BOSNIAN STATE COURT REFUSED ICTY EVIDENCE AT TRIAL OF FOUR SERBIAN WAR CRIMINALS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (November 23,2007) - At the trial of four former members of the genocidal paramilitary formations of the Serbians living in Bosnia (VRS) charged with war crimes committed against Bosnian civilians in the eastern Bosnian town of Bratunac in July 1995,during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia, the Bosnian State Prosecutor asked that it be allowed to admit, as material evidence, reports compiled by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The reports in question concern the existence of mass graves on the territory of the eastern Bosnian towns of Srebrenica and Bratunac.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor charges Serbian war criminals Zdravko Bozic, Mladen Blagojevic, Zeljko Zaric and Zoran Zivanovic, former members of the genocidal paramilitary formations of the Serbians living in Bosnia (VRS), with responsibility for the happenings in and around the elementary school in Bratunac, where Bosnian civilians were detained by the genocidal Serbian aggressor in July 1995.

However, the Trial Chamber of the Bosnian State Court has refused Prosecutor Kwai Hong Ip's proposal to include the ICTY report on exhumations of the remains of genocide victims from Glogova 2 mass grave in the list of evidence.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor explained that the report describes the exhumations undertaken in Glogova, but it does not indicate the origin of the victims buried in the grave.

The Defence teams objected the proposal and asked that the investigator and author of the report be examined in the courtroom instead.

The Bosnian State Prosecutor also asked that a report containing details on who was found in the Glogova mass grave be admitted as material evidence. The report also contains data on how the persons, whose remains were discovered in the mass grave, had died. The defence objected to this proposal, instead asking for examination of the pathologist who had written the ICTY report.

The Trial Chamber of the Bosnian State Court will render its decision on this request at a later stage.

At the trial, the Defence cross-examined Muris Brkic, the Bosnian State Investigator who had appeared as a Prosecution witness at an earlier hearing. Brkic was present when the exhumations from Glogova, Zeleni Jadar, Budak and Pusmuljici mass graves were carried out.

According to Brkic, a protected Prosecution witness revealed the locations of these graves to the investigative bodies.

"He showed us the places where the mass graves were, saying that he had visited them, but he was not able to confirm that the bodies of the people who had been murdered in the school in Bratunac had been transferred to the Glogova grave."

The trial of Serbian war criminals Zdravko Bozic, Mladen Blagojevic, Zeljko Zaric and Zoran Zivanovic is due to continue before the Bosnian State Court on November 27.