Mladić Trial: Witness Admitted Croats Had to Pay Serbs 1.5 Million DM for Escape from Travnik

The Hague indictee, wartime commander of the Army of Republika Srpska Ratko Mladić, called HVO secretary in Travnik municipality in 1992-1993, Davor Kolenda, as a defense witness.

Kolenda was supposed to testify that the Serb army had been humane towards Croats who, after the outbreak of conflict with the Army of RBiH, collectively left Travnik on June 7, 1993, via Serb territory.

Sense Agency reports that during the examination of Kolenda, Hague prosecutor Roeland Bos showed a letter from Mladić from June 1993, which states that “HVO should hand over a package to the Serb side with 1.5 million German marks for the transport of Croats from Travnik, food, cigarettes…”

Around 5,000 women, children, and elderly people were transported by bus via Vlašić to Croatia, and 800 men were held for several days in a camp in Manjača. There, they were “provided with accommodation on humanitarian grounds and without criminal intent,” Mladić claims.

However, the prosecutor presented an old statement by Kolenda, which states that in Manjača, he and other prisoners, at temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius, had to chant “Bosnia is Serbian, as Moscow is Russian” all day long. Kolenda did not deny this statement now.

While Serbs and Croats were at war in Croatia, they were allies in BiH in 1993 and 1994.

“The Serbs needed oil, and the Croats needed weapons and ammunition, so the sides easily reached an agreement,” Kolenda told the court.

During cross-examination, prosecutor Bos presented several documents on the cooperation between the Serb army and HVO in BiH: Croats paid Serbs to shell the Army of BiH when they needed it, and ordered weapons in exchange for oil and money. Croats paid dearly for Serb assistance, reports Sense agency from the Hague courtroom.