Five former military policemen from the Bosnian Serb Army’s Zvornik and Bratunac Brigade were charged with genocide over the executions of hundreds of Bosniaks in a school gym in 1995.
Lamija Grebo, January 8, 2025
Gravestones at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, July 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR.
The Bosnian state prosecution announced on Wednesday that it has charged Rajko Milic, Miodrag ‘Mijo’ Pavlovic, Radenko Zaric, Vukasin Draskovic and Milan Tomic with participating in the capture and forcible detention of more than 829 Bosniak men and boys in a school gym in the village of Rocevic, near Zvornik, in July 1995.
“Miodrag Pavlovic is charged with having deprived several detainees of their lives using knives, while the others participated in transporting and shooting detainees at a gravel factory on the banks of the River Drina in the village of Kozluk,” the prosecution said.
The suspects were military policemen with the Bosnian Serb Army’s Zvornik and Bratunac Brigade during wartime, it is claimed.
The crimes were part of the genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces.
Hague Tribunal verdicts have established that a large number of captured Srebrenica residents were brought by buses from Bratunac to the school building in Rocevic, where some were killed.
Other captives were transported by trucks from the school building to the gravel factory in Kozluk on the banks of River Drina, where they were executed. At least 800 people were executed in total.
Draskovic is currently serving a sentence for committing a crime against humanity committed in the village of Lokanj, near Zvornik, in 1992.
The indictment has been filed to the state court for confirmation.
Copyright BIRN 2015