Crime in Srebrenica – Kravice

Trial against the accused Miloš Stupar et al. for committing genocide in the Kravica Agricultural Cooperative warehouse in Srebrenica in July 1995, punishable according to Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: BiH CC), held before the Trial Penal – War Crimes Department I of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.

INDICTMENT (SUMMARY) 

The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH – War Crimes Department in Sarajevo issued the indictment No:KT-RZ-10/05, dated on 12 December 2005, against the accused Miloš Stupar, Milenko Trifunović, Petar Mitrović, Brano Džinić, Aleksandar Radovanović, Slobodan Jakovljević, Miladin Stevanović, Velibor Maksimović, Dragiša Živanović, Branislav Medan and Milovan Matić. 

In the period between 10 and 19 July 1995, a plan was made to forcibly resettle approximately 25,000 Bosnians out of the UN protected zone in Srebrenica. The indictment charges the accused persons with participation in implementation of the stated plan, specifying that, on 12 July and 13 July 1995, the accused were securing and taking full control over the Bratunac-Milići road, including the section of the road near the warehouse of the Kravica Agricultural Cooperative. On the mentioned road, the accused were carrying out reconnaissance actions and were launching artillery attacks from battle tanks and other weapons against Bosnians, forcing Bosnian men to surrender. The accused were keeping thousands of captured men in detention in the area of the Sandići meadow and around the meadow. A certain number of captured men were handed over to members of the Republika Srpska Army, while the remaining captives were transferred by trucks to various locations, including the Kravica Agricultural Cooperative warehouse. On 13 July 1995, around 18:00 hours, the captives were killed in the presence of the accused Miloš Stupar, while the accused Milenko Trifunović, Slobodan Jakovljević, Aleksandar Radovanović, Miladin Stevanović, Petar Mitrović, Branislav Medan, Velibor Maksimović and Dragiša Živanović actually opened fire from automatic rifles and shot captives, Brano Džinić threw hand grenades on captives, and Milovan Matić Milovan was loading rifle magazines and clips with ammunition. 

In addition to charges for genocide, the accused Miloš Stupar and Milenko Trifunović are also being charged for command responsibility (Article 180 of BiH CC) since they participated in the mass murder of captives and failed to intervene with intention to protect those captives, and also failed to take measures to punish the perpetrators 

Therefore, the accused, in their capacity as members of the Republika Srpska Army and the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior, are charged with genocide against Bosnian population, described and punishable according to Article 171 of the BiH CC.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Court of BiH 
Case file number: X-KRN/05/24 
Indictment No.: KT-RZ-10/05 
Confirmed: on 19 December 2005. 
Criminal act: genocide, Article 171 of the BiH CC

Defendants: Miloš Stupar a.k.a. Mišo; Milenko Trifunović a.k.a. Čop; Petar Mitrović a.k.a. Pera; Brano Džinić a.k.a. Čupo; Aleksandar Radovanović a.k.a. Aca; Slobodan Jakovljević a.k.a. Boban; Miladin Stevanović; Velibor Maksimović a.k.a. Velja; Dragiša Živanović a.k.a. Kele; Branislav Medan a.k.a. Bane and Milovan Matić

Prosecution: Ibro Bulić

International prosecutor: Kwai Hong Ip

Defence: Radivoje Lazarević, Ozrenka Jakšić, Rade Golić, Petko Pavlović, Vesna Tupajić, Todor Todorović, Željana Jokić, Dragan Gotovac, Boško Čegar, Slavko Ešerić, Vera Lazić, Danilo Mrkaljević, Stanko Petrović, Ratko Genga, Borislav Jamina, Zoran Kisin, Ratko Jovičić, Miloš Perić

Trial Panel: 
Hilmo Vučinić, the President 
International judge, Paul Melchior 
International judge, Fisher Shireen Avis

TRIAL MONITORING REPORTS

The trial was observed by the regional war crime trials monitoring team, lawyers of the Humanitarian Law Centre from Belgrade and the Research and Documentation Centre Sarajevo. We provide the monitoring reports as they were written in the languages of the monitors. 

VERDICT 

On 29 July 2008, the Court of BiH reached a verdict of guilty against seven of the defendants for the genocide. They received the following prison sentences: Milenko Trifunović, Brano Džinić and Aleksandar Radovanović – 42 years each; Miloš Stupar, Slobodan Jakovljević and Branislav Medan – 40 years each; and Petar Mitrović – 38 years. The defendants Velibor Maksimović, Dragiša Živanović, Milovan Matić and Miladin Stevanović were acquitted of charges and their detention was vacated.

All below mentioned reports are available in Bosnian language only: 

STUPAR MILOS I DR. – prvostupanjska presuda od 29.07.2008. (the first instance verdict)

MITROVIC PETAR – prvostupanjska presuda 29.07.2008.(the first instance verdict)

STEVANOVIC MILADIN – prvostupanjska presuda 29.07.2008.(the first instance verdict)

On 7 September 2009, the first instance verdict was modified in respect of the defendant Mitrović. In the first instance verdict he was sentenced to 38 years in prison. The second instance court reduced his prison sentence to 28 years in prison. 

MITROVIĆ PETAR – drugostupanjska presuda 07.09.2010.(the second instance verdict) 

On 9 September 2009, the Appellate Panel of the War Crimes Department I upheld the acquitting verdict in respect of the defendant Matić. It accepted the appeal by the defendant Stupar in the manner that it quashed the first instance verdict in his case and determined that a main hearing is to be held before the Appellate Panel Department. The same Panel partially upheld the appeals by other defendants who had been found guilty in the first instance verdict whereby it reduced their prison sentences as follows: Trifunović was sentenced to 33-, Radovanović and Džinić to 32-, Jakovljević and Medan to 28 years in prison. 

STUPAR MILOŠ I DR. – drugostupanjska presuda 09.09.2009. (the second instance verdict)

On 9 November 2009, the Prosecutor’s appeal was rejected and thus the first instance acquitting verdict was upheld in respect of the defendant Miladin Stevanović. 

STEVANOVIC MILADIN – drugostupanjska presuda 09.11.2009.(the second instance verdict)

Following the conclusion of the main hearing conducted before the Appellate Panel, the defendant Stupar was acquitted of charges. 

STUPAR MILOŠ – drugostupanjska presuda 28.04.2010. (the second instance verdict)

PRESS-CLIPPING 

Trials held before the Bosnia and Herzegovina State Court in Sarajevo are regularly covered by Balkan Investigative Reporting Regional Network – BIRN news reporters. Their daily reports from trials, as well as their investigation surveys, can be found at the following web sites:

www.bim.ba 
www.birn.eu.com