Kravica: Milan Lukic in Srebrenica

A Defence witness at the trial of 11 people indicted for genocide claims to have seen Hague indictee Milan Lukic on the territory of Srebrenica in July 1995.

“It is easy to accuse these people, but let us find the truth,” said witness Miodrag Josipovic, adding that he “does not want” to say more about Lukic as “it is still dangerous to speak about him”.

Josipovic, former Chief of Police Station in Bratunac, has been invited to testify as a joint witness of the 11 defence teams.

Milos Stupar, Milenko Trifunovic, Petar Mitrovic, Brano Dzinic, Aleksandar Radovanovic, Slobodan Jakovljevic, Miladin Stevanovic, Velibor Maksimovic, Dragisa Zivanovic, Branislav Medan and Milovan Matic are indicted for the execution of about 1,000 Bosniaks on a farm in the village of Kravica.

Witness Josipovic has said that he learned about “the problems” in Kravica village from the commander of the Second Squad in Sekovici, whose name he did not know and who was known as “officer”.

“He told me that [something] had happened and that one man had been killed,” Josipovic has said and added that he knew that “Milan Lukic from Visegrad” was on the territory of Srebrenica at the time, and that this fact “speaks for itself”. The witness has not clarified this statement.

Milan Lukic, former commander of ‘Beli orlovi’ (White Eagles) paramilitary formation, also known as ‘Osvetnici’ (Revengers), is accused by the Hague tribunal of crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and practices of warfare committed in Visegrad from April 1992 until October 1994.

The witness has said that he cannot associate any of the indictees with the happenings in Kravica.

The trial continues on 1 August 2007.