That day, when it happened, he was in Srebrenica, as far as I understood…He said so, and he said that someone had done something horrible happened behind his back,” Simic said. According to Simic, Mladic was “unhappy and angry” in Doboj.
The trial continues on Thursday.
