Bosnia Indicts Serb Policemen for Srebrenica Genocide
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Josipovic, the former chief of the municipal police Public Safety Station in Bratunac, who also worked at the Centre for Public Safety’s headquarters in Zvornik, and Tesic, the former deputy commander of the police station in Bratunac, are charged with knowingly aiding and supporting the main perpetrators of the genocide from July 12 until July 19, 1995.
The Bosnian prosecution said that Josipovic and Tesic took part in overseeing the forcible resettlement of the civilian population from Potocari near Srebrenica, separating men from their families, and transporting and detaining more than 1,000 Bosnaik men and boys on July 12 and 13.
Most of the men who were separated from their families were transported to Bratunac and detained in the Vuk Karadzic primary school, a hangar and the sports stadium in Bratunac.
Due to the large number of prisoners, many Bosniak men were kept in buses and trucks during the night, which were parked on the streets of Bratunac and guarded by officers from the Public Safety Station in Bratunac. According to the indictment, at least 150 men were killed during the night of July 13, 1995.
In the morning of July 14, it is alleged that Josipovic and Tesic, aware of the fact that Bosniaks from Bratunac were being driven to the execution sites in the municipality of Zvornik, organised an escort by assigning police officers to the buses and trucks used to transport the prisoners.
Defendant Tesic also ordered that five detained men should be taken out of the hangar and sent to the bus, which took them to an execution site in Orahovac, the indictment says.
After all the imprisoned men left Bratunac, dead bodies were collected, transported and buried in a mass grave in the village of Glogova in the Bratunac municipality.
The indictment has been forwarded to the Bosnian court for confirmation.
On September 8, the Bosnian court ordered Tesic to be remanded in custody for a month because of the possibility that he might flee and influence witnesses and accomplices, while Josipovic was banned from leaving home and contacting witnesses and accomplices.