Milosevic must have known of massacre - general

Slobodan Milosevic must have known that thousands of Muslims were being slaughtered by Serbs in Srebrenica, a former top UN commander told a war crimes court today.

British General Sir Rupert Smith, then commander of the UN protection force in the Balkans, met Milosovic in his Belgrade presidential office on the day the Bosnian massacre was being carried out

Testifying at Milosevic’s war crimes trial today, Sir Rupert said the July 15 1995 meeting was attended by Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who is accused of ordering the bloodbath in which an estimated 7,500 Muslims died.

Sir Rupert said he believed Mladic’s presence in the Milosevic’s office implied that the president knew about the killings, though he had no evidence he had ordered the week long operation.

“I don’t have proof, but I know he was a commander of those forces and I believe he knew what was going to happen,” Smith told the three judges in The Hague.

“It was clear that Milosevic was Mladic’s superior. He called Mladic by name, and Mladic addressed him with respect,” the general said.

Milosevic, who denies he planned or knew about the massacre, countered that “if anybody had known, that would have be brought up at that meeting.”

But Smith disagreed. None of the international representatives attending the meeting had any inkling of a massacre, he said.

Milosevic is acting as his own defence lawyer against 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide in Srebrenica. His trial, which began in February 2002, has been delayed because of his fragile health and has now been reduced to three half-day sessions per week.

Prosecutors say the Srebrenica testimony, coming at the end of the prosecution’s case, is one of the most important stages of the trial.

Under cross-examination by Milosevic, Sir Rupert acknowledged that the Srebrenica area had been used as a base for Muslim forces launching attacks against Serbs.

During the hearing, prosecutors also presented a directive from Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic to the Drina Corps, the Bosnian Serb force in the area.

“A well planned and well conceived combat operation should create an unbearable safety situation, hopeless in terms of surviving for the citizens of Srebrenica and Zepa. The goal is to create conditions which are unbearable which give no sense of perspective for survival and living in Srebrenica and Zepa,” it said.

Mladic and Karadzic are the two most wanted fugitives indicted by the tribunal, created in 1993 to prosecute Balkans war crimes.