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Commander Stanisic not Associated with Murders

6. November 2013.00:00
Testifying at the trial for genocide in Srebrenica, a State Prosecution witness says that people said that military policemen of the Zvornik Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, guarded Srebrenica captives in Petkovci, near Zvornik.

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“I heard from others that they were killed. Some people said that they were dumped into some dam,” witness Ljubo Gavric, former military policeman of the Zvornik Brigade, said.

The witness said that he did not hear the stories about the participation of his Company in guarding of captives from Srebrenica while he was in the military barracks in Karakaj.

He said that it was known to him that indictee Ostoja Stanisic commanded the Battalion situated in Petkovci, but he did not know who his Deputy was. He said that he had not heard that the captives were under the responsibility of the Battalion and Stanisic or that he issued orders related to the murders.

Stanisic and Marko Milosevic are charged with having participated in crimes committed on a dam in Petkovci, near Djulici village, Zvornik municipality, where about 1,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica, who had been captured before, were shot in July 1995.

The indictment alleges that Stanisic was Commander of the Sixth Battalion of Zvornik Brigade, while Milosevic was his deputy.

Second State Prosecution witness Zoran Stevic said that he was in Petkovci on July 16, when he noticed a bus and a group of unknown armed soldiers, who were dressed in camouflage uniforms, in front of it. He said that some people were in the bus, but he did not know whether they were civilians or soldiers.

“Later on, when I went to the frontline, the bus was not parked there anymore,” he said, adding that he heard shooting.

Stevic recalled having heard on TV that captives were brought to Petkovci, so, later on he associated the shooting he heard while on the frontline with the soldiers, whom he saw in front of the bus. 

He said that he was not sure whether the shooting came from the new school building in Petkovci or the dam. 

As he said, a month or two later he was in front of the new school building, where he saw marks made by bullets. According to the charges, the captives from Srebrenica were held in the new school building.

The trial is due to continue on November 13.

Amer Jahić


This post is also available in: Bosnian