Kravica: Stevanovic Halts Hunger Strike

Miladin Stevanovic, one of 11 indictees charged with shooting around a thousand captured Bosniaks in the village of Kravica near Srebrenica, has ended his 22-day long hunger strike and appeared in Court. His fellow indictees Petar Mitrovic and Branislav Medan are still on hunger strike and have now refused to appear at six hearings.

The detainees in Kula Correctional Facility who are tried before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of BiH started the hunger strike on 10 September. Last week, 30 detainees submitted a letter to the Court in which they refused to receive medical assistance in the health institution chosen by the Court.

Following the letter, the Court decided to transfer the detainees from Kula to other detention units throughout the country. So far, six detainees have halted their hunger strike. Medan and Mitrovic are currently held in the detention unit in Doboj, while Miladin Stevanovic is in Tuzla.

The Trial Chamber has once again rejected the request by Petar Mitrovic’s defence team to consider if the indictee is capable of following the trial in view of his alleged starvation.

“He can decide if he wants to stop taking food, but he is aware that he can face the consequences,” Trial Chamber Chairman Hilmo Vucinic has said, adding that the indictee “is not going to achieve anything but the prolongation of the process by being on strike”.

The Prosecution considers that the ten former Special Police members and one member of the Republika Srpska Army took part in genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica in July 1995. The indictment alleges that the 11 indictees participated in the shooting of men detained in a hangar in Kravica village on 13 July, in the evening hours.

Three more Defence witnesses, invited by seven Defence teams, have been examined. All three have provided an alibi in their testimonies.

Witness Lazo Djuric has said that he met Miladin Stevanovic and Milenko Trifunovic in Skelani at “about 2300hrs” on 13 July 1995. He has further said that, “on one of those days”, Dragisa Zivanovic invited him to a farewell party for his brother, who was going to start his military service. However, although the Prosecution insisted on having an answer, he has not been able to remember the exact date when the alleged party was organized.

Prosecutor Ibro Bulic has filed an objection against this testimony.

Radenko Mijatovic has said that, on 13 July, “in the evening hours”, he saw Miladin Stevanovic “and two more soldiers” in front of his house where he used to leave in Skelani.

Ivan Savic claims to have lived “in a house by the road leading from Bratunac to Skelani” in 1995. He has recalled that, on 13 July, around 2300hrs, a military truck belonging to the special police forces passed by his house and “drove towards Skelani”.

At the next hearing, scheduled on 4 October, the Defence teams are due to examine four more witnesses.