Defense Witnesses Deny Knowledge of Petkovci Killings

Testifying at the Ostoja Stanisic and Marko Milosevic trial, defense witness Miladin Acimovic said he didn’t see captives from Srebrenica in Petkovci, Zvornik, in the summer of 1995.

Stanisic and Milosevic are on trial for the murder of approximately 1000 Bosniaks from Srebrenica in a dam near Petkovci in July 1995. According to the charges, the victims were detained in Petkovci before they were taken to the dam.

Defense witness Acimovic is a former clerk of the technical service team of the Sixth Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army. Acimovic denied that captives from Srebrenica were kept in a battalion warehouse.

“God forbid,” he said.

Acimovic said he was one of the Sixth Battalion members responsible for taking care of the warehouse. He said that in July 1995, the warehouse was full of ammunition and always locked.

Acimovic said he wasn’t with the battalion from July 14-16, 1995. He said he had been granted permission to go to a party by Stanisic, the commander of the Sixth Battalion.

“Even if they [the Srebrenica captives] were kept there, you wouldn’t know because you weren’t there,” said prosecutor Predrag Tomic.

“Absolutely,” responded Acimovic.

Acimovic said after he came back, he didn’t see any damage from bullets in the warehouse. He said a few months afterwards he heard about the Petkovci killings from media reports.

“I still can’t believe what happened,” he said.

According to the indictment, the victims were detained in a new school building in Petkovci before they were taken to a nearby dam for execution. Acimovic said the Sixth Battalion didn’t use the new school building in Petkovci.

Defense witness Radosav Peric said he was the director of all the elementary schools in the municipality of Zvornik at the time – including the new school in Petkovci.

“Classes weren’t held in Petkovci since 1992, they stopped in April,” he said.

Peric said that while he was the director of elementary schools in Zvornik, he had never received requests to repurpose the new school in Petkovci for military needs.

He said he was on the frontline in July 1995, and had no information as to what took place in Petkovci.

Peric said he’d never heard Stanisic express hatred towards anyone.

The trial will continue on March 18.