Bosnian Serb President’s Mladic Testimony Challenged

Under cross-examination at the Hague Tribunal on Tuesday, Dodik was asked whether the Bosnian Serb Army followed the strategic war aims declared by the Republika Srpska parliament in 1992, the first of which was the separation of Serbs from Bosniaks and Croats.

“The Army of the Republika Srpska, in the framework of the law, implemented the decisions of government and parliament,” Dodik agreed.

But, he insisted, “the primary objective was the defence of the population from Muslim, and later from Muslim-Croatian aggression”.

Bosnian Serb military commander Mladic is on trial for the persecution of the Bosniak and Croat population throughout the country, which in six municipalities allegedly reached the level of genocide.

During the war, Dodik was an independent member of the Republika Srpska parliament.

Asked if he had ever heard at parliament sessions “even a hint” that the persecution of non-Serbs was being advocated, Dodik replied: “I have not heard such a story about ethnic cleansing and persecution.”

When the prosecutor recalled that one Republika Srpska MP said in May 1992 that there was a need for “conquests” in places where Serbs were a minority, such as the town of Brcko, Dodik said that he did not remember.

He said that Brcko was “an important communication point and a legitimate military target, but not from the standpoint of ethnic cleansing”.

Shown a statement from a Republika Srpska MP from autumn 1992, speaking about “Muslims and Croats that we expelled”, Dodik responded: “I do not remember who this gentleman was, let alone what he was saying.”

Dodik responded in a similar way when prosecutor Tieger quoted another Republika Srpska MP saying that “we want an ethnically pure state” and so “there must be moving and resettlement” of the non-Serb population.

“I do not know who this man is, I think he is not an MP, and I do not know whether I was in the assembly meeting,” Dodik said.

Using parliamentary statements by Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic, prosecutor Tieger try to prove that Bosnian Serb leaders had an advance plan to create their own state.

Dodik however insisted that all of the Bosnian Serbs’ actions were to preserve Yugoslavia in reaction to the secession of the Bosniaks and Croats from the federal state.

“You’re wrong that there was a plan in advance… I do not know about this plan, I have never seen it before,” he said Dodik.

Mladic is also on trial for genocide in Srebrenica, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo with a lengthy shelling and sniping campaign, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

The trial continues on Wednesday.