Kravica: Mass Grave Near Glogovo

Dragomir Mirkovic, former director of the Communal Company in Bratunac, has said that, during the war, his workers “buried human and animal corpses,” or, in other words, they performed “sanitation of the terrain”.

Mirkovic has testified in favour of the 11 indictees accused of genocide committed in the village of Kravica in July 1995, when about 1,000 Bosniaks were shot dead. The indictment alleges that the indictees participated in this crime in their capacity as members of the military police of Bratunac Brigade from Skelani.

According to Mirkovic’s statement, in July 1995 he received an order from Colonel Ljubisa Beara to collect corpses located in the vicinity of Bratunac and bury them in a place called Glogova.

Ljubisa Beara is being processed, together with six other officers of the Serbian army and police, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes committed in Srebrenica.

Mirkovic has said that a total of “500 to 600 corpses” found in Konjevic Polje, Kravica, ‘Vuk Karadzic’ elementary school in Bratunac and “by the road” were buried in the Glogova grave.

“When the digging commenced, trucks started bringing corpses,” the witness said and added that, on the same day, he saw “an incident” in the Agricultural Cooperative in Kravica on his way towards Konjevic Polje.

“I saw a stack of killed people and a man wearing camouflage uniform killing some people who were lying on the ground,” the witness has recalled adding that he did not try to stop or report what he saw.

Mirkovic claims that he does not know who committed the murders in Kravica. He has also denied the allegations made by prosecution witness Jovan Nikolic, Director of Kravica Cooperative, who said, in May last year, that he had been told by Mirkovic that the shooting had been done “by members of the Special Police Squad from Skelani”.

A recording containing this witness’ statement given in the courtroom has been shown to Mirkovic, at the request by the defence teams. He has been asked to comment on it.

“This is far from the truth!” Mirkovic said, adding that he never spoke to anyone about the happenings in Kravica.

The trial continues on 22 August 2007, when two new Defence witnesses will appear before the court.