Mladić’s defense wants names of all Srebrenica victims

Hague indictee Ratko Mladic’s defense team will request names of all Srebrenica victims from the Hague Tribunal prosecution. The defense counsels want the prosecution to elaborate on allegations from the indictment that genocide against more than 7,000 Muslims was committed in Srebrenica. Mladic’s defense wants names of all Srebrenica victims “In our objection to the indictment we will request the names of all victims, who those people were and where they were from because it is a piece of information that is being hidden. We will also request DNA analyses of all exhumed bodies,” defense counsel Branko Lukic told daily Politika. According to him, the defense team “has information that autopsy reports were tampered with, which a California doctor, who had been working on it, has admitted”. Lukic added that “the indictment is vague if it does not contain the names of all the victims”. He pointed out that the defense team had already requested this information in a trial of Bosnian Generals Ljubisa Beara and Vujadin Popovic but that the request had never been considered. The same request has been filed in case against Radovan Karadzic and the court is expected to decide on it. Chicago lawyer Dejan Ivetic, who was one of police General Sreten Lukic’s defense counsel, should soon join Mladic’s defense team. The Hague Tribunal has in the meantime requested a copy of a 1995 interview with Mladic from Russia Today (RT). The Hague indictee said in the interview that tragic events in Srebrenica had been a response to UN actions in the enclave. “The interview with Ratko Mladic that the RT aired two weeks ago was new not only to the public but also to this international body that should be best informed about the events that took place during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” RT said in a statement. RT found the interview made 15 years ago in its archive. RT pointed out that they will cooperate in the investigation. In the interview which had been done on August 13, 1995, Mladic said that an agreement on Srebernica had been signed in April or May 1993 which declared the enclave a safe demilitarized zone where presence of armed forces other than the UN troops was not allowed. “But instead of disarming the Muslim formations, the UN forces turned those safe zones into a base for terrorists and fundamentalists from which attacks on our villages and towns were launched,” the Bosnian Serb commander said at the time. He explained that Iran had been sending men to join Bosnian Muslim forces and that the UN peacekeeping troops “sometimes even used helicopters to transport weapons and other equipment from Iran”. When asked about the mass graves, Mladic said that “only those who died in combat were buried there”. Ratko Mladic

Mladić’s defense wants names of all Srebrenica victims

“In our objection to the indictment we will request the names of all victims, who those people were and where they were from because it is a piece of information that is being hidden. We will also request DNA analyses of all exhumed bodies,” defense counsel Branko Lukić told daily Politika.

According to him, the defense team “has information that autopsy reports were tampered with, which a California doctor, who had been working on it, has admitted”.

Lukić added that “the indictment is vague if it does not contain the names of all the victims”.

He pointed out that the defense team had already requested this information in a trial of Bosnian Generals Ljubiša Beara and Vujadin Popović but that the request had never been considered. The same request has been filed in case against Radovan Karadžić and the court is expected to decide on it.

Chicago lawyer Dejan Ivetić, who was one of police General Sreten Lukić’s defense counsel, should soon join Mladić’s defense team.

The Hague Tribunal has in the meantime requested a copy of a 1995 interview with Mladić from Russia Today (RT). The Hague indictee said in the interview that tragic events in Srebrenica had been a response to UN actions in the enclave.

“The interview with Ratko Mladić that the RT aired two weeks ago was new not only to the public but also to this international body that should be best informed about the events that took place during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina,” RT said in a statement. RT found the interview made 15 years ago in its archive.

RT pointed out that they will cooperate in the investigation. In the interview which had been done on August 13, 1995, Mladić said that an agreement on Srebernica had been signed in April or May 1993 which declared the enclave a safe demilitarized zone where presence of armed forces other than the UN troops was not allowed.

“But instead of disarming the Muslim formations, the UN forces turned those safe zones into a base for terrorists and fundamentalists from which attacks on our villages and towns were launched,” the Bosnian Serb commander said at the time.

He explained that Iran had been sending men to join Bosnian Muslim forces and that the UN peacekeeping troops “sometimes even used helicopters to transport weapons and other equipment from Iran”.

When asked about the mass graves, Mladić said that “only those who died in combat were buried there”.