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Taking Srebrenica Residents from “Bijela Kuca”

31. March 2014.00:00
Testifying at the trial of Goran Saric for genocide in Srebrenica, a State Prosecution witness says that the Special Brigade of Republika Srpska, RS police guarded the road between Bratunac and Konjevic Polje in mid July 1995, because a breakthrough by Srebrenica residents was expected.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

Miladin Stevanovic, who was acquitted, under a second instance verdict pronounced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, of charges for participation in genocide in Srebrenica, said that he guarded the road in the vicinity of Sandici village on July 13, 1995.

“I stayed there for an hour or two. Nothing special happened while I was there,” said Stevanovic, former member of the Sekovici Squad with the Special Brigade of RS police.

He explained that he went from Sandici to Bratunac with a colleague, adding that they returned to Kravica village, near Sandici, in the afternoon.

According to Stevanovic’s testimony, upon his return, he saw members of the Special Police Brigade on the road in front of the agricultural co-operative in Kravica and a killed colleague of his, whose body he transported to Bratunac together with two other colleagues. He said that they were told they did not have to come back, because their “replacement would come”.

Stevanovic said that Saric was Commander of the Special Police Brigade, but he had never seen him personally.

Goran Saric, former Commander of the Special Police Brigade, is charged with having ordered members of police forces to guard the road between Bratunac and Konjevic Polje and capture several thousands of Srebrenica residents, who walked through the woods in an attempt to reach the territories controlled by the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH.

The indictment alleges that members of the Special Police Brigade then participated in escorting several hundreds of captives to the Agricultural Co-operative in Kravica, where they killed them.

Second State Prosecution witness Miladin Mladjenovic said that he transported men from “Bijela Kuca” in Potocari to the secondary school centre in Bratunac by bus in mid July 1995.

He said that he made several “round trips” and that he transported approximately 400 men in total.

“They said that they would be transferred from Bratunac to Kladanj,” he said.

Witness Mladjenovic said that, on the day before he transported women and children from Potocari to the territory controlled by ABiH in Kladanj. He said that he received those tasks from his superiors at the “Vihor” transportation company in Bratunac, where he worked as part of his civil duties.

The trial of Saric is due to continue on Monday, April 7.

Amer Jahić


This post is also available in: Bosnian