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A defence witness for Momir Pelemis told his trial for genocide at Srebrenica that the Branjevo farm was exclusively a civilian area and not under the army’s control.
Milica Milovanovic, the former farm manager, said the army used only one plot at the farm which belonged to the Agroprom company from Zvornik.
“I guess this was done on the basis of an agreement between the company and the army. The company allowed the army to use a plot for its own needs. The plot was located about 500 metres from the farm management building,” she said.
Pelemis, the former deputy commander and chief of headquarters with the First Battalion of Zvornik Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, and Slavko Peric, former assistant commander for security with the same battalion, are charged with participating in the genocide in July 1995.
The indictment alleges that on July 15 and 16 about 600 Bosniaks were held in inhumane conditions in the Pilica Cultural Center. It further alleges that VRS members “executed the men summarily” inside the building and in front of it on July 16.
The two indictees are charged with having “known about, commanded and supervised” the murder of about 1,200 Srebrenica residents, former detainees from the Kula school building in Pilica, at the Branjevo farm.
Milovanovic said that “an unknown person wearing a black jacket” told the workers to leave Branjevo in July, adding she heard later on that murders were committed within the farm complex.
“Workers told me that some people were saying that people were killed behind the stables, in some bushes about 200 metres away from them. I did not dare go there,” Milovanovic said.
The second witness, Dragan Milovanovic, a former manager with Agroprom and a former member of the First Battalion with the Zvornik Brigade, said the army was given “just a small plot” at Branjevo to use it for its own needs.
“The Branjevo farm was part of the Semberija economic group from Bijeljina before the war. The Agroprom company, based in Zvornik, used it as of 1992. The First Battalion used one plot. The plot was cultivated by old people performing their civil duty,” Milovanovic said.
Milovanovic said he found out about the events that took place at Branjevo after returning from a field trip to Srebrenica.
“I heard this happened within the Branjevo farm complex. People were saying it was done behind the stables. Some time later I heard that those people were buried. (…) I used to come to the farm, but I never approached those locations,” Milovanovic said.
The next hearing will take place on August 30.
D.S.
