Srebrenica Men ‘Driven to Pileca to be Killed’

Prosecution witness Ratko Markovic told the state court on Tuesday that he was ordered to go to Kasaba in order to drive men who had surrendered their weapons to a location where they would be freed under a prisoner exchange.

The witness said the men were transported from the stadium in Kasaba to a playground near the school building in Bratunac, adding that police routed them.

He said that after having spent the night in Bratunac, they were told the men would go towards Bijeljina in order to be exchanged.

Soldiers then routed him towards the village of Pilica, near Zvornik, where he was stopped in front of the community centre. He said he noticed a few trucks and buses, as well as a police patrol.

He was ordered to take the men out of the vehicle and they were then taken into the community centre, while he was ordered to go back.

As determined at other trials, several hundred Bosniak men who were captured after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, were shot at the community centre in Pilica.

Markovic testified at the trial of Miodrag Josipovic, Branimir Tesic, Dragomir Vasic, Danilo Zoljic and Radomir Pantic, who are charged with genocide in Srebrenica.

According to the charges, Josipovic was the chief of the Public Security Station in Bratunac, while Tesic was the deputy commander of the police station, Vasic was the commander of police headquarters in Zvornik and chief of the Public Security Centre in the same town, while Zoljic was the commander of Public Security Centre special units and Pantic was the commander of the First Company of the units.