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Kravica: No genocide elements

Kravica

16 July 2008  The eleven Defence teams consider that the Prosecution has not proved that genocide was committed after the fall of Srebrenica or that their clients participated in it.

Presenting his closing arguments at the trial of the eleven persons, who are charged with genocide after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, Defence attorney Bosko Cegar said that the Prosecution has not been able to prove that members of the Special Police Unit committed the crime.

Cegar represents Slobodan Jakovljevic, former member of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici, who is charged, together with ten other persons, with the capture and shooting of more than 1,000 Bosniaks in Kravica village, near Srebrenica, committed on July 13, 1995.

"It is true that the men were killed in Srebrenica, but the rest of the population was evacuated. Therefore we can hardly say that there was an intention to destroy the entire Bosniak population. We could have said that genocide had been committed in Srebrenica had the women and children been killed as well. The Prosecution has not presented relevant evidence concerning an alleged execution plan. It focused on presumptions instead," Cegar said, adding that, "not even en approximate number" of victims, who were killed in Kravica, "has been determined," because the witnesses gave different statements concerning the numbers.

Slobodan Jakovljevic

Cegar and Defence attorneys of Aleksandar Radovanovic, Velibor Maksimovic and Dragisa Zivanovic, who also presented their closing arguments at this hearing, said that the Prosecution had not managed to prove the indictees' guilt.

"Aleksandar Radovanovic is charged with having deliberately participated in a joint criminal enterprise. This presumption, made by the Prosecution, has proven to be as a mere fiction. He executed a common guarding task, as a policeman, on July 13, 1995. The indictment for genocide is absurd and it does not deserve your attention," attorney Dragan Gotovac said.

Danilo Mrkaljevic, who represents Velibor Maksimovic, considers that the evidence presented by the Prosecution and Defence proved that his client was not present in Kravica when the crime was committed.

The closing arguments, presented by Stanko Petrovic, Defence attorney of Dragisa Zivanovic, were based on the fact that the indictee had an alibi. He said that the Prosecution had not presented the Court with any "solid piece of evidence" related to the indictee's participation in the killing of civilians.

"During the course of the evidence presenting it has been determined that the indictee was in Skelani in the referenced period of time, where he organised a farewell party for his brother, who was going to start military service. Prosecution witnesses confirmed that not all members of one Squad had to go to the field at the same time," Petrovic said.

Indictee Dragisa Zivanovic then addressed the Trial Chamber by saying that he still could not believe that he was indicted for the crime, which was committed when he was "more than 60 kilometres away from Kravica."

Two more Defence teams are due to present their closing arguments at the hearing scheduled for July 17.