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Ivanovic: Hay Scattered in Front of Cooperative

Kravica

04 February 2010  

Former members of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici say that although they were in the vicinity of Kravica village, Bratunac municipality, on July 13, 1995, they did not know about the murder of men in the Agricultural Cooperative.

Predrag Celic and Milenko Pepic, testifying for the State Prosecution at the trial of Zeljko Ivanovic, said they came back from Srednje to Bratunac on July 11, 1995, adding that they were deployed at a location by the road near Potocari the following day in order to "make some lines and, if need be, conduct searches".

"We stayed there for about two hours before going to Konjevic polje. We arrived in Kravica village. We were tasked with securing that part of the road. All members of the Second Squad were there, deployed in the area between Kravica and Sandici. My unit, the second unit, was deployed close to Kravica, while the third unit was in Sandici," Celic said.

The State Prosecution charges Ivanovic, as a member of the "Skelani" Third Unit with the Second Special Police Squad, with having participated in the search of Bosniak villages in the Srebrenica area on July 12, 1995 with the aim of gathering the villages residents, who were then to be resettled.

The indictment alleges that Ivanovic participated in the capture of a large group of men in Sandici village on July 12 and 13, 1995 and the taking away and shooting of more than 1,000 Srebrenica residents in Kravica Agricultural Cooperative.

Celic said he "noticed some people coming out of the forest to a location in Sandici", adding that they passed by him on their way to Kravica. He said they were "escorted by soldiers". The witness said he did know whether any members of the Second Squad escorted them, but that this was "a possibility".

"It was a pretty big group pf people, between 300 and 500 or even more, I do not know. I know that they went towards Kravica. Later I heard that they were taken to the Agricultural Cooperative warehouses. Shooting and detonations could be heard around us," the witness said, adding that he went to Konjevic polje in the evening on July 13. He said people in Konjevic polje "said that Bosniaks had been killed".

During the course of the examination Prosecutor Dubravko Campara presented the witness with a statement he gave to State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, investigators in 2005 in which he said that members of the Third Unit from Skelani escorted a group of about 1,000 people to Kravica.

At this hearing Celic said he was not sure that this was true, adding that he did not read his statement carefully.

Witness Milenko Pepic said he was deployed at the yellow bridge on July 13, 1995 in order to stop the traffic so a convoy of "Muslims, who had surrendered", could go towards Kravica.

"I was ordered to stop the traffic when they come, so the convoy could be escorted. Later some rather intensive shooting could be heard from Sandici. (...) I was told later to unblock the traffic. As I was going back to Konjevic polje, I saw some hay scattered in front of the Cooperative," Pepic said.

Answering questions from the Defence, both witnesses said that they had never heard anyone say that Zeljko Ivanovic participated in escorting or killing prisoners in Kravica.

The trial is due to continue on February 11, 2010.