Serbia raises war crimes indictment in Bosnia against former general

Zivanovic is accused of ordering and participating in the forced transfer of Bosnian civilians from Srebrenica and Zepa to the eastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the indictment, in one of November 1992, Zivanovic, among other things, ordered:

With the main forces and tools, with the application of active action, you cause the enemy as much losses as you can, toil, break or force it to surrender and force the Muslim population to leave the area of Cersca, Zepa, Srebrenica, and Gorazde”.

In March 1995, he issued an order for “creating conditions of total uncertainty, intolerance and lack of hope for the survival and future life of locals in Srebrenica and Zepa through activities Iplanned and planned daily”.

On July 12, 1995, he ordered the security of 50 buses for the <x0evation of civilians from the Srebrenica enclave”.

A day later he issued a warning, in which, in addition to concrete orders, the Bosniaks in Zepa had been subjected to ultimatum that “if you do not accept the call for expulsion, they would continue with execution”.

The Srebrenica Protection Zone was in the area of responsibility of the Republika Srpska Army Corps and on July 12th and 13th 1995, several thousand Bosniaks -- mainly women, children and elderly -- were forcibly displaced from this area, the indictment reported.

The main review of the indictment against Zivanovic is scheduled for 8 April at the Supreme Court in Belgrade.

The Act against Zivanovic was founded on 4 January 2022 by Bosnia and Herzegovina State Prosecutor, who accuses him of crimes against humanity in the Srebrenica and Zepa area from March to mid-July 1995.

He is charged that, as participants in the joint criminal enterprise, he has planned and directed the activities of the Drina Corps subx0> units in a systematic attack against the Bosnian civilian population”.

Zivanovic appeared before The Hague Tribunal in October 2013 as a defence witness in the case against former Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic, who was sentenced to life in prison in March 2019 for genocide and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After the capture of Srebrenica on 11 July 1995, Zivanovic was acquitted of his duties as commander of the Drina Corps and, unlike his successor Radislav Krstiq, was not responsible for the subsequent mass killings.

During his testimony, Hague prosecutor Melisa Pack confronted Zivanovic with implementing Karadzic's orders to starve Srebrenica residents, which preceded the murder and deportation.

During the two days of his testimony, Zivanovic claimed his goal was never civilians.

We were in a war relationship at the time, two parties fighting. But do not remind me of the Muslim people of every question. The Muslim people have never been my enemy,”, Zivanovic said in The Hague.

Zivanovic was also mentioned during the trial of his former superior, General Ratko Mladic, as the person who reported to the then bishop (Zornik-Tuzla), Vasilije Kacaveda, for Operation Srebrenica on July 12th 1995.

Ratko Mladic was sentenced in June 2021 in The Hague to life imprisonment for genocide in Srebrenica and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Republika Srpska Army forces killed about 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995.

So far, 6,955 people's remains have been identified. / REL/