Ratko Mladić removed from courtroom

During the continuation of Ratko Mladić's trial in The Hague, defence witness Vojo Kuprešanin stated that the accused would enter "as a positive figure in Serbian history" because he "defended the Serbian people" during the war in BiH, BIRN - Justice Report reported, as stated by the Patria News Agency.

- The truth is that this general sitting here stood up at a given moment to defend the Serbian people, and all other generals of the Yugoslav army fled. If it weren't for this general sitting here, there would be no trace of the Serbian people in BiH. That is why the Serbian people are grateful to General Mladić and will remember him for eternity, and he will enter Serbian history as a positive figure," Kuprešanin said.

The accused Mladić applauded these words, which is why presiding judge Alphons Orie removed him from the courtroom.

Mladić, the wartime commander of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), is accused of genocide committed in Srebrenica, persecution of Muslims and Croats throughout BiH which reached the scale of genocide in seven municipalities, terrorizing the population of Sarajevo, and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

Witness Kuprešanin, who was a high-ranking official of the Serb Democratic Party in Bosanska Krajina, confirmed that Serbian forces killed 68 non-Serbs in the village of Briševo near Prijedor in July 1992.

He said he heard from Croatian women from Briševo that soldiers had committed a crime against the civilian population.

- It is true that they were not punished for it," he said, claiming, however, that the crime mentioned in the indictment against Mladić did not occur during the VRS operation.

At the prosecutor's suggestion that the witness had stated in earlier testimonies that he had informed Mladić about the mass murder, Kuprešanin said: "That's not right. As far as I remember, I informed General Talić, not Mladić."

The Prosecutor's representative retorted that before Momir Talić's trial, Kuprešanin had stated that he had not informed him, but Mladić, and now, in favour of Mladić's defence, he claims the opposite. "You are not telling the truth," the prosecutor asserted.

"I cannot remember now whom I informed," Kuprešanin replied.

The Prosecutor's representative claimed that in earlier statements, Kuprešanin first attributed responsibility for the formation of the camp in Prijedor to the leadership of Republika Srpska, and then changed his testimony at Radovan Karadžić's trial, stating that local authorities were responsible.

"Karadžić told me that he had nothing to do with the camps and that some fools there were doing it," Kuprešanin stated.

As the cause of the war, Kuprešanin identified the declaration of BiH's independence, which Muslims and Croats adopted in October 1991 without the presence of Serb deputies. He called that declaration "unconstitutional" and said it had "humiliated the Serbian people." 

Kuprešanin will conclude his testimony at Mladić's trial tomorrow, December 16.