Srebrenica Victims Request Urgent Explanation

Representatives of the “Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves” Association will request the Chief State Prosecutor of Bosnia and Herzegovina to explain why a proposal for processing three Srebrenica crimes indictees in Serbia has been withdrawn.

The information about the withdrawal of the proposal for processing of crimes against Srebrenica residents was announced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the Prosecution did not want to say anything about the reasons.

Munira Subasic, President of the Srebrenica association, says that she will withdraw the consent for processing of Srebrenica crime indictees, who live in Serbia, in case “it turns out this is something that is not in line with the agreement”.

“I am so disappointed. I cannot understand that they are playing with other people’s nerves, other people’s lives, our victims and mothers, who have survived that,” she says.

She said that she would request an urgent meeting with Chief Prosecutor Goran Salihovic, as well as the prosecutor in charge of the Srebrenica area, on Monday, February 17.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has announced that it “has rejected a State Prosecution’s proposal for referring the criminal prosecution” of indictees Nedeljko Milidragovic and Aleksa Golijanin, as well as Milisav Gavric, “to the Republic of Serbia”, because the Prosecution has withdrawn the mentioned proposal.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina was supposed to refer those two cases to judicial bodies of Serbia in accordance with the Protocol on co-operation in the persecution of war crimes perpetrators.

The Protocol says that a case cannot be transferred without consent by victims. The “Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves” Association previously submitted its consent to the referral of those cases.

The Prosecutors’ Offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia agreed that Milidragovic, Golijanin and Gavric would be tried in Serbia. These are the first two cases to be handled within the framework of the planned cooperation.

According to the Bosnian State Prosecution’s charges, Milidragovic, Squad Commander with the Jahorina Training Centre of the Special Brigade of Republika Srpska police, and Golijanin, former Deputy Squad Commander with that Centre, committed genocide in the Srebrenica area in the period from July 10 to 19, 1995.

Gavric, former Deputy Commander of the Police Station in Srebrenica, is charged with having committed, abetted, helped and supported the commission of crimes in that municipality in July 1995.