ZEPA ENCLAVE RESIDENTS HAD NO CHOICE TO STAY

There have been some interesting developments at the trial of Zdravko Tolimir, former Serb General who proposed gassing Bosnian Muslim women and children from Zepa and Srebrenica with chemical agents in July of 1995.

A protected witness, whose testimony inadvertently revealed his own identity (Hamdija Torlak), shed some light on Gen. Ratko Mladic's "generosity" in expulsion of Bosniak civilians and their subsequent ethnic cleansing from Zepa. The town of Zepa was the second U.N. protected "safe area" that fell under the Bosnian Serb control in July 1995.

During the Srebrenica genocide, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic gave an interview in a Spanish newspaper El Pais. He laughed off the idea he might be tried for war crimes and said the concept of UN "safe areas" in Bosnia was untenable.

"The Muslim enclaves in Bosnia are no longer viable and have to disappear. If not we will take them by force," he threatened. Then he focused his energy on capturing Zepa - the eastern Bosnian town situated in one of the deepest canyons in Europe.

According to Sense Tribunal, at the trial of Zdravko Tolimir, the witness (Hamdija Torlak) described how notorius Bosnian Serb General, Ratko Mladic, tried to fool them with his phony interpretation of Geneva Convention. According to Gen. Mladic, ethnic cleansing is okay and "in line with Geneva Convention."

To make it look like a voluntary removal of population, Gen. Mladic deliberately bombed Bosnian Muslim civilians in Zepa and then forced them to sign a piece of paper agreeing (under duress) to leave their homes. After heavily bombing the enclave from 14 - 19 July 1995, shortly pausing the shelling on 19th, and then again resuming deliberate attacks of Bosniak civilians from 20-24 July, General Mladic finally managed to force Zepa's War Presidency to sign an agreement.

"...Paragraph 7 of the Agreement on the Disarmament, its official title, stated that the citizens of Zepa would be given an opportunity ‘to choose freely their place of residence, in line with the Geneva Conventions’."

According to Torlak, Gen. Mladic's phony generosity in offering residents of Zepa choice to stay or leave was nothing but a "whitewash designed to cover up things that were in fact not in line with the Geneva Conventions", since, as he insisted, "remaining in the enclave was not a realistic option for the Muslims" due to constant shelling from Serb positions. Indeed, earlier that month, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic offered false safety guarantees to the residents of Srebrenica with the so called "Declaration of the Republika Srpska Civilian Affairs Committee for Srebrenica No. 07-27/95, dated 17 July 1995." According to the Internationa Criminal Tribunal (Prosecutor v. Deronjic):

"The Trial Chamber accepts the submission by the Prosecution that Miroslav Deronjic with the encouragement of Radovan Karadžic prepared this document, whose 'contents did not correspond with the truth' and that it was done in order 'to mislead the international community'. Consequently, the Trial Chamber agrees that the Accused’s admission is important for two reasons:

1) '[it is] important to diffuse any suggestion in trials that are ongoing or will be coming up in the future about Srebrenica that the Bosnian Muslims left the enclave because of their own free will' and

2) '[it is] important to negate the arguments of future revisionists that might use this document for the proposition that the forcible displacement of the Bosniaks from Srebrenica was a mere humanitarian evacuation conducted in accordance with the principles of international law.'"

So, if Bosniak authorities could not trust Karadzic, why should they trust Mladic? After the fall of Srebrenica, key Bosniak leaders that negotiated with Gen. Mladic disappeared: Colonel Avdo Palic in charge of Zepa defense, cleric Mehmed Hajric who was the president of the War Presidency, and Amir Imamovic, head of the civil defense. Zdravko Tolimir is charged for these deaths. Bodies of all three eminent Bosniak representatives were found in one location, indicating their killing was no coincidence. Gen. Mladic admitted ordering the killing of Avdo Palic shortly after the fall of Zepa.