Srebrenica Residents “Done away with”

Rajko Babic, former member of Pilica-Lokanj First Infantry Battalion of Zvornik Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, said that he kept a diary for his Battalion in the summer of 1995. As he said, in the morning on July 14 he found a cable inside the diary, informing them to prepare a gym for Srebrenica captives, who would be brought later on.
“It said that between 100 and 200 people from Srebrenica, who would be taken to an exchange in Tuzla, would be brought,” Babic said, adding that he was sent to carry out the task.
As he said, when he arrived at the school building, he saw captives, who were being taken to the gym until the space was filled. He said that some of them were injured, adding that they were brought by unknown soldiers.
“We allowed them to use the school toilet. There was no water, so we allowed them to fetch some from a nearby place,” Babic explained, adding that the captives were transferred from the gym to classrooms on the first floor, as they were more airy.
According to Babic’s testimony, the men from Srebrenica stayed in the school building for two days. He saw them being taken away and forced to tie each other’s hands. Also, he saw blindfolds in the bus.
“I heard about the fate of those people in the military barracks, when the Commander returned from sick leave. ‘There you go. We have done away with your Srebrenica men’, he told me. I asked him why he referred to them as ‘mine’,” Babic said, explaining that he used to attend the gymnasium in Srebrenica.
He said that, even now, nobody wanted to speak about the murder of Srebrenica residents.
“A sheet, containing instructions about Srebrenica captives, was missing from the diary into which the cable was inserted,” Babic said.
Also, he said that he did not know indictee Aleksandar Cvetkovic.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Cvetkovic, former member of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad of VRS, with having participated in the murder of at least 900 Srebrenica residents on Branjevo agricultural farm on July 16, 1995.
Second witness Milorad Bicakovic used to be a driver with the Zvornik Brigade Command in 1995. He said that he saw three or four buses from Srebrenica and that, as per a request by the Chief of Security, he got on one of them and went to Orahovac, where the captives were being held in a school gym. As he said, he drove his superiors to school buildings in Rocevici and Pilica, where men from Srebrenica were detained as well. He said that he found out, later on, that they were shot on Branjevo.
The trial is due to continue on December 16.