Kos et al: Issue of Srebrenica Residents ‘Resolved’

Rajko Babic, a former member of the Republika Srpska Army, testifies at the trial of four indictees charged with genocide committed in Srebrenica and says that while he was in command of his unit he heard that “the issue of Srebrenica residents had been resolved”.

“The Commander told me: ‘There you go Babic. We have solved the issue of your people from Srebrenica’. I did not know what he meant, but I found out later what had happened,” Babic said, alluding to the fact that male detainees from Srebrenica were killed on Branjevo military farm.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Franc Kos, Stanko Kojic, Vlastimir Golijan and Zoran Goronja with having participated in the murder of more than 800 Srebrenica residents on Branjevo military farm in Pilica, Zvornik municipality in July 1995.

The indictment alleges that Kos was Commander of First Bijeljina Platoon while Kojic, Golijan and Goronja were members of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad with the Main Headquarters of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS.

Babic, a former member of the First Battalion with the VRS Zvornik Brigade, who began testifying on January 11 this year, repeated at this hearing that his unit did not participate in the murder of Srebrenica residents on Branjevo farm.

He said he realised that “something bad would happen” to the detainees after having spoken to a VRS officer, whose name, as he found out later, was Vujadin Popovic.

“I asked him to release two detainees, but he said that all of them had to be taken away. By the way he behaved, I realised that something bad would happen to them,” the witness said.

Vujadin Popovic, former Lieutenant Colonel and Assistant Commander for Security with the VRS Drina Corps Headquarters, was sentenced, under a first instance verdict pronounced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in June last year, to life imprisonment for genocide committed in Srebrenica.

The trial is due to continue on February 1 this year.