Former bodyguard of war criminal Mladić: Emir J. from Bratunac must not return to BiH

Former bodyguard of war criminal Ratko Mladić, Emir J. (44), who fled to Austria more than a decade ago, fears returning to Bosnia and Herzegovina, reports the news agency Patria.

The former military police officer was responsible for the security of Mladić and Admiral Ljubiša Beara during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, claims the Viennese daily "Kurir", adding that he now lives in Salzburg and has applied for asylum.

The Federal Asylum Service initially rejected his asylum application, stating that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a safe third country and that the alleged inappropriate behavior of individual police officers is not a reason to claim that there is no protection in the entire country.

Emir J. appealed this decision to the Administrative Court and won the case in his favor, at the first instance, but only for formal legal reasons, "Kurir" specifies.

The case must now be reconsidered by the Asylum Service, and "Kurir" points out that it is questionable whether Emir will receive a positive response. Until this issue is resolved, Emir will continue to receive basic state support from Austria, and his lawyer will be paid by a non-governmental organization.

In 1987, Emir became a professional soldier in the then JNA, where, as "Kurir" points out, it did not matter which faith one belonged to, and his military police battalion included Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Albanians.

His boss, Admiral Ljubiša Beara, following the old tradition from the time of Josip Broz Tito, also had no problem with this, and they, according to "Kurir", went through the wars in Slovenia and Croatia together, and in 1992, when the situation escalated in eastern Bosnia, nothing changed in their relationship, quite the opposite.

After Emir's family in his hometown of Bratunac found themselves between two fronts, Beara ordered his men, in a commando operation, to transfer his relatives across the Drina. That operation, the newspaper reminds, would later be significant before the Hague Tribunal.

After the JNA withdrew from Bosnia, Beara found himself in the General Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska under Mladić's command, and with him was Emir, who was in charge of the bodyguard team for the two generals.

"Kurir" also reports that Emir claims he did not witness the Srebrenica massacre, which is why the Hague Tribunal was looking for his protégés, who successfully hid for more than a decade.

For the bodyguard Emir, the situation in his own country, as he told the Asylum Service in Austria, became uncomfortable.

As a Bosniak who protected Serbian war criminals, he could not expect sympathy from his own people, and among Serbs, as a Bosniak, he "had bad cards in his hand".

He also stated that in May 2000, his car was blown up, and he was attacked in a cafe in Sarajevo, where he was injured, and two years after his escape, an attack was carried out on his father's car.

"Kurir" further points out that in 2004, Serbia directed its policy towards the EU, and Beara was forced to surrender to the Hague Tribunal.

By confiscating property, Serbia began searching for Mladić in 2006, and Emir, although there was "nothing official against him", fled to Austria, where he applied for asylum, stating in his reasoning that due to his actions in the army in BiH, he was considered a traitor and that his life was in danger.

He claimed that he had approached the Bosnian police for help, who only told him that he "now has to answer for what he did". Incidentally, Emir was a defense witness for Beara before the Hague Tribunal, and the evacuation of Emir's family was an attempt to prove that the admiral did not pathologically hate Bosniaks.

Beara, the newspaper reminds, was convicted of participation in war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment.