Bosnia Prosecution files new evidence in genocide case

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Bosnia’s state Prosecution filed numerous documents, telegrams and orders in the case against five suspects for the Srebrenica genocide. According to them, the defence attorneys were completely unprepared for the new evidence.

The Prosecutor’s Office charged Miodrag Josipovic, Branimir Tesic Dragomir Vasic, Danilo Zoljic and Radomir Pantic with participating in the Srebrenica genocide. They are charged with forceful deportation, transport, imprisonment and some were even charged with murders of men and boys.

Over 50 pieces of evidence have been filed, and Miodrag Josipovic’s defence has filed an objection to the relevance of seven pieces of evidence, while the defence attorneys of other indictees did not object.

Apart from documents made by the said five indictees, the Prosecution also filed a number of documents made by other high ranking Republika Srpska Police and Army officials from 1995.

According to the indictment, Josipovic was the head of the Police Station, while Tesic was Deputy Commander of the Police Station in Bratunac. Vasic was said to be the commander of the Zvornik police force and the head of the Zvornik Police Station, Zoljic was the commander of Zvornik Police Special Forces, while Pantic was the commander of the First Company of Zvornik Special Police Forces.

In April 1993 the UN had declared the besieged enclave of the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica a safe area under the UN protection. However, in July 1995 the Dutch battalion soldiers failed to prevent the town's capture by the Bosnian Serb forces and the massacre that followed.

On July 11, 1995, 8,372 Bosniaks, mostly men and boys were separated and killed by Bosnian Serb forces. So far, 6,610 victims were buried and more than 1,000 persons are still missing.

Two international courts, The International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the massacre was an act of genocide.

International and regional courts have sentenced 45 people for what happened in Srebrenica to a total of more than 700 years behind bars. Those whom the ICTY sentenced to life imprisonment are Ljubisa Beara, Zdravko Tolimir, and Vujadin Popovic.

But the most well known alleged masterminds of what happened in Srebrenica are former Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadzic and ex Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, and both have been sentenced for it but have appealed.