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Belgrade Higher Court. Photo: BIRN

At his trial before the Higher Court in Belgrade on Friday, Jovan Novakovic, a former commander in the Bosnian Serb army, the Army of Republika Srpska, VRS, said that his unit was tasked with bringing Bosniak locals from a village in the Bratunac municipality of eastern Bosnia in June 1992 to sign a loyalty pledge, and he did not know they would be deported.

Novakovic said he and his platoon were ordered to bring the residents of Suha village to “sign that they will be loyal citizens of Bratunac municipality”.

“We did not come to kill them but explained that we had come to take them to sign their loyalty, but I swear I did not know they would be deported,” Novakovic told the court.

The Serbian Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes, which took over the case from its Bosnian counterpart, says Novakovic commanded the Bosnian Serb territorial defence unit that on June 10 attacked the village and forcibly removed all its residents.

Its indictment says Novakovic and other armed fighters attacked and surrounded the village, ordered the residents to leave their homes, gathered them in front of a house and made them form a column.

They then took them to the football stadium in Bratunac along with civilians from other nearby villages. The women, children and elderly were then taken by bus to territory under the control of the Bosnian army. The other men were taken to a nearby elementary school.

Novakovic said that he realised they would be deported when he saw the buses near the stadium.

“I asked why they were going and the answer was, ‘because five other armies have come [to the Bratunac area]’”, Novakovic said, recalling that, besides his unit, there were several other units present.

These were the “Vukovars [Vukovarci], the White Eagles [Beli orlovi], Seselj’s men [Seseljevci], the Uzice corps, the Valjevo corps and the Novi Sad corps”, he said.

According to him, most members of these paramilitary units were “alcoholics and drug addicts” who had come only “to rob”, and the villagers were not safe from them.

The Serbian Prosecutor’s Office issued its indictment in this case in October 2018. The trial should have begun in 2019. However, Novakovic did not present his defence until now, citing his health problems. After the court ordered medical experts to examine him, they concluded that although he was sick, he could take part in a trial.