Landmark Srebrenica massacre trial starts in Serbia

A legal representative of the victims’ families, Nikola Cukanovic, said he expects the court to deliver “justice according to the law.”

Serbia, which armed and backed the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-95 war, has promised to punish war criminals as it advances toward EU membership. The country’s nationalist government has faced criticism for stalling on that pledge.

The trial was supposed to start in December, but was postponed over defence demands to know the identity of protected witnesses interviewed by prosecutors.

On Monday, one of the defence lawyers demanded another adjournment, claiming the testimonies of protected witnesses — believed to be Bosnian Serbs who were in the firing squads — were illegal as they were given without the presence of defence attorneys.

“It is clear to anyone that the value of such evidence is misplaced and cannot be accepted by the court,” said defence lawyer Miroslav Petkovic.

The eight suspects are charged with participating in the killing of hundreds of Muslims in a warehouse in Kravica, a village outside Srebrenica, as they tried to escape the Serb onslaught.

More than 1,300 were crammed into the warehouse in the village and then killed with grenades and machine-guns in a rampage that lasted all night.

Among the suspects is a special police unit commander, Nedeljko Milidragovic, also known as “Nedjo the Butcher,” accused of ordering and “organizing” the killings. The indictment says Milidragovic fired his pistol at those who still showed signs of life after the carnage.

The group was apprehended in 2015. They were later released despite the gravity of the charges.

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Ivana Bzganovic contributed to this report.

Dusan Stojanovic, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Landmark Srebrenica massacre trial starts in Serbia

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