Neskovic et al: Murder of Srebrenica Residents

Ilija Nikolic, former member of the Kravica Battalion with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, said that he saw about 150 civilians in a meadow in Sandici village, Bratunac municipality, adding that the civilians were shot near the Kravica Agricultural Cooperative later on.

“When they went inside the warehouse, one of the civilians took a gun away from a policeman and killed him. The civilians attacked the policemen, who then started shooting at them. The people who had escorted them from Sandici were shooting. After I left the place, I could still hear the shooting and some detonations too. I think those were hand bombs exploding,” the witness said.

The State Prosecution charges Dragan Neskovic, Zoran Ilic and Dragan Crnogorac, former members of the Jahorina Training Centre with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP RS, with having participated in the capture and murder of more than 1,000 Bosniak men at the Kravica Agricultural Cooperative, Bratunac municipality in July 1995.

Nikolic said that he had known Ilic from before the war, adding that he did not see him anywhere on the day when the murders were committed in the Agricultural Cooperative.

“I met him on July 11, 1995. He invited me to attend a farewell party for his brother, who was going to start his military service. On that day he told me that he had been in Serbia, but he was arrested and returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“He was accompanied by a man who was dressed in camouflage uniform. The man told me that he guarded him in order to make sure he would not flee to Serbia again,” Nikolic said, adding that Ilic did not seem like a man who would shoot civilians.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina also examined Dragomir Vasic, former Chief of the Public Safety Station in Zvornik, at this hearing. Vasic said that, following the fall of Srebrenica, he was sent to Potocari to establish a police station.

Vasic confirmed the authenticity of 14 police letters, referring to, among other things, the number of units which participated in guarding of roads, securing public order and peace, separation of able-bodied men in Potocari, capture of men who had run away to the woods, transport of women and children to Kladanj and so on.

“I know that a company with the Jahorina Training Centre guarded a broad area surrounding the yellow bridge and Dutch Base in Potocari on July 12, while another company joined the forces in the field on July 13 and guarded the road leading from Kravica to Konjevic Polje,” Vasic said.

The trial is due to continue on March 29, when the Prosecution will examine two new witnesses.

A.S.