THE HAGUE | 17.06.2013.
A QUESTION FOR JUDGES: ‘AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?’
The Tribunal’s judges often ask witnesses ‘why didn’t you do something to prevent the crime?’. Would it be appropriate to ask the judges a similar question, following the allegations in Judge Harhoff’s letter that the ‘Tribunal changed its course under the pressure of the military establishments of some influential countries’?
THE HAGUE | 17.06.2013.
TIME OF EUPHORIA AND ANARCHY
Protected witness GH 023 described at the trial of Goran Hadzic how in a ‘time of euphoria and anarchy’ in Baranja ‘old debts were settled’ and how anyone with a weapon felt they had the right to ‘arrest, beat up and abuse’ non-Serbs
THE HAGUE | 16.06.2013.
Next Week at the Tribunal
Next Week at the Tribunal
THREE TRIALS IN LAST WEEK OF SPRING
Srecko Acimovic is expected to give evidence at the trial of Ratko Mladic. In July 1995, Acimovic refused the order to provide a platoon for the executions of the captured men from Srebrenica. Radovan Karadzic’s case goes on with the testimony of former RS defense minister Bogdan Subotic, VRS security officer Petar Salapura, and Karadzic’s former advisor Jovan John Zametica. The prosecution will call new witnesses in the case against Goran Hadzic
THE HAGUE | 14.06.2013.
SECURITY BEFORE EXECUTION
Protected witness RM 269 described at the trial of Ratko Mladic how he, as a VRS soldier, secured the Muslims captured after the fall of Srebrenica. The men were detained in the schools in the villages of Orahovac and Rocevic near Zvornik
THE HAGUE | 13.06.2013.
“BOMBSHELL” AT THE TRIBUNAL
Danish media have published a private letter in which Judge Frederik Harhoff expresses his concern over the ‘change in the Tribunal’s course under the pressure of the military establishment of some influential countries’. According to the letter, the ICTY President Theodor Meron has succumbed to this pressure
THE HAGUE | 13.06.2013.
WHEN DID ‘WHISPERS’ ABOUT CRIMES IN ZVORNIK REACH KARADZIC?
Former chief of the Zvornik police Marinko Vasilic contends that everyone in the town was afraid of the paramilitary units. People ‘whispered’ about their crimes. As a result, he did not learn about them until later, and the delay before the reports reached Karadzic was even longer. The prosecution contested the claim, arguing that everybody knew everything but they did nothing to protect the Muslims in Zvornik
THE HAGUE | 12.06.2013.
PRISONERS IN NOVA KASABA: WAS A LIST MADE OR NOT?
Former military police commander in the 65th Motorized Protection Regiment of the VRS Main Staff couldn’t explain in his evidence at the trial of Ratko Mladic why a list was made of the names of all the Muslims detained in the football stadium in Nova Kasaba on 13 July 1995. The list was never completed and the lists of detainees were never used
THE HAGUE | 12.06.2013.
AMBASSADOR DENIES GENOCIDE AND MOCKS VICTIMS
Defense witness Gordan Milinic, former Karadzic’s security advisor turned ‘minister counselor’ and ‘career diplomat’ representing Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad, denies genocide and mocks the Srebrenica victims. Milinic blamed everything on General Mladic’s ‘military junta’
THE HAGUE | 11.06.2013.
EXECUTION SITE AT PETKOVCI DAM
One of the two survivors of the execution at the Petkovci dam on 14 July 1995 testified at the Tribunal, describing how he was captured and temporarily held in the school in Petkovci and then taken to an execution site at the dam nearby. This is the sixth time the witness is testifying in The Hague about his ordeal
THE HAGUE | 11.06.2013.
KARADZIC’S WITNESSES BLAME MLADIC’S ‘MILITARY CLIQUE’
Defense witnesses of the former Republika Srpska president tried to refute or at least call into question the Srebrenica massacre arguing that the accused didn’t know about the killings of Muslim men and boys. Finally, the defense witnesses shifted the blame – just in case – on General Mladic. According to the witnesses, Mladic was at the head of a ‘military clique’ that ‘worked independently’ using Karadzic as a ‘cover and screen’
THE HAGUE | 10.06.2013.
EAR-WITNESS OF THE EXECUTION IN KRAVICA
Milenko Pepic testified at Ratko Mladic’s trial. When prisoners were executed in Kravica, Pepic was manning a check point at the Zuti Most bridge nearby. Pepic heard ‘intense gunfire’ from the direction of Kravica. That night, his commander told him that what had happened in Kravica ‘isn’t a good thing’ and that ‘sooner or later someone will be held responsible for what was done’
THE HAGUE | 10.06.2013.
FRENCH AND SERB NATIONALISTS DEFEND KARADZIC
In a bid to defend Karadzic, Vojislav Seselj attacked ‘the crazy woman’ Biljana Plavsic, ‘Chetnik vojvoda’ Tomislav Nikolic and ‘Chetnik volunteer’ Aleksandar Vucic. He praised the recent Tribunal’s judgments acquitting Stanisic, Simatovic and Perisic. After Seselj completed his evidence, French historian Yves Bataille claimed that there was no massacre in Srebrenica. In mid-July 1995 he met with Karadzic at Pale and Karadzic was so “relaxed” that there was no indication that any crimes may be happening in Srebrenica
THE HAGUE | 09.06.2013.
Next Week at the Tribunal
Next Week at the Tribunal
KARADZIC’S ‘FRENCH CONNECTION’
French historian Yves Bataille is the next witness slated to testify in Radovan Karadzic’s defense after Vojislav Seselj completes his evidence. Bataille is often portrayed as a ‘great friend of Serbs’. At the trial of Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb military and police officers will testify for the prosecution. The prosecution case continues at the trial of Goran Hadzic
THE HAGUE | 07.06.2013.
VICTIMS OF FIGHTING AND REVENGE
In the cross-examination of the OTP investigator, Ratko Mladic’s defense counsel tried to get the witness to confirm the defense case that the former commander of the VRS Main Staff wasn’t responsible for the genocide in Srebrenica. The Srebrenica genocide is one of the gravest crimes during the war in BH; Mladic has been charged with it
THE HAGUE | 07.06.2013.
SESELJ’S THREATS STILL VALID
In his testimony in Karadzic’s defense Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj said that before the war he supported the policy of the Serbian Democratic Party. Seselj said that his threat to the ‘Muslim fundamentalists’ that they could ‘pack their bags’ and leave Bosnia if they didn’t want to be ‘loyal citizens of Serbia’ was still valid
