Stanisic and Milosevic: Prosecutor against His Own Witness

Prosecutor Ibro Bulic presented witness Slavica Bujic with parts of her statement given during the investigations, questioning her about differences between the statement and her testimony today.

Testifying at the trial, the witness was not able to recall on what day in July 1995 she heard shooting in Petkovci village, near Zvornik, where about a thousand captured Srebrenica residents were executed.

In her statement given during the investigation the witness said that she heard the shooting on the third morning after the fall of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995. Bujic said, at the hearing today, that she could not remember having said that.

She told the Court that she heard intermittent shooting and noise, which she described as several people’s voices, adding that she left Petkovci out of fear half an hour later. The Prosecutor said that her statement indicated that she clearly heard screams as well.

“It is not true that I heard screams,” the witness said.

According to the charges, Stanisic and Milosevic knew about the planned execution of captives and supervised the co-ordinating activities, loading and escorting of Srebrenica residents to the Petkovci dam, where the murders were committed.

The indictment alleges that Stanisic was Commander of the Sixth Battalion of Zvornik Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, while Milosevic was his Deputy.

Witness Bujic said at the hearing that, five years later she heard that captives were taken to Petkovci. She said that it was not true that her mother informed her about the executions in that village, as indicated in her statement.

“These are not my words,” Bujic said.

When asked by the Prosecutor who was involved in the shooting, the witness said that she heard that members of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS were not. The Prosecutor said that, during the investigation she said that, “logically, those were members of VRS”.

“From my point of view, many things have been changed in the statement,” the witness said, when asked by the Prosecutor whether she would like to hear what she had said during the investigation.

She said that she was not afraid of anything, adding that “a foreign investigator” examined her about Srebrenica with the help from an interpreter during the investigation.

Responding to questions by Milos Peric, Defence attorney of Stanisic, the witness said that she was exhausted after a long-lasting examination, so she could have overlooked some words while reading her statement.

The trial is due to continue on February 20.
A.J.