Zdravko Tolimir, Yugoslav military commander, Died at 67

  Military

Zdravko Tolimir/дравко Толимир was born on November 27, 1948, and died on February 8, 2016, in Scheveningen prison.

He was a Bosnian Serb military commander.

Zdravko Tolimir was a commander of the Army of Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War.

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

According to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indictment, Zdravko Tolimir was aware of the program aimed at expelling Bosniaks from Srebrenica and Zepa, and he willingly participated in the project.

Whilst in Zepa, Zdravko Tolimir was alleged to have told the Bosniaks that they or the Serbs of Bosnia would launch a military operation.

On 21 July 1995, Zdravko Tolimir sent a report to General Radomir Miletic, acting Chief of General Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS), requesting help to crush some Bosnian military strongholds and expressing his view that “the best way to do it would be to use chemical weapons”.

Written in the report was, Zdravko 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.

He was detained by the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina after having been on the run for two years, in 31 May 2007,

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

He was handed to NATO personnel at the Banja Luka Airport on 31 May 2007, after being apprehended in Serbia.

However, on October 5, 2007, the registry of the ICTY announced their assessment of Tolimir’s health grew fragile and highly alarming”, and that Tolimir was refusing blood pressure treatment for an inoperable brain aneurysm.

Zdravko Tolimir had eariler stated that he planned to represent himself during the trial.

On 12 December 2012, Tolimir was convicted of six out of eight counts; genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination, murder, persecution on ethnic grounds and forced transfer.

The court sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The ICTY confirmed his life sentence, April 8, 2015.

Zdravko Tolimir passed away at 67 yrs old.