Jevic et al: “Drunk Beara” in Kravica

Ilija Nikolic, a former member of the Bratunac Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, said he was on leave in July 1995, as he wanted to “organize a religious holiday celebration”, adding he was in Kravica village in Bratunac municipality at the time.
 
“I turned around and I saw a column of between 100 and 150, or at most 200 people. They were coming from Sandici village. They were escorted by about 10 or 15 people. The column turned towards the warehouse. A prisoner took a rifle from someone and killed a guard. Another guard took the rifle away from him. The other policemen then stood in a semi-circle and started shooting at them,” witness Ilija Nikolic said.   
 
Nikolic testified at the trial of Dusko Jevic, Mendeljev Djuric, Goran Markovic and Nedjo Ikonic, who are charged with genocide committed in Srebrenica in July 1995. The indictment alleges that members of the Jahorina Training Center with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP RS, participated, as per the indictees’ orders and under their supervision, in the capture of several thousand Bosniak men on July 12 and 13, 1995.
 
It further alleges that they kept them in a meadow in Sandici before taking them to various other locations, including the Kravica warehouse, where they participated in the shooting of more than 1,000 men.
 
The Prosecution considers 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 a squad with the First Company at the time.  
 
Witness Nikolic said that, after having witnessed the murders, he was about to leave when he saw five or six trucks bringing more men to the location.  
 
“I took the old road that passes by the school building. A huge man was standing there. I asked him who the men escorting the column of people were. He then asked me who I was. I introduced myself and he then turned towards his companion, telling him to kill me. I took out my rifle and got ready to shoot. They got into a vehicle,” Nikolic said, adding that Momir Nikolic told him later that the man was “drunk Beara”.

Ljubisa Beara, Chief of Security with the Main Headquarters of the Republika Srpska Army, was sentenced by a first instance verdict pronounced by the Hague Tribunal to life imprisonment for genocide committed in Srebrenica, while Momir Nikolic, Assistant Commander for Security with the Bratunac Brigade, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes committed in that town.  
 
Nikolic told the Court that a few days later he noticed that some land had been recently dug up in Glogova village, adding that Momir Nikolic told him that “those men from the warehouse” had been buried there.
 
Nenad Milovanovic, who was arrested in Serbia and deported to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a deserter in 1995, testified about the participation of Jahorina Training Center members in the events in Srebrenica.
 
The witness said that they were sent from Jahorina to Bratunac, but he was not able to remember all the events.
 
When the Prosecutor presented him with his statement given during the course of the investigation, in which he said that Jevic invited men to surrender, telling them they would be transferred to Tuzla, Milovanovic said he did not personally see this “as he was in a sentry box”, but he assumed it was Jevic who said that.   
 
The examination of this witness will continue at the next hearing, scheduled for September 27.

M.T.