Strictly Confidential Mail

Testifying at the trial for genocide in Srebrenica, former courier with the Zvornik Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, says that he delivered mail to Brigade’s battalions in July 1995.

Jovo Bircakovic, who testified at the trial of Ostoja Stanisic and Marko Milosevic, said that he could read unimportant orders and other messages, because they were not put in envelopes.

“Naturally, in case the mail was confidential, it was put in a closed envelope. I could not open and read such mail,” said Bircakovic, who testified at the invitation by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Prosecutor Predrag Tomic said that the witness took mail to Petkovci village, Zvornik municipality, where the Command of the Sixth Battalion of Zvornik Brigade was, on July 13, 1995. 

“I cannot remember what I delivered and to whom,” the witness said, explaining that he used to leave mail in the Battalion’s kitchen, in case he did not find the Commander or his Deputy. 

According to the charges, Stanisic was Commander of the Sixth Battalion, while Milosevic was his Deputy. They are on trial for having participated in the murders on a dam, near Petkovci, where about 1,000 previously captured Srebrenica residents were shot in mid-July 1995.  

A few days after the occupation of Srebrenica by VRS forces, witness Bircakovic noticed Srebrenica residents in buses and trucks, which were parked in front of the Brigade’s military barracks in Zvornik. 

“We heard, later on, that they were taken away. We heard that they were in Pilica, Petkovci, Orahovac and so on,” the witness said.

Responding to a Defence’s allegation that the Sixth Battalion did not issue an order related to those captives, the witness said that he did not see such mail.