THE HAGUE, 8 May 2003 — A Bosnian Serb officer who pleaded guilty to participating in the massacre of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war, was convicted for persecution by the UN court here yesterday. “Your honor, I plead guilty on ... the charge that relates to persecutions,” Momir Nikolic said in court. Presiding Judge Liu Daqun said the court accepted the plea and entered Nikolic’s conviction for persecution, a crime against humanity. A date for his sentencing will be set after the summer recess.
Nikolic is the first Bosnian Serb officer to admit his involvement in the incident and acknowledge the slaughter of over 7,000 Muslim men and boys from the Srebrenica enclave in 1995.
He also admitted to committing atrocities with discriminatory intent “because the victims were Bosnian Muslims”. He has agreed to testify in the trials and appeals of other Srebrenica defendants in a move expected to provide a major insight into what is now considered the worst single atrocity on European soil since World War II.
In return for his guilty plea and full cooperation, the prosecutor has agreed to drop the other charges against Nikolic and ask for a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years. Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are not bound by the prosecution’s recommendations for sentencing.
Nikolic, a deputy commander for security and intelligence of the Bratunac brigade operating in Srebrenica at the time of the massacre, was originally charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The two men considered chiefly responsible for the massacre, Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander Ratko Mladic, are indicted on genocide charges but are still at large.
In a personal declaration attached to the document outlining the guilty plea, Nikolic said he was told of the plans of mass executions the day after the Bosnian Serb forces overran the Muslim enclave on July 11, 1995. He was told that “the able-bodied Muslim men in the crowd of Muslim civilians would be separated from the crowd ... detained briefly in Bratunac and killed shortly thereafter.” Dutch peacekeepers sent by the United Nations to protect Srebrenica failed to prevent the mass killing spree, the worst single atrocity on European soil since World War II.
Meanwhile, the ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, will visit the United States, Bosnia and Serbia in May, her spokeswoman said yesterday. During her May 12-15 trip to the United States, Del Ponte will meet US officials in Washington and UN officials in New York, said spokeswoman Florence Hartmann. Del Ponte will travel to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on May 19 and go to Belgrade the next day. The Hague-based court was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 1993 to try those charged with war crimes over atrocities committed during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic went on trial in February last year on charges of war crimes, including genocide, committed during the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. But two of the court’s most wanted suspects, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander Ratko Mladic, remain at large.
In another development, a Serbian businessman said yesterday he would sue a UN panel that named him in a report on sanctions-busting arms deliveries to Liberia and would demand damages of $6 million.
The panel tracing gunrunning to West Africa said in a report on Monday that thousands of automatic rifles, hand grenades and mines from Serbia had reached Liberia last year in violation of UN Council sanctions.
The panel, appointed by the UN Council, said businessman Orhan Dragas had traveled to Liberia with a Serbian company executive it described as the “chief sanctions buster”.
But Dragas accused the panel of incorrect statements about his role and said he had been in the West African country to legitimately trade coffee and cocoa.
