Witness Lacks Concrete Knowledge About Petkovci Massacre

Ratko Josipovic, former member of the Brnjica Company of the Zvornik Brigade’s Sixth Battalion in the Army of Republika Srpska, said that he was at a combat station when the company commander told him after the meeting of the battalion headquarters that eight buses with prisoners arrived at Petkovci.

He was told over radio, he said, that the prisoners in the new school were guarded by military and civilian policemen who arrived with them.

He said he also received an order from the commander to stay in position, because an attack of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina was expected from Tuzla.

The Prosecution believes that Stanisic, former commander of the Zvornik Brigade’s Sixth Battalion, and his deputy Milosevic knew about the planned execution of prisoners from Srebrenica in July 1995.

According to the indictment, prisoners were escorted under their command to the dam, where around 1,000 of them were killed.

Witness Josipovic said that his platoon stayed in position for 20 days after the fall of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995.

After returning from the front line and while going through Petkovci, he said he did not notice anything unusual, nor had he heard from anyone what happened to the prisoners.

“I heard in the media that they were killed by the dam,” said Josipovic.

According to the Prosecutor, Predrag Tomic, the witness said during the investigation that Commander Stanisic could know what happened to the prisoners. However, he agreed with Stanisic’s defence that it had been only his assumption.

Josipovic said he did not have concrete knowledge that Stanisic ordered any subordinate soldier to guard the prisoners in the new school, or to commit murders.

He also said he did not know whether Milosevic issued any order relating to the “treatment of prisoners”.

The new witness for the Prosecution will be called on March 27.