Sreten Milosevic, commander of the Third Infantry Regiment of the Republika Srpska (RS) in the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AFBiH), is one of the seven people arrested yesterday in Zvornik on suspicion of having committed genocide.
As it is known, the hearing of the suspects started yesterday at 6 pm, and not all names have been released to the public yet.
Sreten Milosevic was the Chief of Staff of the 5th Infantry Brigade of the AFBiH, and last year he was appointed commander of the Third Infantry Regiment of the RS in the AFBiH.
In the summer of 1995, Milosevic was assistant to the commander of the Zvornik Brigade of the Army of RS (VRS) for logistics.
He was also a witness for the defense of Drago Nikolic, the former chief of security of the Zvornik Brigade of the VRS at the trial in The Hague of the so-called “Srebrenica Seven”.
Nikolic was tried for the shooting and murder of Muslims at the Orahovac location, after the fall of Srebrenica, for which the Prosecution of BiH suspects Milosevic and six others arrested yesterday.
Drago Nikolic was then sentenced to 35 years in prison, which he received as a member of a joint venture to kill captured Bosniak boys and men in Srebrenica in 1995.
He died in 2015 while on temporary release in Serbia.
Milosevic then, as a defense witness for Nikolic, stated that he was “deceived” when he was ordered to go to Orahovac in order to participate in securing the prisoners. He saw how blindfolded and handcuffed prisoners were loaded into vehicles and driven towards the forest, and how those who tried to escape were killed on the spot.
However, Milosevic had no answer to the prosecutor’s question about what he had done to help the captured Muslims whom he understood would be executed.
“I’m sorry that it happened, but I couldn’t do anything about it,” he said then.
It should be recalled that seven persons were arrested yesterday due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of genocide in connection with the criminal offenses of “Individual and command responsibility” and “Assistance” prescribed by the Criminal Code of BiH.
As confirmed for BiH media, the suspects are former commanders and members of the Zvornik Brigade of the VRS, who are linked to the shooting and murder of nearly 800 victims of Bosniak nationality.
The shootings and murders took place in the locality of Orahovac, after the fall of the Srebrenica protected zone, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
