INDICTMENT ISSUED FOR WAR CRIME IN GORAŽDE AREA

A Prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes has issued an Indictment against the following person:

- BRANE PETKOVIĆ, born in 1953 in Goražde, a citizen of the Republic of Serbia.

This accused person is charged that, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the beginning of May to the end of July 1992, in his capacity of a Commander of the Municipal Staff of the Territorial Defence of the Serb Municipality of Goražde and as a person superior to the commander of the War Units of the Serb Municipality of Goražde and to the commanders and members of the Municipal Staff of the Territorial Defence of the Serb Municipality of Goražde violating the rules of the international law in time of war and armed conflict and preparing to commit crimes within the armed attack on the Bosniak civilian population, he failed to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent the commission of the criminal offence and punish perpetrators.

According to the allegations in the Indictment, at least sixteen persons of Bosniak ethnicity were killed, including a large number of women and children, and seven Bosniak men were captured on 22 May 1992, during an armed infantry attack on the Bosniak civilian population of the settlement of Lozje - Kokino Selo, in the municipality of Goražde. The captured men were taken in an unknown direction and killed, and their remains were found on 17 March 1993, in a mass grave in Šišeta, in the municipality of Goražde.

The accused Brane Petković is charged with failing to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent the criminal offence of War Crimes against Civilians under Article 173, paragraph 1, items a), b) and c) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, committed by attacking the civilian population and settlements, which attacks resulted in deaths and grave bodily injuries or serious damages to people’s health, and by indiscriminate attacks harming the civilian population, killings, intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering upon victims (torture) and inhumane treatment.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be corroborating the allegations in the Indictment by summonsing 146 witnesses and two expert witnesses, as well as by enclosing 275 pieces of material evidence.

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