Jevic et al: Indictee Was Not a Manager, Witness Says

At the trial for genocide committed in Srebrenica, a court expert in police issues says that indictee Mendeljev Djuric had no managerial competencies in the Police Training Centre on Mount Jahorina, but his task was to train “deserters”, who were arrested in Serbia.

Presenting his findings and opinion at the request of the Defence, court expert in police issues Mile Matijevic said that indictee Djuric was a member of the Special Police Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, adding that while he was in Serbia in the summer of 1995, he was recruited by the Training Centre on Mount Jahorina.

“Only the person who deployed him to the Jahorina Centre knows how he got there. The Minister of Internal Affairs was the only person who could take him out of school and deploy him to Jahorina,” Matijevic said.

Matijevic explained that a special police unit was formed in 1995, adding that it consisted of “deserters”, i.e. able-bodied men who were arrested because they refused to be mobilized. The expert witness said that the unit was deployed to Jahorina for training and then to the Srebrenica area on July 10, 1995.

According to Matijevic, while in Srebrenica, the police unit could not carry out tasks on its own, but was under the responsibility of the VRS, which assigned combat tasks to it.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Mendeljev Djuric, Dusko Jevic, Goran Markovic and Nedjo Ikonic with participation in the forcible resettlement of the Bosniak population from the Srebrenica area and the murder of more than 1,000 men in Kravica.

The indictment alleges that Jevic was Commander of the Jahorina Training Centre with the Special Brigade of RS Police, Djuric and Ikonic were company Commanders with that unit and Markovic was a squad Commander.

Matijevic said that the Training Centre, situated on Mount Jahorina, was “not linked” to the Special Police Brigade at all, but it was part of the Centre for Education of Police Staff Members, based in Banja Luka.

Responding to questions posed by the Defence of Djuric, expert witness Matijevic said that upon its arrival in Srebrenica, the Police Unit was put under Ljubomir Borovcanin’s command, but Radislav Krstic, former general with the VRS Drina Corps, could give an order to use the unit too, provided that Borovcanin agreed with it.  

Ljubomir Borovcanin, former Deputy Commander of the Special Brigade with the RS police, was sentenced to 17 years in prison by the Hague Tribunal in 2010. The Appellate Chamber of the Hague Tribunal sentenced Radislav Krstic to 35 years’ imprisonment.

Speaking about the capabilities of deserters who became members of the Training Centre on Mount Jahorina, Matijevic said that they carried out their tasks “ in an average or below average manner” .

“The unit did not demonstrate the strength of a combat unit. (…) During the course of the training, this was a school unit, which was under school-type command,” the expert witness said, adding that the so-called deserters did not pass a police training, but a basic military training only.

The expert witness said that while in Srebrenica, the deserters were divided into two companies, which were attached to police forces. Matijevic said that if a member of the Centre committed crimes, he would have to report to the Army, because they were “capable of military service, but they did not want to go to battlefields”.

The trial is due to continue Thursday, June 9.

A.J.