Verdicts Slow in Coming for Srebrenica Genocide

Sixteen years since the murder of more than 7,000 men and boys in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bosnia's State Court - have pronounced only one second instance verdict for genocide.  
 
The ICTY and the State Court have sentenced 26 people under first instance verdicts to a total of 445 years in prison for other crimes committed in Srebrenica in July 1995.

The first verdict for genocide was pronounced by the Appellate Chamber of the State Court in January of this year. This jailed Milorad Trbic, former Assistant Chief for Security with the Zvornik Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, for 30 years.  

In June 2010, in a first instance verdict, the ICTY sentenced Ljubisa Beara, former Chief of the Main Headquarters of VRS, and Vujadin Popovic, former Chief for Security with the VRS Drina Corps, to life imprisonment for genocide.

The mass killings in Srebrenica took place in July 1995 in numerous locations. Several hundred men and boys from Srebrenica were killed in in the Agricultural Cooperative in Kravica, in Bratunac municipality, at the Cultural Centre in Pilica, at Branjevo military farm, at school buildings in the villages of Orahovac, Petkovci and Rocevici and on the Drina riverbank near Kozluk, in Zvornik municipality.

In its verdict against Trbic, the Appellate Chamber of the State Court said he had taken part in realization of a joint plan, in collaboration with Beara, Popovic, Drago Nikolic and others, with the “aim of capturing, detaining and summarily executing all able-bodied Bosniak men from Srebrenica, who had been brought to the zone of responsibility of the Zvornik Brigade of the VRS [Army of Republika Srpska].

“Trbic summarily executed tens of men in order to intimidate, coerce and control other prisoners. He advisedly and intentionally enabled the coordination of organized liquidations,” the verdict added.
 
Sentences against subordinates:

The Hague Tribunal sentenced Drago Nikolic, former Chief of Security with the Zvornik Brigade, under a first instance verdict, to 35 years in prison for assisting in and supporting the commission of genocide in Srebrenica.

“The Trial Chamber has determined that, although he did not have a genocidal intention, Nikolic did participate in a joint criminal enterprise to commit murders with the intention to persecute people and had information about other people's genocidal intentions, so he significantly contributed to genocide,” Nikolic's verdict said.

Radivoje Miletic, former Chief for Operational-educational Affairs with VRS, was sentenced under the same verdict as Beara, Popovic and Nikolic, to 19 years in prison for assisting in genocide, extermination and persecution.

Milan Gvero, former member of the Main Headquarters of VRS, was sentenced to five years.

Under the same verdict, Vinko Pandurevic, former Commander of the Zvornik Brigade with the VRS Drina Corps, was sentenced to 13 years, while Ljubomir Borovcanin, former Deputy Commander of the Special Police Brigade with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, MUP RS, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed in Srebrenica.

As neither the Defence nor the Prosecution appealed the verdict against Borovcanin, it became legally binding.

The verdict against Borovcanin determined that members of the Republika Srpska Army, the VRS, and the police, MUP RS, participated in the murder of more than 1,000 Bosniaks in Kravica and said that Borovcanin had “failed to undertake the necessary measures in order to punish his subordinates for having murdered prisoners”.

In October 2009, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina pronounced second instance verdicts against six members of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici, who were under Borovcanin's control, for assisting in the commission of genocide.

Milenko Trifunovic was sentenced to 33 years, Brano Dzinic and Aleksandar Radovanovic to 32 years, while Petar Mitrovic, Slobodan Jakovljevic and Branislav Medan were sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment.

The first verdict for assistance in the commission of genocide was pronounced by the Appellate Chamber of the Hague Tribunal in the case of Radislav Krstic in 2004.

One year later the Hague Tribunal sentenced Dragan Jokic, former Chief of the Engineering Unit with the VRS Zvornik Brigade, to seven years in prison. Under the same verdict, the Tribunal sentenced Vidoje Blagojevic, former Commander of the VRS Bratunac Brigade.

Blagojevic was sentenced to 15 years in prison for assisting in and supporting the commission of murders and failing to prevent the actions taken by his subordinates, who participated in guarding of men in “Vuk Karadzic” school building in Bratunac, where at least 50 people were killed.

In 2010 the State Court sentenced Mladen Blagojevic, former member of the Military Police with the Bratunac Light Infantry Brigade of VRS, to seven years in prison for those murders too.  

In that same year the State Court sentenced Marko Boskic, former member of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad of VRS, to ten years in prison for participating in the murder of several hundreds of men.

Admission of crimes:

In March 1998, Drazen Erdemovic, former member of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad with the VRS, the admitted guilt before the Hague Tribunal for murders committed on Branjevo military farm, where more than 800 people were summarily shot.

“I had to do it. Had I refused to do it, they would have killed me together with those people. When I refused to do it, they told me: 'If you feel sorry for them, join them and we shall kill you together with them',” Erdemovic said. The Hague Tribunal jailed him for five years.
 
In March 2006, Momir Nikolic, Assistant Commander for Security with the Bratunac Brigade, admitted guilt for participating in the crime committed in Srebrenica. He was jailed for 20 years.

Three years later Dragan Obrenovic, Assistant Commander for Security with the Bratunac Brigade, admitted guilt for the same crimes and was sentenced to 17 years.

“I am guilty of all the things I did at that time. I am painfully trying to erase it and be a different man from the one I was at that time,” Obrenovic said, admitting guilt.

Vaso Todorovic, former member of the Second Special Police Squad from Sekovici, was the first indictee to admit guilt before the State Court of for crimes committed in Srebrenica. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2008.

After having admitted guilt for killing a Bosniak prisoner in Kravica, Milivoje Cirkovic, former member of the “Jahorina” Training Center with the MUP RS was sentenced to five years in September 2010.

One year later Zoran Kusic, another former member of the “Jahorina” Training Centre, admitted guilt for the same crime. He was sentenced to five years.
 
Dragan Crnogorac, also member of the “Jahorina” Training Center, admitted guilt for killing ten Bosniak men in Sandici village, in Bratunac municipality. In May this year he was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment.

Radovan Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, and Zdravko Tolimir, Assistant Commander for Intelligence and Security Affairs with the Main Headquarters of the VRS, are on trial before the Hague Tribunal for genocide in Srebrenica.

Momcilo Perisic, Chief of the General Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army, and Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, leaders of the State Security Service of Serbia, are also on trial for crimes committed in Srebrenica.

Ratko Mladic, former Commander of the VRS Main Headquarters, is waiting for his trial to begin before the Hague Tribunal, where he will face charges for genocide, among other things.

Fourteen indictees are currently on trial before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for genocide and crimes committed in Srebrenica.