Saric on Sarajevo Battlefield

Witness Milorad Maric, former Chief of the Public Safety Centre of the Sarajevo region, said that the headquarters of the military and police forces, which were deployed in the area between Hadzici and Nisici from mid-June to the end of July with the aim of preventing an offensive by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, was situated in Vogosca.

According to the witness’ testimony, Saric, the then Commander of the Special Brigade of Republika Srpska police, was in the Headquarters. He said that he was tasked with co-ordinating the units under his responsibility. 
Maric said that he left the Headquarters, along with Saric and his driver, in order to repair an armoured vehicle in Srednje.

“That happened after the fall of Srebrenica on July 11. Saric asked me to try the vehicle and drive to Bratunac. We arrived in Bratunac in the morning. We stayed for a very short time. Goran went to the Police Station in order to collect some mail and find someone,” the witness said.

When asked by Prosecutor Mirza Hukeljic if they stopped in Kravica during their trip, Maric said that he thought they did not.

Saric, former Commander of the Special Brigade of Republika Srpska, RS, police, is charged with having deliberately helped in the commission of genocide, which resulted in 40,000 Bosniak residents having been forcedly relocated and more than 7,000 killed, including about 1,000 people killed in Kravica.
 
Witness Maric was presented with an official letter from July 1995 concerning the engagement of police forces in Srebrenica. The letter was sent to the Headquarters in Vogosca, among others.

“It is possible that it was sent… to us for information, probably,” the witness said. 

The witness agreed with Defence attorney Aleksandar Lazarevic that the letter did not contain any disputable sentences.

Speaking about the communication, the witness said that reports were distributed via communication centres and that they informed their superiors by sending official letters. However, he said that communication was sometimes interrupted.

“The communication on the defence line itself functioned properly… Other communication lines were not safe and did not function properly. Interruptions happened, so we sometimes received three or ten letters in one envelope at once,” Maric said.   

Spaso Skoro, former member of special police of Republika Srpska, RS, testified as Prosecution witness at this hearing. He said that he was on a battlefield in Trnovo for two months in the summer of 1995 and that he communicated with the Headquarters in Pale, when the “system for sending letters was functional”.

“I spoke to Goran over the phone for a minute or two, because no communication with Trnovo existed. We did not have the need to communicate,” Skoro said.

The trial is due to continue on December 24.