Vukovic and Tomic: Shooting coming from hills

Prosecution witnesses, former members of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici, identified Radomir Vukovic and Zoran Tomic as former members of the same Squad. The two men claim that they do not know anything about the murder of civilians in Kravica in July 1995.

The State Prosecution charges Vukovic and Tomic with having participated in the escort and murder of more than 1,000 men in a hangar in Kravica.

Slavisa Zugic and Mirko Asceric said that, “in early July 1995”, their Squad was located at a battlefield near Sarajevo, adding that they were told to go back to Sekovici from there.

“On our way to Sekovici, we were told that we would have to go to Bratunac, as we would have to guard the road between Bratunac and Konjevic polje. However, we did not have a clue that something was happening in Srebrenica,” the first Prosecution witness Slavisa Zugic said.

According to Zugic, after having arrived to Bratunac, their first task was to search the Bosniak villages near Potocari.”We were ordered to search a Muslim village. In case we found somebody in the village, we were supposed to escort the person to Potocari, in which the UN base was located. We did not find anybody, so we did not go to Potocari. I did not know who was held in Potocari,” Zugic added.

Following the completion of the search in the vicinity of Potocari, the Squad was transferred to the road leading from Bratunac to Konjevic polje, where it “secured the normal flow of traffic”.

“We made sure that buses and trucks transporting people from Srebrenica passed uninterruptedly. We did not stop any of them. I saw women and children only, and I do not know if there were any men in those vehicles,” Zugic said.

Zugic told the Court that he had “heard of some Muslim soldiers, who were situated in the woods by the road”, but he did not see any of them. He said the Police Squad from Sekovici “did not participate in their capture or escort”.

“I do not know anything about murders. Only later, after some ten days, I heard that about one thousand people had been killed in an agricultural cooperative building.However, I heard this over the radio only. I did not know if it had happened. I did not see or hear anything while I was securing the traffic,” Zugic explained.

Mirko Asceric said that he “never participated in the search of villages” in the vicinity of Srebrenica.

“We secured the road, making sure that it was passable. Only after we had arrived there, we found out that some buses and trucks had passed on that road, transporting Muslims from Srebrenica towards Kakanj. Our task was to secure the traffic, and not to stop any buses. No buses were stopped,” Asceric said.

Asceric also said that he did not know that some members of the Second Squad captured some Bosniaks who were taking that road. He claims he does not know anything about the killing of Bosniaks in Kravica.

“While I was by the road that day, I heard some shooting coming from the hill above us. We were told that Muslims had started shooting at each other,because some of them wanted to surrender, while others did not. However, this was the only shooting I heard. Many days later I heard that some Muslims had been killed in Kravica,” Asceric said, concluding his testimony.

The trial is due to continue on February 3, 2009, when protected Prosecution witness D5 will testify.