Kuvelja: Shooting at Corpses

Protected witness KB 104, former member of the “Jahorina” Training Centre with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP RS, said that, after having heard shooting coming from Kravica, he went to the cooperative building in that village, where he found corpses and saw a member of his unit shooting at those corpses.
 
“I saw one man shooting at the corpses in front of the warehouse. The corpses were lying in front of the warehouse itself. (…) We saw that people were being killed,” witness KB 104 said, explaining that his unit was in the field in the vicinity of Srebrenica in July 1995. The protected witness said that he did not know indictee Bozidar Kuvelja. “Neither his name nor his face seem familiar,” witness KB 104 said.
 
The State Prosecution charges Kuvelja, former member of the Second Squad with the First Company of the “Jahorina” Training Centre of MUP RS, with having participated in the shooting of more than 1,000 men in front of and inside the Agricultural Cooperative building in Kravica, Bratunac municipality in July 1995.
 
According to the charges, on July 12, 1995 Kuvelja participated in the search of Bosniak villages in Potocari area with the aim of bringing the local population to “the collection centre in Potocari” and the separation of men and taking them to “a white house”, where they were detained and mistreated.
 
The protected witness told the Court that, one day prior to the happenings in Kravica village, he guarded the road in Potocari and saw Bosniak men being separated from women and children and taken to some house, leaving their luggage in front.  
 
“When we arrived to the UNPROFOR base, vehicles, buses and trucks came. The population was being deported, but men were separated from women and children. They were taken towards that house. Most of them were age 45 or above. A few boys were among them too. They left their luggage before entering the house. Members of my unit did escort the men to that house,” the witness said.  
 
The trial is due to continue on September 13 this year.

A.S.