Witnesses Describe Arrival of Srebrenica Captives to Petkovci

Stanisic and Milosevic are on trial for the murder of approximately 1000 civilian captives from Srebrenica on a dam near Petkovci in mid-July 1995. The captives were held in Petkovci prior to being taken to the dam.

Stanisic was the commander of the Sixth Battalion of the Zvornicka Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, and Milosevic was his deputy.

Milenko Vujic, who was 17 in 1995, testified at the trial. Vujic said he watched the arrival of the captives to the old school building in Petkovci from his house. He said the old school building was where the Sixth Battalion was based. Vujic said he used to perform logistical tasks for the Sixth Battalion.

Vujic said a bus and a truck brought the captives to the village on or around July 12, 1995. According to Vujic, they were escorted by unidentified soldiers who arrived to the village in a minivan. The bus left the village immediately, while the truck was parked in front of the village’s cultural center, across the street from the Sixth Battalion’s command center.

“When they got off the truck, they went behind the hall. I heard two or three individual gunshots,” Vujic said.

Vujic said he went to a friend’s house a short time later and passed by a new school building in the village. He said he saw the bus had relocated to the new school building, and one soldier was standing there. He said he didn’t see civilians in the bus or Stanisic on that day.

Goran Ristic, a witness for the defense, was a member of the Vukovi Sa Drine (the Wolves of the Drina) with the Zvornicka Brigade. Ristic said he was out in the field from July 12-18, 1995, and was then granted a few days of leave. He said he went to his home in Petkovci.

Ristic said his mother had told him that captives had been brought to Petkovci, but weren’t going to be exchanged. When he went to the new school building, Ristic said he noticed bullet marks on a barn in the courtyard.

Ristic said he hadn’t heard that Stanisic had asked local residents to guard and kill the captives. He said he found out about the mass killing of the civilians from Srebrenica on the dam near the end of the war. Ristic said this made him ashamed to say that he was from Petkovci.

“I am disgusted with what was done,” he said.

New witnesses will testify in Stanisic’s defense on May 27.