THE HAGUE | 23.05.2013.
DIGGING MASS GRAVES
An insider from Bratunac, who saw the murders in front of the warehouse in Kravica on 13 July 1995, testified at the trial of Ratko Mladic with protective measures about the operation to bury the bodies of hundreds of Muslims killed after the fall of Srebrenica
THE HAGUE | 23.05.2013.
INTELLIGENCE OFFICER IN ‘SOAP BUBBLE’
Former chief of intelligence in the Drina Corps Svetozar Kosoric contends that he heard about the executions in Srebrenica some months after the crimes, from the media. Kosoric didn’t deny the prosecutor’s ironic suggestion that he had spent that time in a ‘soap bubble’ where the news about crimes couldn’t reach him. Former RS prime minister Vladimir Lukic began his testimony later today
THE HAGUE | 22.05.2013.
KARADZIC’S DIRECTIVE WAS USED AS SANCTION DESIGNED TO ACHIEVE ‘CHANGE OF REGIME’
In his Directive 7, the VRS supreme commander ordered his troops to create ‘the situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life for the inhabitants of Srebrenica and Zepa’. According to prosecution witness Mirko Trivic, Directive 7 was supposed to be a ‘a sort of a sanction’ that would cause the Muslim population in the enclave to rebel and overthrow the regime that held them ‘hostage’
THE HAGUE | 22.05.2013.
WITNESS KNEW NOTHING
After the fall of Srebrenica, Dane Katanic, an official in Skelani municipality, visited various sites where Muslims were detained, abused and killed. Dane Katanic nevertheless claims he neither saw or heard of the crimes. According to him, the executions of the people from Srebrenica weren’t discussed at his meetings with the accused Radovan Karadzic
THE HAGUE | 22.05.2013.
PROVING WHAT DIDN'T HAPPEN IN MARKALE II
Radovan Karadzic’s legal advisor clarified in the final part of the evidence of the ballistic expert Zorica Subotic that, according to the defense, ‘it is impossible to establish beyond reasonable doubt which side fired the mortar shelled that hit the Markale market on 28 August 1995’
THE HAGUE | 21.05.2013.
PROSECUTION OFFERS ‘MORE LIKELY SCENARIO’ FOR MARKALE 1
As the cross-examination of Karadzic’s ballistics expert continued, prosecutor Feargal Gaynor confronted her with ‘a far more likely scenario’ for the first Markale incident: a mortar shell fired from the Bosnian Serb army positions hit the market full of people, killing 66 and wounding 140 people. Subotic remained adamant that it was ‘a well-planned act of sabotage’ perpetrated by persons unknown
THE HAGUE | 21.05.2013.
WHO PLANNED AND CARRIED OUT SREBRENICA OPERATION?
As the former commander of the VRS 2nd Romanija Brigade said today, Operation Krivaja 95 in Srebrenica was ‘planned and carried out by the VRS Drina Corps’. Its commander was found guilty of the crimes in Srebrenica and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Initially, there was no plan to take the enclaves, Mirko Trivic claimed at the trial of Ratko Mladic
THE HAGUE | 19.05.2013.
Next Week at the Tribunal
Next Week at the Tribunal
THREE TRIALS CONTINUE IN SHORT WORKING WEEK
There will be no trials at the Tribunal on Monday, 20 May 2013 because it is a public holiday in the Netherlands. The trials of Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic continue on Tuesday with the evidence of new prosecution witnesses. Radovan Karadzic will call new defense witnesses
THE HAGUE | 16.05.2013.
DEFENSE WITNESS OFFENDED ‘PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY’
The prosecution contests the expertise and methodology used by Zorica Subotic, Radovan Karadzic’s ballistics expert. When the prosecutor put it to her that she had deliberately ignored a vast quantity of evidence in her analysis of the artillery incidents in Sarajevo which might lead to wrong conclusions, Subotic said it was a ‘professional and personal insult’
THE HAGUE | 16.05.2013.
MOTHERS FROM SREBRENICA TELL THEIR STORY
Saliha Osmanovic and Mirsada Malagic described how they lost their closest family after Srebrenica fell. They both saw the accused Ratko Mladic in Srebrenica. Osmanovic and Malagic were deported from the Serb territory together with thousands of other women and children
THE HAGUE | 15.05.2013.
KARADZIC’S EXPERT SPECULATES ABOUT MARKALE EXPLOSIONS
The defense’s ballistic expert Zorica Subotic contends at the trial of Radovan Karadzic that the incident at Markale in February 1994 was caused by a ‘stationary’ explosive device. As for the second massacre in August 1995, every scenario is possible apart from the one offered by the prosecution
THE HAGUE | 14.05.2013.
WITNESS: THERE WAS HATE, BUT NO DESIRE FOR REVENGE
Former member of the Bratunac Brigade confirmed at the trial of the VRS Main Staff commander that thousands of Muslims captured after the fall of Srebrenica were detained in Bratunac in the night of 13 July 1995. In his replies to Mladic’s defense, the witness confirmed that there ‘was hate among the people’, but no ‘desire for revenge’. It is the defense case that the Srebrenica crimes were the consequence of the locals’ desire for revenge
THE HAGUE | 14.05.2013.
DEFENSE’S BALLISTIC EXPERT: ‘DISTORTED MIRROR-IMAGE’
Radovan Karadzic has called Dr Zorica Subotic, ballistic expert from Belgrade, to help him prove that the VRS artillery did not target the citizens of Sarajevo but the commands, staffs, depots, power substations, factories and other facilities used by the BH Army. Subotic contends that the investigations conducted by the local teams produced a ‘distorted mirror-image’ of the Sarajevo artillery incidents listed in the indictment
THE HAGUE | 13.05.2013.
DEFENSE CLAIMS DJORDJEVIC WAS A BIT PLAYER, PROSECUTION LABELS HIM MASTERMIND
At the appellate hearing, the defense of police General Vlastimir Djordjevic tried to convince the judges that his role in the crimes against Kosovo Albanians was ‘exaggerated’. The prosecution claimed that the Trial Chamber didn’t err when it identified Djordjevic as a key participant in the joint criminal enterprise. The defense called for Djordjevic’s acquittal or a milder sentence while the prosecution urged the judges to sentence him to life for his crimes
THE HAGUE | 13.05.2013.
MARTIC’S DIAGNOSIS OF MILAN BABIC’S MENTAL HEALTH DISMISSED
Having considered Milan Babic’s psychological and psychiatric file, the Trial Chamber established that there was no evidence to show that Milan Babic suffered from any personality disorders that could discredit him as a witness. The joint effort of Radovan Karadzic and Milan Martic to discredit Babic and his testimony at previous trials thus ended in failure
