Jevic et al: Threats and Blackmail

Witness S-101 said that during the investigation he gave incorrect data because he was threatened and blackmailed by Bajro Kulovac, inspector with the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA.

“Prior to giving a statement I met with Bajro Kulovac, who introduced himself as SIPA chief of Srebrenica investigations. While blackmailing me, he asked me to provide details about events which I did not even witness. He said he had two men who were ready to say that they had seen me in Srebrenica, adding that I would certainly go to jail,” S-101 said.

The witness said that the inspector told him he could order people to raid his house and “make it look like I offered resistance, so some ugly things could happen” and also that he had some people who could spread the word that he was the Prosecution’s collaborator.

When asked by State Prosecutor Ibro Bulic why he failed to report that to him and whether he and his family would be safe if he revealed his identity, the witness said he would fear for their safety as much as he had feared up to now.

“I see you as his superior officer. When you heard that my wife had an abortion and my mother suffered a mild stroke after we received those threats, you said you were sorry. This does not mean anything to me,” S-101 said.

He stopped his testimony and asked the Court to terminate the protective measures in place for him while the Prosecutor was questioning him about the events that took place in Kravica Agricultural Cooperative, Bratunac municipality, where, as alleged under the indictment, more than 1,000 Bosniak men were shot.

Dusko Jevic, Mendeljev Djuric, Goran Markovic and Nedjo Ikonic are on trial for participation in those murders and the forcible resettlement of people from the Srebrenica area. The indictment alleges that Jevic was Commander of the Police Training Centre on Mount Jahorina, Djuric and Ikonic were company commanders and Markovic was a squad commander.

The witness, who was a member of that unit, told the Court they were deployed to Potocari, where a certain number of the Centre members participated in the separation of men from women. He said he saw Jevic and Djuric in Potocari.

He told the Court that he hated and despised the two indictees, because he blamed them for what he had gone through after having been arrested in Serbia and taken to Jahorina.

“We were then brought to Kravica. It was dark. We were told that members of some other unit had been there and we were going to replace them… I saw a couple of bodies in front of the warehouse that evening. I heard people screaming in the warehouse. They asked for water and cried for help…” the witness recalled.

He said that on the following morning one of the commanders told the detainees not to worry as a truck would come and take them to an exchange location.

The witness will continue his testimony at the next hearing. He has been given an opportunity to reconsider his request for the termination of protection measures until the next hearing.

US intelligence officer Richard Butler testified at this hearing via video link. He prepared a report, commissioned by the Hague Tribunal, on the events in Srebrenica and the surrounding area in 1995.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina invited him to testify as a witness and not a court expert, as was the case with his testimonies given before the Hague Tribunal. For that reason, he was only asked questions about the way in which he prepared his analysis.

The trial is due to continue on Thursday, March 17.