In his evidence at the trial of the Bosnian Serb police officials, a police insider says that the Serbian Democratic Party implemented ‘a planned policy of ethnic cleansing of Muslims throughout the RS territory’. According to the witness, Radovan Karadzic told him not to arrest Serbs even if they were guilty of crimes, in order to prevent ‘Serbs fighting Serbs’


In early May 1992, Mihalj Kertes ordered Milorad Davidovic, former chief of the Bijeljina SUP and inspector in the Yugoslav Federal SUP, to go Republika Srpska to help establish special police unit there. Today, in his evidence at the trial of former Bosnian Serb police officials Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin, Davidovic talked about the meetings he attended with the accused Stanisic, Karadzic and Mladic in 1992.

On his arrival in the Serbian MUP headquarters in Vrace, Sarajevo, Davidovic met with Mico Stanisic. Davidovic and Stanisic then agreed the details regarding the establishment of a special unit. Minister Stanisic told Davidovic that he could ask Ratko Mladic for additional equipment and staff.

At the meeting with Mladic, Davidovic noted that many Serbian volunteers were looting the Muslims’ property, and asked him to put a stop to this kind of activity. Mladic proposed to set up a warehouse where the police would put the looted goods and distribute them to Serb refugees. Karadzic, who was also present, agreed that the looting should be stopped, but noted that the culprits should not be arrested to avoid ‘Serbs fighting Serbs’. Karadzic illustrated his point with the example of Chetniks and partisans in World War II. The ‘issue of avoiding an inter-Serb conflict’ was present throughout the war and was used to ‘cover up crimes’, the witness added.

The witness also gave his take on the situation to Mico Stanisic, who told him ‘there’s a war going on and crimes are normal’ but the police should prevent them. On the other hand, when asked about new VW Golf cars manufactured in the TAS Factory and taken by the police, Stanisic replied that Karadzic had given his approval to the police to sell the Golf cars to finance the purchase of the equipment.

During his second visit to Republika Srpska in July 1992, Davidovic was ordered to arrest and disarm members of the paramilitary formations. In his cross-examination, Davidovic confirmed that Mico Stanisic gave him ‘absolute authority’ to arrest the culprits ‘regardless of who they were’. Stanisic also ordered Davidovic to prosecute everybody.

The defense counsel then put it to the witness that the local crisis staffs were in fact ‘the main problem’ in the effort to fight the paramilitaries. The highest authorities had called the volunteers to come to RS, Davidovic insisted. As he put it, this was in line with ‘a planned policy of ethnic cleansing of Muslims from all parts of RS’. The policy was implemented by the Serbian Democratic Party. According to Davidovic, local authorities and the police had ties with the paramilitaries as the later ‘looted and killed non-Serbs, creating an atmosphere of fear’. It was only when the paramilitaries started operating independently, no longer dividing the loot and starting to loot Serb property that everybody ‘started crying help’, having realized that something should be done.

The prosecutor will re-examine Davidovic tomorrow.

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