Former Bosnian Serb Army HQ Head Unaware of Deportations and Killings in Bosanksa Krajina

Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has been charged with the wartime persecution of Bosniaks and Croats across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their persecution reached the scale of genocide in several municipalities. Some municipalities in Bosanska Krajina, such as Prijedor, experienced persecution on the scale of genocide.

Mladic has also been charged with genocide in Srebrenica, terrorizing the local population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.Kelecevic, the former HQ head of the First Krajiski Corps of Bosnian Serb Army, said he didn’t know that Bosniak and Croat civilians were captured in their houses and in agricultural fields during Bosnian Serb Army operations, and then transferred to a military detention camp in Manjaca.

During his cross-examination, prosecutor Arthur Traldi said it was impossible that a high ranking officer such as Kelecevic wasn’t aware of these operations. Kelecevic said he wasn’t in Manjaca until August 1992.

Traldi showed Kelecevic a report the First Krajiski Corps sent to the Main Headquarters of the Bosnian Serb Army. The report indicated that 9200 captives had been sent to the Manjaca detention camp and exchanged. The report stated that 6800 captives weren’t military personnel.

“I don’t remember the numbers, it happened a long time ago…If the report says so, I believe it is true,” said Kelecevic, who testified via video link.

Kelecevic confirmed that he read the report at the time it was released. Traldi said he couldn’t have missed the fact that 75 percent of the captives weren’t soldiers.

“I know there were those who weren’t capable of military service,” Kelecevic said.

Traldi insisted that the Bosnian Serb Army captured and detained thousands of civilians without any grounds to do so. Kelecevic said he couldn’t exclude the possibility, but said he didn’t know which units committed such acts.

In response to questions from Traldi, Kelecevic confirmed that the detainees were transferred from the Manjaca detention camp to locations outside of Republika Srpska, as part of a prisoner exchange. He didn’t respond directly to Traldi’s allegation that this was part of a widespread Serb policy.

Traldi asked about war crimes committed in the municipality of Kljuc, specifically the mass murder in the village of Velagici. Kelecevic said that the municipality was not in the First Krajiski Corps’ zone of responsibility.

Kelecevic said he knew nothing about an ethnic cleansing operation in the Prijedor area conducted by the First Krajiski Corps in late July 1992, or mass murders in the villages of Brisevo and the Trnopolje detention camp.

Prosecutor Traldi challenged Kelecevic’s claims. Kelecevic stood by his testimony.

Kelecevic confirmed he knew that many people were killed near Prijedor after Traldi read from Mladic’s wartime notebook, which indicated that Smo Drljaca, the former chief of the Prijedor police, was involved in the burial of 5000 bodies in the Tomasica mine.

Kelecevic said he did not know about the Tomasica mass grave and another grave linked to it. By 2013, 604 bodies had been exhumed from the site.

When asked about crimes against detainees in the Omarska detention camp, Kelecevic said he knew nothing about the camp. Kelecevic said detention camps were under the responsibility of local Serb authorities and the police to whom the Bosnian Serb Army handed over captives.

The trial will continue on July 15.