PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE HITS ROCK BOTTOM Mercenaries under scrutiny by Ukraine and Russia, key witnesses in BiH against members of the Army and MUP of RBiH!

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

Ukrainian authorities and judicial institutions in this country, in the whirlwind of war, have focused on filing indictments, even in a reality where they have almost no access to suspects and accused persons. For this reason, more than a thousand war crimes trials in absentia are currently underway in Ukraine. Special attention is paid to mercenaries, those who can be said not to be fighters at all, so Russia claims, but criminal responsibility awaits them!

Why am I writing this? The answer is simply unbelievable, because considering that many compare the situation in Ukraine to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a comparison should also be made in this segment. How did mercenaries fare in BiH, more precisely, contract soldiers who are now mostly testifying in cases against members of the Army of RBiH and the MUP of RBiH, prosecuted by the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The analogy says that they are heroes, some truth-tellers and righteous, but in reality, they were paid soldiers-killers.

To fully understand the paradox of the situation, we will return to Ukraine. Let's imagine now that instead of Russian soldiers and mercenaries, trials are being conducted against Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine, prosecuted by the state they are defending.

This is precisely what the BiH Prosecutor's Office and Chief Prosecutor Milanko Kajganić are doing. I highlight him because he is a co-signatory of the shameful indictment in the Dobrovoljačka case, where the witnesses are mostly mercenaries. Thus, the BiH Prosecutor's Office presented Danilo Beribaka as a witness, an awarded member of the VRS who testified that in May 1992 he was a contract soldier – a mercenary, stationed at the Viktor Bubanj barracks.

The Prosecutor's Office did not ask him what he was doing on May 2nd in Sarajevo, because they are not interested in sniping in the city, attacks, shelling. Their goal is to prosecute the highest political, military, and police leadership of the Republic of BiH. In Dobrovoljačka, May 2nd, the day that preceded May 3rd, was not mentioned at all. The court panel judging this case has, of course, allowed the defense to go beyond the scope of the indictment, because May 3rd did not fall from the sky, but was a reaction to everything that preceded it, including fierce fighting by Serb forces, shelling of Sarajevo... And instead of investigations into this, mercenaries are testifying against the defenders. A paradox, but that's how it is.

Incidentally, the JNA column, as the Prosecutor's Office calls it, consisted of 10 percent young soldiers and 90 percent officers, non-commissioned officers, and contract soldiers who were well aware that the JNA had not existed since April 27, 1992! They voluntarily accepted to be an extended arm of the Greater Serbian policy that carried out the aggression against BiH.

“I fired at the Elektroprivreda building, responding to gunfire, and at Skenderija, as far as I could see, one military vehicle was destroyed and a tram was burning. We arrived at the command of the Second Military District, and I stayed in the vehicle. Gunfire started from the direction of the mosque, so I returned fire with a burst,” Beribaka will say before the Court.

He is not accused of this. The BiH Prosecutor's Office apparently considers Elektroprivreda and civilians as legitimate military targets, and the JNA column as civilians!

In the Čemerno case, prosecutor Vladimir Simović is requesting testimony via video link for three witnesses. These are artillery unit commanders and key witnesses, and they were previously under investigation, because the Čemerno operation was carried out due to the unbearable shelling of Visoko, Breza, Ilijaš, Kakanj, and the outskirts of Sarajevo, and the perpetrators of those events have long been in Serbia. And instead of them being indicted, they want to testify via video link against members of the Army of RBiH, who destroyed howitzers in that operation!

And members of the Army of RBiH, besides their own country prosecuting them, are also facing continuous persecution from Serbia. From Ejup Ganić, Jovan Divjak, through Ilija Jurišić, to Mirsad Salkić, Husein Mujanović, Edin Vranj... and others. Do you know how many members of the Army are trembling at the border with Serbia, while various criminals sleep peacefully in that same country, which has an extended arm in the Prosecutor's Office of BiH. One that has forgotten the Hague A list and is massively filing indictments against members of the only legal army, the Army of RBiH.

Each of these indictments is the result of political motivations aimed at equating guilt for war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And the saddest thing of all is that we are all calmly watching!