Trial of Goran Saric Begins
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Saric, former Commander of the Special Brigade of Republika Srpska, RS, police, is charged with having deliberately assisted members of a joint criminal enterprise in the commission of genocide, which resulted in the forced resettlement of 40,000 Bosniak residents and murder of more than 7,000 people.
According to the charges, Saric commanded the police forces, which participated in the search, disarming and forced resettlement of women, children and the elderly, as well as separation of men and boys, who were later executed.
He is charged with having ordered police members to guard the road between Bratunac and Konjevic Polje and capture men, who were trying to leave the Srebrenica protected zone through the woods.
“Tomislav Kovac, former Minister of Internal Affairs and the first general of Republika Srpska police, will testify at this trial. He will speak about Saric’s order to engage police forces in the protected enclave of Srebrenica,” Prosecutor Ibro Bulic said, presenting his introductory statement.
He said that he would present forensic evidence in order to support the allegations of huge human losses in Srebrenica and its surroundings, as well as numerous mass graves, adding that 6,380 people exhumed from those graves had been identified up to date.
Bulic said that Saric was informed about everything and that he knew about the capture of Bosniaks, who were first taken to Bratunac and then to numerous other execution locations.
“We shall present 51 witnesses and court experts, who will speak about the murders, about Potocari and Sandici, the uncertainty and waiting for either salvation or death, which was in the air,” Bulic said.
The Defence of Goran Saric does not deny the crimes in Srebrenica and considers that both the Defence and Prosecution are on the same side.
“It is necessary to avoid assumptions in the case of Saric. He must have known, he certainly knew…only because he was a general and commander,” Saric’s Defence attorney Aleksandar Lazarevic said, among other things.
He said that the indictee entered the courtroom as an innocent person and that he should leave it in the same way.
Under a first instance verdict pronounced in a separate case, Saric was sentenced to 14 years in prison for having committed crimes in Sarajevo in 1992.
The first Prosecution witness is due to appear before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on December 3.
