Kos et al: Witness Statement Recounts Events in Pilica
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In a statement given to investigators from the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, the late Ljubo Ivanic said that he owned a coffee shop across the street from the Cultural Centre, to which captives from Srebrenica were brought in July 1995.
“The prisoners who were held in the Centre were killed by policemen from Kozluk, Zvornik municipality and some unknown soldiers, who had come from the woods. An officer who accompanied the soldiers entered the coffee shop and said: ‘Kill them!’,” the Prosecutor said, reading the statement.
The Prosecutor read aloud an abbreviated version of Ivanic’s statement at the trial of Franc Kos, Stanko Kojic, Vlastimir Golijan and Zoran Goronja, who are charged with having participated in the murder of more than 800 Srebrenica residents on Branjevo military farm in Pilica, Zvornik municipality in July 1995.
The indictment alleges that Kos was Commander of the First “Bijeljina” Squad and Kojic, Golijan and Goronja were members of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad with the VRS Main Headquarters.
In his statement Ivanic said that a policeman came from the Cultural Centre to his coffee shop, bringing a girl who had been captured with him.
“I gave her a dish of grilled meat. The policeman then took her back to the Cultural Centre. I heard that she was killed too,” Ivanic said.
In the statement, Ivanic said that “Arkan lined up the soldiers who participated in the attack on Srebrenica” in the vicinity of his coffee shop.
Zeljko Raznjatovic, known as Arkan, former leader of the Tigrovi (Tigers) paramilitary unit, was killed in Belgrade in 2000.
The Defence teams considers that there were differences between the abbreviated statement, which was read in the courtroom, and the full transcript of the testimony. The Defence teams will point to the relevant discrepancies at one of the future hearings, after they have listened to an audio recording of Ivanic’s statement given to SIPA investigators.
The trial is due to continue on May 13.
A.J.
