THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Nov 13 (Hina) - Testifying against ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague war crimes tribunal on Thursday, Dutch officer Robert Francken spoke about the Serb attack on Bosnia's Srebrenica in July
1995 and the capture of thousands of Muslims who were later killed.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Nov 13 (Hina) - Testifying against ex-Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague war crimes tribunal
on Thursday, Dutch officer Robert Francken spoke about the Serb
attack on Bosnia's Srebrenica in July 1995 and the capture of
thousands of Muslims who were later killed. #L#
In 1995, Lt. Col. Francken was deputy commander of the United
Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) Dutch battalion in Srebrenica,
a safe haven in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina.
After the Bosnian Serb army entered the town and the Dutch battalion
withdrew, the Serbs executed more than 7,000 captured Muslims,
committing the gravest war crimes in Europe after WWII.
Besides genocide in Bosnia, Milosevic is also charged with the
Srebrenica massacre.
Francken said the siege of Srebrenica was carried out by the Bosnian
Serb army's Drina Corps and was coordinated by the entity's
government.
He said the town was shelled on 11 July 1995, after which about
30,000 refugees headed for his troops' base in Potocari.
Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic threatened attacking the
UNPROFOR unless NATO stopped with air raids on Serb positions, and
the Serbs stole about 15 vehicles from the 150-strong Dutch
battalion, said the witness.
He added that the Dutch base and the civilians there, mostly women
and children, were attacked on July 12. He stressed he was concerned
about the fate of about 1,000 men in and around the base because
Mladic had announced he would separate them from the women and the
children.
The separation quickly ensued, with the men taken away aboard
buses, while nine were shot dead near the base, Francken said.
He added that when he protested against that he was told the Bosnian
Serb army held about 6,000 captives which, as prosecutor Geoffrey
Nice said today, coincided with the number of Muslims who were later
killed.
Francken already testified before the Hague tribunal, against
Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic, who was sentenced to 46 years
in jail for the genocide in Srebrenica.
The prosecution entered that testimony into evidence against
Milosevic.
Cross-examining the witness, Milosevic tried to prove that many
Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina soldiers were killed while attempting
to break through from Srebrenica towards Tuzla and were later
reported as civilian victims.
If a crime was committed, it could not have been planned or part of
the Bosnian Serb strategy and had certainly nothing to do with
Yugoslavia, said Milosevic.
Allowing the possibility that many people were killed in the
breakthrough, the witness said that it was nonetheless
speculation.
After Francken, the prosecution called protected witness B-1524, a
Serb of Zvornik who testified about ethnic cleansing in this
eastern Bosnian town in April 1992. The main part in that campaign
was played by Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan's units, he said.
The trial resumes on Tuesday.
(hina) ha sb