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Stories about Shooting on a Dam

24. July 2013.00:00
Testifying at the trial for genocide in Srebrenica, a State Prosecution witness says that he heard stories about Muslim men being brought to a dam in Petkovci, near Zvornik.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

Vitomir Josipovic said that he was in the vicinity of Srebrenica in July 1995. After the town had been occupied, the witness stayed in the Pandurica area before returning to Petkovci. Upon his arrival he heard from others that Muslims were brought to the dam and that shooting could be heard.
 
The witness said that, a long time later he saw a truck coming from the direction of the dam.
 
“Once the truck passed by us, we sensed some smell. It was a disgusting smell,” he said, adding that he neither knew the date nor the year when all that happened.
 
When asked by Prosecutor Predrag Tomic what he assumed caused the smell, the witness said: “Human body, I guess”.
 
Josipovic said that he was member of a company with the Sixth Battalion. According to his testimony, Ostoja Stanisic was Commander of that Battalion.
 
Stanisic and Marko Milosevic are charged with having participated in the crimes on the dam in Petkovci, near Zvornik, in mid-July 1995, when about 1,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica, who had been captured, were executed.
 
According to the charges, Stanisic was Commander of the Sixth Battalion with the Zvornik Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, while Milosevic was his Deputy.  
 
Witness Josipovic said that Srebrenica fell on July 11, 1995, but the local population had left the town on the day before. Following the occupation of Srebrenica, the witness saw Ratko Mladic, who spoke about the occupation of Zepa.
 
Mladic, former Commander of VRS, is on trial before The Hague Tribunal for genocide against about 7,000 Muslim men from Srebrenica and other crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
The witness said that he was at Pandurica and saw a line of Srebrenica residents moving towards Nezruk.
 
The public was not able to hear a part of the witness’ testimony due to poor sound in the State Court courtroom.

The trial is due to continue on August 26. 

Selma Učanbarlić


This post is also available in: Bosnian