Suspect in Srebrenica Genocide, Sreten Milošević, Detained

(Patria) - Sreten Milošević, one of those arrested on suspicion of genocide in Srebrenica, has been detained for one month.

In 1995, Milošević was the assistant commander for logistics of the Zvornik Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska. Six other people were arrested with him.

Sreten Milošević was arrested based on command responsibility, and the BiH Prosecutor's Office claims that he arrived in Orahovac on July 14 and that nothing could be done without his signature.

On that day, trucks arrived to transport the prisoners. Specifically, it was stated at the hearing that there are witness statements indicating that not even shovels could be brought to the site without the permission of Sreten Milošević, who in the summer of 1995 was the assistant commander for logistics of the Zvornik Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska, N1 reports.

He also testified as a defense witness for Drago Nikolić, former chief of security of the Zvornik Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska, at the trial in The Hague of the so-called "Srebrenica Seven". Nikolić was tried for the execution and murder of Bosniaks at the Orahovac site, after the fall of Srebrenica, for which the BiH Prosecutor's Office suspects Milošević and the other six arrested today.

Drago Nikolić was then sentenced to 35 years in prison as a member of a joint criminal enterprise to kill captured Bosniak boys and men in Srebrenica in 1995. He died in 2015 while on temporary release in Serbia.

Milošević, as Nikolić's defense witness at the time, stated that he was "deceived" when he was ordered to go to Orahovac to participate in securing prisoners. He saw prisoners with their eyes and hands bound being loaded into vehicles and taken towards the forest, and those who attempted to escape being killed on the spot.

When asked by the prosecutor at the time what he did to help the captured Bosniaks, whom he realized would be executed, Milošević had no answer.

"I am sorry that this happened, but I could not do anything about it," he said then.

As a reminder, on July 13, hundreds of men were brought by buses to the Grbavci school in the center of Orahovac. Members of the Zvornik Brigade held them captive in the gymnasium. Then, on July 14, in groups, with their hands bound and eyes covered, after being given only a glass of water, they were loaded onto trucks and taken to a clearing near the school. A pit was dug for them even before they were executed. Few survived to later become protected witnesses in The Hague.