Mitrovic Refuses to Answer Questions at Saric Trial, Cites Self-Recrimination as Reason

At the Goran Saric trial, witness Petar Mitrovic didn’t want to answer questions about incidents that took place in July 1995.

Mitrovic, who has been sentenced under a second instance verdict to twenty years in prison for aiding the execution of the Srebrenica genocide, didn’t respond to questions out of fear of self-recrimination.

Upon the advice of his legal advisor Vesna Tupajic-Skiljevic, Mitrovic didn’t disclose the full name of the military unit he belonged to and also declined to describe the actions which resulted in his guilty verdict.

Prosecutor Ibro Bulic provided Mitrovic’s second instance verdict as evidence to the court. Mitrovic, a former member of the Second Special Police Squad of Sekovici, was convicted in 1999 for his involvement in the mass killing of approximately 1000 men in the Kravica agricultural cooperative in the municipality of Bratunac.

Tupajic-Skiljevic said that Mitrovic has filed an appeal at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the grounds that he was denied the right to a fair trial.

Mitrovic said he didn’t know enough about Goran Saric, and said that he had only met him three times.

“I saw him once in Sekovici in 1994, at the parade. He was commander of the special units,” Mitrovic said. Mitrovic said he was a police officer in those units.

Saric has been charged with ordering police forces to participate in the search, disarmament, and forcible relocation of women, children, and the elderly. He is also charged with separating men and boys who would later be killed in the area of Srebrenica.

According to the indictment, Saric ordered police officers to guard the road between Bratunac and Konjevic Polje and capture men and boys who were trying to escape the protected zone of Srebrenica through the woods.

The trial will continue on March 16.