Neskovic and Ilic: Committing Murder ‘As If We Were Robots’, Witness Says

The protected witness, a former member of the Jahorina Training Center with the Special Brigade of Republika Srpska police, testified under the pseudonym of NI104. He said that he and witness S115 killed the two Bosniaks in the vicinity of Kravica cooperative, Bratunac municipality.

“Neskovic told us to come. Then he handed two Muslims, whom I had never seen before, over to us and said: ‘Take them with you and kill them’. The two men walked in front of us. They stepped off the road and started walking across a meadow.

“When they were between five and ten meters away we just shot at them. We did not show any reaction. We just did that as if we were robots,” witness NI104 said, adding that he considered this an order.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Neskovic and Zoran Ilic, former members of the Jahorina Training Center with the Special Brigade of of Republika Srpska, RS police, with having participated in the capture of Bosniak men, who were then taken in groups to the Agricultural Cooperative in Kravica, Bratunac municipality, and executed on July 13 and 14, 1995.

According to the charges, indictee Neskovic ordered two members of the mentioned Center, whom he knew, to kill two Bosniak captives. The men allegedly carried out his order.

The indictment alleges that, by shooting from an automatic gun at a pile of bodies of prisoners who had already been shot, Ilic “checked” to see if any of them survived the initial shooting. The State Prosecution alleges that Ilic summarily killed one captive in Jelah village on July 17, 1995.

The witness said that prior to receiving indictee Neskovic’s order to commit the murder, they guarded the road about 150 meters away from the Agricultural Cooperative in Kravica.

“First, we heard shooting. As I was away from the warehouse, I went there to see what was going on. I was accompanied by protected witness S115. When we arrived at that place, I saw many corpses in front of the warehouse.

“A group of Unit members stood on the road in front of the warehouse. The man who was firing bullets at the corpses is present in the courtroom. His name is Zoran Ilic,” the witness said, explaining that he fired individual bullets from a gun.

Witness NI104 said that he stayed in front of Kravica for about 10 or 15 minutes. He said that indictee Neskovic then handed the two Muslim civilians over to him and the other protected witness.

When asked by the Trial Chamber why he killed the two Bosniaks, the protected witness said that he listened to the order because he did not know what else to do.

The witness said that, prior to coming to Kravica, he was in Potocari, near Srebrenica, together with other members of the Center. He said he witnessed the separation of men from women and children, adding that members of his Unit took part in it, among others. He said that he saw indictee Neskovic in Potocari.

On Tuesday, June 7 the Trial Chamber, Prosecution and Defence are due to visit the locations at which the crimes charged upon the indictees were committed.

A.J.