Milos Milincic, witness at the Radovan Karadzic trial

Milos Milincic, a literature teacher from Srbac, testified at the trial of Radovan Karadzic today. During the war, Milincic was the person in charge in the municipality, first as the president of the Serbian Democratic Party, then as the president of the municipal assembly and finally as the Crisis Staff president. In his evidence Milincic embellished his replies with quotes from Njegos, Dostoyevsky, Churchill, Jovanovic Zmaj…

In the examination-in-chief, Milincic described the establishment of the SDS as a ‘contribution to the development of democracy’. According to Milincic, Karadzic was a peaceful man who thought not twice, but three times, before acting. Milincic called Karadzic’s speech at the SDS inauguration assembly in Srbac on 31 August 1990 as the ‘textbook lesson in democracy’. As a literature teacher, Milincic said, he simply saw it as a dream one should strive for.Milincic was particularly thrilled with Karadzic’s thought from that speech, that a ‘garden’ – a ‘meadow’ as he corrected himself a bit later – is ‘the most beautiful when it is in many colors’.

The Muslims from Srbac were not more disadvantaged than the local Serbs, Milincic said. Various ethnic Serbs he described as ‘mafia types’, ‘vultures’ and ‘so-called heroes’ did all kinds of things undercover of the night and caused problems to all and sundry. Milincic also testified that non-Serbs didn’t move out from Srbac, which had a population consisting of 22,000 Serbs and 1,000 Muslims, according to the 1991 census.

In the cross-examination, prosecutor Alan Tieger confronted Milincic with his testimony at the trial of Momcilo Krajisnik in 2005. The prosecutor reminded Milincic that Vojislav Kupresanin, from Srbac, made a speech that was quoted to the witness at Krajisnik’s trial. Kupresanin explained to the Serb Assembly deputies that the war had been necessary because of a significant increase of the number of Muslims in BH.

At Krajisnik’s trial, Milincic confirmed that Kupresanin’s explanation of the cause of the war was tantamount to a public admission that mass expulsions had been the means to achieve the reduction in the number of Muslims inhabiting the municipalities the Serbs considered as their own. ‘Yes, those are the facts’, Milincic said then. Today, eight years later, Milincic said he simply ‘couldn’t believe’ how he could have confirmed such a thing.

Radovan Karadzic’s trial continues with the evidence of Vidoje Blagojevic, former commander of the Bratunac Brigade. Blagojevic has been sentenced to 15 years for the Srebrenica genocide at the Tribunal. He should be followed by Zdravko Tolimir, who has been sentenced to life for the Srebrenica and Zepa genocide. The Trial Chamber has issued a binding order compelling him to testify.

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