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| |  | | Zdravko Tolimir | | | context : | Former Yugoslavia  | | judgement place : | ICTY (Yugoslavia) | | status : | Indicted | | particulars : | Arrested on 31 May 2007 in Bosnia and Herzegovina; handed over to the ICTY; refused to enter a plea on 3 June 2007 | | position : | Assistant Commandant in charge of information and safety, within the main staff of the Bosnian Serb army (VRS) |
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| | | | Zdravko Tolimir was born on November 27, 1948, in Glamoc, Bosnia-Herzegovina. As assistant commander in charge of information and safety within the main staff of the Bosnian Serb army (VRS), Zdravko Tolimir was one of seven assistant commanders who directly reported to the commander of the main staff, General Ratko Mladic (see “related cases”).
According to the indictment, due to his functions the accused had knowledge of the project aiming at chasing the Muslim population away of the Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves, and he participated in the execution of this project.
On July 6, 1995, or around this date, and according to the order given by general Zivanovic on July 2, 1995, units of the Drina corps bombarded Srebrenica and attacked lookouts held by the Dutch battalion of United Nations (Dutchbat) situated in the enclave. On July 9, 1995, President Radovan Karadzic (see “related cases”) modified the initial order and approved the taking of the Srebrenica enclave. The order was passed on by the general Zdravko Tolimir to General Radislav Krstic (see “related cases”), at the advanced post of command of the Drina corps. The attack launched by the Drina corps against the enclave of Srebrenica, notably its bombardment, and the attacks against the other lookouts of United Nations continued until July 11, 1995, date in which the forces of the brigade of Zvornik, the brigade of Bratunac, the 10th detachment of sabotage and the other units of the VRS entered Srebrenica. On July 11, 1995, planes of the NATO released bombs to try to stop the VRS. In spite of these efforts, Srebrenica fell to the hands of the VRS on July 11, 1995.
During the period when it attacked Srebrenica, the VRS also tried to chase the Muslim population away of the Zepa enclave. Three different negotiations took place between the VRS and the representatives of the Muslims of Bosnia of the Zepa enclave. During these negotiations, the representatives of the VRS tried to force the population out of the enclave, under military attack threats. The first series of negotiations took place on July 13, 1995. During this meeting, the commander of the Rogatica brigade, Colonel Rajko Kusic, accompanied with the general Zdravko Tolimir and with the representatives of the local authorities of Bosnia, met at the Ukrainian post of control of the FORPRONU in faction over the heights of Zepa. The Bosnian Serbs said that "Srebrenica had fallen, and now is the time of Zepa".
Zdravko Tolimir then placed the representatives of the Muslims of Bosnia of Zepa in front of an alternative: either all the population could be "evacuated" in the same way as to Srebrenica, or the Serbs of Bosnia would launch a military operation. The representatives of the Muslims of Bosnia decided to reject the Serbian proposition as such. Early in the morning of July 14, 1995, the command of the VRS launched a large-scale attack against the Zepa enclave. In the evening of July 14, 1995, the Serbs of Bosnia entered the enclave by the northwest, took back some lands and burned villages.
The second and third series of negotiations between the VRS and the representatives of the Moslems of Bosnia of the enclave took place 19 and on July 24, 1995, all attended by the accused.
The transport of the women and the children of Zepa began July 25, 1995. On the same day, or around this date, hundreds of Moslem men, most of them capable of fight, began to cross the Drina to take refuge in Serbia where the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) registered a good part of them before letting them leave. The Muslim men ran away in Serbia because they were afraid of being hurt or killed they surrendered to the VRS.
Zdravko Tolimir, together with other VRS and MUP officers and units, was a member of and knowingly participated in a joint criminal enterprise, the common purpose of which was, among other things: to forcibly transfer the women and children from the Srebrenica enclave to Kladanj on 12 July and 13 July 1995; and to capture, detain, summarily execute by firing squad, bury, and rebury thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys aged 16 to 60 from the Srebrenica enclave from 12 July 1995 until and about 19 July 1995.
The joint criminal enterprise, in which Zdravko Tolimir was a member and participant, was conceived and designed by General Ratko Mladic and others on 11 and 12 July 1995, and administered and carried out by members of the VRS and MUP forces through the attack on Srebrenica enclave.
In the several days following the attack on Srebrenica, the Bosnian Serb Army and Ministry of Interior forces captured, detained, summarily executed, and buried over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys from the Srebrenica enclave, and forcibly transferred the Bosnian Muslim women and children of Srebrenica out of the enclave.
Zdravko Tolimir was arrested by Bosnian Serb police on 31 May 2007 and the following day he was transferred to the ICTY. | |     click for more... | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Bosnia and herzegovina | | | date of birth : | | | 27.11.1948 | | | last time seen : | | | The Hague, Netherlands | | | period of charges : | | | 07.1995 - 11.1995 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
Genocide
War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 28.11.2007 |
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