Radomir Radinkovic, defence witness at Rako Mladic trial

Radomir Radinkovic, former security officer in the VRS 1^st Krajina Corps, gave evidence at the trial of Ratko Mladic. From May to November 1992, Radinkovic was in charge of security in the Manjaca prison camp. The witness was also a member of the Commission for the Admission of prisoners. The Commission identified persons brought in to the prison camp. In his statement to the defense Radinkovic said that his main job was to interrogate prisoners, to provide security in the prison camp, to recommend security measures and to report to the superior command.

As he was questioned by prosecutor Edgerton, the witness confirmed that his team had ascertained that many of the people detained in Manjaca had not been taken part in armed combat. When judge Orie asked why those men hadn’t been released, the witness said that his service ‘didn’t have the mandate’ to set the detainees free. Radinkovic stressed that they could recommend to the superior command to release the elderly, the minors and the sick ‘but only in an organized way, if they went to third countries’. They could not let the prisoners ‘go where they will’ because of the war, Radinkovic explained: the prisoners could be killed. ‘That was our motto and it was humane’, Radinkovic said.

The judges were particularly interested to hear the witness speak about 1,400 detainees who were brought to the prison camp gate in 11 buses in the early morning of 6 August 1992. The prison camp management refused to accept them until the civilian police escorting the buses made a list of the prisoners’ names. In the meantime, many of the detainees were beaten in front of the prison camp gate, and some were killed. When he heard what was going on, Radinkovic informed the chief of security, Stevan Bogojevic, and called in a military police platoon to help. When the military police arrived, the beatings and killings stopped.

Radinkovic claimed that the military police were only in charge of the security inside the prison camp; that was why the military police didn’t go out of the prison camp to intervene when prisoners transferred from Omarska were killed. ‘Why did you not go to the fence and say, hey guys, stop it’, Judge Orie asked the witness. ‘If I see someone being killed, I don’t need any authorization to at least tell the killers to stop’, the judge added. ‘It was not my job to go to the gates, and especially not to bring up the issue of human moral values’, the witness told the judge.

Radinkovic described Manjaca as the only place where prisoners could hope to survive. According to the witness, Manjaca was an umbrella that kept the prisoners ‘safe from harm’ regardless of whether they were brought in as civilians or prisoners of war. The witness repeatedly stressed that he and his colleagues had made a ‘superhuman effort’ to fully comply with the Geneva Conventions. This prompted Judge Orie to express his doubt if the witness interpreted the Geneva Conventions correctly.

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