Fugitive Ratko Mladic’s Secret War Diary Published

Mladic writes about money necessary to buy senators in America, he mentions Clinton and Tudjman’s trip to America.

The international war crimes tribunal’s Chief Prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, is scheduled to submit a report today about Serbia’s cooperation with the tribunal, with a special accent on capturing war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic. The tribunal still has not had any success in apprehending him, but, according to Serbia’s BlicOnline new site, Brammertz has managed to obtain the notorious general’s war diaries and will use them to placate the international community. 

The notes written during the 1990’s war in the former Yugoslavia contain descriptions of meetings between the most wanted war crimes fugitive with Slobodan Milosevic, Jovica Stanisic and other, lower ranked, officials of the Serb army.

The diary was found during a search of the flat of Ratko Mladic’s wife, Bosiljka Mladic, last December according to a warrant issued by the Belgrade County Court’s War Crimes Council. Evidently Mladic liked putting his thoughts on paper because the diary consists of several notebooks. Apart from being literarily talented, Mladic seems to also be one of the largest illusionists in this region because all attempts to arrest him in the past eleven years have failed. So far he has been seen in Rumania, Belgrade, Pancevo, Zlatibor, Cer, Povlen, and the list of his sightings increases every day. During her mandate as chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte mentioned several locations in Serbia and suspected that Mladic was hiding in a military facility or even in a monastery in Ovcarsko-Kablarska Klisura or somewhere near Belgrade.

Found in Kazakhstan RPO-A Shmel B-3, total of 3,000 pieces cost a million dollars or 333 dollars per piece and if we want to buy 200 pieces then it costs 750,000 dollars. Ordered AG-S-17 (grenade launcher, automatic). Sniper rifle 12.7mm range up to 3,000 m, don’t know the cost. Ordered sniper rifle SVD up to 1,000 range, 7.62 or 5.54 calibre (doesn’t know exactly)…

Ratko Mladic

The fact that it was difficult for him to leave his homeland, just like Radovan Karadzic, is indicated by the fact that the collected information shows that he has been hiding in urban parts of Serbia since 2001, with a special affection for New Belgrade part of the city.

Mladic as a Macedonian shepherd 

The Serbian public suspected for a long time that the general was transferred to safety into a Macedonian World war Two bunker where he spends his days looking after sheep and overseen by as many as 200 well-armed bodyguards. But after his accomplices were arrested in 2006, his movements were reconstructed and it was established that Mladic chose the Serbian capital as his hiding place, but constantly moving from flat to flat in New Belgrade. His assistants provided him with food, organised his transport and paid his utility bills.

After 2006 every trace of Mladic disappeared. Since he is well-trained in military intelligence, it is presumed that he knows very well what he is doing and that he has developed his ability to adapt to the urban environment of Belgrade. It is also presumed that several people are assisting him.

His diaries that could shed light on many black holes in the years of war were handed to The Hague tribunal’s investigators on February 25. The prosecutors are now requesting that the documents be included in the evidence list in the case against Jovica Stanisic.

How to punish the disobedient Serbia 

The European Commission has frozen its negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Serbia because of Serbia’s inability to bring the last Balkan butcher to justice. The Serbian government has adopted an action plan for cooperation with the tribunal in which Mladic’s arrest is a priority, but so far it has had no concrete results.

Perhaps now it is beginning to dawn on the entire Europe what has been known for a long time in Croatia, and that is that there is simply no political will to arrest and extradite Mladic. This is not surprising, considering the support radical political parties have from the Serbian people.

The issue about which Brammertz and his employers have to decide about pertain more to concrete pressures that can be applied on Serbia because it is truly silly how a country that was defeated in the war and is lagging behind its neighbours in so many issues can be getting away with not arresting war crimes suspects for so many years.

The secret diary of Ratko Mladic 

In his war diaries, Mladic described in detail his meetings with Slobodan Milosevic, Jovica Stanisic and other military officials.

- Found in Kazakhstan RPO-A Shmel B-3, total of 3,000 pieces cost a million dollars or 333 dollars per piece and if we want to buy 200 pieces then it costs 750,000 dollars. Ordered AG-S-17 (grenade launcher, automatic). Sniper rifle 12.7mm range up to 3,000 m, don’t know the cost. Ordered sniper rifle SVD up to 1,000 range, 7.62 or 5.54 calibre (doesn’t know exactly)…

- Those who work in Moscow, Skoric and company, they are such slackers, they don’t want to do

Those who work in Moscow, Skoric and company, they are such slackers, they don’t want to do anything.

Ratko Mladic

Mladic also made notes about his meetings with other people, as well as the money necessary to buy United States senators. He mentions President Clinton and the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman’s trip to America, as well as data on financing the army.

The prosecution justified its request to include the diaries in the evidence by stating that they prove close cooperation between the participants of the war crimes and that they describe Stanisic’s role as coordinator.