The Srebrenica Massacre - Nova Srpska Politicka Misao

Securing Verdicts: The Misuse of Witness Testimony at The Hague
any war criminals among them. Milosevic asked, “So your interpretation
of his instructions was that the prisoners…should be taken to the
military prison…Not killed; right?” “That’s right,” Deronjic replied. So
what remains of Deronjic’s claim to have heard orders from Karadzic to
execute the Muslims of Srebrenica? Precious little. It can’t be stressed
often enough that the supposed Serbian plan to execute the Muslims
rests entirely on shaky evidence like this.
Momir Nikolic
When we come to Captain Momir Nikolic, the discrepancies in his
testimonies are even greater. The former chief of security and intelligence
with the BSA’s Bratunac Brigade was indicted on six counts, including
one of genocide, four of crimes against humanity, and one of
violations of the laws or customs of war. He was jointly indicted with
fellow BSA officers Colonel Vidoje Blagojevic, a former commander of
the Bratunac Brigade, and Lieutenant Colonel Dragan Jokic, chief of
engineering of the Zvornik Brigade, along with whom Nikolic was to
be tried.
But with Nikolic’s guilty plea on the eve of trial, the prosecutors withdrew
all but one charge against him; Nikolic was allowed to plead guilty
to persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, a crime against
humanity according to the ICTY statute.
Nikolic’s May 2003 plea agreement stated that prosecutors would
seek a prison sentence for him of between 15 and 20 years. In turn,
Nikolic would “co-operate with” and “provide truthful and complete
information to the Office of the Prosecutor whenever requested,” and
“meet as often as necessary with members of the Office of the Prosecutor
in order to provide them with full and complete information and evidence
that is known to him regarding the events surrounding the attack
and fall of the Srebrenica enclave July 1995.” 90
Unlike Miroslav Deronjic, another plea-bargained Bosnian Serb who
received the sentence the prosecutors promised, the Tribunal sentenced
Nikolic to 27 years. For the ICTY to renege on its promise and impose
such a stiff sentence on Nikolic, something must have gone seriously
wrong with his testimony. And it had. In what became the Blagojevic-
Jokic case, the trial chamber literally caught Nikolic lying about crimes
he did not commit, lying about having been present in locations where
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