Bosnian Serb Soldiers Indicted for Cajnice Murders

The Bosnian state prosecution on Monday charged Stevo, Milosav, Marijan and Slavko Jovanovic, all members of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Third Podrinje Light Infantry Brigade, with committing the murders in Medosevici in June 1992.

The prosecution alleges that the men killed a Bosniak woman, who was aged over 80, on June 4, then set her house on fire, burning her body.

It also alleges that in the first half of June of 1992 Marijan, Slavko and Milosav Jovanovic, who were all armed, arrived at a barn in the village where six other civilians were hiding and ordered them to come out. Then they pushed two children into a house and locked them in.

The adult civilians were ordered to walk in a line while the soldiers abused them, the prosecution said.

“While they were walking, they attacked and hit them constantly. Using an opportunity when they were not looking, one of the civilians managed to run away from there. After that, the suspects deprived the two other civilians of their lives by shooting them from a short distance. A third person died due to a trauma caused by being hit in his chest,” it said.

The prosecution alleges that the soldiers then returned to the house where the children were locked up, and killed them by shooting them with a rifle.

“Then they set a fire which caused the house to burn down with the bodies of the people who were killed in it,” it said.

The four men were arrested last month and remanded in custody because of suspicions that they might influence witnesses and accomplices and destroy or hide the evidence.

It has not been made public whether the suspects, who all have the same surname, are related or not.

The indictment has been forwarded to the state court for confirmation.