Villagers ‘Invited to Join Srebrenica Massacres’

The prosecution witness, who requested that his name not be published, testified on Wednesday that an old man who lived in nearby Djulici had told him that people who were guarding Bosniak prisoners from Srebrenica had called on locals who lost everything in the war to participate in the mass killing in July 1995.

The prisoners had been taken to Petkovci, near Zvornik in eastern Bosnia, after their capture when the UN-protected enclave fell to Bosnian Serb forces.

The witness said the unnamed old man said he had heard one of the locals in Petkovci decline the offer of revenge.

He said he had also heard that some captives from Srebrenica were being harassed and killed in the village school where they were held captive before they were taken to a nearby dam and massacred.

The witness said the old man mentioned several names and nicknames of people who participated in the killing and abuse of prisoners, but did not mention the defendant Ostoja Stanisic.

Stanisic is on trial with Marko Milosevic for their alleged involvement in the war crimes committed at the Petkovci dam, where around 1,000 men from Srebrenica were killed in mid-July 1995.

According to the indictment, Stanisic was commander of the Sixth Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, and Milosevic his deputy.

The witness said he believed the old man that he spoke to was being honest.

“I don’t see why he would lie to me,” he said.

The trial will resume on September 18.