The Incident in Kravica
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Jovan Nikolic, who was the Co-operative’s director in Kravica, said that in July 1995 he came to Kravica where he was told there had been an incident in the hangar, and that a certain number of people were killed. He said that he left there soon afterwards.
“Later people told me that a couple of prisoners were supposed to sleep there, that an incident occurred, that one of those people snatched a rifle from a soldier and killed one of them,” said the witness.
He said that upon later arrival to Kravica he saw a group of prisoners escorted by three or four armed soldiers.
“A group of those people was executed, which I saw… I did not count, but people said that a group of five to six people were killed then,” said Nikolic.
Asked by the Defence whether he knew defendant Goran Saric, Nikolic said that he saw him in 1994 in the territory of Bijeljina but that in 1995 he did not see him in the territory of Bratunac.
Saric is charged with participating in the joint criminal enterprise which resulted in the forced transfer of 40,000 Bosniak citizens and more than 7,000 people from Srebrenica killed.
According to the indictment, Saric was a commander of police forces which participated in searches, disarmament and seizure of positions by UN troops, as well as the forced transfer of women, children and elderly, and separation of men and boys who would later be killed.
The protected witness for the Prosecution said that, as a member of the Army of Republika Srpska, when Serb forces entered Srebrenica, he set off towards Potocari.
“I arrived to the factory and stood with my Bosniak neighbours and talked with them there. I saw a group of members of the Army of Republika Srpska. I saw an acquaintance of mine who told me he came from the Jahorina Centre,“ said the witness, adding that this man told him he was a member of the special police.
He added that in the evening he set off with the police to Bratunac, and that the next day he was called to “watch over some buses.”
“Unknown soldiers sat in the alley between primary school Vuk Karadzic and bus depot. I think that Bosniak people from Potocari were held in the school, because I heard shouts, loud voices,” he said.
He added he did not know Saric and that he heard about him only last year in the media.
The witness testified under his full name, but after the Defence pointed out that the witness had requested during investigation that he be protected, the Trial Chamber decided to ban the publishing of his name and the picture in media, despite the “Prosecution’s error”.
According to the official court schedule, the trial will resume on March 31.
