Pelemis and Peric: Standing Aside and Watching
07 September 2010 Testifying for the Defence of indictee Momir Pelemis, a witness told the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina that he heard shooting and saw dead prisoners in the Cultural Center in Pilica, Zvornik municipality, in July 1995.
“The first burst could be heard in the afternoon hours. And then, the shooting started...it ended in half an hour. The Cultural Center hall was full of corpses. In my opinion, there were about 300 corpses,” Petar Jurosevic, former member of reserve civilian police forces in Kozluk, said.
The State Prosecution has charged Momir Pelemis, former Deputy Commander and Chief of Headquarters of the First Battalion with the Zvornik Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, and Slavko Peric, former Assistant Commander for Security, with having participated in the murder of about 1,200 Srebrenica residents who were detained in the “Kula” school building and then taken to Branjevo military farm, and about 600 men in Pilica Center on July 15 and 16, 1995.
Jurosevic told the Trial Chamber he did not personally see the murders committed in the Cultural Center in Pilica, but, standing at the police checkpoint, located across the road from the Center, he could see detainees, who were held in the building for several days.
“Following the murder, a couple of soldiers came to the checkpoint, asking me to go to the Cultural Center with them. I saw some survivors in the Center hall. They killed all of them and robbed them. I was standing aside, watching it until I got sick. Then I went back home,” the witness said, adding he did not know the soldiers whom he saw in the Cultural Center, but village residents told him later that “security officer” Slavko Peric was responsible for the soldiers and the detainees.
The indictment alleges that, following the execution of the men in Pilica, Peric brought some soldiers to the location on July 17, 1995, and ordered them to collect and transport the bodies of the killed people to Branjevo military farm, where they were buried in a mass grave. It further alleges that Pelemis took part in coordinating arrangements related to the burial of those killed by providing fuel, construction machines and Zvornik Brigade members as manpower.
During the course of cross-examination Jurosevic said that he did not report the murders committed in the Pilica Cultural Center to anyone because he was scared and not quite sure what was going on.
Novica Djeric, former Officer with the Zvornik Brigade, testified for the Defence of the first indictee at this hearing, saying he worked on pouring fuel and handing out ammunition at the “Standard” military barracks in Zvornik in July 1995.
During the course of examination Djeric was not able to remember for which purpose he poured 500 liters of fuel on July 16, 1995 or who ordered him to do it.
The trial is due to continue on September 29.
D.E.
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