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In their statements read at the trial of Aleksandar Cvetkovic, who is charged with genocide in Srebrenica, State Prosecution witnesses said that they “loaded” bodies of captives from the Cultural Centre in Pilica.
Witness Juros Jurosevic’s statement given in 2011 was read in the courtroom at Cvetkovic’s trial. In his statement Jurosevic said that he was member of a working squad, which was deployed to Branjevo farm, Zvornik municipality, in July 1995. According to his statement, he was told, just like a few other workers, to go to “Kula” school building in Pilica, where captives from Srebrenica had been brought.
As indicated in the statement read in the courtroom, the witness said that he was not given any specific tasks, that he saw classrooms, a school gym and three or four buses full of captives.
“Most of them were men. One woman was there as well. (…) I saw a few corpses in front of the school. They probably tried to run away, so they were killed,” Jurosevic said in his statement.
Jurosevic further said that the captives, who were brought by the buses were taken to the Cultural Centre in Pilica and that they were killed the following day. As indicated in his statement, Jurosevic, Jefto Bogdanovic, Stevo Ostojic and other members of his Squad “loaded the corpses”, which were then transported to Branjevo.
As indicated by Jurosevic, three men were still alive in the Cultural Centre in Pilica but Nebojsa Stevanovic shot at them and robbed the killed men afterwards.
Jurosevic said that he heard that the other captives, who were held in “Kula” school, were killed on Branjevo. He said that the bodies had been “covered with land” for some time “before they disappeared”.
Second statement given by witness Jefto Bogdanovic, which was read by Prosecutor Dubravko Campara, indicates that Bogdanovic participated in carrying the dead bodies out of the Cultural Centre. The witness said that there about 500 men and one woman was killed there.
The Defence said that, had the witnesses been present, it would have asked them, among other things, whether they knew Cvetkovic and whether they used to see him in Pilica and on Branjevo in the mentioned period of time.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Aleksandar Cvetkovic, former member of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, with the murder of more than 900 Bosniaks on Branjevo military farm.
The Prosecution presented medical documentation pertaining to witnesses Jurosevic and Bogdanovic, who were not able to appear in Court due to health reasons.
The trial is due to continue on April 15.
