INDICTMENT ISSUED AGAINST PETAR KOVAČEVIĆ (1943) FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

A Prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued an Indictment against Petar Kovačević, born on 23 October 1943 in Bogilice-Dobrun in the Municipality of Višegrad, where he also resides, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The accused Petar Kovačević is charged with persecution of Bosniak civilians in the territory of the Municipality of Višegrad on political, national, ethnic and religious grounds, by participating in the imprisonment and killings, coercing another person by force or by threat of immediate attack upon her life or limb to sexual intercourse or an equivalent sexual act (rape), as well as by self-willed destruction on a large scale of property that is not justified by military needs, all of which he did from May to late August of 1992, as a member of the Army of Republika Srpska and as a part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against Bosniak civilian population in the territory of the Municipality of Višegrad.

In four counts of the Indictment, the accused Petar Kovačević is charged with participating, together with a group of armed soldiers, in an attack against Bosniak population of the Municipality of Višegrad and the surrounding villages of Zlatnik, Turjak and Zanožje, on which occasion two civilians were shot and killed, whereas some houses were attacked by shooting from firearms and consequently burnt down, thus burning down three women inside them.

The accused is charged with coming personally to the village of Dobrun in the Municipality of Višegrad, armed with an automatic rifle and wearing a camouflage uniform, and shooting a civilian in the back of the head and killing him.

As further alleged, the accused personally raped two women, having threatened them with his weapons, and he then took them to a local office in Dobrun which served as a camp for imprisoned civilians.

The accused is charged with the commission of the criminal offense of War Crimes against Humanity, as referred to in Article 172, Paragraph 1, item h) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Indictment has been forwarded to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for confirmation.