Jevic et al: Inclusion of Statements from the Investigation
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According to a statement presented by prosecutor Ibro Bulic, the first indictee Dusko Jevic said that he was co-ordinating the Brigade of the Jahorina Training Centre, which came to Potocari on 12 July 1995, where a large number of civilians gathered.
Jevic said that Mladic had said that the population should be evacuated as soon as possible. Buses began to arrive around 3:00 p.m. and Jevic was helping in directing the buses, said prosecutor Bulic.
In 2000, indictee Jevic had said that he was tasked by Ljubomir Borovcanin to secure the road communications between Bratunac and Konjevic Polje.
The trial for genocide and other crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina of Ratko Mladic, former Chief of the Main Headquarters with the Army of Republika Srpska, is due to begin before The Hague Tribunal, while Ljubomir Borovcanin was sentenced by a second instance verdict to 17 years in prison for crimes in Srebrenica.
Borovcanin was Deputy Commander of the Special Police Brigade of Republika Srpska, and he was also commander of the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), during the operation in Srebrenica in July 1995.
In a statement given by Jevic, he said that he was on the road on July 14, and that he heard that there was an incident in some hangar, the grabbing of a rifle and something happened later, but that he did not want to see it.
Dusko Jevic is on trial together with Mendeljev Djuric, Goran Markovic and Nedjo Ikonic for participating in the forcible resettlement of the Bosniak population from the Srebrenica area and the murder of about 1,000 men in Kravica. The indictment alleges that Jevic was Commander of the Jahorina Training Centre with the Special Brigade of Republika Srpska police, Djuric and Ikonic were Company Commanders and Markovic was a Squad Commander.
In their previous statements, Jevic, Djuric and Markovic indicated that they knew nothing nor they saw the separation of men in Potocari. In his statement, the indictee said that there were women, children and elderly people in Potocari, who wanted to get on the buses, and that he spent the day with one UN lieutenant.
Djuric said that on July 13, he was given a task from Jevic to block the road, and that on the next day he returned to Jahorina with the other members the Brigade, because they got a skin rash.
In an investigation from 2009, Markovic said that he was responsible for the logistics, and that he was in Potocari and that Jevic gave the task of securing the road.
The Defences of the indictees previously rejected the inclusion of these statements, as well as a dozen additional material evidence of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Miodrag Stojanovic, Djurics defence attorney requested that the statement should not be read until the investigator of The Hague Tribunal who had interrogated Djuric, gave his testimony.
I am against the inclusion of the statements, because it is contrary to the practice of this Court, who, in another case, brought the opposite decision. If you have already made a decision, then we need to act like you wrote in the decision, that the statement is not read until the investigator is interrogated, said Stojanovic.
The continuation of the trial is scheduled for December 22, 2011.
M.T.
