Dragan Obrenović

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Dragan Obrenović (born April 12, 1963) was the Interim Commander of the Zvornik brigade of the Republika Srpska (VRS) (the Bosnian Serb Army) from August 8, 1995 until September 15, 1995. He remained Chief of Staff of this brigade until April 30, 1996.

On April 9, 2001 Obrenović was indicted for War Crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague in connection with the massacre of 8,100 Bosniak men and boys on July 11, 1995 during the Srebrenica massacre—Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. On December 10, 2003, Obrenović pled guilty to one of the counts of persecution, and in exchange agreeing to allocute to his crime and witness for the prosecution he was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Early military career 3 Role in the Yugoslav wars 3.1 JNA Attack On Zvornik 3.2 Transfer To The VRS 3.3 Operation Krivaja 95 3.3.1 Srebrenica, The Escapee Column, And Massacres 3.3.2 Ambush Attempts 3.3.3 Srebrenica Captives In Zvornik 3.3.4 The Column Escape Corridor 3.3.5 Prisoner Problems 3.3.6 "Who has the right to barter using Serbian land?" 3.3.7 The Escape Corridor 3.3.8 "Take No Prisoners" 3.3.9 Wounded Prisoners At "Standard" 3.3.10 Conversation With Krstić 3.3.11 Victim Reburials 3.4 Post-War 4 Indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia 5 Arrest and Trial 6 Family 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Obrenović was born on April 12, 1963 in the village of Rogatica on Matinom Brdo, in the Rogatica municipality in Eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina.^[1] He attended primary school in Rogatica, and at the age of fifteen attended secondary school at a military gymnasium in Belgrade. Upon graduation at age eighteen, he attended the military academy for ground forces, specializing in armored and mechanized units. He graduated in 1986 at the age of 23, receiving a commission with the rank of second lieutenant.

[edit] Early military career

Obrenović's first assignment was a tank platoon command at the Jastrebarsko garrison in the Republic of Croatia. After six months he was promoted to tank company commander in the same brigade. This post he held until 1990 when he was promoted to deputy command of the armored battalion. When war broke out in Croatia, the JNA began withdrawing from Croatia and in October 1991 Obrenović's unit was relocated to the Dubrava Airport in Tuzla, and he was promoted to acting commander of the armored battalion. On February 28, 1992 his battalion was relocated to Mali Zvornik and Zvornik when the situation in Bosnia began to deteriorate.

[edit] Role in the Yugoslav wars

[edit] JNA Attack On Zvornik

In early April of 1992, just over a month after the February 28 ratification of the Bosnian Serb's Constitution of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and with the international community rapidly approaching recognition of the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina along former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito's old boundaries, the Yugoslav Peoples Army began preparations to invade and conduct ethnic cleansing campaigns in the Bosanski Šamac, Prijedor, Vlasenica and Zvornik regions of the Drina Valley. Until this point, the Muslim population in the town of Zvornik enjoyed a 59.4% majority.^[2]

Captain Dragan Obrenović appeared on public radio to assure the citizens of that area that the JNA's only mandate was to protect all citizens of Yugoslavia. "There is no reason for panic. The JNA, as a legal military force, is here disable those that would eventually try to threaten the security of all citizens and the entire nation."^[3]

Five days later the JNA, including Obrenović's battalion, launched a massive simultaneous assault, starting with paramilitary forces in Bijeljina. The attacks spread to Foča, Zvornik, Bosanski Šamac, Vlasenica, Prijedor, Brčko, and was punctuated by the blockading of Sarajevo to the Southwest. Non-Serbs had their property confiscated, were deported en masse, and most men of military age were murdered on sight or in mass executions in villages such as Hambarine, Kozarac, Jelec, Gornja Grapska in Doboj, the Hotel Posavina in Brčko, the Crkvina warehouse in Bosanski Šamac, and detention centers such as the Brčko Partizan Sports Hall. Many of the men were interred at infamous concentration camps such as Omarska, Keraterm, Susica, and Luka while the women, children and elderly fled south toward Srebrenica and Žepa.

[edit] Transfer To The VRS

On May 19, 1992, two weeks after the JNA established a total blockade of Sarajevo and began the now-infamous Siege of Sarajevo, the JNA began withdrawing from Bosnia while personnel and equipment from the second military district remained behind to be absorbed into the forming Bosnian Serb army. Obrenović's unit was relocated the following day to the garrison in the Vršac municipality. After a brief 30-day assignment in Zvornik, Obrenović was given orders on December 1, 1992 to report to the newly-formed Army of Republika Srpska, or VRS. He reported to Crna Rijeka, whereupon he was appointed acting chief of staff of the 1st Zvornik Infantry Brigade under the 17th Corps of Tuzla. Initially, the armored vehicles still carried the emblems of the JNA. It was only later that they sported the Serbian flag and badges showing the coat-of-arms. At the same time, the members of the units --officers and soldiers alike -- had been wearing Serb badges on their uniforms from the very beginning.^[4]

In April of 1993 Obrenović was promoted to Chief of Staff of 1st Zvornik Infantry Brigade. On April 16, 1995 Obrenović was wounded in his left leg during combat operations. He was evacuated and underwent surgery as well as extensive post-operative treatment. A few months later, a commander and another officer visited him at his house while he was still on sick leave, asking him to interrupt his leave and return to brigade command, as preparations were under way to attack the Srebrenica enclave, then designated a UN-protected "safe haven", but suspected base of operations for the BiH Army 28th Division that had just launched crippling attacks against Obrenović's infantry brigade. Obrenović returned to duty at Zvornik brigade command July 1.

[edit] Operation Krivaja 95

Believing that the UN-protected enclaves of Srebrenica and Žepa were never demilitarized, and that they hid what amounted to "five or six brigades" of BiH Army troops and weapons^[5], the VRS Main Staff ordered the Drina Corps Command to undertake an operation codenamed Krivaja 95. On July 2, 1995, Obrenović's brigade was given operational orders related to Operation Krivaja 95.^[6] Detailed orders from Drina Corps regarding his brigade's involvement arrived later that same day. Obrenović drafted Zvornik brigade deployment details, and a combat group of command and two battalions were set up. The 1st battalion comprised the Podrinje attachment and the mobile combat group the Drina Wolves. The 2nd battalion comprised one intervention platoon from all battalions except the fifth, then split into two companies. First battalion commander Lieutenant Stanojević was commander of the unit, with Pandurević in command of the whole brigade involvement. His deputy, Captain First Class Milan "Legenda" Jolović, commanded the Wolves.

[edit] Srebrenica, The Escapee Column, And Massacres

From July 4 to July 15, 1995 Obrenović acted as Deputy Commander of the Zvornik Brigade while the Commander was gone to Srebrenica during the assault. Obrenović later testified that he heard about fall of Srebrenica on 7/11. At 05:00 on July 12 Obrenović's Gucovo group reported communication intercepts indicating large column of Muslims had formed comprising parts of the 28th Division as well as regional Muslim refugees and was heading Northeast toward Muslim-held territory. At 07:00 Obrenović had a conversation with duty officer of Captain First Class Radika Petrović, commander of the 4th Battalion of the Bratunac Brigade who briefed him on the details of the column passing between his area near Buljin and the Milici Brigade. Obrenović had concerns that the customary travel vector might bring the 28th Division column close to engaging with Zvornik brigade forces just north of the village of Jaglici. Obrenović went to the 7th battalion headquarters in Memici to deal with an impending 2nd Corps BiH attack.

Needing more information on this column, Obrenović sent his assistant commander for intelligence affairs, one Captain Vukotić, to the 4th battalion command in the Kajica village in Sekovici, and asked him to seek direct details on this column. Two VRS units in the area meanwhile blockaded the column; one battalion of the Protection Regiment in Kasaba and part of the units of the 55th engineering battalion in Konjević Polje. Also one company from Zvornik MUP were present with one more preparing to head there.

Obrenović received orders from Drina Corps to assist traffic regulation in Konjević Polje, he sent a detachment of a half squad of traffic police to assist. Later on he began receiving requests for trucks and buses for transport in Potočari. He received more intel reports regarding the disposition of prisoners to be interrogated as well as predictions on movement of the column. Early on the evening of the 12th gets word from Vukotić that units of the 28th Division were carrying out a penetration and evacuation through this space and that practically the entire area was overwhelmed by people from this column. There was also a second VRS blockade in front of the column of the 28th Division between Kravica, Konjević Polje and near an asphalt road in Nova Kasaba. Small units (about 150 men) from column broke through and were reaching Glogova and Čerska, so Obrenović was tasked to take all necessary measures in order to protect the elements of combat deployment of the brigade as well as populated Serb villages in the territory of Zvornik.

[edit] Ambush Attempts

At midnight between 12th and 13th, Obrenović set out with some units north of Liplje to organize an ambush of forward components of 28th division. The ambush was laid, but no BiH Army units arrived. Leaving some troops at Snagovo, Obrenović and the rest returned to Zvornik. When he arrived at brigade headquarters, he was informed that the column had been stopped on the road from Kravica, Konjević Polje, to Milici, and that there were no troops in their area. Shortly thereafter he received word from intercept groups that chatter was picking up in the area stretching from Čerska toward Kamenica, despite Drina Corps' reassurance that there was no troop presence there. 28th division radio intercepts showed that their security slipped up and the Serbs were able to learn that their numbers were 1000 - 1500 in that area.

Later on the 13th Obrenović strengthened the units that had stayed up there providing the ambush, and he decided to organise a provisional unit, grouping squad and platoon from the units at his disposal; 15 soldiers from the engineers company, five or six soldiers from the staff command, and about 15 to 20 soldiers from the logistics battalion, 20 donators, a remaining platoon from the 5th Battalion, and an intervention platoon. This formed a unit with the strength of a company. Captain Milan Marić from the operations sector was made Commander. Obrenović then sent the military police platoon to perform reconnaissance of the Drinjača River canyon by the village of Glodi, concluding that the column would likely use the two bridges there. An ambush team was assembled from military police platoon at Široki Put and the other at Džafin Kamen, another military platoon, and the rest of the ambush team from above the village of Liplje. The column would be successfully ambushed by the Drina Wolves near Nova Kasaba on July 13 and then again by the VRS near Snagovo the next day.

[edit] Srebrenica Captives In Zvornik

Around 19:00 on July 13, Obrenović was contacted by Lieutenant Drago Nikolić regarding prisoners being transported to Zvornik. Obrenović suggested the use of the Batkovic POW camp to the North, and was told that the Red Cross and UNPROFOR knew about Batkovic, and these prisoners were to be shot and buried in the Zvornik area.^[7]

At 14:00 on July 14, Obrenović was at Snagovo when Major Zoran Jovanović brought in a reinforcement company, along with the information that Colonel Ljubiša Beara had transported an abnormally large number of prisoners in buses to Zvornik. That same day Obrenović overheard a call for two engineers to be released from battle lines to build a road. Suspicious of someone doing the engineers a favor, Obrenović checked on the message and was told that the engineers were needed in Zvornik because of a task being carried out by Beara, Popović, and Nikolić. Obrenović knew that this must involve mass burials. He released the two engineers and ordered his aides to refrain from discussing the issue.

Throughout the next days, Obrenović spent most of his time trying to find a solution for the 28th Division column problem, but he also released further military police and infantry personnel from battle lines to assist with the execution of prisoners, and supplied earth moving machinery from his engineering battalions to dig mass graves. Obrenović and his troops took part in three very fierce close quarters battles with the 28th division during this time, and around 40 Serb troops were killed with over 100 wounded.^[8]

Throughout the day on July 14, members of the Military Police Company of Obrenović's Zvornik Brigade guarded and blindfolded approximately 1,000 Bosnian Muslim males detained at the Grbavci School. In the early afternoon of July 14, 1995, VRS personnel transported these Bosnian Muslim males from the school at Grbavci to a nearby field, where personnel including members of the 4th Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade ordered the prisoners off the trucks and summarily executed them with automatic weapons. That night, members of the Zvornik Brigade Engineering Company used heavy equipment to bury the victims in mass graves at the execution site, while the executions continued. On the evening of July 14, lights from the engineering machinery illuminated the execution and burial sites during the executions.^[9]

In the early morning hours of July 15, 1995, VRS personnel from the Zvornik Brigade, including drivers and trucks from the 6th Infantry Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade, transported the surviving members of the group of approximately 1000 Bosnian Muslim males from the school at Petkovci to an area below the Dam near Petkovci. They were assembled below the Dam and summarily executed by VRS or MUP soldiers with automatic weapons. VRS personnel from the Engineering Company of the Zvornik Brigade used excavators and other heavy equipment to bury the victims while the executions continued.

Later that day, at Zvornik Brigade Headquarters, Obrenović spoke with Dragan Jokić briefly at 11:00 and discussed the problem with the burials of those executed and the guarding of prisoners still to be executed, as well as orders to not make records of any sort regarding the executions and burials.^[10]

[edit] The Column Escape Corridor

Obrenović then met with Colonel Dragomir Vasić and other officers. The idea was suggested of opening a corridor to Muslim territory and flushing the column and any stragglers towards it. It appealed to those present, to avoid casualties and relieve the threat the column posed on the security of Zvornik as well as the rear of their front lines. Attempts to discuss the matter with Obrenović's immediate superior on the phone were unsuccessful, and General Miletić rebuffed the idea and chastised Obrenović for using an insecure line. It was then that Obrenović was informed that General Radislav Krstić was now Drina Corps commander. Obrenović telephoned General Krstić and explained the threat to Zvornik that the 28th division column posed. General Krstić assured him that Pandurević, "Legenda" and his men were on their way to Zvornik.

[edit] Prisoner Problems

Colonel Vasić related security problems with prisoners in Bratunac. Because of lack of space, prisoners captured in Srebrenica had to be housed overnight in parked buses. The prisoners grew agitated later in the night and began rocking the buses. Special Police Commander Ljubomir Borovčanin indicated dissatisfaction that civilian police were being used to guard buses in Bratunac, and was determined for that not to be the case with the prisoners in Zvornik. Special Police Officer Miloš Stupar related that prisoners packed into a warehouse in Kravica had rebelled, and one had killed a Serb guard, sparking an all-out Serb assault on the prisoners in the warehouse with grenades and automatic weapons fire, killing almost all of them.

[edit] "Who has the right to barter using Serbian land?"

Obrenović then spoke with his superior, Vinko Pandurević, who had just arrived at Zvornik brigade headquarters. He briefed him about the execution operations, which were depleting both manpower and equipment resources and diluting their ability to deal with the column. He discussed issues regarding the burial of execution victims as well as the guarding of those waiting to be executed. Pandurević expressed curiosity as to why Civil Defense wasn't doing the burials as initially planned. The commander then expressed disappointment that the column hadn't yet been cut off and destroyed. Obrenović repeated his suggestion to give the column an escape route, and his commander retorted "who has the right to barter using Serbian land?"

In the afternoon on the 15th, Obrenović met with Lazar Ristić at the 4th Battalion's forward command post in Baljkovice. He asked him why, if Ristić had been unable to provide reinforcements to him earlier, he was able to send men to Milorad Trbić to assist with guarding prisoners in Orahovac. Ristić claimed to have been unaware that executions were going to be taking place, and upon learning of this had tried to remove his men from the area when Drago Nikolić stopped them and promised them new uniforms if they would stay and continue to help kill the prisoners.

The word of the executions by this time was spreading everywhere. Obrenović was briefed that there was a group at Orahovac from the Drina Corps Military Police assisting with the executions. An elderly man attached to the Rear Services of 4th Battalion related to him that he had heard that Drago Nikolić had personally taken part in the execution and that he could not believe what had happened. That evening and all that night, the BiH Army 28th Division cut off the 4th Battalion's communications lines and transport routes and mounted another attack. Obrenović and his troops extracted from Baljkovice the next day, having lost 40 soldiers to the enemy.

On the afternoon of July 16 Obrenović was sent to the 6th Battalion Commander, Ostoja Stanišić. He was told by Stanišić that his deputy had been wounded and that Beara had brought prisoners to the school nearby. Stanišić was evidently angry as the last group of prisoners were not taken to the dam to be executed, but were cut down right there at the school and that his men (the 6th Battalion Rear Services) had to clean up the mess at the school, including the removal of the bodies to the dam. Obrenović was briefed that, while 10th Sabotage unit from Vlasenica took part in the execution, the Zvornik Brigade’s 6th Battalion trucks and personnel were utilised to transport the corpses from the school of Petkovci, which were buried in a mass grave at the dam. Members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment Platoon from Bijeljina had taken part in the executions at the Branjevo Military Farm, together with selected soldiers from Bratunac.

On July 17, VRS personnel from the "R" Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade retrieved the bodies of the victims from the Pilica School and the Pilica Cultural Center and transported them to the Branjevo Military Farm, where the Engineering Company of the Zvornik Brigade buried the victims of the Pilica School executions in a mass grave at the Branjevo Military Farm. ^[11]

[edit] The Escape Corridor

On July 16, at 14:00, VRS troops opened an escape corridor and began sweeping operations to drive the BiH Army 28th Division forces through it. The corridor was closed four hours later at 18:00 that same day.^[12]

At noon on July 18 Obrenović was ordered by Pandurević to report to and brief three senior officers from the Drina Corps Main Staff regarding the corridor opening for the column. He met Colonel Sladojević; Colonel Trkulja, who was in charge of the armoured units at Main Staff; and military police chief Colonel Stanković after their meeting had already begun. After the description of the operation, Obrenović was grilled on the VRS capabilities and weaknesses. He later complained that they believed "we never put up resistance to the 28th Division and just let them through." The senior officers were surprised to hear of the stiff Serb losses in the region. Obrenović was dismissed from the meeting before it was finished.

[edit] "Take No Prisoners"

On that same day, a captured Muslim soldier managed to kill a Serb soldier and wound a number of others before being killed. Drina Corps commanders then ordered that their units should no longer risk taking prisoners, and at that point VRS troops shot Muslim soldiers on sight more frequently and stopped bring POWs in for processing.

On July 19 the following conversation between Obrenović and Drina Corps Commandant General Radislav Krstić was intercepted:

RK: Is that you, Obrenović?
DO: Yes.
RK: Krstić here.
DO: How are you General, sir?
RK: I'm great, and you?
DO: Thanks to you I am too.
RK: Way to go, Chief. And how's you're health?
DO: It's fine, thank God, it's fine.
RK: Are you working down there?
DO: Of course we're working.
RK: Good.
DO: We've managed to catch a few more, either by gunpoint or in mines.
RK: Kill them all. God damn it.
DO: Everything, everything is going according to plan. Yes.
RK: Not a single one must be left alive.
DO: Everything is going according to plan. Everything.
RK: Way to go, Chief. The Turks are probably listening to us. Let them listen, the motherfuckers.
DO: Yeah, let them.^[13]

That same day, troops from the 16th Brigade of the 1st Krajina Corps, re-subordinated to the command of the Zvornik Brigade captured approximately 10 Bosnian Muslim males from the column and with automatic weapons, summarily executed them at a place near Nezuk.^[14]

On the 21st the no-prisoners order was rescinded for the Zvornik brigade by Pandurević, who ordered that all prisoners should be transported to facilities and processed according to normal procedures.^[15]

[edit] Wounded Prisoners At "Standard"

On July 20 Obrenović was ordered to inspect the clinic at "Standard" (The "Novi Standard" shoe factory in Karakaj that had been converted to a barracks), and brief the hospital staff regarding the prisoners being treated there on the orders of a Colonel in the Medical Corps. He discovered that the Serb wounded were being housed in close proximity to the Muslim wounded, and instructed the staff not to allow anyone into the room. He informed them that prisoners would be transported to Bijeljina as they recovered.

On July 22, four Bosnian Muslim men were captured from the column by Zvornik Brigade troops and turned over to Zvornik Brigade Security personnel were interrogated by Zvornik Brigade personnel, and then summarily executed.^[16]

On July 23 at 08:00, Pandurević called the Drina Corps to resolve the issue of prisoners at the clinic. Obrenović received word from the Drina Corps that Colonel Popović would be coming to deal with the prisoners which suggested that they would likely not live to see Bijeljina. Military Policemen took the prisoners away early one morning and shot the prisoners dead at an established execution site. Obrenović was later told that Popović had passed an order from General Ratko Mladić to Drago Nikolić that these patients had to be executed and that Popović had acted as a courier.^[17]

[edit] Conversation With Krstić

Obrenović was the Chief Of Staff of the 1st Zvornik Infantry Brigade until August 8, when he acted as Brigade Commander in Pandurević's absence. During this time General Krstić visited Zvornik and requested that Obrenović take him to the soldiers in the field who had been involved in the most fierce fighting. Obrenović decided to take him to the men in the trenches of the right flank of the 7th battalion. Next to a trench one of the soldiers was listening on a transistor radio to the broadcast account of a survivor from one of the executions. General Krstić ordered that the radio be switched off, ordering them to not listen to enemy radio. He asked Obrenović if he had issued orders that enemy radio should not be listened to and Obrenović said that he had not. Obrenović later asked General Krstić why the killings took place, saying that even if they were all chickens that were killed, there still had to be a reason. General Krstić asked Obrenović where he had been. Obrenović answered that he'd been at the field at Snagovo as ordered. Krstić cut the conversation short.

[edit] Victim Reburials

Between August and November of 1995, VRS soldiers took part in a large scale operation to cover up the murders and executions committed in the zone under the responsibility of the brigades from Zvornik and Bratunac. The bodies were exhumed from their graves at the army farm in Branjevo, and also from Kozluk, from the dam close to Petkovci, from Orahovac and from Glogova, to be transferred to secondary mass graves. Personnel and earth moving machinery from the Zvornik brigade were used extensively throughout these operations.^[18]

Obrenović later testified that on October 20 he learned that several members of the Brigade’s Engineering unit, Military Police and Drago Nikolić participated in the re-burial of those prisoners executed in July 1995. Popović brought in others to help, including units from the Drina Corps Military Police, who secured the area and traffic where the re-burials were taking place. Some Zvornik Brigade engineers were involved in the loading of bodies from the primary graves. Both Popović and Beara oversaw the re-burial operation, but were wearing civilian clothes.

[edit] Post-War

On April 30, 1996, Obrenović was promoted to Commander of the 303rd motorized brigade. Four months later the 303rd was absorbed into the 505th, and he retained his post as Commander.

It was around this time that SFOR detected some explosives under unknown conditions (possible a cache of mines, which was common) which triggered a VRS internal investigation. During this investigation, Chief of Operations Jokić accused Obrenović of working for SFOR. Obrenović requested relief from his commandant due to the ensuing friction. Jokić was subsequently transferred to the command of 5th Corps at Sokolac. ^[19]

Obrenović maintained a residence in Zvornik at 5C Sveti Sava Street up until his arrest.

[edit] Indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

On November 1, 1998 General Dragan Obrenović was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague for complicity in genocide, extermination, persecution, and two counts of murder. ^[20]

[edit] Arrest and Trial

On April 15, 2001, at 14:30, Three armed men and one woman abducted Obrenović in the town of Kozluk. He was bundled into a vehicle that quickly sped away from the scene before shocked witnesses. Town police units caught up with the vehicle in short order, only to learn that the abductors were SFOR personnel with UN Hague Investigators.^[21] Obrenovic was transferred that same day to the Hague, he entered not-guilty pleas across the board at his arraignment on the 18th.^[22]

On May 20, 2003, Obrenović entered a plea agreement with the ICTY prosecutor's office. He pled guilty to one count of persecution, and in exchange for truthful allocution to his role in the Srebrenica Massacre and his testimony against his co-accused (his indictment was to be joined with that of four others on May 27) he was promised a reduced sentence. On December 10, 2003 Obrenović was sentenced to 17 years in prison, with 969 days credit for time served.^[23] He is currently serving out his sentence in Norway and will be eligible for release in April of 2018.

Since his plea, he made the following public statement:

“In the land where I was born the birth of a baby boy was celebrated by the firing of guns. That shooting says it all, what it means to have a new male head in a house and what would be expected of it — strength, protection, warrior, fighter, head of a house is what we say. When they, unfortunately, brandished those other guns of war in Yugoslavia, it was normal that every male head would don a uniform, take a rifle in his hands, and set off to guard his homeland, his nation, and finally, his family. This was expected of him, this was his duty, a holy duty by birth. There was no choice: either a fighter or a traitor.

In these war ordeals of ours nobody came out a winner, all were left to suffer. All sides were left with pain that is still there. Suffering and unhappiness were the victors as the consequences of blind hate and ignorance. The spirit of that unhappiness still lingers to wind through these scorched Bosnian hills of ours, and years must pass before the traces of this horrible war may fade and our chimneys will smoke again, and maybe another decade before the healing of the wounds in the spirit of our people. If this confession of mine, my testimony and remorse, if my confronting myself brings a faster healing to those wounds, then I have still fulfilled my duty as a warrior, fighter, father, and man.”^[24]

[edit] Family

Dragan Obrenović is married to an Economist with whom he had a son in 1997. His parents still reside in Rogatica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and he has two brothers, one a policeman and the other an electrician.^[25]

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/transe60/031001ED.htm "Testimony of Dragan Obrenović, October 1, 2003"
2. ^ 1991 Census of the SFRY
3. ^ http://www.bhdani.com/arhiva/202/t20214.shtml "Mladićev Šegrt"
4. ^ http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/zvornik/zvornikrep2b.html "Ethnic Cleansing Operations", Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights
5. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/transe33/001025ed.htm "Trial of Radislav Krstić Transcript", October 25, 2000"
6. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/transe60/031002ED.htm "Testimony of Dragan Obrenović, October 2, 2003"
7. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/obrenovic/trialc/facts_030520.htm "Statement of Facts As Set Out By Dragan Obrenovic"
8. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/transe60/031002ED.htm "Testimony of Dragan Obrenović, October 2, 2003"
9. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/nik-ai020527e.htm "Amended Joinder Indictment"
10. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/obrenovic/trialc/facts_030520.htm "Statement of Facts As Set Out By Dragan Obrenovic"
11. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/nik-ai020527e.htm "Amended Joinder Indictment"
12. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/obrenovic/trialc/facts_030520.htm "Statement of Facts As Set Out By Dragan Obrenovic"
13. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/transe33/001101ed.htm "Trial of Radislav Krstić Transcript" November 1, 2000
14. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/nik-ai020527e.htm "Amended Joinder Indictment"
15. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/obrenovic/trialc/facts_030520.htm "Statement of Facts As Set Out By Dragan Obrenovic"
16. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/nik-ai020527e.htm "Amended Joinder Indictment"
17. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/obrenovic/trialc/facts_030520.htm "Statement of Facts As Set Out By Dragan Obrenovic"
18. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/nik-ai020527e.htm "Amended Joinder Indictment"
19. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/transe60/031002ED.htm "Testimony of Dragan Obrenović, October 2, 2003"
20. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/obr-ii010409e.htm "Initial Indictment of Dragan Obrenović " ICTY Case IT-01-43
21. ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/04/15/warcrimes.arrest/index.html "Bosnia genocide suspect held"
22. ^ http://www.iwpr.net/?p=tri&s=f&o=166068&apc_state=henitri2001 "Obrenovic Pleads Not Guilty"
23. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/transe60-2/031210IT.htm "Trial of Dragan Obrenović "
24. ^ "The Truth Of Accountability And Atonement" B92 radio broadcast, Monday February 2, 2004
25. ^ http://www.un.org/icty/obrenovic/trialc/judgement/obr-sj031210e.pdf "Dragan Obrenović Sentencing Judgement" December 10, 2003

[edit] External links

• [1] Obrenović Trial Transcripts
• [2] Initial ICTY Indictment
• [3] Amended ICTY Joinder Indictment