Zdravko Tolimir

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Zdravko Tolimir.

Zdravko Tolimir (also known as Chemical Tolimir) (Cyrillic: Здравко Толимир) (born November 27, 1948, Glamoč, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then Yugoslavia) was a Bosnian Serb commander during the Bosnian War.

Zdravko Tolimir was Assistant Commander of Intelligence and Security for the Bosnian Serb army and reported directly to the commander, General Ratko Mladić.

According to the indictment, Tolimir was aware of the program aimed at expelling Bosniaks from Srebrenica and Zepa, and he willingly participated in the project. On July 9, 1995, when President Radovan Karadžić passed down an order to seize Srebrenica, the order was passed directly through Tolimir.

On 21 July 1995 by the Serb General Zdravko Tolimir from Zepa sent report to General Radomir Miletic, acting Chief of General Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) . Tolimir was requesting help to crush some Bosnian military strongholds, expressing his view that "the best way to do it would be to use chemical weapons". In the same report, Tolimir went even further, proposing chemical strikes against refugee columns of women, children and elderly leaving Zepa, because that would "force the Muslim fighters to surrender quickly", in his opinion. ^[1]

In Zepa, Tolimir was also alleged to have told the Bosniaks that they or the Serbs of Bosnia would launch a military operation. The Bosniaks refused to leave and, early on the morning of July 14, 1995, the Bosnian Serbs launched an attack against the Zepa enclave as said to have been commanded by him.

On 2007-05-31, Tolimir was detained by the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina after having been on the run for two years.^[2]

Tolimir had negotiated with the Serbian government concerning his surrender to The Hague tribunal.

He was handed to UN personnel at the Serbian-Bosnian border on May 31, 2007 after being arrested in Serbia. ^[3] He arrived at the Tribunal in The Hague the following day. He is charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes.

Tolimir is being charged for Srebrenica genocide and acting in conjunction with other Bosnian Serb army and police officers in a joint enterprise. He has been indicted for the forcible removal of women and children from the Srebrenica enclave, and the execution of thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys in July 1995.

On 2007-10-05, the registry of the ICTY announced their assesment of Tolimir's health as “grave, fragile and highly alarming”, and that Tolimir was refusing blood pressure treatment for an inoperable brain aneurism. Tolimir had previously stated that he planned to represent himself during the trial.^[2]