No Bad Intentions

As Radovan Karadzic’s trial at The Hague continues, judges hear a testimony by Defence witness Mendeljev Djuric, who says that he has never heard of a plan to kill Muslims from Srebrenica.

“I have never had intentions that would harm anybody, including Muslims, in any way,” Djuric said, adding that he was member of an honourable brigade.

Djuric, former member of the Special Brigade with Republika Srpska police, was sentenced, under a first instance verdict pronounced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in May 2012, to 30 years in prison for assisting in and supporting the commission of genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995. Djuric has appealed the verdict.

Karadzic, the then President of RS and supreme Commander of its armed forces, is charged with genocide against about 7,000 Muslim men from Srebrenica in the days that followed the occupation of the UN protected enclave by the RS Army on July 11, 1995.

During the cross-examination Prosecutor Mateo Kosti presented Djuric with the fact that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina pronounced him guilty of having participated in the separation of Muslim men from their families in Potocari on July 12 and 13, 1995, forcible resettlement of thousands of women, children and the elderly and murder of about 1,000 Muslims in a warehouse in Kravica village, near Bratunac.

The witness confirmed that he was in Potocari with his men on July 12 and 13 but he denied that they participated in the separation of men from their families. Moreover, Djuric said that he did not even know about the separation and that he did not see it at the location where he was. Djuric said that he did not know whether the separation was done at other locations.

At the same time he denied a testimony by Dutch UNPROFOR Officer Leendert van Duijn, who said that, while he was in Potocari, he told him to separate Muslim men from others in order to find war criminals among them and that they would no longer need their personal documents, which had been confiscated from them.

Djuric said that Van Duijn refused to testify at the trial against him in Sarajevo.

“The Court said so, but I am saying that I did not participate in forcible resettlement of civilians. I did not know whether they wanted to leave or not, but when the transportation began, they left wilfully and they wanted to do it as soon as possible,” Djuric said.
Although he confirmed that his policemen were deployed at nearby locations, Djuric said that he found out about the mass murder in Kravica “much later,” but he was not able to specify when.

Prosecutor Kosti presented the witness with a statement by his Commander Dusko Jevic, who said that he found out about the massacre in the warehouse that same evening, but Djuric responded by saying that he did not know how Jevic found out about it.

When reminded by the Prosecutor that, according to the verdict, the Company, which was under his command, participated in the murders and that he ordered his men to “carry on with the execution”, Djuric said:

“That is a first instance verdict. In my appeal I proved that the Prosecutor was wrong. I neither knew nor had any pieces of information about it. I found out much later, but I cannot say when.”

After the Prosecutor presented him with a list of 12 members of his unit, who were either sentenced or admitted guilt for the massacre in Kravica, Djuric denied that they were members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP of RS, claiming that they were just “undergoing training.”

The trial of Karadzic is due to continue on July 30.