Jevic et al: Indictee in Potocari

Radomir Pantic, former Commander of the Police Station in Milici, told the Court that he and his unit stayed in the vicinity of the UNPROFOR Base in Potocari, where he saw Dusko Jevic and a large number of Bosniak women and children, but he did not say when exactly this happened.

“There were many people in front of us. (…) Later, Ljubomir Borovcanin came, accompanied by General Mladic and Dusko Jevic. They spoke to each other. I asked Borovcanin what we should do next, but he told me to wait,” Pantic said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers that Dusko Jevic, Mendeljev Djuric and Nedjo Ikonic “supervised and supported” the shooting of more than 1,000 men in Kravica on July 13, 1995, while Goran Markovic “asked for volunteers among his unit members to perform executions”.

The indictment alleges that Jevic was Commander of “Jahorina” Training Center, Djuric and Ikonic were Commanders of the First and Second Company with the Center and Markovic was Commander of the Second Squad with the First Company.

Ljubomir Borovcanin, former Commander of joint forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP RS, was sentenced by a first instance verdict handed down by the Hague Tribunal, to 17 years in prison for genocide committed in Srebrenica. Ratko Mladic, former Commander of the Main Headquarters with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, is charged before the Hague Tribunal with crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war; he is still on the run.

Pantic said that with his unit members he guarded the road between Konjevic polje and Bratunac, in the vicinity of Sandici village, on the following day, adding that several Bosniak men surrendered at this location.

“The men came out of the woods from several directions. They gathered on a small meadow near a house. Some were uniformed, while others were not. There were about 50 of them,” Pantic said, adding that Ratko Mladic visited the prisoners, spoke to them and promised they “would be exchanged after questioning”.

After the Prosecutor said he would present Pantic with a statement he had given earlier as a suspect to the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the indictees’ Defence teams objected, saying that in their view the witness could not be examined in the absence of a legal representative.

“The circumstances mentioned by the witness are incriminating to him. It is in his best interest and in the interest of law to decide whether to examine the witness or not,” Nenad Rubez, Ikonic’s Defence attorney, said.

The Trial Chamber decided the examination of the witness would continue in the presence of his legal representative. The trial is due to continue on June 24, 2010.