News
THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE OF BIH ISSUED AN INDICTMENT AGAINST ALEKSANDAR CVETKOVIĆ (1968) CHARGING HIM WITH THE CRIMINAL OFFENSE OF GENOCIDE
06.09.2013. 15:21Aleksandar Cvetković, born on April 4, 1968 in Tuzla, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, residing in Israel and Bosnia and Herzegovina, arrested in Israel on January 18, 2013 on an international arrest warrant of April 14, 2010 and extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina from Israel on August 15, 2013, currently in custody.
The accused Aleksandar Cvetković is charged to have, as member of the 10th Sabotage Detachment of the Main Staff of the VRS /Army of Republika Srpska/, along with other units of the VRS and the Ministry of Interior of Republika Srpska (RS MoI), participated in a widespread and systematic attack against the Bosniak civilian population of the UN protected zone of Srebrenica, during June and July 1995 during the course of which up to 40,000 Bosniak civilians were forcibly transferred from the Srebrenica enclave, and more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were executed summarily; he is also charged to have participated in the killings of male Bosniaks and caused them serious physical and mental harm in the aim to destroy in whole or in part, an ethnic group – Bosniaks
The accused Aleksandar Cvetković, acting individually and together with other members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment is, inter alia, charged with the following:
- to have, during the end of June 1995, participated in the execution of the first attack on the UN protected zone of Srebrenica and the UNPROFOR base in order to disturb the Bosniak population and manipulate them into leaving Srebrenica, and to have on July 11, 1995 , together with other members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment and other units of the VRS, taken part in the second attack by participating in the military operation codenamed "Krivaja - 95" i.e. the taking of the UN protected zone of Srebrenica;
- to have, aiming to destroy in whole or in part the Bosniak population of Eastern Bosnia who had sought refuge in the enclave of Srebrenica, following the fall of Srebrenica and after the entire Bosniak population was expelled from the protected zone, on 16 July 1995 once several hundred men were transported to Branjevo farm - the place of execution- from the school in the village of Gornja Pilica - Zvornik municipality, along with other members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment of the VRS carried out executions by shooting of prisoners brought in groups of ten with the intent to deprive them of life, thus summarily executing at least nine hundred captured Bosniak men and boys aged 15 to 84, some of whom were blindfolded with their hands tied. During the mass shooting of Bosniaks the accused Cvetković gave an order to one of the members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment to use the machinegun on the prisoners in order to expedite the executions, while other three members of the 10th Sabotage Detachment, would search for survivors after the shooting of each group of prisoners only to shoot them in the head and make sure that are no one survivors.
The accused is charged to have, aiming to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic or religious group i.e. Bosniaks who, as Bosniaks of Eastern Bosnia, constituted a significant part of the ethnic group, killed male Bosniaks and caused them serious physical and mental harm and by doing so committed the criminal offense of Genocide under Article 171, Subparagraphs a) and b) of the Criminal Code of BiH (CC BiH), all in conjunction with Article 29 the same Code.
The indictment was forwarded to the Court of BiH for confirmation.
This announcement does not prejudice the outcome of the criminal proceedings and does not violate the principle of the presumption of innocence. A person shall be considered innocent of a crime until guilt has been established by a final verdict (Article 3, paragraph 1 of the CPC BiH).