Bozic et al: Corpses Collected “as part of civil duty”

Prosecution witness Desimir Djukanovic, who started his testimony on 18 May, has been questioned by the Prosecution and the Defence. Djukanovic is one of the witnesses who took part in the collection of dead bodies after the massacre in elementary school Vuk Karadzic in Bratunac in July 1995.

Zdravko Bozic, Mladen Blagojevic, Zeljko Zaric and Zoran Zivanovic are
charged, as members of Military Police of Bratunac Light Infantry Brigade, Republika Srpska Army, with “guarding, controlling and securing of temporary detention units” in this school during July 1995.

The Prosecution believes that the four men took part, on 13 and 14 July, in maltreatment, beating up and cruel treatment of men detained in the school. Between 2,000 and 3,000 men were being held there.

“Seven of us were on civil duty and we had to collect bodies, clean and wash the streets. We used to go to houses, buildings and the police station where we collected corpses,” said Djukanovic during cross-examination.

The witness also said that bodies of the killed people had been transported in a tractor from the school and the nearby playground to the village of Glogovo, where they had been buried in one grave.

“I know that policemen took some local people from the village and those not capable for military service to collect bodies from the playground. Later on, I was told by those people that there had been about 100 corpses,” said the witness.

After the examination of this witness, the prosecution has presented, as a material evidence, the statement he had given to the State Agency for Investigation and Protection in 2007 as well as a video recording showing the locations from which corpses had been collected in July 1995. The Defence has objected to presentation of these evidences because the witness “was guided” during examination.

“These pieces of evidence were collected by the Prosecution in March 2007, i.e. after the completion of the investigation and confirmation of the indictment. The video recording shows that the witness was guided during the examination, and we therefore object to acceptance of this recording as an evidence,” said Danilo Mrkaljevic, Zoran Zivanovic’s attorney.

Djukanovic gave a statement to investigators from SIPA in the police station in Bratunac in March 2007. The investigators then performed an inspection in Bratunac and made the video recording.

Prosecutor Kwai Hong Ip pointed out that it was “unfair” to say that the statement had been taken in an illegal way. He also said that the witness’ statement, which they wanted to include as a material evidence, was “very important”.

A decision on acceptance of this evidence will be reached later on.

The trial will continue on 4 June.