Pelemis and Peric: Missing Telegram

Answering questions from the Defence, Rajko Babic, former general affairs officer of the First Battalion with the Zvornik Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, said the members of his Battalion did not have “anything to do with the detainees in the school building in Pilica”.

He said “foreign and unknown soldiers” were in charge of the detainees, adding that they “treated the detainees in a rude and strict manner”.

Babic began testifying as a Prosecution witness at the hearing held on April 28, 2009, as part of the trial of Momir Pelemis, Deputy Commander of the First Battalion of the VRS Zvornik Brigade, and Slavko Peric, Assistant Commander for Security with the same Brigade.

The two men are charged with having participated in “planning for and helping” the murder of about 1,200 men from Srebrenica, who were detained in the “Kula” school building in Pilica.

The witness said that, on his arrival at the Staff of the First Battalion on July 14, 1995, he saw “a telegram from the Brigade Command”, in which it was stated that “a group of about 150 or 200 captured Muslims” would be brought to the school building in Pilica and “the Battalion was tasked with making preparations for their accommodation until they were taken to Tuzla for an exchange”.

“Some unknown soldiers accompanied those detainees. They were deployed inside the school building and in front of it. They were standing next to each other. Our soldiers were separated into two groups. We were just standing there, because we did not have any tasks to perform in relation to those detainees,” Babic said.

Babic also repeated that, “until a certain moment”, when he saw “an unknown senior VRS Officer”, who told him that all detainees would be killed, he
actually believed that they would be exchanged.

“At first I saw that this man belonged to the Zvornik Brigade. I knew some of its members. However, I could not even imagine that some other officer could come to our zone of responsibility. When I testified about this before the Hague Tribunal a couple of years ago, they told me that this man’s last name was Popovic,” the witness explained.

Vujadin Popovic, former Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Commander for Security with the Drina Corps Staff of the VRS, is currently on trial at the Hague Tribunal, for genocide committed in Srebrenica.

Babic said that, following the departure of the detainees on July 16, 1995, he went back to his Staff, adding that he was “very surprised” when he saw that the sheet in the duty officers’ book, containing the telegram from the Brigade Command, was “pulled out and missing”.

“We never even told this to our Battalion Commander, as we did not dare do that. However, the book was used for our purposes only. I used to be a teacher, so I liked taking notes, but we were not obliged to keep those records,” Babic explained.

Babic said that “some time after the detainees had left” he found out that they were killed, but “nobody ever mentioned that any members of our Battalion took part in it”.

Answering questions pertaining to indictee Peric, Babic said that he considered him “a good and descent man and administrator, who was also very responsible and precise”.

“I spoke to Peric after my testimony at The Hague. I did not even know that he had also been there. I only found out about it later. I even gave him my statement to read. He said he described the events in a slightly different manner, but I do not know what he had said,” Babic said.

The next hearing is due to take place on May 5, 2009.