Jevic et al: Passing Between Columns

The witness, a former member of the Military Police Unit with the Bratunac Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, said that members of the Police Squad stood there in two columns, and men who had been separated from women and children had to pass between the two columns. He said that some of them escorted the buses.

“They said two companies came from Mount Jahorina. Those were special units. We called their members deserters, because they had deserted the army and then they were brought back from Serbia and other areas. We respected the special police forces, but those men were not respected. Their flashy camouflage uniforms were different,” the witness said.

“The indictment alleges that members of the “Jahorina” Squad with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP RS, participated, as per orders from and supervision by indictees Dusko Jevic, Mendeljev Djuric, Goran Markovic and Nedjo Ikonic, in the forcible resettlement of Bosniaks from the Srebrenica area, separating more than 1,000 men from other people, knowing that they would be killed, on July 12 and 13.

The indictment alleges that Jevic was Commander of the ?Jahorina? Training Center, Djuric and Ikonic were Commanders of the First and Second Company with the Center and Markovic was Commander of the Second Squad with the First Company.

Janjic said he was tasked, together with other military policemen, with guarding the bus departure location in the vicinity of the UNPROFOR Base in Potocari, and counting the people getting on those buses. He said that between eight and ten buses departed on the first day, adding that each of them contained 70 or 80 men. The number of buses was at least double on the following day.

“I asked them why they were separating men from the others. They told me that General Mladic said that women and children should go first because the temperature was high and men should follow,” Janjic said, adding that he heard that all Bosniaks would be transported to Kladanj by the following morning.
The Hague Tribunal charges Ratko Mladic, former Commander of the VRS General Headquarters, with genocide and other crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is currently on the run.

Janjic said he saw Djuric near the group behind which Bosniaks were standing. He wanted to greet him, because he had heard about him back in 1992, when Djuric and his Unit members helped Kravice residents after “they had been attacked by bloody Naser’s hordes.”

Naser Oric, Commander of Bosnian Muslim forces in Srebrenica, was acquitted of crimes committed in Srebrenica municipality, by a first instance verdict pronounced by the Hague Tribunal.

At the request by Djuric?s Defence, a video recording of the events in Potocari on July 13 was shown in court. The recording shows Djuric telling a Dutch UNPROFOR officer to send his people “down to check whether anyone else would like to leave.”

Janjic said he did not know whether any Bosniaks were forced to leave Srebrenica, adding that he did not see anyone being murdered in Potocari.

The trial is due to continue on June 17.