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MLADIC WILL NEVER BE CAPTURED
SERBIA REFUSES TO CAPTURE GEN. RATKO MLADIC WHO COMMITTED GENOCIDE IN SREBRENICA
U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said on Monday she saw no political will from Serbia to arrest Ratko Mladic or other major suspects, seen by the European Union as vital to closer ties with Belgrade.
“It’s almost a smokescreen they are describing us and showing us, it’s no real political will and investigative will to locate and arrest Mladic,” Del Ponte told reporters after briefing EU ministers and officials in Luxembourg.
The former Bosnian Serb military commander is wanted for trial by the Hague tribunal on genocide charges relating to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
The EU suspended talks on a so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first step to eventual membership, in May to punish Belgrade for its failure to arrest Mladic.
“Most probably they want him to voluntarily surrender, to oblige him to voluntarily surrender, but I think Mladic will never voluntarily surrender,” Del Ponte said, speaking in English.
“They will never achieve to locate or arrest Mladic, and I think they have no political will to arrest Mladic.”
Del Ponte spoke as Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica met EU ministers and officials to discuss Serbia’s stalled ambitions to join the bloc. He made no comments on arrival.
The prosecutor said she hoped the EU would assist in securing the arrest of Mladic and other war crimes fugitives by standing by its decision to suspend talks with Serbia. She said she saw no sign of wavering by EU states on that decision.
Earlier, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana highlighted Serbia’s political and economic progress but said reopening of suspended talks on closer ties with the EU remained dependent on Belgrade’s cooperation with the U.N. tribunal.German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said before taking part in the talks with Kostunica he understood Serbia’s cooperation with the Hague tribunal was “not satisfactory”.
“This is decisive for the question when and if we will be able to restart the negotiations on the association agreement,” he told reporters.
LIST OF SREBRENICA GENOCIDE SUSPECTS
NAMES OF SREBRENICA MASSACRE PERPETRATORS WHO ARE STILL IN POSITION OF POWER
The Bosnian daily newspaper Oslobodjenje has started publishing a list of over 800 Bosnian Serbs who allegedly participated in the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, and are still believed to be in positions of power.
These names are just a small part of a much bigger list of some 28,000 people who, according to the Republika Srpska [Serb Entity in Bosnia], RS, authorities, were directly or indirectly involved in the massacre. Out of 28,000 names that the full version of the report apparently contains, 892 are reported to be individuals still employed by governmental and municipal institutions.
Back in October 2004, the RS Srebrenica Commission, under pressure from the international community, released a report in which they acknowledged that Serbs had been responsible for killing thousands of Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995.
First Part – 69 names, published on 08/24/06
Goran (Rajko) Abazović, Neško (Vladimir) Aćimović, Dušan (Drago) Aćimović, Milan (Vladimir) Aćimović, Zoran (Petko) Aćimović, Mile (Miladin) Aćimović, Siniša (Milan) Aleksić, Aleksa (Predrag) Aleksić, Draško (Božo) Aleksić, Milenko (Dragoljub) Aleksić, Brano (Dušan) Aleksić, Marko (Vladimir) Aleksić, Dragomir (Risto) Alempić, Rajko (Ljubinko) Alempić, Žarko (Vlajko) Andrić, Drago (Ljubo) Andrić, Mirjana (Stojan) Andrić, Nenad (Žarko) Andrić, Milan (Đorđo) Ašćerić, Radislav (Diko) Ašćerić, Dragomir (Božidar) Ašćerić, Vojslav (Ljubomir) Ašćerić, Mirko (Savo) Ašćerić, Dragan (Stevo) Ašćerić, Dragomir (Petar) Ašonja, Sveto (Rajko) Avramović, Miroslav (Jovo) Babić, Goran (Ilija) Bačić, Perica (Dragan) Bajević, Momir (Stojan) Bakmaz, Miroslav (Branko) Baljak, Novka (Petar) Banjac, Risto (Gojko) Barač, Ranko (Rajko) Baračanin, Dana (Branko) Bartula, Rade (Anđelko) Bašić, Miroslav (Mirko) Batovac, Ljubiša (Kosta) Bećarević, Siniša (Vladimir) Bećarević, Bogoljub (Bogdan) Begović, Goran (Cvijetin) Bencun, Milo (Božo) Bjelić, Marko (Risto) Blagojević, Ranko (Milivoje) Blagojević, Radenko (Neđo) Blagojević, Dušan (Slobodan) Blagojević, Gordana (Milan) Blažanović, Mila (Luka) Bodirogić, Milan (Anđelka) Bogdanović, Luka (Miladin) Bogdanović, Radovan (Mitar) Bojanić, Sredoje (Velizar) Bojić, Slobodan (Ljubo) Bojić, Milenko (Mijat) Borić, Radenko (Radosava) Borić, Darko (Vojislava) Borovčanin, Danko (Rade) Borovčanin, Radoslav (Milovan) Bošković, Todor (Boško) Bošković, Željko (Risto) Bošnjak, Obren (Dušan) Božić, Radoslav (Neđo) Božić, Kirilo (Mitar) Božić, čedo (Blagoje) Božić, Goran (Petar) Božičković, Borislav (Ratko) Božović, Stevo (Rado) Bunijevac, Boro (Marko) Bunjevac, Mile (Novo) Burilo.
Second Part: – 59 names, published on 08/25/06Simo (Petar) Čabrić, Diko (Radivoje) Čabrić, Dragan (Nikola) Čabrić, Mario (Jozo) Cakalin, Radenko (Nenad) Čakarević, Vjekoslav (Veljko) Čakarević, Aleksa (Milentije) Čanić, Mladen (Bogoljub) Čavić, Predrag (Miodrag) Čelić, Rado (Krsto) Čelić, Ljubiša (Ranko) Čelić, Novica (Petar) Čelić, Petko (Milan) Cinco, Luka (Božo) Cinco, Milenko (Zdravko) Ćirković, Dragan (Branislav) Čobić, Marko (Dragiša) Čojić, Siniša (Šćepana) Čorić, Nemanja (Nedeljko) Crnjak, Rajko (Aleksa) Čuturić, Nada (Aleksa) Cvijan, Miljan (Borislav) Cijetić, Miroslav (Bogoljub) Cvijetić, Ristan (Čedo) Cvijetinović, Branislav (Matija) Čvorić, Radoš (Bojo) Čvoro, Todor (Milorad) Damnjanović, Stojan (Damjan) Danilović, Branislav (Boško) Danilović, Slaviša (Janko) Danojević, Vitomir (Rade) Deležan, Goran (Bogdan) Delmić, Milisav (Milan) Dendić, Milomir (Aćim) Đerić, Nenad (Spasoje) Deronjić, Boško (Miloš) Dešić, Nikola (Stjepan) Deurić, Goran (Zoran) Deurić, Momir (Lazo) Deurić, Milimir (Vojin) Divčić, Božidar (Drago) Đokić, Mirjana (Radoslav) Đokić, Slaviša (Dobrisav) Đokić, Savo (Sretko) Domazetović, Vitomir (Slobodan) Draganić, Miladin (Mitar) Dragić, Relja (Rajko) Dragić, Radomir (Branislav) Dragutinović, Zoran (Milan) Drakulić, Zoran (Ljuban) Drakulić, Ranko (Đorđo) Drašković, Marinko (Dražo) Dražić, Željko (Slobodan) Drljača, Dragiša (Mihajlo) Drljić, Pavle (Dragan) Dubov, Ljubiša (Cvijo) Đurić, Siniša (Mirko) Duković, Radinko (Mirko) Duković, Timo (Ratko) Dukić.
Third Part – 100 names, published on 09/05/2006
Tomislav (Milorad) Dukić, Rajko (Ratko) Dukić, Aleksandar (Vaso) Dukić, Zoran (Dejan) Durmić, Mile (Arsena) Đukić, Dragan (Milorad) Đukić, Brano (Milan) Đurđević, Miladin (Trivko) Đurić, Bogoljub (Gojko) Đurić, Dragan (Nikola) Đurić, Miloš (Nikola) Đurić, Boro (Veljko) Đurić, Srđan (Dušan) Đurić, Rajko (Slavko) Đurić, Milenko (Dušan) Đuričić, Aleksandar (Petar) Đurčić, Zoran (Mladen) Džabić, Nikola (Branko) Džebić, Brano (Ratomir) Džinić, Ratomir (Vukašin) Džinkić, Slaviša (Radivoje) Džuović, Veselin (Neđo) Erdelić, Ljuban (Milan) Erdelić, Radiša (Svetozar) Erić, Miroslav (Petko) Erić, Sreten (Tripun) Erić, Milenko (Todor) Erić, Cvjetko (Risto) Erić, Marinko (Mitar) Erić, Mirko (Miloš) Erkić, Dražan (Petar) Erkić, Nenad (Uroš) Filipović, Radiša (Simo) Filipović, Milomir (Danilo) Furtula, Aleksandar (Nikola) Gačanin, Veljko (Ilija) Gajić, Zoran (Milan) Gajić, Željko (Ilija) Gajić, Vlado (Čedo) Gajić, Ljubomir (Vukašin) Gajić, Milan (Mićo) Gajić, Goran (Branislav) Garić, Vojislav (Ilija) Gašanović, Mirko (Drago) Gašević, Miroslav (Miloš) Gatarić, Mladen (Stanko) Gavrić, Mikajlo (Bogdan) Gavrić, Ranko (Danilo) Gavrilović, Vida (Velimir) Glamočić, Miladin (Anđelko) Gligić, Milka (Petar) Gligorić, Siniša (Savo) Glogovac, Pero (Bogdan) Gluvak, Luka (Milutin) Gojgolović, Zoran (Đorđe) Gojković, Božica (Ilija) Golić, Dragan (Rajko) Golić, Ljepomir (Milan) Golić, Boško (Nikola) Golijanin, Goran (Ranko) Gostić, Miladin (Vid) Gostimirović, Ljubinko (Vid) Gostimirović, Slaviša (Milovan) Grahovac, Mirko (Bogoljub) Grujić, Slavoljub (Slavko) Gužvić, Dragan (Borislav) Hajduković, Dragan (Milojko) Ignjić, Dragan (Dragomir) Ikonić, Vidoje (Branko) Ilić, Mladen (Momir) Ilić, Ivo (Dušan) Ilić, Rajko (Pantelije) Ilić, Jovan (Savo) Ilić, Dragan (Desimir) Ilić, Stevo (Dušan) Ilić, Zoran (Živko) Ilić, Milenija (Miloš) Ilić, Cvijeta (Mihajlo) Ilić, Mladen (Lazo) Iličić, Dragan (Desimir) Iljić, Risto (Gojko) Ivanović, Milenko (Radenko) Ivanović, Željko (Gojko) Ivanović, Diko (Milenko) Ivanović, Đorđe (Risto) Ivanović, Radivoje (Dragoslav) Ivanović, Goran (Sreten) Ivanović, Nedeljko (Tomo) Jaćimović, Krsto (Boško) Jakšić, Zoran (Ljubisav) Janjić, Milorad (Radislav) Janjić, Nenad (Petar) Janjić, Lenka (Jovan) Janjušić, Jovo (Marijan) Janković, Boro (Dragomir) Jelić, Zoran (Zdravko) Jeličić, Slaviša (Radovan) Jelisić, Nebojša (Slobodan) Jeremić, Mile (Veselin) Jerkić.
MAD PSYCHIATRIST STILL ON THE RUN
One of the most wanted Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects, former leader Radovan Karadzic, remains as much an enigma as his whereabouts 11 years after The Hague-based UN War Crimes Tribunal indicted him.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) raised the initial indictment against Karadzic and his army commander general Ratko Mladic on 24 July 1995. It charged them with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity during what was then the ongoing 1992-1995 war in Bosnia- Herzegovina.
The charges included permanent attacks on the Bosnian capital Sarajevo from the surrounding hills held by Bosnian Serb troops, as well as organizing detention facilities for non-Serb population, mostly Muslims, in the areas controlled by Bosnian Serbs.
During the war (1992-95) Sarajevo was under siege longer than any other city in modern history — longer even than Stalingrad.
As soon as the world learned of the massacre in the former eastern Bosniak enclave of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb troops massacred 8,100 Bosniak men and children on 11 July 1995 – ranging in age from
The initial indictments were further amended in 2000 for Karadzic and in 2002 for Mladic, when more charges were added.
While demands and media speculation over the past year have been rife about Mladic possibly being detained, stories about Karadzic have rarely surfaced.
“I do not know where Karadzic and Mladic are. I do not have any element right now to believe they are in this country,” the commander of some 6,000-strong European Union Force (EUFOR) in Bosnia, Italian Major General Gian Marco Chiarini, told media in Sarajevo.
EUFOR intelligence, he said, would know for sure if the two most wanted fugitives were in Bosnia.
The fact that Karadzic and Mladic were not behind bars yet, according to president of the Association of Victimized People Fadila Memisevic, showed that “the international community is not ready to deal yet with their apprehension,” despite different signals from Washington and Brussels.
“Obviously there is no political will. Karadzic and Mladic were not arrested when they were here 11 years ago, when some 60,000 fully equipped UN peacekeepers were deployed in this country, with the support of probably the strongest concentration of intelligence in the world at that time,” Memisevic told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.
“Since they did not manage to catch them 11 years ago, I doubt that will happen now,” she said.
Memisevic also said she still believed in a “conspiracy theory” according to which Karadzic made a deal with the US officials to simply disappear from the political and public life of Bosnia- Herzegovina and its Serb entity, the Srpska Republic, in exchange for his freedom.
Munira Subasic of the Association of Srebrenica Survivors – Mothers of Srebrenica, also believes the world and Europe should be more active when it is about Karadzic.
“If the world and Europe only wished that, Karadzic would have been in The Hague a long time ago,” said Subasic.
But political analyst Tanja Topic from Banja Luka in the Srpska Republic dismisses a conspiracy theory.
“There is so much speculation, but I think the stance of most European officials is the same – Karadzic and Mladic must be apprehended,” said Topic.
The EU, she said, would never soften its demand for Karadzic’s and Mladic’s arrest. “It will continue to insist on that, with no pardon.”
The key of the problem, she said, is hidden in the deep tradition of the Serbs in the Srpska Republic and neighbouring Serbia.
An approach to the problem through the tradition, she believes, would also explain why Mladic’s name was often mentioned in the media, while everyone seemed to have forgotten Karadzic and his deeds.
“Mladic is much more respected than Karadzic. He is considered a soldier, and his eventual arrest would be bigger problem than the arrest of Radovan Karadzic,” said Topic.
Being a soldier was always considered in the Balkans, especially among Serbs, as an honourable and respectable thing that would show a transformation of a boy to a man, she said.
“Karadzic was not a soldier, and he was not given such importance as Mladic was. Besides that, Karadzic’s popularity decreased with gossip about his various criminal acts against his own people.”
Another factor, she said, was that Mladic had been located, which merited more space in newspapers. Karadzic’s whereabouts remained unknown – and so being a stale news for years.
While she strongly hopes the justice will be satisfied one day, Munira Subasic – who lost her family in the Srebrenica massacre – believes Karadzic will never be arrested.
Empty initiatives to get Karadzic before the ICTY, she said, would probably never work. He would remain at large, but would pay for his crimes in another way.
“Let them (Karadzic and Mladic) stay heroes of their own people, while nobody touches them,” she said.
“They have had to change their lives, to cope with the fact that they will have to hide from the rest of the world and abandon a normal, decent, human life in exchange for freedom until they die.”
In 2000, the U.S. Jury returned
$4.5 billion verdict against Radovan Karadzic.The U.S. Government is offering $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of
Radovan Karadzic and/or Ratko Mladic.U.S. DEPORTS TWO SREBRENICA MASSACRE SUSPECTS TO BOSNIA
UNITED STATES DEPORTS TWO SERBS WANTED FOR SREBRENICA GENOCIDE
SARAJEVO – The United States deported to Bosnia two Bosnian Serbs wanted by a local court on charges of genocide committed in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, officials said.
“The United States authorities deported today two persons and handed them over to Bosnia-Hercegovina’s prosecutors’ office,” the prosecutors’ office said in a statement.
The statement identified the two only as Zdravko B. and Goran B. adding that they were “suspected of participation in war crimes and genocide committed in July 1995 in Srebrenica.” Their identities were revealed by the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina. They are: Goran Bencun and Zdravko Bozic [source].
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior police officer told AFP that the two were “Bosnian Serbs” who were “handed over to Bosnian police at the Sarajevo airport around noon (1000 GMT).”
The US embassy here could not comment immediately.
The July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of over
8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces is the worst massacre in Europe since World War II and the first legally established case of genocide in Europe after the Holocaust.The atrocity became a symbol of brutality of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which claimed over 100,000 lives.
It was qualified as an act of genocide by the UN war crimes court in The Hague.
Eleven Bosnian Serbs are currently on trial before the Sarajevo-based Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina (
The Srebrenica massacre is at the center of genocide charges against Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander Ratko Mladic, both wanted by the UN tribunal.
The two, believed to be hiding in Serb-controlled part of Bosnia and in Serbia, remain on the run almost 11 years since the Srebrenica massacre.
Related:
2. Chilling custody in immigrand fraud case (new update)
3. Butcher of Srebrenica wants his own admission kept silent
4. Elusive Justice: Marko Boskic, a man who gunned down 1,200 Srebrenica Bosniaks
5. Bush administration has no interest in prosecuting Srebrenica massacre suspects
6. Phoenix: Mecca for Srebrenica massacre fugitives
FOUR SREBRENICA MASSACRE SUSPECTS APPEAR IN COURT
On June 8th, four former members of the Bosnian Serb military appeared in federal court to face visa fraud charges, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into allegations they failed to disclose their prior Bosnian Serb military service when they applied for immigration benefits, allowing them to relocate to the United States.
ICE agents arrested Milenko Stjepanovic, 55; Mirka Stjepanovic, 53; Ranko Nastic, 54; and Branko Ristic 46.
All four defendants, who currently live in the Salt Lake City area, are citizens of the former Yugoslavia, now Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Indictments unsealed allege that they made materially false statements on their immigration benefit applications, failing to disclose that they had served in the Bosnian Serb military during the Balkan conflicts between 1992 and 1995.
Because of the atrocities committed during the Balkan conflicts, Bosnians who seek refuge in the United States are required to declare all military service, including service in the Bosnian Serb Army, on immigration forms.
While under oath, the defendants allegedly did not reveal their prior military service with the Army of the Republika Srpska, or the Vojska Republike Srpske (VRS).
The VRS participated in human rights violations, including the Srebrenica massacre, which resulted in the capture and execution of over 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys (children) during 1995 – Europe’s worst civilian massacre since the Holocaust.
The Srebrenica massacre has been classified as genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Individuals who have persecuted others are not admissible to the United States by law.
“We will not allow the United States to become a sanctuary for those using fraud and deception to qualify for refugee status,” said Joseph Romel, assistant special agent in charge for the ICE office of investigations in Utah.
“These individuals willfully concealed their prior service in the military and this raises serious questions about their basic claims to eligibility.”
Acting U.S. Attorney for Utah Stephen J. Sorenson emphasized that the indictments returned by a Utah grand jury do not allege the defendants committed war crimes in Bosnia, but that they were members of the Vojska Republike Srpske, the Bosnian Serb military, and soldiers in the Zvornik Brigade, which played a role at Srebrenica.
Sorenson said there have been some instances where VRS members admitted military service and, after careful review, were able to obtain status in the United States. When the military service is not disclosed, however, the review is not conducted.
“The failure of these defendants to list their military service on refugee applications and subsequent applications here in Utah to obtain permanent residency precluded proper and meaningful screenings of their cases,” Sorenson said.
“We believe the immigration status each of these defendants presently enjoys was obtained by fraud.”
Visa fraud carries a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The defendants are scheduled to stand trial in August.
Just in!
Custody ordered for two war crimes suspects
A preliminary proceeding judge of Section I for War Crimes of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) yesterday ordered custody of one month for Goran Bencun and Zdravko Bozic.
The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH suspects these two persons of participating, as members of the Republika Srpska Army, in the murders of Bosniak civilians from Srebrenica, in the area of Pilica in July 1995.
The authorities of the United States of America deported Bencun and Božić to BiH on 30 June 2006 for breaches of immigration regulations.
Related:
1. Chilling custody in immigrand fraud case (new update)
2. Butcher of Srebrenica wants his own admission kept silent
3. Elusive Justice: Marko Boskic, a man who gunned down 1,200 Srebrenica Bosniaks
4. Bush administration has no interest in prosecuting Srebrenica massacre suspects
5. Phoenix: Mecca for Srebrenica massacre fugitives
SREBRENICA MASSACRE BUTCHERS STILL ADMIRED IN SERBIA
BELGRADE, Serbia – The general still has his admirers.
In the musty headquarters of the Center for the Investigation of War Crimes Against Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, his portrait is prominently displayed on the wall behind Ljubisa Ristic’s desk. There were about 2,000 Serb civilian casualties in the war which Serbia waged against Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995 [source – as of Dec 15, 2005 data].
“My personal opinion is that he is a true soldier and a hero of the Serbian people,” Ristic said.
It is not clear how many other Serbs feel that way about Gen. Ratko Mladic, the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb army and chief executor of its ethnic cleansing campaign.
“I’d say 75 percent of the Serbs see him as a war hero,” said Aleksandar Tijanic, who heads the state-run television network in Serbia. “But if you ask them if he should he go to The Hague to save the Serbs from more suffering, 75 percent would say yes.”
Mladic, who has been charged with genocide by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, has been on the run since the collapse of Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in October 2000.
Last month, the European Union broke off talks with Belgrade aimed at preparing Serbia for EU membership after President Vojislav Kostunica’s government missed another deadline for delivering Mladic. The United States followed suit this month, canceling a $7 million aid package to the Serbian government.
Carla Del Ponte, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, has claimed repeatedly that Mladic is in Serbia and within the reach of Belgrade authorities. She says the government simply lacks the political will to arrest him.
That appeared to be the case in February when there were feverish media reports that the general had been cornered at a hiding place near the Bosnian border.
“But instead of arresting him, they started negotiating with him,” said Bratislav Grubacic, a political analyst who publishes a widely respected newsletter.
The negotiations came to nothing. “And now they really don’t know where he is,” Grubacic said. “For this government, I think they prefer not to know.”
Vladan Batic, the former Yugoslav justice minister who ordered the extradition of Milosevic to The Hague in June 2001, agrees with Del Ponte that the present government lacks the political will to deliver Mladic.
“Kostunica was hoping that Mladic would surrender himself,” said Batic. “He knows Mladic is our ticket to Europe, but he’s afraid that if he gives up Mladic, he’ll lose a lot of votes and won’t be seen as a so-called patriot.” Batic, who heads a small opposition party and who retains good police and security contacts, believes Mladic is holed up at the Topcider military base, a large complex amid a forest outside Belgrade that has an elaborate network of tunnels.
State TV boss Tijanic, who is close to Kostunica, disputes the Topcider theory and also the suggestion that Kostunica is afraid of arresting Mladic.
“Today, Kostunica’s government is willing to send him to The Hague, but they don’t know where he is hiding,” Tijanic said.
Citing the recent arrests of about a dozen people thought to be part of Mladic’s support system, Tijanic claimed that Mladic has cut all of his contacts with the military and security forces and is hiding on his own.
The international community’s focus on Mladic has diverted attention from Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime political leader, also charged with genocide and still on the run.
There are three explanations.
The first is The Hague’s experience in prosecuting genocide cases, which argues that it is much easier to obtain a conviction against military officers, who answer to a clear chain of command, than it is against their political bosses. A second explanation is that Karadzic, who is believed to be in Bosnia, has done a better job hiding himself.
The last, based on a persistent rumor echoed by nearly every diplomat and expert in the Balkans, is that at the time of the Dayton peace agreement, Karadzic cut a deal that he would completely withdraw from politics if authorities would not try too hard to find him. Little has been heard from him since.
A year ago, public opinion in Serbia was shaken by a video recording that came to light during the Milosevic trial. It shows members of an Interior Ministry death squad known as the Scorpions executing six handcuffed Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica, where more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were massacred in 1995, allegedly on orders from Mladic.
The video [source], shot by one of the participants, was shown on Serbian television and the government, for the first time, acknowledged that Serbs were guilty of atrocities. The killers, who were identifiable on the video, have been arrested and are being tried in Serbian courts.
Ristic, from the center for war crimes against Serbs, said the trials were appropriate, but insisted that the Scorpion tape has not shaken his faith in Mladic’s innocence.
“I was not there (Srebrenica), so I can’t tell you whether he ordered anything or not. But after our clear-cut victory, it was not in Serbia’s interest to do something like that,” he said.
Milan Protic, a historian who served as Yugoslavia’s first ambassador to the United States in the post-Milosevic era, said that only “stupid minds” in Serbia continued to view Mladic as a hero, but that it also is wrong for the EU and the United States to hold all of Serbia hostage to his arrest.
“He is an obsolete symbol, this dirty little Serbian commander from Bosnia,” he said, “but the West is using him to complicate all kinds of things for Serbia.
BOSNIA OPENS SREBRENICA GENOCIDE TRIAL
Bosnia war crimes court opens first genocide trial
“The prosecution will ask the court to declare these men guilty so that a small step towards meeting justice can be made,” Bulic said in his introductory remarks.Related links:
SIX SREBRENICA MASSACRE SUSPECTS PLEAD NOT GUILTY
Six Bosnian Serbs plead not guilty over Srebrenica
Six former Bosnian Serb officers pleaded not guilty on Tuesday at the U.N. war crimes tribunal to charges of genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys.
Tolimir was one of several aides to wartime Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic, who is also still at large and one of the tribunal’s most wanted men.
Mladic is also indicted over the Srebrenica massacre, the worst mass killing in Europe since world War Two, and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo in which more than 15,000 people died.
E.U. GIVES SERBIA ANOTHER MONTH TO CATCH BUTCHER OF SREBRENICA
European Union gives Serbia another month to catch Mladic
By Mark John and Ingrid Melander
PHOENIX: MECCA FOR SREBRENICA MASSACRE SUSPECTS
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – A MECCA FOR SERBIAN SUSPECTS OF SREBRENICA GENOCIDE
So far, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI have arrested the 24 who were in either the Bratunac or Zvornik brigades that orchestrated the slaughter in July 1995, capturing, holding, executing, burying and re-burying the more then 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
All 24 former soldiers have been charged with immigration violations. Some remain under investigation for possible torture charges, under a little used law that is the only way U.S. prosecutors can try suspected foreign war criminals or human rights abusers other than on immigration violations. Often they are just deported.
War crimes investigators told Newsday while many of the soldiers were not involved directly, war crimes investigators said, the Bratunac Brigade’s MP platoon was a central cog of the killing machine.
Throughout the United States, federal investigators and lawyers are working on about 1,000 cases of suspected human rights abusers from more than 85 countries, and they believe there are many more undiscovered suspects living in the United States.
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But at the United Nations war crimes court in The Hague, commanders of the Bratunac Brigade and other units involved in the Srebrenica massacre have described in some detail what Blagojevic and Bozic’s platoon was doing at the time.
Srebrenica Massacre 