WARTIME DIARIES OF GEN. RATKO MLADIC IN POSSESSION OF THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL

The ICTY is now in possession of the wartime diaries of General Ratko Mladic who orchestrated the ethnic cleansing of 30,000 and massacres of more than 8,000 Bosniaks during the July 1995 Srebrenica Genocide.

“We received the scanned version of the diaries from the Serbian government, and the originals were sent on May 10, 2010,” the Hague Prosecution said, adding they have already started translating the documents, which consist of about 3,500 hand-written pages. The Prosecutors received originals on May 11.

There are 18 diaries totalling 3,500 pages and covering the period from June 19, 1991 to November 28, 1996. The diaries were seized in a raid on the apartment of his wife Bosiljka in Belgrade three months ago. Olga Kavran, spokeswoman for the Hague Tribunal, said 120 audio and video recordings, a computer memory stick, medical records, mobile phone SIM cards, and "miscellaneous papers" were among the items sized. General Mladic kept notes on all his major meetings, including those with Radovan Karadzic, now on trial for the Bosnian Genocide, and Slobodan Milosevic, who unfortunately died in custody and cheated his victims of justice four years ago.

Any missing pages?

It is unknown whether the Serbian government surpressed some of the pages from General Mladic's diaries. But, the common sense dictates they have probably done it. Possibly, pages that directly implicate Serbia in the Srebrenica genocide will probably be missing. We know, and the history thaught us, that the government of Serbia should never be trusted.

Regardless of a shameful and incomplete ICJ judgment, it is a well known fact that Serbia willingly, deliberately, and directly participated in the Srebrenica genocide (and more evidence is being uncovered in the ongoing trials of Perisic/Simatovic), yet they were able to get away with murder by surpressing and censoring evidence. Every bullet used to kill innocent Bosnian Muslim civilians and defenders of the enclave came directly from Belgrade and with direct financial support from Slobodan Milosevic. Judges make their decisions based on the evidence presented to them. No evidence. No crime.

Details from those notebooks published by Belgrade daily Blic showed that Mladic often met Serbian officials, including late President Slobodan Milosevic, and that Mladic had arranged military shipments from the former Soviet Union via Serbia during his Bosnian military campaigns.

According to former prosecutor in the Milosevic case, Serbia was complicit in tampering with evidence. Geoffrey Nice recently stated that Serbia did not hand over all records of the Supreme Defence Council to the Hague Tribunal. Here is what Nice said in an interview given last month:

"First, it is important to note that Serbia did not hand over to the Prosecution (OTP) the complete collection of SDC records. For example, for the year 1995 the OTP received recordings for only about half of all the sessions held by SDC.

Further, some of the SDC records were not handed over in their full stenographically recorded form but were produced as extended minutes. That means that they were shorter than steno-notes but longer than the regular minutes. The dates of the missing meetings or the meetings where this lesser form of record was provided, as I recall, were significant – namely dates leading up to, surrounding and in the aftermath of the Srebrenica massacre. The full records of those meetings need yet to be provided...

Second, it should also be remembered that there are other protected document collections and individual documents which were, and still are, protected by direct agreements between Belgrade and the former OTP Prosecutor, i.e. they were not protected by the Trial Chamber. These documents are difficult now to identify but if and when Bosnia-Herzegovina decides to reopen the ICJ case it will be essential to require Serbia and/or the ICTY to produce all those documents for the ICJ. "

To be used in the Karadzic trial

In the motion asking judges for permission to use the diaries in the ongoing trial of Radovan Karadzic, prosecutors wrote that among the entries is one dated July 15, 1995, during which Mladic discussed the treatment of Srebrenica's population with senior international peacekeepers. It gave no further details of the meeting close to Belgrade.

Ratko Mladic's location is known

Don't get fooled by daily manipulation of Belgrade authorities. If they wanted, they could have arrested General Mladic long time ago. A large chunk of the Government of Serbia is comprised of xenophobic ultranationalists who deem General Ratko Mladic a Serbian "hero." Consequently, they keep blocking his arrest. According to BBC, "Ratko Mladic's own whereabouts remain a mystery, 15 years after his indictment. But a well-informed source in Belgrade has told the BBC he believes Serbian intelligence officers do know where he is, and that he will be arrested as soon as the political decision to act is made."

Ammended Indictment

In the meantime, prosecutors have filed an amended indictment against Gen. Ratko Mladic, seeking to speed up the court proceedings once he is arrested. The amended indictment lists 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for Mladic's role in the mass killing of more than 8,000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica, sniping and shelling of the capital city of Sarajevo, ethnic cleansing of more than one million Bosniaks, and hostage-taking of U.N. peacekeepers by the Bosnian Serb troops, Serge Brammertz said. "Ratko Mladic is charged with planning, instigating and ordering each of the crimes," according to a statement issued at the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. "If accepted by the judges, this amended indictment will facilitate the speeding of proceedings once Mladic is arrested," Brammertz added.