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Witness Lazar Jovic, who used to live in Djulici village, a few hundred metres away from the Petkovci dam, said that he had never heard anything about the murder of Srebrenica residents. However, when Prosecutor Predrag Tomic presented him with a statement he gave to the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, in 2009, Jovic confirmed that he heard about the murders a few months later.
Jovic said that he remembered having been mobilised by the Working Squad of a battalion seated in Petkovci on June 22, 1995, but he did not know who the Battalion commander was.
“I do not know who the Commander was. Some men were present…” the witness said, adding that he thought that Ostoja Stanisic was the Commander, but he did not know who his Deputy was.
Stanisic and Milosevic are charged with having participated in crimes committed on the dam, near Petkovci, where about 1,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica, who had been captured, were executed in mid-July 1995. The indictment alleges that the detainees were held in Petkovci prior to being taken to the dam.
According to the charges, Stanisic was Commander of the Sixth Battalion of Zvornik Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, while Milosevic was his Deputy.
Witness Jovic said that his tasks were to cut wood and deliver food to soldiers on frontlines.
According to Jovic’s testimony, one day in July 1995 he saw one or two trucks near the Cultural Centre in Petkovci. As he said, an unknown soldier gestured to him to move away, so he did that. He said that he did not see the captives from Srebrenica on that occasion.
“I heard noise coming from the direction of the Centre. It sounded as if people were talking a bit louder than normal,” Jovic said, adding that he saw three or four civilians next to the school building.
When asked if he heard any sounds from the school building, Jovic said that something like “children playing could be heard”.
Jovic said that he arrived home and that he was woken up by shooting during the night.
“Some shouting, shooting, I don’t know what, woke me up. How could I have known if I was able to go back to sleep. I do not know where the shooting could have come from,” he said, adding that he did not leave his house.
When asked by the Prosecutor if he told SIPA investigators that the noise came from the direction of the dam, the witness said that his memories were “fresher, when I gave my first statement”. “It is possible that I heard that,” Jovic said.
The trial is due to continue on Wednesday, December 18.
