Jevic et al: Reports on Executions

Witness Mile Simanic was Deputy Commander of the Fifth Engineering Battalion of Drina Corps with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS. In July 1995 he signed military reports because Battalion Commander Milenko Avramovic was on leave.

A report sent from the 5th Engineering Battalion to Drina Corps Command on July 14, 1995, alleges that a large group of enemy soldiers made it into the area of Pobudje and Konjevic polje, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs, MUP, and engineering units offered successful resistance and “captured and killed between 1,000 and 1,500 soldiers and civilians”.

“I did not write the report. It contains information obtained from soldiers. (…) Our unit could not have known anything about the murders. That piece of information was sent to higher instances to check it,” Simanic said.

He testified at the trial of Dusko Jevic, Mendeljev Djuric, Goran Markovic and Nedjo Ikonic, who are charged with having participated in the forcible resettlement and murder of Bosniaks from Srebrenica.

The indictment alleges that Jevic was Commander of the Jahorina Training Center of RS MUP, Djuric and Ikonic were company commanders with the same Center and Markovic was a squad commander.

According to the indictment, members of the Unit from Jahorina participated, under the indictees’ supervision and command, in the capture of men alongside the road leading from Konjevic polje to Sandici and the murder of more than 1,000 men in Kravica.

According to Simanic, a few members of the Fifth Engineering Battalion, mostly older men, were stationed in Konjevic polje but nobody participated in any military activities.

“Our members did not leave the military barracks. We performed no other actions except security,” Simanic said, adding that allegations about “ambushes” in reports actually referred to placing additional soldiers between two guard points.

When asked by the Prosecutor if machines belonging to his Battalion were used for digging mass graves at the time, the witness said he did not issue such orders.

“In my absence, someone from the Drina Corps could issue an order for using the machines. However, each machine had its own operating sheet, specifying when and where it was used,” the witness said.

The witness said that the 5th Battalion’s request asking the Corps to provide it with weapon cleaning and lubricating supplies referred to regular maintenance needs, excluding the possibility that the weapons were used at the time.

The trial is due to continue on Monday, November 8.