"TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: FIRST SREBRENICA WITNESS TESTIFIES AGAINST MILOSEVIC
Written By: Andy Wilcoxson
The first Srebrenica witness has testified against President Milosevic at The Hague tribunal. At this point it is important to be reminded of the case President Milosevic is putting with regard to Srebrenica and so I will now quote from his opening statement.
TRANSCRIPT - Page 10309 Line 12 - Friday September 27, 2002
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: I wish to avail myself of the remaining time to say a few words about Srebrenica that was mentioned here. I have already said that I first heard about this -- I said this six months ago, when I first spoke here, that I first heard about this from Carl Bildt and that Radovan Karadzic swore to me that he didn't know a thing about this. All subsequent information corroborated that, including the subsequently published main report of the Dutch government published in April 2001. In item 10, it says quite literally: "There are no indications that the action was taken out in collaboration with Belgrade, neither in terms of political or military coordination. In this way, gentlemen, as far as I'm concerned, an end could be brought to this, but I don't want to place a full stop there. I want the truth to be revealed with regard to this insane crime, in the interest of justice. It has to be explained before the world public. The information that I have compiled so far, and there will be more to come, speaks of how Izetbegovic used Srebrenica for all kinds of manipulations and held it in -- in his own reserve for various political bargains. And you saw from the statement made by a member of his delegation in the report that was accepted by the UN with regard to the takeover of Srebrenica, the handover of Srebrenica. You saw all of this.
Time will show that on the 1st of July, 1995, in the house of a Muslim, the former president of the municipality in Zvornik, where two members of the Muslim government from Sarajevo were present, the representatives of a mercenary military formation within the army of Republika Srpska but not under the command of the army of Republika Srpska but within the French intelligence service, they agreed to have this crime committed, that is to say, to abandon Srebrenica and to carry out this slaughter.
All information shows that General Mladic knew nothing about this, nor General Krstic, who was sentenced here. I am personally convinced that the military honour of Mladic or Krstic would not allow them to execute civilians, let alone Mladic, Krstic, generals who throughout the war made a maximum effort to protect prisoners of war and civilians at all times.
This mercenary unit was commanded by the same people who sent those same persons only one year later to Zaire so that they would protect Mobutu and crush a rebellion. This same organisation organised the purchase of arms a year later. And since I asked you to adopt a writ of disclosure, please do that. Those people who have a salary for that and have hundreds of associates, make them as Jacques Chirac and the French intelligence service and the American intelligence service and all other intelligence services, let them disclose all the facts they have on Srebrenica. The information I have available shows that the point of the agreement reached was the following: The underlying French idea was that the war in Bosnia should be ended through effective actions taken by NATO and through military engagement. As a pretext for military engagement, genocide that will be carried out by the Serbs will be made up, and the Serb negotiating side will have to deal with that. The presence of Ratko Mladic in Srebrenica will be used as a confirmation of the responsibility of the military leadership and of Mladic himself for having an indictment issued against him in The Hague by making it appear that a genocide was carried out and anathema will be placed on the leadership of the Bosnian Serbs and then the international community will take measures. The protagonists will not be prosecuted.
One insignificant one, a member of the Croat detachments of death who happened to be there was accused, and then for the crimes in Srebrenica, Ratko Mladic should be accused and also the leadership of Republika Srpska headed by Radovan Karadzic. And this agreement was attended by two representatives of the Muslim government, that out of the French, General Janvier was there for sure, and this other person was said to be Morillon but this was not confirmed. There is no reliable information saying that it was Morillon.
The agreement was that Srebrenica should be surrendered to the Serbs practically without any fighting, as forthwith withdraw and in that way make it possible for them to purportedly take over Srebrenica. Naser Oric is going to withdraw and award for the action will be 2 million Deutschmark.
Mladic was not at that meeting. He was having lunch with those generals later on at the Likovac locality, but according to intelligence data, he did not know what the subject agreed upon was, and he didn't know that he was commanding all the units that took part in that, especially the one that was sent to Zaire later on by the same people that ordered the job to be done. Oric lives in Lukavac near Tuzla today. He has a restaurant on the lake and he destroyed more than 70 villages around Srebrenica and that he is one of the greatest criminals in the war.
///END TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT///
Another important point to make before presenting the synopsis of the day's events is that "the Srebrenica massacre" referred to in this article is not the same Srebrenica massacre that the media has been going on about for the last 8 years.
The media's claim that the Srebrenica massacre was an act of genocide perpetrated by the Serbs is a lie. There was indeed a massacre at Srebrenica, but as I am confident that Slobodan Milosevic will prove, it is not the way that the media has put it. This was a massacre perpetrated by a multi-ethnic mercenary unit that was under French control, not under the control of VRS general staff.
Drazen Erdemovic is the first witness to testify at the so-called "trial" of Slobodan Milosevic about the horrific events that took place in Srebrenica. Erdemovic is an ethnic Croat from the Bosnian town of Tuzla. His career throughout the Bosnian war is rather odd. He was originally a member of the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army), then he joined the ABiH (Bosnian Muslim "Army of Bosnia - Herzegovina"), after that he joined the HVO (Croatian Army), finally he wound up a member of the VRS (Army of Republika Srpska) serving in the 10th Sabotage Division.
As a mercenary in the 10th Sabotage Division, Erdemovic participated a cold blooded massacre of 1,200 Bosnian Muslims at the Pilca Farm near Srebrenica. By his own admission, Erdemovic personally massacred over 100 Bosnian Muslim men ranging in age between 18 and 60.
In March of 1996 Erdemovic was arrested by the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia precisely because of his participation in that massacre at Srebrenica. Because Erdemovic was not a citizen of the FRY, the Yugoslav authorities honored an extradition request of the Hague Tribunal and sent Erdemovic to The Hague.
When Erdemovic arrived at the Hague he coped a plea agreement, which allowed him to get off with only a 5 year prison sentence, even though he admitted to personally murdering 100 people and participating in the slaughter of 1,200. In a further act of insult to the victims of his killing spree, the Hague Tribunal granted Erdemovic early release so that he didn't even have to serve the whole 5 years.
In addition to getting off with only a slap on the wrist for killing a hundred people, Erdemovic doesn't even have to live with the shame of being known as a mass murderer. He has been given a new identity, and his testimony today was given with protective measures; the video of his face was obscured so that nobody could recognize his face, and voice distortion technology was used so that nobody would even recognize his voice.
It is obvious just from seeing this that the Hague Tribunal exists to protect the real war criminals and while simultaneously persecuting the innocent.
Erdemovic's testimony was quite interesting to say the least. The 10th Sabotage Division, which carried out the massacre, was a multi-ethnic unit according to Erdemovic. The unit contained Muslims, Croats, Slovenes, and some Bosnian Serbs.
Erdemovic stated categorically that he saw no Yugoslav or Serbian personnel in or around Srebrenica at the time in question. There was only his unit and some local groups, but nobody from the Government of either Serbia or Yugoslavia. Erdemovic, echoing the conclusions of the Dutch Government, saw nothing that would indicate any participation by Belgrade in the planning or execution of the Srebrenica massacre.
It is completely out of the question that President Milosevic could have had anything to do with the tragic events in Srebrenica. The only attempt to "link" Milosevic to the events in Srebrenica came when Erdemovic claimed to have spoken to an unnamed member of the Serbian MUP at the Military Hospital in Belgrade.
Erdemovic claimed that this alleged MUP officer told him that he had participated in the attack on Srebrenica. The only problem is that Erdemovic didn't remember this tidbit until November 3, 2001, and remember he had been in the custody of the Hague Tribunal since 1996, but he never mentioned that until 2001.
The contentious point between President Milosevic and Mr. Erdemovic was over who was responsible for ordering the massacre. Erdemovic claimed that the orders "must have" come from the General Staff of the VRS.
Erdemovic never saw any orders from the General Staff. Erdemovic says that he was ordered to carry out the executions by a unit commander named Gojikovic who had allegedly claimed to have gotten his orders from some unknown Lt. Colonel from the Drina Corps of the VRS.
To counter the Erdemovic's claim that the order to carry out this hideous crime "must have" come from the General Staff of the VRS; President Milosevic produced the orders issued by the General Staff of the VRS, pertaining to Srebrenica, which explicitly stated that civilians must be protected and that the laws and customs of war had to be abided by.
Erdemovic denied any knowledge of any foreign involvement in the Srebrenica tragedy. However, he did admit to some odd goings on.
First of all, Erdemovic, claimed to have no idea how much he was personally paid, which raises the red flag that he may have been receiving money other than the normal VRS salary, which along with the fact that he fought at one point or another for every side in the war, would indicate that he was in fact a mercenary.
Erdemovic also claimed that he had heard from his wife that a commander of the 10th Sabotage Division named Pelimic had received a large quantity of gold from unknown persons, and that after the war this Pelimic was living the high life and having jewel incrusted gold chains made for himself at jewelry stores. Erdemovic admitted that this information even made him suspect that somebody had bribed the commanders of his unit so that they would perpetrate that horrific crime at Srebrenica.
Erdemovic also testified that he had heard about some members of the 10th Sabotage Division, including Pelimic, subsequently going to France in order to become mercenaries in Zaire, after the end of the Bosnian war, which jives with what Milosevic said in his opening statement.
I don't know when or if Erdemovic's testimony will continue. The so-called "trial chamber" went into closed session at the end of the hearing to decide, and so I guess we will see tomorrow, but they did not intend to keep this witness more than 1 day.
SYNOPSIS OF THE PROCEEDINGS FOR AUGUST 25 2003
1. Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice Examines the witness Drazen Erdemovic.
2. President Slobodan Milosevic cross-examines the witness Drazen Erdemovic