Jevic et al: Truck Loaded with Corpses

20. December 2010.16:02
A Prosecution witness testifying at the trial of four indictees charged with genocide committed in Srebrenica, tells the Court that he saw a truck loaded with corpses in the vicinity of the Agricultural Cooperative in Kravica.

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Sinisa Renovica, former Squad Commander with the Second company of the Jahorina Training Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP RS, said he and Company Commander Nedjo Ikonic were on their way to Bratunac when he saw corpses of men from Srebrenica.

“As we were passing by, I saw a truck loaded with corpses. More trucks and a dredger were parked in front of the hangar.

“What we saw was dreadful and creepy. We could not believe it was happening,” the witness described, adding they informed Ljubomir Borovcanin, whom they saw at the Police Station in Bratunac, about those events.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Borovcanin to 17 years in prison for crimes committed in Srebrenica, where he commanded police forces during the course of military operations conducted in July 1995.

“I do not know if Jevic was in the office at that moment. Nedjo explained what we had seen on the road,” Renovica said, testifying via video link from Belgrade.

Ikonic, Dusko Jevic, Mendeljev Djuric and Goran Markovic are charged with having participated in the forced resettlement of Bosniaks from Srebrenica and the murder of more than 1,000 men in Kravica.

The indictment alleges that Jevic was Commander of the Training Centre, Djuric was a company commander and Markovic was a squad commander with the Centre.

The witness said that he and Ikonic were tasked with guarding a part of the road leading towards Konjevic polje.

“A guy surrendered to my Squad. He told me that there were about 1,500 armed people on the hill. He said they were willing to surrender. He asked if they could safely surrender to us. I told him that nobody would do them any harm and, as far as I was concerned, they could surrender without fear,” Renovica said.

He said that a group of about a hundred people surrendered on the following day. He explained that after having handed over their weapons, those men were transported by two buses, which, he supposed, were sent by “the military command based in the school building”, after Ikonic had given them a call.

“They wanted us to provide escorts for those buses. When our members returned, we found out that they first went to the stadium in Kasaba, but, as the stadium was full, they were told to go to the military barracks in Zvornik,” Renovica said.

He confirmed that, among others, members of the First Company were deployed to a location near the hangar in Kravica, adding that, as far as he knew, they did not participate in the murder of men.

The trial is due to continue on Wednesday, December 22.

Marija Taušan


This post is also available in: Bosnian