Karadzic: Executions in Kravica

While cross-examining Prosecution investigator Dusan Janc, Karadzic said that, according to data available to him, only 150 captives were present in Kravica. The indictee said that “no planned or prepared executions” happened in Kravica, but the captives were killed after an incident in which a Bosniak grabbed a rifle from a Serb guard and killed him.

Janc responded by saying that the investigation determined that the killing began after the mentioned incident.

Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged with genocide against more than 7,000 Bosniak men, who were shot after the VRS had occupied Srebrenica on July 11, 1995.

According to the charges, the murder of 1,000 prisoners in the warehouse in Kravica was the first in a series of mass executions committed by forces under Karadzic’s control. Karadzic is charged with persecuting Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo and taking international soldiers hostages.

During the examination Karadzic repeated his earlier allegation that Bosniak soldiers, who were killed during the battles around Srebrenica and in previous years, were buried in mass graves along with Srebrenica victims. As an example, he cited a statement given by witness Janc, who said that the Cerska grave contained not only the victims from Kravica warehouse, who were killed on July 13, but also Bosniaks, who were captured at other locations three days later.

Janc responded by saying that the situation was not “black and white”, explaining that the Cerska grave contained not only victims from Kravica, but also victims from the Bratunac school building and bodies of people, who were killed alongside the main road leading to Bratunac. “Nevertheless, most of the victims in that grave were killed in Kravica,” he said, pointing out that most of the other graves, like the ones in Kozluk, near Petkovci dam or on Branjevo farm, contained only victims, who were killed at those locations.

The witness denied Karadzic’s allegation that Bosniak soldiers, who were killed while walking through the woods with a column of people, who tried to break through the VRS ring around Srebrenica and reach Tuzla, were buried in the mass graves within a lawful process of “terrain cleaning”.

Janc said that he did not deny that some Bosniaks were killed in battles, that some committed suicide or were killed in minefields, but he specified that most of those bodies were not buried, but they remained on the surface of the ground.

Following the completion of the examination of Slovenian policeman Janc, the examination of protected witness KDZ-584 began at a closed session.

The trial of Karazic is due to continue on Thursday, March 29.
R.M.