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Belgrade / AFP
Eight Serbian men appeared on Monday before a Belgrade court over their alleged role in the Srebrenica massacre, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II, in the first-ever such case to be handled by the country’s judiciary.
The suspects’ defence attorneys cited procedural issues, demanding notably the replacement of judges, and opening of the trial was postponed to Tuesday to review their request.
The bloodbath the eight suspects are accused of unfolded over just one day in a warehouse in the town of Kravica.
It was part of a string of mass killings in the east Bosnian enclave by Bosnian Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic, who is currently on trial in The Hague. It is the first time Serbia is trying suspects involved in the Srebrenica massacre. Carried out by ethnic Serbs, the episode has long been a highly sensitive matter in Serbia, which was gripped by virulent nationalism and demands to protect Serbian minorities as Yugoslavia broke up.
If found guilty, the suspects face up to 20 years in jail. “This is a very important case as Serbia needs to face its past,” Serbia’s former war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said.
“Without that there can be no catharsis, no reconciliation in the region.”
The Srebrenica massacre was ruled as genocide by two international courts although Serbia has persistently rejected the definition.
But, the victims relatives do not expect much from the trial.
“I don’t expect anything from this trial,” Munira Subasic, head of the Srebrenica Mothers association, told reporters on Monday in front of the Belgrade court before attending the hearing. Subasic lost 22 family members in the massacre, including her son.
“My son was killed in that warehouse, where I found two bones and buried them.
“I will never forget that, will not forgive,” she said and added the suspects should have been tried at the site of the crime. The eight are suspected members of the Bosnian Serb “Jahorina” special police unit, a dozen of whose members have already been sentenced in Bosnia over the Kravica killings. All the defendants obtained Serbian citizenship after the war.
One of those charged was the unit’s commander, 58-year old Nedeljko Milidragovic, or “Nedjo the Butcher.”
He is accused of having ordered the executions and saying “nobody should get out alive”, according to the indictment.