Special Ops Units ‘Killed’ in Branjevo

Savo Stevic, former member of the First Battalion of the Bosnian Serb army Zvornik brigade said that he was told to guard prisoners in the Pilica school in the summer of 1995. He said he saw three buses with prisoners.

“I was told to patrol the halls and guard the men in the classrooms. We gave them water and bread. They were mostly men, young and old, all civilians”, said the witness.

After two hours, the witness, as he said, went outside and saw a soldier walking towards the sports hall. He later learned the soldier asked prisoners for money and gold.

“I went away and the day after I went to the first lines. There I learned that the prisoners were killed on Branjevo farm and that some special op unit killed them”, said Stevic.

Stevic testified at the genocide trial of Aleksandar Cvetkovic, who is charged with taking part in the killings of over 800 men and boys in the Branjevo farm in July 1995. He is a former member of the Tenth reconnaissance unit of the Bosnian Serb army main headquarters.

The second witness to testify at this hearing, Dragan Jovanovic, was also a member of the First battalion of the Zvornik brigade, who guarded prisoners in the Pilica school.

“The second day I saw soldiers coming. One of them said: ‘Why aren’t you tying them up, why aren’t you killing them’. There were four or five of those soldiers in black shirts”, said Jovanovic, adding he did not know the soldier who mentioned killings.

He said he went home after that incident.

“Two or three days later we heard that the prisoners were killed on Branjevo farm”, said Jovanovic.

Witness Stevic was subpoenaed to this hearing. The judges said they heard he said he would not testify voluntarily, but the witness claimed he only had problems with transportation.

The trial of Cvetkovic continues on January 21.