Neskovic and Ilic: Threatened by Investigator

Testifying at the trial for crimes in Srebrenica, a State Prosecution witness says that, while giving a statement during an investigation against Dragan Neskovic and Zoran Ilic, he was “forced” to say that Ilic killed a captured civilian in July 1995.

Protected witness NI101, former member of the “Jahorina” Training Centre with the Special Brigade of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP RS, said that the investigator, who took his statement about the events that took place in Srebrenica in 1995, forced him to say that the indictee Ilic killed one civilian.
 
“While I was giving my statement, I told the investigator that a person named Simo killed one captured guy when we searched the area in order to find members of broken military formations from Srebrenica. (…) The investigator told me to say that indictee Ilic killed that guy,” the witness explained, adding that he did not know to which agency the investigator belonged.
 
The protected witness said that, in his earlier statements he did mention a person named Zoran Ilic, saying that he participated in the search together with his unit members in July 1995. He added that he did not refer to indictee Ilic, but to some other soldiers, who was not member of his unit.
 
The State Prosecution charges Ilic and Dragan Neskovic, former members of the “Jahorina” Training Centre with the Special Brigade of MUP of RS, with having participated in the capture of Bosniak men, who were then taken in groups to the Co-operative in Kravica, Bratunac municipality and executed on July 13 and 14, 1995.
 
According to the charges, indictee Neskovic ordered two members of the Centre, who were known to him, to kill two captured Bosniak men. They allegedly carried out the order.
 
The indictment alleges that Ilic shot at a pile of bodies of prisoners, who had already been shot, from an automatic gun in order to “check” whether any of them survived.
 
Witness NI101 said that he used to see indictee Ilic in the “Jahorina” Training Centre, but he could not remember whether he saw him in Potocari or during the search conducted in July 1995.
 
“I told the investigator about a man from Sokolac, whom I used to see on Mount Jahorina. He then showed me some photographs. I told him that one of the men, whose photographs he showed me, looked familiar. The investigator then told me that it was Neskovic, but I was not sure whether the man on the photograph was really the man whom I used to see on Mount Jahorina,” the witness said.
 
When asked by the Trial Chamber if he told anyone that he was being threatened by the investigator, the witness said he did not dare do it.
 
The protected witness said that, while in Potocari, his unit was tasked with separating men from groups moving towards buses, which were supposed to drive the civilians to territories controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina , ABiH. He said that the men were then taken to “a white house”.
 
“I did not become fully involved in the separation of men. I saw some men dressed in traditional baggy women’s trousers and some other women’s clothes, but I did not warn other soldiers about it. I could not help them get on those buses. All I could do was to pretend that I did not see them,” witness NI101 said.
 
Prior to the beginning of witness NI101’s testimony, the State Court Chamber discussed additional protection measures for the witness at a closed session. After that it was decided that the public would follow the trial in a separate room.
 
According to the State Court’s official trial schedule, the next hearing is due to be held on September 13 this year.

S.U.