Kuvelja: Trial for Srebrenica Genocide Begins

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina told that court that it would prove Kuvelja’s participation in the forcible resettlement of the Bosniak population from Srebrenica and the mass execution of men in Kravica, where more than 1,000 people were killed.

The Defence said that through the presentation of its evidence it would prove that indictee Kivelja did not commit genocide or participate in ethnic cleansing.

The indictment alleges that Kuvelja was a member of the First Company with the Training Centre on Mount Jahorina with the Special Police Brigade of Republika Srpska.

“The evidence will show that the Training Centre Unit consisted of deserters who had been arrested. The indictee was among them…About 250 of them were deployed to Jahorina,” State Prosecutor Ibro Bulic said.

According to the Prosecution’s charges, Kuvelja participated in the separation of men in Potocari on July 12, 1995, “knowing that they would be killed”.

“In the early evening hours on July 13, members of the First Company replaced a unit whose members had participated in the mass execution of men in the agricultural cooperative in Kravica. In the morning on July 14, they deceived the survivors, inviting them to come out. Between 100 and 150 men left the warehouse. They were then executed,” Bulic said.

According to the charges, Kuvelja shot at the prisoners from a machine gun. He then fired bullets at their bodies in order to make sure that there were no survivors.

“The Prosecution proposes that 15 witnesses and court experts be examined and 108 pieces of material evidence presented. The witnesses will say what the indictee did in Potocari and Kravica and speak about the monstrous murder plan…The survivors will describe how the shooting started and how bombs were thrown into the building… The Prosecution has no doubts that the Chamber will pronounce the indictee guilty after the presentation of the evidence,” Bulic said.

The Defence said that the fact that the indictee was a member of the Jahorina Training Centre and present in Kravica when the murders were committed will not be disputed during the course of the presentation of evidence. However, the Defence will “convince the Court that he did not commit genocide”.

“When he was first examined by the Prosecution, he admitted: ‘I was present and I fired bullets in the air and on the ground. I did not shoot at the detainees…’ The Defence will not exclude the possibility that the indictee’s acts contained elements of some other crime, but we shall exclude genocide,” said Izet Bazdarevic, Defence attorney for indictee Kuvelja.

Neither the Prosecution nor Defence mentioned the guilt admission agreement they had announced at the status conference held on April 28, 2011.

The trial is due to continue on May 30, when the Prosecution will show a documentary on the events in Srebrenica in July 1995.