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Ivanovic: Promised salvation

23 November 2009  A Prosecution witness says that General Ratko Mladic made a promise, in July 1995, to captured men from Srebrenica, telling them they would be saved.

Radomir Pantic, former Commander of the Police Station in Milici, guarded, together with members of his unit, part of the road near Sandici village, in Bratunac Municipality. He said he saw about 200 civilians who had surrendered from the surrounding forests to members of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici on July 13.

"During the day the atmosphere among the people on the meadow in Sandici was even friendly. At some stage General Ratko Madic came. He made a promise to the captured men, telling them they would be saved and transported to Bratunac. Following a quarrel between Mladic and Ljubisa Borovcanin, we were ordered to go back to Bratunac and wait for new orders," Pantic recalled.

Borovcan and six other Republika Srpska Army and police officers are charged with genocide committed in Srebrenica. He is awaiting the verdict in his case before the Hague Tribunal. Mladic, Commander of the Main Headquarters of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, who is still on the run, is also charged with genocide.

Pantic testified for the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the trial of Zeljko Ivanovic. He said that he did not know the indictee, adding he did not see him in Sandici in July 1995.

The State Prosecution charges Ivanovic, a former member of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici, with participation in the capture and shooting of more than 1,000 men from Srebrenica in Kravica Agricultural Cooperative warehouses on July 13, 1995.

The second Prosecution witness, Dragomir Stupar, a former Logistics Assistant with the Second Special Police Squad, said in court that he saw members of this Squad in Sandici in July 1995, when he brought them food, clothes and shoes.

"I saw members of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici for the first time on my way to Konjevic polje, when I stopped the car in order to have a chat with my cousin Milos Stupar. He told me that his men were guarding part of the road, adding that nothing unusual was going on," Stupar said.  

Milos Stupar is awaiting trial before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, after the Appellate Chamber revoked a first-instance verdict, by which he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for genocide committed in Srebrenica. The Prosecution considers that Stupar was Commander of the Second Squad.  

The witness said he saw several tens of men, dressed in civilian clothes, on a meadow in the vicinity of Sandici village, adding that the men were guarded by members of the Second Squad. He said he then headed towards Kravica village, but "Squad Commander Rade Cuturic", who had blood stains on his hands, stopped him near the Agricultural Cooperative.

"Rade got in the van. He had horrible burns on his hands. Two more soldiers, one of whom was severely wounded, got in the van as well. On our way to the Dispensary in Bratunac, Rade briefly told me that a detainee had taken a rifle from one policeman and killed him. As I understood it, Rade tried to take the rifle away from him, grabbing it with his hands. This was why he had those burns," Stupar recalled, saying he did not know which unit was present in Kravica that day.

Rade Cuturic was killed in September 1995.

During cross-examination the witness confirmed that he knew Zeljko Ivanovic, a member of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici, but he said this was not the person sitting in the courtroom.

The next hearing is due to take place on November 26, when Prosecution witness Marko Aleksic will be examined.